Freeriding is a style of snowboarding or skiing performed on natural, un-groomed terrain, without a set course, goals or rules. It evolved throughout the sport's formative early years as a contrary response to the highly regimented style of ski competition prevalent at the time. Snowboarders primarily refer to freeriding as backcountry, sidecountry, or off-piste snowboarding, and sometimes big mountain or extreme riding.
Verbier is a village located in south-western Switzerland in the canton of Valais. It is a holiday resort and ski area in the Swiss Alps and is recognised as one of the premier backcountry ski resorts in the world. Some areas are covered with snow all year. Skiers have settled in the Verbier area in order to take advantage of the steep slopes, varied conditions, and resort culture.
Marcus Ljungqvist is a Swedish former professional road bicycle racer. He turned professional in 1998, and retired from racing after the 2009 season. He worked for Team Sky as a sporting director from 2010 until 2013. He finished 4th in the road race at the 2005 UCI Road World Championships, which is the best placement ever for a Swedish rider.
Candide Thovex is a French professional skier, filmmaker and entrepreneur. He is notable for his creative freestyle skiing movies and professional accomplishments. He first caught the attention of the world of outdoor and action sports by jumping Chad's Gap, a massive transfer jump of 120 feet (37 m) from take-off to landing over a 40 feet (12 m) deep gully in Alta, Utah, US. His point of view videos routinely go viral on the internet and are viewed by millions. He is widely considered to be one of the best freeskiers in the history of the sport.
Jon Anders Olsson Delér is a professional freeskier and alpine ski racer from Sweden. Born in Mora, Olsson Delér started his career as a ski racer but at age 16 he switched his race skis for twin tips and quit ski racing. Eight years later, after a 50 000 SEK (US$5826.22) bet with fellow skier Jens Byggmark, Olsson Delér started ski racing again with the goal of the bets being to make it to the Olympics in 2014. He now competes in both freestyle and ski racing. Olsson Delér is known for his invention of several new double flips, including a D-spin 720 into a flatspin 540, a switch double rodeo 1080, a double flatspin 900, and a switch cork 720 to flatspin 540.
Revelstoke is a city in southeastern British Columbia, Canada, with a census population of 6,719 in 2016. By 2019, using smartphone data from Telus Insights, the community reported 14,570 actual residents in December 2018; the city's population is known to fluctuate according to seasons. Revelstoke is located 641 kilometres (398 mi) east of Vancouver, and 415 kilometres (258 mi) west of Calgary, Alberta. The city is situated on the banks of the Columbia River just south of the Revelstoke Dam and near its confluence with the Illecillewaet River. East of Revelstoke are the Selkirk Mountains and Glacier National Park, penetrated by Rogers Pass used by the Trans-Canada Highway and the Canadian Pacific Railway. South of the community down the Columbia River are the Arrow Lakes, Mount Begbie, and the Kootenays. West of the city is Eagle Pass through the Monashee Mountains and the route to Shuswap Lake.
Francesca Martinelli is an Italian ski mountaineer.
Roberta Pedranzini is an Italian ski mountaineer.
Fredrik Carl Wilhelm Kessiakoff is a Swedish former professional road bicycle racer. Kessiakoff turned to road racing in 2009, having had a successful career as a professional mountain biker for many years, winning the Swedish national championship 4 times, and finishing third at the 2006 World Mountain biking championships. He twice represented Sweden at the Olympics. Kessiakoff retired in 2014.
Xavier de Le Rue is a French big mountain snowboarder, who started his pro career competing on the Boardercross pro tour. He competed for France at the 2006 Winter Olympics, but did not advance to the quarterfinals. At the FIS Snowboarding World Championships 2009 he won a silver medal. He is set to compete for France at the 2010 Winter Olympics. He is the brother of bronze medalist Paul-Henri de Le Rue.
Per Henrik Peter Windstedt is a Swedish big mountain skier who has excelled at many aspects of skiing. He was one of Sweden's top moguls competitors as a junior, and has made big air and superpipe podiums. He won the 2008 Freeride World Tour.
Niklas Hollsten is a Finnish freeride snowboarder. He has represented Finland in freeride already for several years. In 2010 Scandinavian freeride championships he won the gold medal. Furthermore he in overall 2010 freeride world qualifier ranking he received the third place. He is also the first ever Finnish male who participated Freeride World Tour. Though Hollsten has a freestyle and boardercross background right now he competes only in freeride.
The Freeride World Tour is an annually toured series of events in which the best freeskiers and snowboard freeriders compete for individual event wins, as well as the overall title of World Champion in their respective genders and disciplines. The events take place on what's commonly referred to as "backcountry", "big mountain" or "extreme" terrain - essentially ungroomed powder snow on dangerously steep, mountainous slopes.
Chris Davenport, of Aspen, Colorado, is considered one of the world's most accomplished big-mountain skiers and mountaineers. He has been called "one of North America's top 25 skiers by Skiing Magazine" and is a "two-time extreme skiing world champion"
Janette Hargin is a Swedish former alpine skier who competed in the 2002 and 2006 Winter Olympics. During her alpine skiing career she won six Swedish national titles and scored six top ten finishes in alpine skiing World Cup races, including a career best of second in a combined in Åre in 2002. At the 2002 Winter Olympics she finished 25th in the downhill, 27th in the super-G and 31st in the giant slalom, whilst in 2006 she finished 12th in the combined, 17th in the downhill and 22nd in the super-G. Her best result in an Alpine Skiing World Championships was a 12th in the super-G in 2003.
Tobias Ludvigsson is a Swedish cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Groupama–FDJ.
Toms Skujiņš is a Latvian professional road racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Trek–Segafredo.
Emelie Tina Forsberg is a Swedish athlete specializing in trail running and ski mountaineering. She has won repeated victories in different disciplines, including European and World Championships.
Estelle Balet was a Swiss freeride snowboarder and two-time world champion in 2015 and 2016 at the Freeride World Tour. She died in an avalanche on 19 April 2016, at the age of 21.
Matilda Rapaport was a Swedish alpine free-skier. She was married to Swedish alpine skier Mattias Hargin, and was the niece of Swedish actress Alexandra Rapaport.
