Lou Barin and Ben Richards triumph in Verbier

The Verbier Xtreme organization took advantage of a window of good weather this Saturday and held the competition on the first day of the official event time span. Riders had to inspect the face in the morning due to snowfall the previous days, however that made for almost perfect riding conditions on the legendary Bec des Rosses. Since the very top of the Bec still suffered from a slim base and the risk of hidden rocks on the extremely exposed terrain was too high, all categories were held at the so-called Petit Bec, a section of about two thirds the height of the full Bec des Rosses face, starting at the western shoulder of the mountain. This still offered lots of serious terrain with gradients exceeding 45 degrees in many section, plenty of cliffs, rocks and chutes for ambitious line choices as well as great variety with three starting gates spread out for several hundred meters along the ridge line. The sun was shining during the whole competition, but temperatures remained cold and the major part of the face was in the shade to keep the snow fresh and powdery for all athletes.

The day was kicked off by the Snowboard Men category, where Victor de le Rue earned a record fifth overall title but had to settle for second place of the day behind local hero Liam Rivera. The overall was actually a tie between the two, as both had two wins and a second place to count for their overall result. A first in the history of the FWT. Later on, Mia Jones went on to win both the Xtreme Verbier and the Overall FWT Title in the Snowboard Women’s category and achieved another first: She is now the first athlete to follow one of her parents as Xtreme champion as her father Jeremy Jones triumphed at the Bec des Rosses in 2005.

In the Ski Women’s, all starters still had a chance at the overall title. However, for all besides the overall leader before the Xtreme, Verbier rider Sybille Blanjean, that meant a victory at the Bec was the day’s order. That’s not an easy feat, especially for a rookie at this legendary face and that applied to four out of six athletes. Three of them, Wynter McBride, Agostina Vietti and Zoé Delzoppo, all had strong runs, but none of them exhibited the amount of determination that is usually needed to win a Freeride World Tour event. The first rider to really go for the win then was Justine Dufour-Lapointe, the defending FWT champion from Canada. Counting on her experience and strength, she started with pace and linked two cliffs right out of the start, added another sizable drop and finished her line with an absolutely huge cliff drop that didn’t have the steepest landing. Thanks to her outstanding athletic ability and a perfectly balanced landing, Justine managed to get out of the massive impact seemingly unfazed, albeit she lost both poles in the process. This probably cost her some points but she still took the lead.

Second to last starter, Lou Barin of France, then set out to seize her chance by employing her freestyle prowess. The former Olympian in Slopestyle started with a 360 while traversing into a steep section of the venue and followed up with a 360 drop over a cliff. Capping things off with another clean cliff drop, she skied into the finish without any problems in her whole run despite her mid-face trickery, something that has been uncommon for women skiers on the Bec so far. 95 points might have been a bit over the top by the judges, but clearly a well-deserved lead for the skier out of Val Thorens. That left the final starter, Sybille Blanjean with the task to finish at least second if she wanted to keep the overall lead. The Verbier local, who had won the Xtreme in 2022, quickly made it clear that she wanted to live up to the task. She started with a cliff drop similar as Justine, skied fast and then added a big cliff with full pace. Unfortunately, Sybille also lost a pole despite a clean landing, and this was way further up the face compared to Justine. Sybille kept skiing with pace and determination, she added another big cliff—the same that Justine also had skied—but then opted for a less ambitious bottom part, refraining from Justine’s huge bottom cliff but also from other features that still would have been possible. At the end, the judges set Sybille less than one point behind Justine in third place for the day which meant that Lou Barin surpassed her in the overall ranking by a few points. Justine Dufour-Lapointe improved into third place overall thanks to her second place finish at the Xtreme. So at the end of the day, the same three women entered the podium both for the Xtreme and the FWT Overall titles, with Lou Barin both times occupying the middle while Sybille Blanjean and Justine Dufour-Lapointe switched sides.

That’s it for the 2026 Freeride World Tour by Peak Performance. As always, you can watch all the action in replay at the official FWT website and of course find plenty of more information about the events and the athletes. It was a pity that this season only saw four out of six events happen and we hope, the next winter will conform better to the freeriders’ desires. Nevertheless, the level of riding was once again outstanding and it simply keeps rising year after year. 2026 established a couple of new stars in the freeride universe and next winter, a few new rookies will likely strive to follow in their footsteps. Until then, congratulations again to the four FWT 2026 Overall Champions!