Tahoe Freeride Skiers Chat With Blister

Blister recently sat down with four Tahoe freeride skiers: sisters Mia and Britta Winans and Tyler Curle and Colton Shaff , to talk about their freeride season, what it means to compete, and the evolution of freeride skiing.

You can check out the full episode here or find it on Spotify.

We’re currently in the full heat of the freeride competition season, and this podcast was recorded on the heels of a howling Freeride Challenger event in Crested Butte.

Britta put on a show and secured a top finish in the women’s ski category.

Mia was laying down a nice run but eventually crashed, and Curle and Shaff finished fifth and sixth respectively in men’s ski.

The Freeride Challenger is the last step in the qualifying circuit to cement your spot on the Freeride World Tour (FWT). The challenger series has proven to produce fireworks over the years with some of the most intense and entertaining events of the season.

The last two stops of the challenger that will determine the fate of the FWT lineup will take place in Silverton between March 24th-27th and Kirkwood April 1st-4th.

These Tahoe hopefuls put themselves in solid positions to jockey for a spot, and they sat down with Luke Coppa to discuss their seasons and the progression of freeride.

Season highlights

Every season the freeride circuit produces some new whacky memory or experience from the zany characters in the scene to skiing world class venues, that sticks with the athletes forever.

For these four, this season has been no different.

Curle and Mia competed at the Kicking Horse Freeride World Qualifier event where they both described the conditions as “the worst they’d ever skied,” with freeze melt conditions and wet slide avalanche remains on the venue.

But their experience on the Sierra cement came in handy as that comp put them on track to make the challenger events and a push for the FWT. Curle finished at third while Mia finished fifth.

Britta mentioned her second place finish at the Copper three star event as her redeeming moment from this year as she climbed a huge mental hurdle coming back from meniscus surgery from last year.

“It was really cool to get out there and put down a run and feel strong and feel healthy,” said Britta about her performance at Copper earlier in the year.

Shaff started his year as a rookie on the FWT and also had some mental gymnastics to do before the impromptu start that they had. The first two stops of the FWT in the Pyrenees were cancelled, and they had to hustle to line up an event at Verbier on the Petit Bec.

Shaff described his top 10 finish at Verbier as, “A cool, insane moment of clarity that was very brief that got me really fired up for the rest of the year.”

Evolution of freeride

These athletes have been in the freeride community for almost a decade each, and they have seen their fair share of progression in the sport. Freeride is elusive in nature and hard to capture in a definition.

It’s a unique combination of big mountain skiing and technique matched with the creativity of choosing a line and freestyle components. There is also a concern for the future of the sport with the International Ski and Snowboard Federation's (FIS) acquisition of the FWT.

However, the progression is mostly welcomed and seen as a motivating factor.

“We’ve grown up seeing the guys do big backflips and it was always a possibility, but when you see another girl that you’re competing with and skiing with often throw something like that, then it just progresses the sport,” said Mia.

Curle also added, “They’re not doing both ways triple corks yet (in freeride competitions), which maybe it will get there, and if it does, we’re in a competition, this is what we do… We sign up for this, so this is what the bar is going to be now. We’re going to keep achieving that.”

Shaff’s experience on the tour gave him some insight into the progression of freeride skiing.

“The mixture of skiing and tricks is getting better integrated to a higher level…It leaves a ton to be desired for and worked on…Sometimes it’s a little bit of a slap in the face when you see one of those runs,” he said cheekily, “It inspires you when you see someone do something like that.”

They talk about the progression of the sport, but they are on the forefront of the progression that we are seeing. All four of them are still fighting for a spot on the FWT, and they seem focused for the next stop in Silverton.