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I had an excellent week at the FWT competition in Sochi with my friends, Kaisa Härkönen and Jarkko Henttonen. The Krasnaya Polyana ski center is really great, and I definitely want go back there some day. The weather during the 10 days was really optimal to do the freeride event. Three days of snow and subsequent days of clear blue skies made excellent conditions for riders on the face.

The first day started early on Thursday morning waking at 6 a.m. for the breakfast. Then a quick check that you have all your riding equipments with you for the competition: helmet (this year full face is not obligatory), back protection, bacon, shovel, probe, back pack, some water and lunch and of course your Bib number. A minibus took the riders up to the ski lift and it was still dark when we left the hotel. The sun rose on the way up the ski lift, coloring the silent moment with a purple sky. The first day’s competition consisted of a face that had a steeper part of approximately 150 meters, and the rest of the run was natural hills, “half pipes” and freeride formations. The upper part was challenging and made some differences with the lines and runs between the riders. I had a good run on my first day, I ended up in 1st place in the women’s snowboard class, which even I really did not expect. I had the feeling of a “mellow run” but I guess it was my line choice that made the difference. I had a nice chute line in one steep part of the second starting point and okay fluidity during my run. The face surprised me, because watching the lines from below with binoculars, I did not expect the face to be that steep from the top. Finding your line through the rocks was a bit hard at the beginning, but once you had come down 10 to 15 meters from the top, the face was pretty OK to ride.

Eric Themel rocked in the guys’ snowboard class on the first day with an excellent run. A light après-ski with some crazy Russian friends, Vasily Kovalev and Pacha, made some riders crazy with Russian Vodka. When Pacha brought a big can of vodka to our table, I knew it is time to try to escape. I almost managed after a few shots, oh my goodness, Russians with vodka. Vasily is a good friend of mine from freeride events and he was in charge of announcing for Russian audiences in this contest. He has great experience for that kind of work, because he has worked for many years for MTV Russia in Moscow.

Second day in Sochi started with bad visibility

The second competition day was supposed to be on Friday, but the weather turned out to be too warm and the organization decided to hold the second runs on Saturday in colder temperatures. The second day was not as excellent as the first comp day. The morning started in flat light and the visibility really sucked in the morning. We had four possible starting points this time also, and the guides had to certify the riders’ hike on start points 3 and 4 with rope and harness. The ridge was pretty narrow and slippery to hike with ski boots. A big thanks to the guides and organization for paying such good attention to the safety of the riders. I really trust and appreciate the whole organization to make tight decisions about safety and rules in the competitions. They listen to the riders’ opinions and demands through the “riders’ board”, which consists of some pro riders riding the world tour.

The weather turned better before the runs started and I was ready to go. My second run was not very good. I had quite an easy line in a chute again but not any jumps on the way down. I did not want to risk my run with stupid butt checks, but I should have made different choices. I lost a lot of points with no jumps and my fluidity sucked. The chute was steeper and the snow was so light, that I had face shots all the time. I had to do many speed checks in order to see where I was supposed to ride. I was not happy at all with my second run, but I did not expect to get quite that low of points for it. It was very hard to compare one’s run to the others, because we could not see the runs since the goal was so low from the top. It would be excellent to be able to see your runs from the film after every contest, to be able to estimate your level compared to the others’ runs, and to learn how to ride better the next time and progress as a freerider. There is not usually any opportunities to see your runs afterward, because only the winners’ runs are shown. Also, the film guys have a really busy time with their work, so they really do not have time to edit individual runs for each riders. Verbier Xtreme is different, because of its big visibility and few riders. There you are usually able to get the tape of your run.

The winner of the women’s snowboard class was Aline Bock from Germany with a really fluid run with big jumps. She has been riding 12 years as a pro for Roxy and she is bringing some good tricks to the freeriding world from freestyle. Cyril Neri won the men’s snowboard class with two good, exact runs. Jess McMillan and Sverre Lilieqvist were the winners of the ski classes. I give my points to Sverre because he had had lots of pain in his leg just a few days before the comps, and he made his way up to the podium to first place. What a fighter!

I finished in 4th place in the final results when all the points of these two runs were calculated together. I felt really, really sad to have to pay the price of losing the lead and slipping to 4th place. All my friends were saying that it is a good position, but damn, it is not, after leading the competition on the first day! I became really angry at myself after riding like a girl at the second day!!!!! I hope to ride better in Squaw Valley on the 2nd stop of Freeride World Tour and at the 3rd stop in Les Tignes in France. My goal is to ride in the finals in Verbier and it will be a hard mission to accomplish, because only 3 best women will ride there. Kaisa Härkönen finished 5th in the final results of the competitions.

Professional freeriding is a hard job

Competing is very challenging, some days you are strong and you feel like you are in 7th heaven. Then the next day you ride like a girl with no fighting aggression and you fall back to earth with a thud, and you become really disappointed. This all furthers you as a rider and develops your mental skills in general, I believe. Next time you demand even more from your riding and ride more aggressively and fluidly. No matter what, the week in Russia was awesome and I did some of my best riding in a long time with some really good friends from far away. Steve Klassen is always my favorite rider from the USA and has been a good friend for many years. I can not wait to get some more powder turns with him in California soon. Jarkko was happy with the judging and said the 2nd day was easier to judge after getting some experience and that there were clearer differences between all the runs on the second day.

We finished the competition with a wild party in a Sochi nightclub. I saw some crazy riders dancing without shirts, actually I guess it is tradition to rip off the men riders’ shirts in the after party. That is what the guys did to each other at the party, but I guess, that is totally another story… Thank you Sochi and Russia for the great experience!

Learning new things by traveling to exotic places..

The weirdest thing about the whole trip was that you could not really use any credit cards, not even at the airport. The second weird thing were the toilets at the ski center. It was a bit hard to get used to Russian toilets compared to the toilets in western countries; the ladies’ toilets were just simple holes in the floor and in some toilets there was not even a door and you had four of these holes in the same toilet just in a line. It was a bit confusing to use them wearing a ski overall…But it is a good skill to learn something new in your life everyday and to have a good laugh at weird experiences when traveling.

Now I will go back to my veterinary studies in Tartu, Estonia and ride a bit too. Keep your thumbs up for this Finnish team in the USA in three weeks’ time. You will hear from us soon again!