Ski and Snow Magazine

Winter is on at Whakapapa with its 2024 season passes launching today, set to bring even more magic, perks, and the best value skiing and snowboarding in New Zealand.
Whakapapa is focused on its mission to provide more kiwi kids with affordable and accessible opportunities to develop their love of snow sports. @whakapapa.mtruapehu @visitruapehu ...

All we have seen lately is controversy about Ruapehu and what will happen to the ski fields, and that is still not resolved! But what is resolved is that Ruapehu is getting its own distillery. Good people investing in one of the most stunning locations in New Zealand - follow their path to success. @ruapehudistillery @mtruapehu @visitruapehu @purenewzealand ...

Chairlift chaos - This lift in Cervinia (Cretaz) closed just before we got on! Scary! Few people are stuck on lifts and some clearly damaged by huge gusts! #Cervinia @CerviniaValt @Cervinia_ski - see story www.adventuremagazine.co.nz ...

Ruby Star Andrews (Queenstown, 19) and Luca Harrington (Wānaka, 20) have both secured top 10 finishes at the Freeski World Cup held in Tignes, France over the weekend.

It has been a huge weekend of Freeski and Snowboard Park and Pipe World Cup action in the French resort town, with Kiwi athletes competing in Freeski Big Air and Slopestyle and Snowboard Slopestyle.

Andrews took on some of the best in the world last night in the women’s Freeski Slopestyle World Cup finals. She put down an impressive first run, which included three different direction corked 900 spins on the three jumps as well as executing solid tricks on the technical rails.

Earlier on Saturday (NZT) Harrington finished in ninth place in the men’s Freeski Big Air World Cup finals. Harrington put down a heater of a first run, stomping a switch right double corked 1800 with a Japan grab. He was unable to pair this trick with another of equal calibre, and settled for ninth place in the hotly contested competition. ...

Ben Richards (Wānaka, 24) has won the Freeride World Tour Fieberbrunn Pro stop in Austria overnight.

The 2024 Tour is Richard’s Rookie season on the Tour and today’s success in Fieberbrunn marks his first Freeride World Tour podium and win of his career.

Richards explained, “Winning here in Fieberbrunn for the first of the two FWT Finals means a lot to me. I have worked so hard on the FWT Qualifier and Challenger series to get here. To win in this competitive category was beyond my imagination. I`m so happy about it!”

The competition took place on the well-know Wildseeloder, a face that gained its reputation due to its steepness (up to 50 degrees), long vertical drop, and seemingly endless selection of gnarly lines.

The Fieberbrunn Pro competition boasts an exciting two run format, with only the athletes best run score counting. This differs from the usual one run format, and as expected resulted in some incredible lines being thrown down.

Richards proved he was there to hunt for a podium from the moment he left the start gate on his first run. He attacked his first run right from the get-go, going huge and skiing fast but unfortunately came unstuck on the final cliff feature.

With a second run on the cards today, Richards returned to the top of the venue, re-focused and put down the run of his life. His run was full of serious airtime, most notably a 360 on top of the ever-impressive Häusl Cliff in his second attempt of the day. The judges were particularly impressed with his line choice, fluidity and the speed at which he flew down the Wildseeloder face.

Richards was rewarded a 97.00 (out of 100.00) for his second run, leap frogging him into the top spot where he remained untouchable for the remainder of the event.

Fellow Kiwi Finn Bilous (Wānaka, 24) put down an impressive run, bringing his extensive bag of tricks, including a corked 720 blunt grab, to the Wildseeloder. Bilous scored a huge 91.67 for his first run to finish in fifth in the heavy competition.

Current ranking leader Max Hitzig (GER) finished in second place with a clean run. Marcus Goguen (CAN) secured his spot on the podium once again, finishing in third. ...

Tragically Japanese police confirmed to the New Zealand Embassy that two New Zealanders died in an avalanche in Mt Yotei, Japan, on Monday.

A third New Zealander was also injured in the incident. ...

Canada looking pretty ...