Snow conditions continue to be a challenge for Trace Cooke and other competitors in the Freeride World Qualifiers (FWQ) in Europe.
After a number of race postponements mostly due to low snow pack on the big mountain race courses, the 19-year-old Nelson native took a run at Hochfügen, Austria on Monday, January 26 after his fourth place finish in Verbier, Switzerland the previous week.
Cooke wrote that he had picked out a “pretty nice line” and with the bib number 23 had to wait his turn but after the first five riders dropped in, the judges radioed up to the starting gate to say there was a small slide in the middle of the face.
Cooke wrote, “Almost all the snow was gone (the area with the biggest features and highest line score... where I was intending to go) and this area was closed off for the rest of the competition!”
At that point he had to improvise to come up with a new approach.
“I charged a cliff out of the start gate, did a big 360, and as I came around I landed perfectly on a rock covered by a small amount of snow and took a tumble.”
He still finished with a score because as he did not go down the disqualified area, nor did he lose a ski.
Although he is a little bit frustrated because of how hard he has worked to get there, he has decided to take the whole day as a learning day for competing.
“No negatives or bad vibes,” he wrote.
“I learned that despite being told not to go into an area that might have a less shallow snowpack due to earlier riders, is actually the wrong thing to tell a competitor, and for a competitor to do... especially in a visual inspection type competition. Despite all efforts to try to help a competitor, it is honestly more dangerous directing an athlete to go somewhere he or she has not looked at carefully.”
“I should have stuck to what I knew because at least I knew it.”
Cooke is travelling to Italy for his next competition at the Livigno European Freeride Festival.
“Looking very forward for redemption in Italy this weekend,” he said.
The Freeride World Qualifier is a tour of independent freeride events all around the world, with one unique system of points and judging.
The FWQ is the way to qualify for the Swatch Freeride World Tour by The North Face. Cooke is one of the few Canadians participating in the 2014/15 series, which started in the spring of 2014 and will end April 2015.