Laax Open 2026: Eileen Gu and Birk Ruud defend their titles

At no time is this more true than during the Laax Open, the week in January when the action in Laax reaches its yearly apex. With the crème de la crème of international skiing and snowboarding in town for World Cup slopestyle and halfpipe events, the place is a magnet for the general public, as well as anyone who’s somehow involved in the industry. Even aging park rats like myself pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and drag our creaky bodies to Laax once more to meet old friends and see what style of pants the kids are wearing these days (more on the pants later).

This year’s Laax Open, from 14–16 January, marks the start of an intense period for many of the athletes. Directly after Laax, many fly straight to Aspen for the X Games this coming weekend. After that, it’s directly back to Europe for the Olympic kickoff in Milan. In other words, three major events back-to-back—with Laax offering us a glimpse of what we might see on those other stages in the coming days.

While the headlining action took place on the slopestyle course and the halfpipe up in the Laax snowpark on the Crap Sogn Gion, the Red Bull Rail Riot down at the base area invited ambitious rail riders to throw their hats into the ring for the chance to win the 1500-franc first-place price. After a qualifier at midday, ten female and nine male finalists stepped to the setup on Friday evening, throwing down in a fast-paced jam format in front of a packed crowd of spectators.

On the women’s side, Lisa Zimmermann locked down the win, with Sarah Hoefflin in second and Sarah Schönach in third. The Amateur Award went to Canada’s Annabelle Santerre. For the men, Tucker Fitzsimons—who was actually in town to judge the World Cup—made good use of his day off to win the Rail Riot. Swiss slimer Valentin Morel took second, with Joey Vandermeer in third and Tim Aufdermauer picking up the Amateur Award.

Saturday, 17 January offered up a thin cloud cover and a slight but manageable breeze as conditions for the freeski finals. The wind having been a consideration throughout the week, several competitors relied on a practical, if unfortunate method of improving their speed on-course: taping up their baggy ski pants around the knees.

Now, I’m the last one who would fault any competitor for doing something that helps them on course, and this might seem a clear-cut case of practicality outweighing style. Be that as it may: It’s a self-made problem (wearing pants that are too baggy) with a more practical solution than wrapping duct tape around your legs—namely, wearing tighter pants. And quite objectively, it just does not look good. To paraphrase one judge’s appraisal, this sets us back ten years in terms of style.

But enough critiquing of the fit—let’s get to the contest. This year’s Laax Open slopestyle course was more straighforward than usual, eliminating the quarterpipe and final rail section that set this course apart in the last few years, and replacing them with a big roller with sides for takeoffs. While it was a shame to lose the quarterpipe, the bottom rail section had always been more of a heartbreak feature than anything else—offering little upside potential and a whole lot of downside for competitors at the end of their runs. The new roller, in contrast, pushed riders to show off their creative side and mastery of the dark arts of buttering.

On the women’s side, defending champion Eileen Gu faced off against local favorite Mathilde Gremaud, hungry to return the Laax Open title to Swiss possession. A gang of hopefuls including Canada’s Elena Gaskell, back after years on the injured list, American stalwart Marin Hamill and second-place qualifier Mengting Liu filled out the rest of the ten-woman start list.

On the men’s side, Colby Stevenson and Matej Svancer won their qualifying heats, pursued by the Norwegian double-punch of Birk Ruud—who won the last two Laax Open slopestyles—and Tormod Frostad. A trio of hopeful Swiss riders—Andri Ragettli, Kim Gubser and Nils Rhyner—kept hometown hopes alive, while heavyweights like Evan McEachran, Hunter Henderson and Milo Tabanelli looked to upset the apple cart.

The women were first to drop in the two-run finals. Marin Hamill got off to an early start, posting a score of 71.38 with a big back 630 out of the cannon rail and a right 720 blunt, left 540 mute and switch right 720 Japan in the jumps, grabbing everything clean, followed by a nice 360 up, 360 out on the butter pad. Elena Gaskell also bagged a run of 7s and 9s to slide into second place.

As the start field dwindled to the top qualifiers, Mathilde Gremaud and Liu Mengting both bobbled in the rail section, opening up an opportunity for Eileen Gu to make a statement. And of course, she did with a switch lip 270 to forward and right 270, continuing 270 in the rails, into a switch left misty 900 tail, flawless left double cork 1080 blunt and a right cork 900 Buick, and closing with a switch 180 to 360 for a dominant score of 85.13.

The men were up next. Konnor Ralph delivered the first big run of the day, linking up three big 1620 rotations but coming up a bit short on the grabs for a score in the mid-70s. He was joined there by Nis Rhyner and his switch triple 12,Hunter Henderson with back-to-back 1620 tails, and Evan McEachran with a masterful hardway blind 360 swap on the first rail transfer and a few 16s of his own.

But the favorites are favored for a reason. Birk Ruud served up what the judges with a near-flawless run top to bottom, greasing a switch right 270 to back 270 on the transfer and a left 270 on to cork 810 out on the cannon into a right dub 16 mute, switch right dub 14 Japan and switch left dub 16 tail before finishing with a left 360 to bio 7 safety on the roller. The new high score: 85.08, the first to break the 80s. Matej Svancer trailed close behind, scoring just a point below Birk, while Tormod Frostad and Colby Stevenson bobbled in the rails.

On the women’s second run, Lara Wolf entered the conversation with a k-fed and front 450 out in the rails, followed by a trio of cleanly grabbed 900s in the jumps. But she got a little crazy in the air on the final feature, holding her at a score of 67.85 and provisional third place. Young gun Avery Krumme showed her potential with a polished run of 5s, 7s and 9s that bumped her into fourth place, and Elena Gaskell pulled out a switch 10 but lacked on execution, staying in fifth place.

It was down to Mathilde Gremaud, always a top podium threat, to unseat Eileen Gu on her final try. But unfortunately, the Swiss star bobbled her run in the rails yet again, this time on her technical front-swap transfer, giving Eileen Gu the win. As usual, she didn’t hold back on her victory lap, stepping her run with a continuing 270 out of her first rail, but under-rotating her beautiful dub 10 blunt and taking an uncharacteristic hard crash.

At the winner’s interview, FIS’s Chad Buchholz informed Eileen that this was her 20th World Cup win—a new record for freeskiers. “First off, I can’t believe it’s been that many,” Gu replied to Buchholz. “Secondly, every one gets harder. I think people sometimes take it for granted. “Like, you win once and they’re like, ‘She’ll win again and again.’ But I think with each one, it gets exponentially harder.”

Several others made their own late-game podium bids. Hunter Henderson linked up three 1620s but seemed just a bit forced, landing just outside of podium position—a fact he wasn’t happy at all about. Vebjørn Gråberg and Andri Ragettli put up runs of their own to move into fifth and sixth place respectively, and Tormod Frostad missed his trick on the first rail, but put down an absolute clinic in the jumps nonetheless with a flawless right double 1440 tail, left double 1620 Japan and switch left double 1440 blunt.

That left the two top qualifiers, Matej Svancer and Colby Stevenson, to unseat Birk Ruud from his third straight Laax Open win. Instead, Matej provided the save of the day, losing a ski on the takeoff of the first jump and miraculously landing on one foot. And Colby came off early on his first rail—a sad turn events for this immensely skilled competitor, who needed a win here to qualify for the Olympics. At the end of the day, it was Birk’s gold medal yet again—a remarkable streak for the Norwegian.

With the freeski slopestyle a wrap, it was time to close out the day with the undisputed highlight of Laax Open—the night finals in the halfpipe for the snowboarders. If you haven’t had the chance to experience this for yourself, it should be on your bucket list. Bundle up, bring some beers and watch the world’s top pipe riders going absolutely ham, linking huge airs under the lights to the cheers or the crowd—or take advantage of the lights to lap the P60 snowpark until late in the evening. The ski down to the bottom at the end of the finals is an event in and of itself—a wild ride down icy, ungroomed slopes while dodging hundreds of intoxicated skiers and boarders. Whether you make it down unscathed or not, you certainly won’t forget it anytime soon.