The Haines competition of the 2016 Freeride World Tour ended Monday with a victory by an Alaskan athlete and the cancellation of its live webcast due to an “extremely rare hardware issue” with a relaying satellite.
Haines Borough Tourism Director Leslie Ross said she is confident the event will return next year. “I’m pretty positive they’ll be back because we’re storing stuff for them” including equipment used on the mountain, she said.
Ryland Bell, 30, a troll fisherman from Elfin Cove who grew up in Fairbanks and frequently visits Haines, won the men’s snowboard competition, taking one of four gold medals awarded.
Bell won the men’s snowboard competition at the North American stage of the Freeride event in 2013, held in California’s Kirkwood Mountain Resort, but scored low at last year’s event in Haines. He competed as a “wild card,” invited into the competition although not officially on the world tour.
Bell chose a different route down the mountain this year in the judged competition, nailing two “huge” 360-degree spins and completing what event organizers called a “visionary transfer.”
“I changed up. I knew I had to go bigger and faster than last year. I took some speed into some airs. I was just keeping it fun,” Bell said.
Bell said he dedicated his run to athlete and artist Aaron Nash of Haines, whom Bell would ski with here, including in the Olen Nash Memorial Big Air Competition. “I was sort of hit hard by Aaron Nash dying. I was riding for him. I was thinking of Aaron out there.”
Bell’s single run down the mountain earned him $8,000 in prize money, which he said was “pretty crazy,” but not incentive enough to make him join the tour full-time.
“I don’t really want to commit all my time (to competition), but I still enjoy the whole rush of the feeling of it and the whole deal. But I’d rather just compete here. This is a great place. It’s where I want to be snowboarding,” Bell said.
American Sammy Luebke placed second in snowboarding and Flo Orley of Austria was third.
Top finishers in men’s skiing included: 1) Logan Pehota of Canada; 2) Loic Collomb-Patton, France; and 3) Drew Tabke, USA. Top women’s finishers included: snowboarding: 1) Anne-Flore Marxer, Switzerland; 2) Estelle Balet, Switzerland; 3) Marion Haerty, France; and skiing: 1) Eva Walkner, Austria; 2) Matilda Rapaport, Sweden; 3) Adrianna Tricomi, Italy.
Gregory Oswald, Freeride’s communications director, said the apparent satellite failure caused the first unsuccessful webcast in about 25 made since 2008. “All the tests were made in previous days to make sure the signal was going through. This is not something we could have anticipated.”
“We have to give answers to our audience, who asked a lot of questions on Internet, Facebook and the social media,” Oswald said.
Tourism director Ross said besides better weather that cut in half last year’s 10-day wait for a clear day, logistics came off much more smoothly this year. Freeride used a Colorado-based weather source, she said, and was more efficient transporting gear to the mountain the event uses near 40 Mile Haines Highway.
“Last year I don’t think they understood how remote we are. They asked me with one day’s notice for a shuttle van to Whitehorse. This year, they knew what to expect of us and we knew what to expect of them,” Ross said.
Ross said she was hopeful that organizers might be able to find larger sponsors, now that the event has an Alaska track record. “It’s identifying Alaska as a ski destination. Alaska can be considered a ski destination. I’m trying to show the State of Alaska that this event is showcasing Alaska as a winter destination. I don’t think anybody has done that.”
She said Freeride’s numbers of webcast viewers jumped last year with the event’s first competition in Haines.
Interest in winter visitation here is growing, Ross said.
“I was just at an outdoor show in Vancouver. Most of the inquiries I got for Haines were skiing, biking and how to get here on a cruise ship. With skiing, there were more people than I expected that knew about the Freeride. There were people there who were in tune that this was happening.”