Rider led, rider judged and frankly, just a ton of fun, the Nendaz Backcountry Invitational went down this morning in the best conditions it has ever had. Europe is having a good season for the first time since the competition began but that posed some problems for the build team, who had to put together the course in a huge storm and changing temperature conditions. Through some insane perseverance, they still manged to turn the face into the world's best backcountry snowpark, although they only finished in the wee hours of last night. There were multiple line options via several different jumps and abundant natural features, with better filled-in landings than ever before. For the first time ever, the crew over at Nendaz dropped a rail in the middle of the course, a whale-tail launcher just perfect for getting buck.

Once a couple of technical difficulties with the live stream had been ironed out, the event got underway in glorious sunshine. The local forerunners were a taster of things to come and the snow looked epic. Judging, for the first time, was done via an app with all the riders scoring runs on their phones.

_

Women:

Lou Barin put down a couple of threes and slightly backslapped a beautiful flat three Japan that was pretty much textbook until the landing. Ariana Tricomi stomped a three up top, a backflip on the windlip booter, and then another perfect three towards the lower end of the course to narrowly take the lead. Jennica Folkesson rounded out the women's field, a young gun riding for LDM's startup, Simply but unfortunately went too big on the windlip hit, backslapping hard.

For run 2, Lou cleaned things up, the same run but she stomped the flat spin this time around putting her briefly into provisional first. Ariana Tricomi answered immediately, cleaning up her run too, and adding some flair. Jennica went to the moon on a 360 and narrowly didn't ride it out. Run 3 saw Lou step it up again with a banger 720 tail and take the lead again but Ari answered with a more freeride-inspired third run, putting them level on score. Ultimately Ari took the win because her second-best score was higher.

Podium:

1. Ariana Tricomi

2. Lou Barin

3. Jennica Folkesson

_

Emil's frontflip out deserved the low-res gif highlight

Men:

Sebi Mall was the first guy to stomp a run and it was a heater: Backflip mute, cork 7 blunt, HUGE double flatspin, railslide shifty, and a cork three to end it. Alex Williams put down a sick nosebud 7 on the cliff hit up top and backed it up with a huge laid-out backflip, a cork 7, and a clean three. Emil Granbom went loose but lit, cork three to bombhole, a nosebutter 7 of his own & a frontflip off the rail being the highlights. The backflip to stall on the QP was dope too. Craig Murray sent a switch five up top, a HUGE natural hit 360, a dub backie, cork 7, and a switch wobble 9 at the bottom too. Leo Slemmet surprised everyone by hitting the rail, and stomping a sorta flat-ish 7 with a crazy axis but unfortunately overshot a double backflip. Tiemo Roelshoven put down a huge backie, cork 7, 4-point double backie, and a cork 3 tranny finder at the bottom. Sampo V put down straight air of the day, with a huge tweaked safety transfer but went so big he missed his next hit.

Run two saw Martin Bender send a humungous cork 7 from a natural hit, one of the hits of the day, and a double backie as a cherry on top. Markus Eder put down the first dub 10 of the day but unfortunately fell on his last hit. Craig Murray stepped up his huge natural hit to a seven too and went flat three instead of his dub backie in another stomped run. Alex Hackel put down a hand drag 3 off a cliff, both ways cork 7s, natty backflip, and a flat three. Perhaps not the most explosive run but technically flawless, with the mirrored spins a super nice touch. I thought he got a bit underscored.

Run three, Martin Bender was back with something different again, a cork 10 tail (kinda set like a seven and whipped round) and a switch cork 5 too but fell on the final hit. Maxime Chabloz put down a full pull but a 'chill' run in his own words (which included a cork 7 and stomped double backflip). Emil Granbom had a super unique run, cliff backflip to basically flat, flatspin three bow & arrow, nosebutter 7, and rail frontflip out. Markus Eder couldn't put his final run down, quite. He sent a dub 12 mute though and almost held it, and did stomp a back cork 8 out of the rail. Ridiculous talent. Craig Murray finally crashed (barely) but he was pretty much standing on top of the podium at this point. He stomped a cork 10 stale on the bottom hit for good measure too, ridiculous performance. Sampo threw a perfect switch 9 but sadly the cork 9 in the leadup to it went to seven and he had to revert to set it up. It was an insane show of backcountry stunts overall, and you definitely need to watch the replay.

Podium:

1. Craig Murray

2. Markus Eder

3. Martin Bender

_

It was sick to see the Backcountry Invitational finally realize something closer to its full potential, with perfect conditions and an insane course. I say that knowing they will find a way to go bigger and better next year. But it's genuinely one of the best events of the year and one the riders love coming to, good vibes all day. The live stream is a huge addition, so check out the full replay below, and go follow nendazfreeride on Insta to show some support.

FULL REPLAY:

https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/1085325/Nendaz-Backcountry-Invitational-2024