Kühtai hosts FWT Georgia Pro on Friday, February 27

The contest face is north of the Kühtai pass at 2.684 m high Grieskogel right above the Kaiserbahn gondola, so if you are inclined to watch the action live onsite, it’s really easy to do. The venue offers a vertical drop of 455 meters and a good variety of terrain, although not being the most extreme face with only a few sections up top reaching 45° steepness. Be prepared for another display of backcountry freestyle action since a selection of tricks is likely a must if riders want to have a shot at the podium. The venue is generally east facing and the weather forecast is for bright sunshine all day long with the zero degree level exceeding 3000 m at noon, hence the early start. There has been plenty of fresh snow last week in Tyrol but we wouldn’t bet on the most fun riding conditions for competitors this time around.

The change to Kühtai as stage for the Georgia Pro came after the FWT organization cancelled the competition at the intended resort of Tetnuldi a week ago due to the questionable snow stability in the Great Caucasus. In an effort to give the FWT competitors four contests before the cut ahead of the two final 2026 FWT events in Alaska and Verbier, the tour officials jumped at the option to hold the competition in proximity to the fourth tour stop in Fieberbrunn (5-10 March)  in order to keep travel and organizational tasks limited. It’s not without controversy, though, as the Austrian Alps saw a period of heavy snowfall and high avalanche risk in the past two weeks. In fact, the avalanche level was at four in wide parts of the Tyrolean Alps for ten days in a row—something that is an absolute rarity—and more than 200 avalanches were reported last week to the avalanche forecast service of Tyrol. It was a critical situation particularly last weekend that prompted the state of Tyrol to send a general warning to mobile phones, something that is usually reserved for catastrophic events. As of today, the avalanche level is back to three but it is still a critical situation for all off-piste ventures and forecasters continue to warn people to keep it as safe as possible when going out of bounds.

The FIS Freeride World Tour by Peak Performance stresses that it keeps following a policy of safety first and that the contest in Kühtai is only possible thanks to extensive preventive work conducted at Schöffi’s Face throughout the season by the local safety team in close collaboration with FWT staff and certified mountain guides. This sets the situation at the FWT venue in Kühtai apart from the situation in Georgia, but also from the other mountain sides in Kühtai and the whole of Tyrol. When going to watch the event live, please be careful and don’t just head out into seemingly similar slopes of the area. In case you can’t make it to Kühtai, you can of course watch the competition live on the FWT website.