Crystal Mountain, WA – Rookie American snowboarder Tim Carlson overcame challenging snow conditions and a strong field of international Freeride World Tour competitors as well as top local U.S. riders to bring home the winning line last week at Crystal Mountain.nThree-time Freeride World Champion Xavier de Le Rue of France ended up in sixth place after a fall at the end of the run.

“Conditions were some of the most difficult I’ve seen, de Le Rue said. “Imagine it’s been raining for a week and then you get 20 centimeters of powder and between inspection day and contest day the wind was blowing. So today it was ice at the top of the run and a bit of accumulation at the bottom. I had a good run but I over-rotated a 360 (full rotation) at the bottom and ended up crashing.”

In his first The North Face Masters competition, Carlson took first place by executing the most creative line of the day with good style, technical riding, and a straight line out of a difficult rock section at the bottom. Canadian Jonathan Penfield was second and last year’s Crystal Mountain winner, Forrest Burki of the USA, took a 19-second straight-line for third.

The North Face Masters at Crystal Mountain 2011 by Swatch and Primaloft was the first collaboration between the Freeride World Tour and The North Face Masters with a view to exploring a wider collaboration from 2012.

The results from Thursday’s event once again culminated in changes in the men’s overall Freeride World Tour snowboard rankings. Flo Orley of Austria finished fifth at Crystal Mountain, scoring the highest place among the Freeride World Tour riders to move him into second place. De Le Rue, who was sitting in second place on the overall ranking, moved to first with his sixth-place finish on Thursday. Overall points leader Matt Annetts of the USA landed in 14th place on Thursday, causing him to slip to third behind de Le Rue and Orley.

The next stage of the Freeride World Tour is for men and women skiers at Kirkwood in California. The North American Freeskiing Championships Kirkwood 2011 by Swatch, The North Face and Sierra Nevada, takes place on the 25th of February.