Kiwi skiers in Freeride World Tour fight to avoid the cut

Kiwi skier Blake Marshall competing on the Freeride World Tour.

New Zealand’s top freeride skiers will be battling to avoid the cut in the latest round of the Freeride World Tour as they tear down the steep off-piste slopes of Georgia’s high-alpine resort Tetnuldi.

The series’ third round is scheduled to start this weekend and is known as the “Cut Off”, with half the athletes eliminated from each category prior to the finals. The last two events will be held in Fieberbrunn, Austria, then the action returns to Verbier in Switzerland for the final.

Kiwi aces Ben Richards and Finn Bilous sit third and fourth respectively in the men’s standings, with Blake Marshall 17th.

How many get eliminated?

The New Zealanders have produced consistently high-quality results in the first two of the five-event series, in which skiers and snowboarders descend very steep, ungroomed backcountry slopes.

The solid FWT results have come in mixed conditions. The opening round, at Verbier, Switzerland, saw fresh powder on the competition face, creating excitement. But the snow quality varied a lot across the various aspects and many athletes failed to complete a clean run.

Richards, from Wanaka and on his debut FWT season, put down a solid run in Verbier, earning him fifth place, and carried that form to Kicking Horse to finish sixth. With neither event offering great conditions for big tricks, Richard’s ski racing background helped him make smooth, fast runs..

Fellow Wanaka local and Olympian Finn Bilous is in his second FWT season and used his freestyle background in Verbier to surge to second place and the podium. Unfortunately, Bilous couldn’t carry that form at Kicking Horse, finishing 13th in the challenging conditions. After representing NZ twice in the Olympics and in numerous X Games, Bilous switched to freeride last season. He finished 10th overall in that first season - impressing the judges with his creativity, showcasing a mixture of freestyle and freeride.

A relative veteran, Queenstown’s Blake Marshall began competing in 2020 and has been unlucky with his runs in the first two events. In Verbier, Marshall chose a very difficult line down the face – it got the crowd on their feet but unfortunately he couldn’t sustain that position himself. He also fell during the Kicking Horse event.