Dates announced for Freeride World Qualifier Series

The complete calendar for the Freeride World Qualifier Series for the Swatch Freeride World Tour by The North Face has been announced. With 41 events around the world, riders will have more opportunities than ever before to score points, which improve the possibility of advancing to the World Tour.

: Written by: Mike Walker; Last Updated: 07 Nov 2012

‘Five new FWQ events in Austria, as well as new FWQ events in Bulgaria, Slovenia, Ukraine, Italy, France and Switzerland – with 41 resorts globally - the 2013 FWQ demonstrates that freeriding is on as a major discipline of skiing and snowboarding,’ said Nicolas Hale-Woods, FWT General Manager Europe. ‘This is good news for the hundreds of riders who could not enter the events last year because they were full.’

This season, there is one worldwide FWQ ranking system but riders will be split into two regions, Europe/Oceania/Asia and the Americas. Each region will have 11 spots—split between men, women, ski and snowboard—which will advance to the 2014 FWT.

FWQ events are rated from 1- to 4-star with competitors earning more or fewer points at events according to venue difficulty and scale, competitive pool and other factors.

Ski resorts across the globe can now provide competition opportunities for their own local freeride communities. New this season is an FWQ Week at Verbier, Switzerland. Three 2-star FWQ competitions will be held over seven days, allowing riders to score points for their ranking.

For a full schedule and more information on the qualifier series, visit the website www.freerideworldtour.com/program.html