Everyone’s moving fast.
The last few riders are shuffling through the makeshift A/V room as we prep to load the gondola and shuttle to Montana Bowl, the now established but ever-changing Natural Selection Snow venue in the Revelstoke Mountain Resort backcountry. With sun in the forecast tomorrow, the contest has been called on for the first day of the window and there’s a new sense of urgency.
I load the gondola with Garrett Warnick, Elena Hight and Travis Rice. Garrett got in through the Super Sessions at Powder Mountain, UT—it’s his first trip to NST. Elena of course has podiumed multiple times, and Travis, now in his 40s, just keeps pushing it forward as the event’s driving force while somehow continuing to progress his own riding in competition.
Yuka Fujimori scoping. The Japanese rider qualified at Research & Development, flew home to spend a few days with her child, and arrived in Revelstoke with a relaxed smile and impeccable style. Photo: Mike Yoshida / Natural Selection Tour
There are whispers they’re going to run both the East and West side of the venue tomorrow. In previous years it’s been the West venue for qualification day and East venue for finals day. Travis neither confirms nor denies this. He seems pretty calm, though—the speed with which we’re moving leaves little room for overthinking things.
At the top, while we wait for a snowcat to take us to the venue, I find Jody Wachniak. He’s one of the judges. How hard is it to judge something as subjective as progressive powder riding? With a few dozen booters sculpted throughout the east and west edges of the venue and very steep freeride lines dominating the middle and bottom, there are a lot of options for how the riders approach their runs.
Pondering in the portal with Bjorn Leines, NST COO Liam Griffin, Travis Rice, Dustin Craven and Jared Elston. Photo: Mike Yoshida / Natural Selection Tour
If you’ve ever listened to the Air Time Podcast, you know Jody’s a man of opinion. If you’ve ever seen him ride, you know he’s a student of style. I ask him what their crew of five is looking for in an NST run. It starts with the CREDO formula, he explains: creativity, risk, execution, difficulty, and overall impression.
But it runs deeper than that. He’s quick to point out the credentials of the panel. They’re all legendary riders who could step into the contest and hold their own. Then the rub: “The hardest thing about judging is that everyone rides differently,” he explains, “but what I’m looking for personally is, is it a clip? I look at the landing, the ride away, the overall execution of each moment—how rowdy was it? How was it executed? Did they put a trick in a spot where it made sense to the flow of the line? All in all, I’m looking for clips that make you feel something. If you’re the flow guy, or the technical rider, the gnarly one, all different disciplines of snowboarding look so fucking awesome and they’re all very different. That’s what makes it such a difficult job… Natural Selection is about pushing the sport of snowboarding in a healthy, progressive, cool direction, so that’s really what we want to see.”
Fresh off two Olympic silver medals, Zoi Sadowski-Synnott is at the forefront of progressive freestyle snowboarding. Photo: Chad Chomlack / Natural Selection Snow
The sun’s out already.
It flickers through the trees as we load a snowcat to ride to the venue, which at first glance seems perfect. Rolling up, though, there’s avalanche chunder in a few of the runouts. Over the weekend, a warmup brought rain to just below the bottom of the venue. The riders are anxious to see it. Thankfully, the snow is progressively deeper as we head towards the drop zones. Up there, it’s consolidated and clean.
I linger at the top, watching the last few riders scope their lines. Travis and Bjorn Leines handle shovels, making a few final tweaks to ridgeline features in the West venue. Gigi Rüf, here to defend third place from last year, pats down an in-run with his verts. Mary Rand and Yuka Fujimori discuss lines with Robin Van Gyn, who isn’t competing this year, but will be on the mic for the onsite crowd. Then there’s a side hit off the cat track. Gigi’s catching a little air. David Carrier-Porcheron hikes up and hits it. Early 2000s me is tripping that I get to document these legends. Mid-2020s me is here for it.
Travis Rice is always pushing the envelope, whether in front of the lens or behind the scenes. Here, he buffs a lip on scout day. Photo: Colin Wiseman / Natural Selection Tour
DCP is also on the judging panel with Jody, Jussi Oksanen (who’s here shooting photos too), Darrah Reid Mclean, Bjorn and Ryan Cruze. I acknowledge the subjectivity of judging and ask him what he’s looking for. He references the CREDO baseline then says, “Style is the subjective part, right? If you’re gonna grab, really grab it—make it count. You poke it, you tweak it, show control, show that style of yours, let it shine. Or if you’re not gonna grab, put your own twist on it, too. Then show flow and speed, because everything between the features is important, too—don’t just shave speed, make a nice powder turn, stay in flow with the mountain.”
It’s a solid point. When it comes to freeriding, linking together a line, flowing with the mountain is what looks and feels the best. Per Jody’s interpretation, would it make a video part? Hesitation kills the clip.
Still, there are six judges for a reason. Each one will see things a bit differently. The beauty of snowboarding in natural terrain is that there are countless ways to interpret the landscape. No single rider will look the same. And no single judge will see it the same either. So, they hash it out in a room together, in the moment, and lean into their century-plus of collective experience to get it right.
The ever playful Gigi Rüf sampling the snow on a side hit. Photo: Colin Wiseman / Natural Selection Tour
Qualifying day doesn’t start until 1pm.
The Stoke chair is down, and spectators will have to hike in an hour. I get there early to a quiet space. As DJ Jon “DC” Oetken gets the PA rolling, a couple kids manufacture and hike a little air in the spectator’s zone, in the shadow if the contest venue. They’ll be running wall to wall today in anticipation of another couple feet of snow later in the week. This is unprecedented. The riders have a lot of choices to make, but one thing’s for certain—it all goes.
With three years of Montana Bowl competition already in the rearview, NST keeps pushing. There are a handful of new features, installed over the summer, in the westside of the venue. Spoiled by choice, even the veteran riders have a new wrinkle to process when deciding how they will approach their lines.
Nils Mindnich kicks off his first line with a butter to switch back 7 roast beef and punches his ticket to the finals. Photo: Colin Wiseman / Natural Selection Tour
I won’t bore you with the play by play—you can watch the replay and skip to your favorite rider's runs if you didn’t tune in live. Here are a few CliffsNotes, though:
Hundreds of spectators hike the hour-plus in to cheer the riders on. The Revelstoke snowboard community is strong.
Mary Rand steps to the Kootenay King on her first lap and rides away clean but stays on the bubble and doesn’t make finals by a couple points. Still, it makes me proud for our Mt. Baker rider (yeah I’m subjective).
Brin Alexander lays a swanny off his infamous 50-ish-foot drop from last year, doesn’t land, then makes the wise choice to switch it up to the east side of the venue, where the snow is perhaps a little better, and lays down the best score of the day.
Last year’s champs, Spencer O’Brien and Stale Sandbech both get eliminated, showing just how tight the level of riding is. Elena also misses out.
Nils Mindnich lays a fresh track then stomps a butter to switch back 7. He then rides most of his run switch, cruising through to finals day.
Mark McMorris and Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, fresh off the Olympic pressure cooker, show out and qualify. So do Billy Pelchat (with a cab 5) and Šárka Pančochová (landing a flawless backside 720), proving that the RnD feeder event is working.
Billy Pelchat ponders then performs. Photos: Takaya Sage / Natural Selection Tour
In short, the level of riding has elevated. Garrett Warnick throws down a clean run but can’t get through to finals. Travis Rice tries some rowdy lines but bows out in the qualifiers. Jared Elston who looks like he’s casually freeriding the gnarliest shit he can find, but doesn't qualify until the last of three qualifying rounds.
It’s nearly 6pm by the time we get outta there and ride 4,000 vertical feet back to the base area. The forecast holds strong: a foot or two of snow over the next several days, potential clearing Saturday. For now, it looks like the full venu could be in play again, but we’ll see. When you’re working in the mountains, you’ve gotta be flexible. Right now, NST is fully flexed.
We all knew it was coming. Brin Alexander, the backie seen around the internet. Photo: Colin Wiseman / Natural Selection Tour