Crystal Mountain, WA – The Junior Freeride Tour visits Washington State’s Crystal Mountain ski resort this weekend for the first of four tour stops this season. The Junior Freeride Tour (JFT) is a big mountain ski and snowboard competition for athletes ages 15-17 organized by Mountain Sports International, producers of Freeride World Tour (FWT), Subaru Freeride Series and The North Face Masters of Snowboarding.
Saturday’s qualifying runs will take place on Northway Bowl at Crystal with the Finals being held on Silverking. Spectators are welcome to view the girls and boys as they challenge their abilities and showcase the future of big mountain freeriding. The base area for each venue is open to the public for viewing.
Freeride World Tour panel judge and JFT Head Judge Eric Schmitz will lead the judging panel. Judging along side Schmitz will be legendary athlete Dylan Crossman and Chuck White.
The judging format this season has changed slightly from that of previous years in an effort to mirror the new Freeride World Tour system. After years of using the traditional five-category judging platform (Line, Fluidity, Control, Technique, and Style), new system still recognizes the original five categories but also takes the Overall Impression of a run into consideration.
The Tour will continue onto Crested Butte, Colo. (Feb 15-17), Squaw Valley, Calif. (March 8-10) and Taos, N.M. (March 29-30) before reaching the first Junior Freeride World Championship by The North Face, which will be held at Snowbird in Utah, April 3-7, where the top athletes from the Americas region will have the opportunity to compete against the top athletes from the Europe/Oceania region to determine the first true Junior World Champion.