This year’s Saas-Fee Ride 08 turned out to be quite an event. With the mountain closed the day before due to bad weather, there was no chance for the Ride team or competing riders to test out the newly constructed kicker by the Saas-Fee lift company’s snowpark shapers.
It was therefore a tense moment when the riders started to ride the big air kicker. It was described by the riders as “whippy” having a lip that whipped the riders steep into the air and then into a hard and fast landing, making everyone hold their breath in anticipation.
After a request from the rider’s, Ride staff and athletes came together to a decision to re-shape the kicker. It was a nice moment showing the strong bond, relaxed attitude and ambience between all the riders during the task.
In the short amount of time given, they finished off and the riders headed to the top of the park, judges to their tent and the camera crews to their filming positions. The next obstacle was the high winds that started to gust up the valley.
The banners and flags of event sponsors showed the strength of an incoming storm. It was therefore an exciting and tense start.
However, against all odds, the riders and event staff proved a level of professionalism and camaraderie that made the obstacles seem like nothing.
The sky was deep blue, the stunning glacier was pure white, and the ambience between the riders, staff and audience was sociable and exuberant. To add to it, there were 57 riders in all that turned out to Europe’s only summer Freeski competition.
Style was the order of the day, and all the riders were grabbing their skis and tweaking out for maximum points. Volkl team rider JP Furrer (SUI) had some new grabs to show the crowd; double tail grabs, spread double nose grabs (in inverts) and insane superman front flips. Henrik Harlaut (SWE) was up to his usual mischief, spinning switch 10’s like he could do them in his sleep, and not holding back on the tweaked grabs either. Paddy Graham was putting in a noticeable performance as well, and his flat spin five had all the other competitors cheering. In the women’s, Virginie Faivre (SUI) was also looking strong, throwing stylee 3’s and 5’s to put her at the top of the women’s field, but local Swiss rider Evaline Bhend and Katrien Aerts (BEL) were also looking strong, throwing down 3’s with ease, and going for some technical grabs, like the double japan.
With the last minute re-shape of the kicker and the high winds, there was no room for error. Unless the landings were text book perfect, the riders were not going to get into the top 10. There were a lot of crashes due to the difficulty factors thrown in with the kicker, but the riders who came out on top proved why they were at the top of their game. The top 10 however were still a tough choice for the judges with such a high quality of riding and tricks.
The final started with a bang as Volkl team rider JP Furrer (SUI) went straight for a switch 900 double tail grab, tweaking his skis so hard that he took on the appearance of a contortionist. Unfortunately he couldn’t quite hold the landing, but it was nonetheless obvious that this was turning into another classic Ride event.
Sweden’s Henrik Harlaut then charged at the kicker and launched one of the most styled switch 1260’s we’ve ever witnessed. Then came Benedict Mayr (GER) with a textbook switch 10 with a tweaked out tail grab. Paddy Graham (UK) stuck to his guns and went with the flat 5, with a bow and arrow grab. Although the 5 is not as technical a trick as the others the technicality of the grab made up for it, and his style was impeccable. Simon Ericson pulled a switch 7 that sent him half way down the landing, and the judges were already scratching their heads with only half the field gone.
In the end no-one managed to eclipse Henrik’s switch 12, and for the third year running he took the title. He was closely followed by Benedict Mayr (GER) and Paddy Graham (UK) in third. In the women’s event former Ride event winner Virginie Faivre (SUI) who was riding strong couldn’t replicate her qualifying form due to a knee injury in the comp, leaving it wide open to the other two girls. Eventually it was Katrien Aerts (BEL) who took the first place with a styled 360 double japan, followed closely by Evaline Bhend (SUI).
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