The aptly named, Hank "Big Balls" Bilous, just took The North Face Frontier. In style that couldn't have done anymore to reinforce just how worthy he is of the nickname.
After a much-needed dowsing of snow over the last few days, The Remarkables - Alta chutes were transformed from hard spring conditons to much softer, user-friendly powder. Allowing for all competitors to give their run a serious nudge and as you can see, nudge they did. Launching themselves from cliffs and drops even the advanced skiers amongst us would consider insane... Don't get me wrong, many of these guys are!
Hosted by The Winter games in conjunction with The Freeride World Tour, the 4-star qualifying series competition is the highest rated of all the qualifying events. Hence, offering the most points for skiers looking to make their way into the championship ranks and with it, drawing in the most well known names of the big-mountain world.
The man in second place, nicknamed "The Ibex" after his goat-like mountain skill and ability to draw technical lines - Sam Lee, showed why he'll be returning for his second year on the championship tour. His 2nd place, a consistent showing after victory last year in the same competition. Matt Sweet was the rider placed in third, making it a clean sweep of Kiwi's on the podium.
The coming season's Freeride World Tour will start when the northern hemisphere winter comes around, Kiwis Sam Lee and Craig Murray - in his rookie year and the youngest to ever qualify, will both be competing. Sam re-qualifying after an extremely impressive first season on the tour and Craig being the top qualifier of the qualifying series of the 2016/17 season.
