The 2026 Freeride World Tour was supposed to be a six-stop season across four regular events and two Finals. It has become a two-stop season with two Finals. The Georgia Pro: cancelled. The Fieberbrunn Pro: cancelled. An avalanche wiped out a significant portion of the Wildseeloder competition face in Austria. And the consequence of all this is that an entire generation of riders have had their seasons decided by just two results.
This has never happened before in the tour’s 19-year history. Two consecutive pro events cancelled in a single season. The Cut, the mid-season elimination that sends the bottom half of the field home, now relies on performances from Baqueira Beret and Val Thorens alone. For some riders, that is enough. For others, it is a death sentence. Two-time overall champion Kristofer Turdell has been eliminated from the tour for the first time in 11 seasons.
This is the story of the most dramatic FWT season in living memory, and the Finals have not even started yet.
Baqueira Beret: The One That Counted More Than Anyone Realised
When the FWT season opened at Baqueira Beret on January 15, nobody knew it would carry the weight it now does. The Tuc de Baciver returned to the tour for the first time since 2023. Nearly a metre of fresh snow had fallen in the lead-up. Three thousand spectators packed into the natural amphitheatre at the base. Riders reported hearing the crowd from the top of the mountain.
The conditions were challenging: wind-affected surfaces, exposed rocks, and a dynamic snowpack that demanded control above everything else. Only about half the Ski Women’s field completed clean runs.
Ski Men produced the tightest podium of the day. Ben Richards of New Zealand took gold with 86.67. Toby Rafford of Great Britain scored 86.50. WeiTien Ho scored 86.33. The top three separated by 0.34 points. Richards landed a Lincoln Loop and a solid 360, managing sketchy snow with composure. Rafford delivered one of the most creative runs of the day, charging into an unexplored zone on the rider’s left with massive 360s and precision. He followed the same legendary line taken by retiring Spanish rider Aymar Navarro in 2023. Navarro was waiting at the finish to congratulate him. That moment alone was worth watching.
Toby Rafford finishing second is a story we need to talk about more. A British rider, 0.17 points off FWT gold, beating former champions Ross Tester (USA), Max Hitzig (GER, 2024 champion), and Marcus Goguen (CAN, 2025 champion). That is not a fluke. That is a statement.
Ski Women belonged to defending champion Justine Dufour-Lapointe of Canada, who scored 86.33 with a dominant run featuring a backflip in the steepest, most exposed section of the face. French rookies Zoe Delzoppo (76.33) and Lou Barin (74.00) filled the remaining podium spots. Barin, a former freestyle competitor, opened with a 360 that showed exactly where she came from. Both are 20 or younger. Both are now in the Finals.
Snowboard Men went to Liam Rivera of Switzerland with 88.67, the highest score of the entire day across all categories. He was third overall last season. His run featured a laid-out backflip, strong control through technical terrain, and a creative finish. French rookie Sacha Balicco impressed with 84.67 on debut. Holden Samuels (USA) took bronze with 82.67.
Snowboard Women saw rookie Mia Jones of the USA win on debut with 69.67, a fast and controlled run featuring a clean mandatory cliff jump. Last year’s champion Noemie Equy (FRA) missed the podium after a fall. For the second consecutive year, a rookie has won the season opener in this category. Jones is 19.
At the time, this was stop one of six. The results mattered, but there were four more chances to build a season. Nobody knew those chances were about to disappear.
Val Thorens: The Last Scored Event
The second stop at Val Thorens, France, went ahead. Together with Baqueira Beret, these two results now constitute the entire body of evidence used to determine which riders go to the Finals and which go home.
Two data points. One season.
The Double Cancellation
The Georgia Pro was originally scheduled for February 22-28 in Georgia. Unstable snowpack made it impossible to run safely. The event was relocated to Kuhtai, near Innsbruck in Austria. Kuhtai could not deliver either. Cancelled.
Then Fieberbrunn. The Fieberbrunn Pro was scheduled for March 5-10 on the iconic Wildseeloder face. Conditions had actually been promising until the final week, when increased humidity followed by new snowfall destabilised the snowpack and triggered a massive avalanche that impacted a significant portion of the competition venue. FWT commissioners and the safety team evaluated the Wildseeloder and scoped alternatives across the entire Tirol region. None met the standards required to stage a professional competition.
In their statement, the FWT said: “Freeride is one of the few professional sports that does not control its arena. We compete on natural mountain faces shaped entirely by the elements, and when conditions do not allow for safe and fair competition, we cannot run the event.”
They are right to cancel. This winter has been devastating for avalanche fatalities. European Avalanche Warning Services have reported 124 avalanche-related deaths in the Alps this season alone, more than 50 above the full total from last winter, and we are barely halfway through. California has recorded its deadliest avalanche incident ever. This is not a season to push limits for the sake of a competition schedule.
But the consequence for riders is brutal.
The Cut: Who Survived and Who Didn’t
With only two scored events, the Cut was calculated on best two of two results. The top half of each field advances to the Finals in Alaska and Verbier. The bottom half goes home. There is no redemption round.
The biggest casualty is Kristofer Turdell of Sweden. Two-time overall champion (2018, 2021). Eleven consecutive seasons on the FWT Pro Tour. He has never missed the Cut before. This season, he did. Also eliminated: 2025 runner-up Martin Bender (SUI), 2023 champion Valentin Rainer (AUT), FIS World Champion Zuzanna Witych (POL), 2025 Xtreme Verbier winner Jenna Keller (SUI), and 2025 third-place finisher Astrid Cheylus (FRA).
Read those names again. Former champions, defending podium finishers, a World Champion. All gone. Not because they had a bad season. Because they had two results instead of four, and those two results were not enough.
On the other side, 15 rookies have qualified for the Finals across all disciplines. In Ski Women, every single rookie in the category made the Cut. Four of the six finalists are competing in their debut FWT Pro season. The old guard has been replaced not by the next generation pushing through over a full season, but by a compressed selection process that rewarded those who performed when it mattered most.
Whether that is fair is a conversation the freeride community will be having for years.
What Happens Next: Alaska and Verbier
The 2026 FWT champions will be decided at two venues.
The YETI Haines Alaska Pro (weather window March 15-22) returns to the tour for the first time since 2017. Haines is a freeride mecca: vast terrain defined by towering spines, deep snow, and faces that make European competition venues look modest. Alaska will test whether the rookies who survived the Cut can handle genuinely consequential terrain.
The YETI Xtreme Verbier (March 28 to April 5) finishes the season on the Bec des Rosses, the most iconic venue in competitive freeride. Fifty-degree slopes, complex terrain, cliff features that have defined careers. This is where the 2026 champions will be crowned.
What This Season Tells Us
Three things.
First, the mountains do not care about your schedule. Freeride is not park skiing or slopestyle where you can move to an indoor facility. The terrain dictates when and whether competition happens. Two cancellations in a season is unprecedented, but given the avalanche conditions across the Alps this winter, it was the only responsible call.
Second, the qualification system needs a conversation. A Cut based on two results carries an inherent randomness that rewards riders who peaked on those specific days and punishes riders who needed more data points to show their true level. Turdell is an 11-season veteran with two overall titles. The idea that his FWT career might end because of two events and an avalanche on the Wildseeloder is hard to accept, regardless of what the rulebook says.
Third, British freeride is having a moment. Toby Rafford standing 0.17 points off FWT gold at Baqueira Beret, beating multiple former champions in the process, is exactly the kind of result that deserves more attention than it is getting. If he performs at the Finals, the conversation about British riders in freeride changes permanently.
The 2026 FWT season started with a metre of snow and three thousand spectators in the Spanish Pyrenees. It continued with an avalanche in Austria and the most dramatic Cut in tour history. It ends in Alaska and on the Bec des Rosses. Whatever happens next, this is already the most compelling season the Freeride World Tour has ever produced.