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Verbier Xtreme 09 |
22/03/09 |
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C'est une saison qui finit en beaute avec une victoire a l'extreme de verbier, la plus hard core mais aussi la plus reconnue des compets de freeride. Avec les conditions les plus difficiles depuis la premiere edition en 1996, ca a vraiment ete un plaisir enorme de voir le niveau de controle et d'engagement sur cette neige dure a peu pres partout et globalement tres changeante donc piegeuse. Les 700 metres soutenus de denivele du fameux "bec des rosses" avec une partie superieure a plus de 50 degres sont toujours un sacre challenge ou le compromis competition/securite devient plus que difficile a gerer. Mais c'est toujours un plaisir de voir que la maturite et l'experience des riders du freeride world tour permettent toujours un beau spectacle avec de la belle action et toujours du controle. Ca a particulierement ete frappant cette annee de voir l'evolution du niveau global sur le tour et ces conditions particulierement difficiles n'ont fait qu'accentuer cette impression. |
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february sessions switzerland 09 |
22/03/09 |
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february sessions... After coming back from the big mountain pro, Henrik Winsted and I met to start to go filming some lines around Verbier in Switzerland. What we found despite the winter being so kind with us was some quite wind blown terrain but with the chopper we still managed to get some good conditions. These where the first big lines of the season on the mythical face of « la finive » on the Emosson lake. There are two faces like this in the area, east facing, standing up above the rest with their 6-700 meters vertical sustained steep runs and both of them marked with these beautiful spines... It's definitely spots that I like to get back to especially in the « beginning » of the season. I say beginning because this year especially I've been trying to force it and I noticed Again... that in february, the real big mountain season has barely been starting... Anyways, it feels great to feel again the atmosphere of these big faces, the real game.. it's quite something to be up there and get dropped on that kind of terrain. Power and forces are surrounding you making you feel really really small,... but alive. Once again it feels great to be there with Manu Gaidet as a guide. He is really good at judging the conditions and find the right approach to feel comfortable in this world so full of surprises. His judgement is that the conditions on that face are good at least for the 2 lower thirds of the whole face, the rest being a little exposed because of the lack of snow due to the high winds. The runs we get to do, two really nice ones on that face and then one more gentle on a different aspect that's not good enough to make us stay up there, burn fuel and being so noisy in that magical. It's not one of the most epic days but definitely one of these days where you build up some confidence, where you start getting these cool feelings at the end of your runs and where you kind of replace with it all the fears that your brain can build up when you're not up there riding. That's something that I've always noticed and that's really hard to control. The more you don't ride, or you don't do things up high, the more you start creating these bad scenarios and fears in your head and the only way to get rid of them is get into action. I know that darn well but I still get tricked every year... It feels great to take the time to go from that impression of being on the wrong place, complitely trapped by your fear, and to get to breath, take a moment to feel where you are and slowly that you get to be welcome and that you can swop that fear by the pleasure of being up there. The day after that could definitely be the opposite... As a matter of fact, that confidence that we've been getting on that first day lead us to want to ride that beautiful “la chaux” ridge on the boarder of the Verbier ski area. That face is definitely a serious one, at least as much as the famous Verbier Xtreme “bec des rosses”. It's a little shorter, around 500 meters maybe even a little less, quite steep, but all the runs have tricky exits or exposed mandatory jumps on the way down. In good conditions I would say it's fine and the possibilities of such a face can be tremendous but we being a little too positive about the conditions didn't expect to get tricked by the weather that brought us a good 40 cm of fresh over night. In the meantime we'd had organized heli, the biggest french TV news came to do a documentary about the whole thing and in total we had 4 cameras to film that beauty on a sunset line with the idea of sleeping in he hut facing the face... The dream scenario except that the conditions are not right. After checking the conditions, we try to convince ourselves that it's going to be very sluffy and definitely increase the exposure of the face but fine. This is the point where it becomes obvious that all the investment put behind us can become an unhealthy pressure and make us overcome some boundaries. A moment later, the sun starts hitting the face with that incredible evening line and we have to jump in the chopper and get dropped on the ridge. We all three know that we're going too far and that we're not on the right place. Our tension is abnormally high and we can feel that something is wrong there. Fair enough, two minutes later as we try to reach the entry of our runs, Manu goes first and on the ridge, all the little patches of compact snow created by the wind just break in slabs. That's already a first signal that makes us step back until further down on the ridge a big slab, 30 meters wide and 60 cm deep releases when he traverses, but luckily under him. At that point I'm quite impressed how easier and safer it can be to “force” the snowpack with skis than with a board. Anyways we come to our senses and decide to call the whole thing off. We call the heli to go down, all ways down being too sketchy seeing the conditions. We still decide to get to a smaller face that sticks out in the middle of that big face and have a small but quite intense run on that triangle. We believe that where it stands, the snow won't be affected at all by the wind... right... Same thing! There is this funky layer that just doesn't hold the last big snowfalls and all we get to do is point down and be happy about that experience we got that evening. A good reminder that modesty is important when you're up there. We all claim it a lot after so many years of experience but we got once again tricked by our grid... After all, the result still came out good and the documentary was interesting in the way that we really pictured that day the “dark”side of what we do, the energy that we gather to organize these shoots, to scope and set up the whole thing and that sometimes things don't roll and no matter how hard you try, the mountain doesn't want you... It is something that I respect above all and sometimes you have a bad feeling and you don't know if it's just your mind playing with you but at the end of the day as imaginary as people could think they are, these feelings matter and most of all for one reason because they mean that you are listening to the mountain. I know that you'll be telling me “hehehe the crazy guy that speaks to the mountains...” but go up there spend some time up there put your self on some exposed ridge ready to drop in and tell me how you feel. Tell me if only human factors can help you up there. You'll defintly feel if you're welcome or not amd it's then up to you to listen or not...
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february and march sessions switzerland |
19/03/09 |
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february sessions... After coming back from the big mountain pro, Henrik Winsted and I met to start to go filming some lines around Verbier in Switzerland. What we found despite the winter being so kind with us was some quite wind blown terrain but with the chopper we still managed to get some good conditions. These where the first big lines of the season on the mythical face of « la finive » on the Emosson lake. There are two faces like this in the area, east facing, standing up above the rest with their 6-700 meters vertical sustained steep runs and both of them marked with these beautiful spines... It's definitely spots that I like to get back to especially in the « beginning » of the season. I say beginning because this year especially I've been trying to force it and I noticed Again... that in february, the real big mountain season has barely been starting... Anyways, it feels great to feel again the atmosphere of these big faces, the real game.. it's quite something to be up there and get dropped on that kind of terrain. Power and forces are surrounding you making you feel really really small,... but alive. Once again it feels great to be there with Manu Gaidet as a guide. He is really good at judging the conditions and find the right approach to feel comfortable in this world so full of surprises. His judgement is that the conditions on that face are good at least for the 2 lower thirds of the whole face, the rest being a little exposed because of the lack of snow due to the high winds. The runs we get to do, two really nice ones on that face and then one more gentle on a different aspect that's not good enough to make us stay up there, burn fuel and being so noisy in that magical. It's not one of the most epic days but definitely one of these days where you build up some confidence, where you start getting these cool feelings at the end of your runs and where you kind of replace with it all the fears that your brain can build up when you're not up there riding. That's something that I've always noticed and that's really hard to control. The more you don't ride, or you don't do things up high, the more you start creating these bad scenarios and fears in your head and the only way to get rid of them is get into action. I know that darn well but I still get tricked every year... It feels great to take the time to go from that impression of being on the wrong place, complitely trapped by your fear, and to get to breath, take a moment to feel where you are and slowly that you get to be welcome and that you can swop that fear by the pleasure of being up there. The day after that could definitely be the opposite... As a matter of fact, that confidence that we've been getting on that first day lead us to want to ride that beautiful “la chaux” ridge on the boarder of the Verbier ski area. That face is definitely a serious one, at least as much as the famous Verbier Xtreme “bec des rosses”. It's a little shorter, around 500 meters maybe even a little less, quite steep, but all the runs have tricky exits or exposed mandatory jumps on the way down. In good conditions I would say it's fine and the possibilities of such a face can be tremendous but we being a little too positive about the conditions didn't expect to get tricked by the weather that brought us a good 40 cm of fresh over night. In the meantime we'd had organized heli, the biggest french TV news came to do a documentary about the whole thing and in total we had 4 cameras to film that beauty on a sunset line with the idea of sleeping in he hut facing the face... The dream scenario except that the conditions are not right. After checking the conditions, we try to convince ourselves that it's going to be very sluffy and definitely increase the exposure of the face but fine. This is the point where it becomes obvious that all the investment put behind us can become an unhealthy pressure and make us overcome some boundaries. A moment later, the sun starts hitting the face with that incredible evening line and we have to jump in the chopper and get dropped on the ridge. We all three know that we're going too far and that we're not on the right place. Our tension is abnormally high and we can feel that something is wrong there. Fair enough, two minutes later as we try to reach the entry of our runs, Manu goes first and on the ridge, all the little patches of compact snow created by the wind just break in slabs. That's already a first signal that makes us step back until further down on the ridge a big slab, 30 meters wide and 60 cm deep releases when he traverses, but luckily under him. At that point I'm quite impressed how easier and safer it can be to “force” the snowpack with skis than with a board. Anyways we come to our senses and decide to call the whole thing off. We call the heli to go down, all ways down being too sketchy seeing the conditions. We still decide to get to a smaller face that sticks out in the middle of that big face and have a small but quite intense run on that triangle. We believe that where it stands, the snow won't be affected at all by the wind... right... Same thing! There is this funky layer that just doesn't hold the last big snowfalls and all we get to do is point down and be happy about that experience we got that evening. A good reminder that modesty is important when you're up there. We all claim it a lot after so many years of experience but we got once again tricked by our grid... After all, the result still came out good and the documentary was interesting in the way that we really pictured that day the “dark”side of what we do, the energy that we gather to organize these shoots, to scope and set up the whole thing and that sometimes things don't roll and no matter how hard you try, the mountain doesn't want you... It is something that I respect above all and sometimes you have a bad feeling and you don't know if it's just your mind playing with you but at the end of the day as imaginary as people could think they are, these feelings matter and most of all for one reason because they mean that you are listening to the mountain. I know that you'll be telling me “hehehe the crazy guy that speaks to the mountains...” but go up there spend some time up there put your self on some exposed ridge ready to drop in and tell me how you feel. Tell me if only human factors can help you up there. You'll defintly feel if you're welcome or not amd it's then up to you to listen or not...
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Xavier en tête du FWT 09 |
12/03/09 |
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NISSAN FREERIDE DE TIGNES
Domination des Européens sur la face de Grande Balme La Nissan Freeride de Tignes, 3ème étape du Freeride World Tour 2009, s’est déroulée sur la très belle face de Grande Balme, restée vierge de toutes traces pour cette superbe compétition. Après avoir patiemment attendu les meilleures conditions de course, les organisateurs et la station de Tignes ont pu offrir à l’élite mondiale un magnifique terrain de jeu pour exprimer leur talent. A l’issue de l’épreuve tignarde, les riders qualifiés pour la grande finale du Freeride World Tour sont désormais connus et se retrouveront le 21 mars pour le mythique Nissan Xtreme de Verbier. Résultats de la Nissan Freeride de Tignes – France (VOIR EGALEMENT ATTACHEMENT) Ski Hommes | Ski femmes | Snowboard Hommes | Snowboard Dames | 1- Matthias Haunholder AUT 2- Thomas Diet FRA 3- Henrik Windstedt SWE | 1- Caroline Meynet FRA 2- Marja Persson SWE 3- Elyse Saugstad USA | 1- Xavier de Le Rue FRA 2- Max Zipser AUT 3- Alex Coudray SUI | 1-Géraldine Fasnacht SUI 2-Susan Moll USA 3-Anniina Karvinen FIN |
Résultats complets de la Nissan Freeride de Tignes et du Freeride World Ranking (FWR) en cliquant ici. Rappel : les 8 meilleurs hommes et les 3 meilleures femmes au classement du FWR après l’épreuve de Tignes sont qualifiés pour le Nissan Xtreme – Verbier 2009. Domination des français Xavier de Le Rue (snowboard) et Caroline Meynet (ski) Le snowboarder français Xavier de Le Rue remporte sa première victoire cette saison et s’envole en tête du Freeride World ranking, le classement mondial du Freeride. Parti dans les premiers dossards, le champion du monde 2008, a réalisé un run d’exception, tout en vitesse et en contrôle, plébiscité par les juges, les passionnés et le public réunis au pied de la Face de Grande Balme. Dans un système de jugement où l’impression générale prime, le français a marqué les esprits par sa puissance. L’autrichien Max Zipser, second et déjà très remarqué lors de ses podiums sur les évènements Freeride World Qualifier, réalise une ligne très travaillée, tout comme le suisse Alex Coudray, 3ème, qui remporte également le Prix des média. La française Caroline Meynet s’adjuge la toute première victoire de sa carrière sur une compétition majeure. Exploitant toutes ses qualités techniques, Caroline a enfin réussi à devancer les leaders actuelles du classement mondial. Malgré des runs engagés avec des sauts parfaitement maîtrisés, la suédoise Marja Persson (2ème) et l’américaine Elyse Saugstad (3ème), championne du monde 2008, n’ont pu enlever la victoire à la rideuse de Bellevaux. Chez les skieurs, le jeune autrichien Matthias Haunholder remporte lui aussi sa première victoire sur le Freeride World Tour après s’être imposé en 2008 sur le circuit qualificatif FWQ. Le skieur de Fieberbrunn rafle la victoire au français Thomas Diet qui signe là l’un des plus beaux résultats de sa jeune carrière. Originaire de Val Thorens, « Bichon » a exprimé tout son talent et s’adjuge une très belle seconde place devant le champion du monde 2008 Henrick Windsted (SWE). Le grand favori français Aurélien Ducroz, en tête du classement mondial, a malheureusement chuté à mi-parcours après un début de run parfait. En snowboard, le grand retour de la suissesse Géraldine Fasnacht à la compétition de haut niveau est marqué par une superbe victoire. Bénéficiant d’une Wild Card suite à sa blessure au genou en 2008, la snowboardeuse de Verbier a parfaitement réalisé son choix de ligne engagée et fluide. Elle s’impose devant l’américaine Susan Mol, vainqueur de la Nissan Tram Face il y a quelques jours à Squaw Valley USA et la finlandaise Anniina Karvinen. Premières victoires sur le le Freeride World Tour pour les skieurs Matthias Haunholder et Caroline Meynet Matthias Haunholder (Autriche), vainqueur de la Nissan Freeride de Tignes : « J’ai passé beaucoup de temps à étudier la face de Grande Balme, encore tard hier soir et je savais qu’il fallait être audacieux pour faire la différence sur cette pente. J’ai tenté une ligne avec une réception de saut très raide, comme le snowboardeur Xavier de Le Rue, et j’ai réussi à très bien maîtriser l’enchaînement de courbes et sauts qui suivait. J’ai accédé au Freeride World Tour grâce à ma victoire sur le circuit qualificatif 2008 (FWQ) et j’ai ensuite engrangé la confiance qui m’a permis de gagner à Tignes lors des premières étapes du Freeride World Tour ! » Caroline Meynet (France), vainqueur de la Nissan Freeride de Tignes : « Cette victoire est juste incroyable et inattendue ! C’est ma 3ème saison de compétition et j’avais déjà signé un podium lors du Nissan Xtreme - Verbier en 2007, mais encore aucun succès à ce jour. J’ai réalisé une ligne originale qu’aucune autre fille n’a tentée et je crois tout simplement que c’était mon jour ! » Géraldine Fasnacht (Suisse), vainqueur de la Nissan Freeride de Tignes : « La compétition de Tignes était avant tout pour me mettre en condition pour Verbier. Ca a été un grand bonheur de rider sur la face de grande Balme. C’était beaucoup de stress pour moi de revenir à la compétition après ma blessure au genou, mais nous avons reçu d’excellentes informations de la part des organisateurs. Cela m’a permis d’affiner ma ligne et de me faire vraiment plaisir. J’ai hâte d’être à Verbier la semaine prochaine. La face a reçu de la neige ces derniers jours et je pense qu’une superbe compétition nous attend. » Les 8 meilleurs hommes et 3 meilleurs femmes qualifiés pour la finale : le Nissan Xtreme de Verbier (21 mars) La station valaisanne de Verbier accueillera le Nissan Xtreme - Verbier grande finale du Freeride World Tour 2009 sur la mythique face du Bec des Rosses. Grâce à l’excellent enneigement dont a bénéficié cette face de légende cet hiver, la compétition est prévue le samedi 21 mars (attente météo jusqu’au 29 mars). Suite de l’étape de Tignes, seuls les 8 meilleurs hommes et 3 meilleures femmes du classement mondial 2009 sont qualifiés. Ils seront accompagnés de quelques Wild Cards (riders invités) et des vainqueurs de la Freeride de Nendaz, évènement faisant parti des Freeride World Qualifier.
Plus d'informations sur le FWT: www.freerideworldtour.com
Site mobile: mobile.xavierdelerue.com |
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Swatch Oneill big mountain pro 09 1st place snowboard and overall |
05/03/09 |
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For the third edition of the big mountain pro, we finaly got the chance to have the snow on our side. It's not really that we've been riding the most radical terrain but that week on the Swatch Oneill big mountain pro has been one of the most fun week in the entire season. The crew being smaller was great, I really enjoyed being around the french ski crew Bichon, Richie and Rouf. We had an amazind time on and off the mountains and we could really feel the passion of riding and traveling around with some friends. Concerning the terrain, we've been going from tiny steep runs to bigger faces with kickers shaped on the way, there's also been an amazing face above insbruck with a total serious hike access. We ended up with a nice small but quite loaded bowl somewhere in austria. These where the filmed faces for the contest but we also really enjoyed a two days huge snow wood session with a tractor pulling us up and then just in a resorts. There was enough snow to just launch of anything without even looking. |
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Verbier Xtreme 1st place... |
23/03/09 |
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C'est une saison qui finit en beaute avec une victoire a l'extreme de verbier, la plus hard core mais aussi la plus reconnue des compets de freeride. Avec les conditions les plus difficiles depuis la premiere edition en 1996, ca a vraiment ete un plaisir enorme de voir le niveau de controle et d'engagement sur cette neige dure a peu pres partout et globalement tres changeante donc piegeuse. Les 700 metres soutenus de denivele du fameux "bec des rosses" avec une partie superieure a plus de 50 degres sont toujours un sacre challenge ou le compromis competition/securite devient plus que difficile a gerer. Mais c'est toujours un plaisir de voir que la maturite et l'experience des riders du freeride world tour permettent toujours un beau spectacle avec de la belle action et toujours du controle. Ca a particulierement ete frappant cette annee de voir l'evolution du niveau global sur le tour et ces conditions particulierement difficiles n'ont fait qu'accentuer cette impression.
Le "Bec des Rosses", 700 meters of sustained between 40 and 55 degres terrain, has held the legendary Verbier Xtreme on the 22nd of march with the worse conditions that we'd ever seen on the tour. A very changing snow, mostly quite hard, (at least enough to not mark the ground on the landing of a 20 meters cliff....) made the top section especially very technical allowing very little mistakes up there. It's been really nice to see the level on that competition, really narely and controled at the same time. It definitely proved how much the general riding standard has increased on the tour. There's been an amazing evolution in the last two years.... and snowboarding has definitely most vividely expressed that step up. There's a good motivation around that I felt this year. Riders feel that potential and everyone is really cool about it. I wasn't 100% happy about my run, especially on the upper part with quite a slow rhythm but I guess that was a safe move to wait to get out of the sharks and out of the main exposure before I could start launching. Thhat big jump felt unexpectingly quite smooth with such a hard landing. It's been definitely good to feel that in the aim of the future...and also really cool to end up the tour on a victory to really confirm the title.
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Nissan Best line award... |
23/03/09 |
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Pour cloturer la saison en beaute, j'ai l'immense prilvilege d'avoir recu ete elu par l'ensemble des riders du tour et d'avoir remporte le Best line award ski et snowboard confondus. Cette nomination est je pense la combinaison des lignes de Verbier et Tignes confondues qui me font d'autant plasir que j'ai la chance de montrer que le freeride en snowboard peut rivaliser avec le ski. Ca a toujours ete une grande inspiration de voir la vitesse et les gros airs que les skiers pouvaient se mettre et m'ont permis en quelques annees de vraiment atteindre des diemensions que je n'aurais pas imagine avant.
To end up the season on the FWT, I got the huge privilege to get elected by my fellow riders best line of the season on the freeride world tour ski and snowboard overall. It seems from the comments I got that I got that honor for both the lines of Tignes and Verbier, where I could really enjoy showing some of my best riding on the Bec des rosses and the Grande Balme on the french side. It's also an amazing motivation to be able to show that snowboard big mountain riding is definitely not to be looked down from skiers. We have a potential and if skiing has been a great inspiration in the last few years in terms of speed and jump sizes as well as fluidity snowboarding it's amazing to be respected by both communities. We've had a great time on the tour this year and definitely felt good to hang out with that crew.
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Freeride Worl tour Champion 09 |
22/03/09 |
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Tignes 2009, la troisieme etape du freeride world Tour. On se retouve enfin sur une vrai face de plus de 500 metres de denivele et malgre des conditions qui laissient presager une neige assez frappee par le vent, les conditions on ete plus qu'honorable sur la face de "Grande Balme"
J'etais en tete du tour apres les deux premieres etapes du tour et ce run m'a permis de vraiment m'exprimer et de laver cette sorte de frustation que j'avais pu ressentir sur les mini deniveles des deux premieres etapes ou il etait vraiment difficile de montrer son reel niveau.
Avec cette victoire j'ai la chance de pouvoir aborder l'Extreme de Verbier et son abobinablement flippant Bec des rosses avec le titre en poche et le sourire aux levres. Ma femme et ma fille etaient la pour me soutenir, et Mila avec sa combi rose et ses chaussures roses a apparemment crie "allez papa" du debut a la fin du run...
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Big mountain pro 1st place snowboard and overall |
05/03/09 |
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| For the third edition of the big mountain pro, we finaly got the chance to have the snow on our side. It's not really that we've been riding the most radical terrain but that week on the Swatch Oneill big mountain pro has been one of the most fun week in the entire season. The crew being smaller was great, I really enjoyed being around the french ski crew Bichon, Richie and Rouf. We had an amazind time on and off the mountains and we could really feel the passion of riding and traveling around with some friends. Concerning the terrain, we've been going from tiny steep runs to bigger faces with kickers shaped on the way, there's also been an amazing face above insbruck with a total serious hike access. We ended up with a nice small but quite loaded bowl somewhere in austria. These where the filmed faces for the contest but we also really enjoyed a two days huge snow wood session with a tractor pulling us up and then just in a resorts. There was enough snow to just launch of anything without even looking.
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