Cover: FIS/Buchholz

Fresh off the glaciers of Saas-Fee, World Cup riders had their first competitive outing of the year tonight in Chur, Switzerland. The city event is probably the best of the scaffolding bunch when the conditions work out, and for once, rain didn't wash away all of the snow. With just 10 coveted final spots for men, and 8 for the women (better than FWT at least *facepalm*) the competition just to make it in at all, was fierce. We were stoked to see Elias Syrja back in the mix again and he seems to finally be getting past the injury issues that have plagued him for several seasons now. Mathilde Gremaud took the top spot in qualis on the women's side, but perhaps disappointingly for the home crowd, she was the only Swiss rider to make finals in either field. Although, given the average level of beer consumption at the event, it's also possible they didn't even notice. For those who did pay attention, the question 'was that really a butter?' was surely being thrown around...

Women:

Run 1:

Ruyi Yang kicked off the whole FIS season with a stomped, clean dub 10 safety for 75 to set the bar. Rell Harwood stomped a switch bio 9 japan, but didn't hold the grab so long. Kateryna Kotsar put down a dub 10 mute, with the mute being worth an extra 5 (axis was much less robotic too). After Rell we had a bunch of crashes, including surprisingly from Tess Ledeux on a dub 12, before Mathilde stomped a carved dub 12 safety that was frankly leagues above anyone else for a 91.25.

Run 2:

Things kicked off with a couple of sevens for the second trick (I believe an alternative trick direction is required here) and Rell Harwood pulling out after one trick, which she stomped. Hopefully she's alright. Flora Tabanelli put down a pretty perfect switch bio 9 mute to set herself up with a podium shot with an 84. Muriel Mohr stomped her dub 10 safety at the second time of asking, as did Han Linshan, but let go of the mute a smidge early. Tess Ledeux stomped a huge dub 12 mute but the landing was a little too deep to be clean. 65.25 seemed very harsh though. Mathilde easily stomped a switch dub 10 and essentially took the win with a round to go. Too easy?

Run 3:

Tess landed a right dub 10 safety to go provisional second, but it wasn't perfect. Muriel Mohr immediately overtook with a switch bio 9 tail, only to be overtaken herself by Flora Tabanelli who reigned in her dub 12 to a dub 10 safety for 77. Ruyi Yang needed a 69 for a podium spot and put down a switch 9 mute, which was JUST not enough. Mathilde Gremaud was on a planet of her own and stomped a perfect 360 mute for the crowd on her way to the top spot of the podium.

Results:

_

Men:

Run 1:

Troy Podmilsak tried his funky 'not a 10' from 'ze gram but went too big. Ulrik Samnoey stomped a switch dub 14 blunt. Was it a butter, or was it just a wonky switch takeoff? We'll never know but the judges decided butter and scored 88.50. Vebjoern Graaberg put down nosebutter triple 14 safety, that looked more of a proper butter to me but safety is safety I guess. Leo Landroe went to the moon but lost the grab in the air. Miro Tabanelli stomped a left dub 19 stale clean, though the grab was more hand on ski than hand holding ski. Matej sent the nosebud triple 1620 for a slightly surprising 94.25. Elias (our king), put down a switch butter cork 360 essentially and took home a 90 for his creativity. That was properly cool. Tormod put down a switch tailbutter(ish) double bio 1260 safety. It was sick, it was stomped but 95.5... you tell me. In fairness going from switch revert/butter into a forward axis is pretty fucked.

Run 2:

Troy P stomped the pretzel-y thing at the second time of asking. The booth called it left flat 3 to right flat 7 and scored it 91. Vebjoern put down a switch trip 12 which was fine but not enough to excite the judges. It did give him the lead temporarily though with a 75 and an 84. Matej did a switch butter that actually was, but missed the grab. Elias tried an uncorked nosebutter 12 Japan, totally weird but definitely hard. 62 because it was pretty sketchy but how that would score done perfectly... Dylan Deschamps stomped a trip 18 mute, spinny spinny will he winny? Grab was perfect, he boosted... a lot of people would probably argue he should have scored more than 86.5 but who knows at this point? Tormod stomped a right triple 16 safety, 82.5, decent but he probably needed more.

Run 3:

Dylan Deschamps absolutely sent it to the bottom on a switch dub bio 16 mute and scoring an 85 and provisional second for his efforts. Ulrik Samnoey went with a nosebutter dub 16 blunt (it did take two goes to lock the blunt) for 74. Elias put it down better the second time around but the grab wasn't that long... 80 and there are probably another 10 points on that trick with a better grab tbh. Matej didn't get the butter nearly as well but did lock the grab. Enough for the lead with a 91. Torm couldn't stomp the nosebutter dub 16 and that left Matej with the W.

Results: