Freeride Worldtour: Who's the crack, who's the champ?

Text: Rolf Fleckenstein

All skiers know that, slopes off-piste, which are so steep that you can not see them in their entirety and which disappear somewhere in the view when looking down. They are slopes that you approach with caution, just so you don't fall off, and where you look down and think "I'm not crazy, I'll never make it to the bottom alive!" Exactly such slopes and this thrill bordering on madness, to survive the descent on such slopes alive, are the lifeblood of these really crazy freeriders, who throw themselves into snow-covered slopes, which have already left the designation "black slope" galactically long behind. When skiing, it is very rare to meet such exquisite creatures, you have to look hard to discover them. What makes this type of skier? Is it boundless courage, a healthy dose of madness, youthful exuberance, naïve foolhardiness or simply skiing genius that makes these skiers, who have...