Mr. Travis Rice, taking a look at the Revelstoke venue on Scout Day. Photo: NST
Whatever you had planned for this Friday afternoon, you best be cancelling it. Mother Nature’s been hard at work, peppering Revelstoke with a series of storms that took the Natural Selection venue from a bit-of-a-yikes to a hard-frickin-yes. And with a sunny break between systems, organizers have officially called the contest on for this Friday, March 14, with riders dropping at 1 p.m. Pacific Time.
“I’m so happy that it’s snowing,” said Mikkel Bang through a beaming smile as he scoped the venue on Scout Day. He stood on the ridge alongside fellow Norwegians Ståle Sandbech and Torgeir Bergrem, mind-surfing the riders’ left side of the course. The conditions looked perfect, with nearly a foot of fresh snow stacked up on the feature-laden face.
There have been a couple small storms since then, with a bigger system hitting at the time of writing. Athletes and organizers have all breathed a collective sigh of relief because, much like last year, Mother Nature took her time getting the venue into shape for the contest.
That being said, the coverage is better than 2024. And for the second summer in a row, Dustin Craven headed up a massive clearing operation on the venue, doubling the amount of launchable features, adding new entrances, cleaning up run-outs and opening up “Bar Fight” – arguably the rowdiest line on the face that was closed last year on account of an impassable root ball at the crux.
Now Bar Fight is open for business.
It’s actually crazy how much they’ve cleared from the venue. What was once a classic Kootenay tree run will now ride more like an alpine face, with many of the riders comparing it to Baldface’s Scary Cherry. Dustin and crew have also expanded around the corner on the riders’ right of the venue, so the 24 riders — 16 men and 8 women — should have plenty of space over the two days of competition.
There are a lot of changes to take note of this year. But the most important one is that the entire contest will take place on The Montana Bowl venue outside the boundary at Revelstoke Mountain Resort. No heli-accessed finals. And while that may sound like a bad thing, you’re probably forgetting that after the live broadcast of the quarters and semis last year, we had to wait three weeks to tell everyone that Mikey Ciccarelli and Marion Haerty had taken the win on the finals day. This year the competition broadcast is all live on Red Bull TV, with day one going down on Friday and the finals happening on Saturday, Sunday or Monday. (Mother Nature loves to keep us guessing.)
Friday’s action will go down on the riders’ left side of the venue, while the finals will go down on the longer, gnarlier, riders’ right side. And the format’s been shaken up this year. Day one will see the riders divided into three separate eight-person heats, instead of the classic NST head-to-head format:
“Riders in each of the three sessions will have up to three single run rounds to make it through to finals day. In the first round of eight, two riders will move through to finals,” and NST release explains. “Then in each of the subsequent rounds of six and then five riders, one rider will move forward to the finals. This will cut down each session from eight riders to four.”
“Over the years, we’ve had too many random first-round matchups that could have/should have been in the finals,” said Liam Griffin, COO and co-founder of Natural Selection. “The new qualifying round format on day one should help to ensure that the best riding rises to the top and into the final day of competition.”
Eight men and four women will go back to head-to-head match-ups for finals day.
There are a lot of new faces in the mix, especially on the women’s side. Hailey Langland is out due to injury, Jamie Anderson is expecting her second child and last year’s champ, Marion Haerty, injured herself filming in Whistler the week before the window opened up. Canada’s Estelle Pensiero filled Haerty’s spot, making it a total of four riders from 2025’s all-women’s backcountry freestyle event, Research and Development, which has become a feeder event for NST.
“RND’s sick and coming from there last week, I feel like it put me in the right head space,” says Ellery Manning, who at 18 years-old is the youngest competitor in NST history. “And also Whitewater is similar terrain, so it was really helpful.”
As for the men, there are a lot of returning riders from last year. But the DUELS drew new blood, including Whistler’s own Brin Alexander, who the people have been asking top see for the last few years. And with the DUEL between Brandon Davis and Severin van der Meer being almost too close to call, both riders got the nod and will make their debut this year.
The Freeride World Tour’s 2022 Champion Blake Moller will also be one to watch. And the best news of the whole comp so far is that the universally loved GiGi Rüf got the last-minute call to round out the roster.
I’m hyped to watch all the riders. But if I were a betting man, my money would be on Nils Mindnich, who came second to Ciccarelli last year after being the first one to take out Travis Rice in a heat since the Baldface stop in 2022.
“Everyone is good enough to win this thing, for sure, these are the most talented snowboarders in the world” says Oregon’s Jared Elston, who a few of the riders, including Dustin Craven, have fingered as the man to win.
“But I think there’s some standouts. Travis is obviously a threat, Dustin knows this course like the back of his hand and Nils is a total technician. But everyone’s so good. Anyone could do it.”
From the women’s side, my money’s on Elena Hight who got second in 2023.
“It’s cool to see so many new faces and it brings an excitement,” she says. “I’m hyped to go and ride and hopefully the conditions are really good and we can send.”
And Mary Rand surprised us all last year with a second-place finish, bringing a relaxed, business-casual, approach to technical tricks and line choices. With Haerty out of the mix, Rand could find her way to the top of the podium as well.
“Basically I’ll just take the same strategy as last year,” says Mary. “I’m gonna try to have a good time, ride hard and not let anything get to me.”
So yeah, barring any unforeseen circumstances, Friday’s a definite go. As for finals day, Mother Nature still hasn’t made up her mind, so keep an eye on NST Snow’s social channels for updates.
Women
- Mary Rand (USA) – Pre-qualified from 2024 (2nd place)
- Madison Blackley (USA) – Eleven Irwin, Crested Butte, CO DUEL winner)
- Aya Sato (JPN) – Lime Resort, Myoko, Japan DUEL winner
- Ellery Manning (USA) – 2024 Research & Development (RND) Winner
- Šárka Pančochová (CZE) – 2025 Research & Development (RND) Winner
- Elena Hight (USA) – 2022 NST Champion
- Spencer O’Brien (CAN) – Wildcard
- Estelle Pensiero (CAN) – Pre-qualified from 2024 (in for Marion Haerty, who is injured)
Men
- Ståle Sandbech (NOR) – Andermatt + Sedrun + Disentis, Switzerland DUEL winner
- Brin Alexander (CAN) – evo’s Journeyman Lodge at the Callaghan, BC DUEL winner
- Severin van der Meer (CHE) – Kirkwood Mountain, Lake Tahoe, CA DUEL winner
- Blake Moller (USA) – High MTN Heli, Victor, ID DUEL winner
- Brandon Davis (USA) – Wildcard for stand-out riding in his 2025 DUEL
- Dustin Craven (CAN) – Pre-qualified from 2024
- Gigi Rüf (AUT) – Wildcard
- Torgeir Bergrem (NOR) – Pre-qualified from 2024
- Mikey Ciccarelli (CAN) – 2024 NST Champion
- Jared Elston (USA) – Pre-qualified from 2024
- Sage Kotsenburg (USA) – Pre-qualified from 2024
- Nils Mindnich (USA) – Pre-qualified from 2024
- Travis Rice (USA) – Pre-qualified from 2024
- Austen Sweetin (USA) – Pre-qualified from 2024
- Mikkel Bang (NOR) – 2021 NST Champion
- Ben Ferguson (USA) – Wildcard
