FWT strikes back with a glorious contest in Haines

The YETI Alaska Haines Pro, the first of two finals events of the 2026 Freeride World Tour by Peak Performance, took place already Friday, March 13. That’s two days before the originally scheduled event window. In case you missed the action because of that, you might want to watch the replay at the official FWT website—it’s definitely worth it. Following two cancelled tour stops in Georgia and Austria, the Freeride World Tour Commissioners obviously didn’t want to take any risk and instead opted to take advantage of favorable conditions in Haines, Alaska, a place that is famous for awesome powder snow but also for notoriously difficult weather conditions.

As a consequence, riders had to compete right after their arrival in the northernmost American state without much chance to accommodate. As it was the first competition for most riders in Haines if not the first trip to Alaska at all—the last FWT contest in Haines took place in 2017—quite a few athletes had to pay a toll. With only two hours of face inspection in the morning right before the contest and generally inviting powder conditions, the venue nevertheless presented several pitfalls in terms of changing snow conditions, extensive slough and terrain features that were harder to judge from afar due to the massive AK dimensions. Both in Ski Women’s and Ski Men’s, half of the field fell victim and finished with a NS (no score) result because of loosing a ski or two in a crash. Few came out of a crash unfazed. It’s important to state that riders still get ranked and awarded overall points based on the runs they were able to present before the crash, meaning that athletes making it further down the face get ranked in front of the early crashers.

The competition venue was a face west of Little Jarvis Glacier, just a few kilometers away from the Canadian border. The livestream stated a top elevation of 2129m, which remains a bit of a mystery as online maps state a top elevation of just below 1700m. The vertical drop was still around 700m, as the finish area was just past the end of the glacier at a height of around 1000m. Potentially you could tour to the face from the road, but the way out through a narrow gorge is most definitely exposed to avalanche danger. The competition face was over a kilometer wide with three start options, but funnily a lot of riders chose rather similar lines. However, all three podium lines in Ski Men’s were original choices at both sides of the venue, where riders profited not only from plenty of terrain features, but also from lots of fresh snow.

In the Ski Women’s category, Sybille Blanjean claimed the victory with a strong, yet calculated run. Her performance was testament to her experience on the FWT level among a field that featured four tour rookies out of six athletes. She still skied fast and with determination including several airs in her line, but she also managed her speed and airtime enough to keep out of slough debris that finished a great run of Wynter McBride prematurely. The only other veteran, Justine Dufour-Lapointe was likely the most unfortunate competitor of the day as a rock hidden deep underneath the snow caught her ski when she approached a cliff—luckily she managed to avoid hefty contact as she tumbled through the rocks. Agostina Vietti, tour leader before AK, on the other hand misjudged a double cliff at the very top of the venue—as did several ski men after her—and lost her balance on the short section of snow between the two cliffs. As a result, she landed sideways and went for a big cartwheel, luckily self-arresting right before a steeper section of the face.

Following the AK tour stop, there are only three athletes left with a shot at the overall title. Ross Tester currently sits in third place and his chances are somewhat limited, as he would need a win in Verbier and both riders currently ranking in front of him, Toby Rafford and Ben Richards, must finish outside the podium—Toby even outside the Top 4—for Ross to still claim the tour title.

It’s a tight race between Toby Rafford and Ben Richards, though. Ben has the advantage of already having gathered three top results so far and will triumph if Ross doesn’t win and Toby doesn’t make the Top 4. He also takes the overall title if he stays ahead of Toby and finishes on the podium in any case. However, there’s nothing he can do in case Toby Rafford wins in Verbier or finishes ahead of him and among the Top 4.

So, current tour leader Toby Rafford is arguably in pole position, but he needs a Top 4 result at the tour final and needs to stay ahead of Ben Richards to keep his lead. And while the rest of the field has no shot anymore at the overall title, everyone still can make the Top 3 in the final overall ranking with a victory at the Xtreme, as everyone is pretty close between current fourth Ugo Troubat and Fynn Powell, who currently sits at the bottom of the field of all qualified 13 skiers. It’s going to be exciting in Verbier, for sure. The scheduled event window for the Xtreme Verbier is March 28 until April 5.

To see the current overall standings, go to the FWT website. These rankings are based on the best two results of the season so far, the final standings will be based on the best three results out of four. To give you a better idea of what might happen in Verbier, we include a list based on all three results for each rider so far and include what maximum points each athlete might still achieve upon a potential win in Verbier.