Canadian Mikey Ciccarelli and France’s Marion Haerty triumphed at the thrilling final stop of the 2024 Natural Selection Tour at YETI Natural Selection Selkirk Tangiers to drive off in new, all-electric Rivian R1Ts with the world’s top snowboarders putting down big lines and massive spins.
The brainchild of Travis Rice, the Natural Selection Tour showcases Olympians to big mountain film icons, all competing on the planet’s most exciting natural and naturally enhanced terrain with the thrilling 2024 edition featuring three stages, as riders moved through Natural Selection DUELS, the YETI Natural Selection Revelstoke and the final YETI Natural Selection Selkirk Tangiers event.
The eight men and four women who came out of the YETI Natural Selection Revelstoke on top flew into Mosquito, a northeast-facing alpine bowl stretching 1,600vertical feet (487m) across 51 hectares.
With dream snow conditions and blue skies above, 12 global snowboard elite took full advantage of the stunning British Columbia interior at the high-alpine venue to shine.
In what riders called “ridiculously good powder”, they put down big lines, massive spins and style, resulting in clean, video-worthy runs throughout the backcountry snowboarding competition.
Judges scored the runs in real-time using “CREDO”, which was created by the Tour’s COO, Liam Griffin. CREDO focuses on creativity, risk, execution, difficulty, and overall flow, encompassing speed and control. These five criteria have been used throughout the Tour to evaluate a run from top to bottom. Each run is scored from 0-100, emphasising the whole run and recognising what tricks are being performed at the highest standards for that specific heat or round.
Torstein Horgmo (NOR) dropped first against Sage Kotsenburg (USA) while Austen Sweetin (USA) was matched with Ciccarelli – Horgmo and Ciccarelli moving on by navigating the convex rollers and setting lines through untracked powder with big spins and a high percentage of clean lines.
Jared Elston (USA) then met Nils Mindnich (USA) in Mindnich’s first-ever appearance in a later stage event as he proved ready for the big stage by landing three huge airs with spins in his first run while Rice took home the day’s high score of 93 points in his first quarter-final run, cleanly landing both a cab 540 and a massive double backflip to see off the 720 from Torgeir Bergrem (NOR).
In the semi-finals, Horgmo and Ciccarelli saved their best for the second run as Ciccarelli edged out Horgmo with Mindnich taking down two-time Tour Champion, snowboarding icon and NST founder Rice after a huge run that included a technical pillow drop, switch and moving on over the goat.
In the women, Hailey Langland (USA) – who put up the high score at Revelstoke – rode cleanly through the top and went for a 540 in her semi-final with Haerty, whose experience as a four-time Freeride World Tour Champion showed in navigating clean landings on her 360 and a method.
Legendary Jamie Anderson (USA) – one of snowboarding’s most decorated riders met rookie Mary Rand (USA) with Rand defeating the two-time Olympic slopestyle gold medallist by just two points to move on.
In the finals, Haerty approached the course with flow and confidence, punctuating her winning run with a buttery 360 to complete her first NST, her first NST crown, and add it to her major wins around the world.
Haerty, 32, who was forced to take 2023 off to recover from injury, said: “I wasn’t thinking about competition, I was thinking about what beautiful – Haerty, 32, who was forced to take 2023 off to recover from injury, said: “I wasn’t thinking about competition, I was thinking about what beautiful snowboarding would be. This season, I was finding the right balance between engaging and respecting my body after two arm operations last year, and to have fun above all and find a beautiful serenity on my board. NST is for me the ‘cherry on the cake’.”
Over in the men’s final, run one saw Mindnich on top by a big margin after riding nearly the entire venue switch with what announcer Todd Richards credited to his “eye as an engineer” but Ciccarelli went as big as he could with a cab 540 on the first feature, then held it solidly together to win.
-Ciccarelli, 27, said: “Natural Selection Tour is the coolest event in snowboarding; the terrain and the riders are unmatched. We are riding the terrain for the first time when we do our runs, which makes for such exciting riding for us and the audience. My winning run was a bit of a Hail
Mary. I just put it all on the line and tried to go as big as I could. This is by far the biggest accomplishment of my career. I have been a huge fan of NST since the first event and had the dream to one day make it onto the tour, so the fact that I was able to win the Tour is truly surreal.”
2024 Men’s Podium
1) Mikey Ciccarelli CAN
2) Nils Mindnich USA
3) Travis Rice USA
2024 Women’s Podium
1) Marion Haerty FRA
2) Mary Rand USA
3) Jamie Anderson USA
SENDY Sends of the Day
Jared Elston (USA) – Chicane, a frontside nose roll 360
Mary Rand (USA) – Big, fast 360 with a steep landing
Watch the 2024 Natural Selection Tour finale on RedBull
TV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y583L0IJlck
