NZskier.com

1st February 2010

 New Zealands Big Mountain skier, Janina Kuzma, powered her way down the mountain to a third place result at the first stop of the Freeride World Tour.

This is my first time to podium on a world tour stop, said Kuzma.
 
I'm very excited right now and placing third leaves me in a really good position for the next two stops on the tour.
 
Against the beautiful backdrop of the Mont-Blanc, the Freeride World Tour 2010 kicked off in perfect weather conditions on the 500 metre Pentes de lHtel face at the Brvent ski area in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc.
 
The 50 best freeriders on the planet put on an amazing performance, showing the 3000 cheering spectators the top of their game.
 
After a few days of snowfall the blue skies presented a dream like arena for the athletes and spectators of the Nissan Freeride de Chamonix-Mont-Blanc. However, the snow conditions were tricky for the competitors. A lot of the fresh powder was taken down by the first riders, exposing rock, hard snow, and at times ice.
 
With several of the top female skiers injured, American Jess Mc Millan (third on the Freeride World Tour Ranking 2009) came out on top, with the most original line of the day Mc Millan took a massive cliff drop and skied a fast line with solid jumps.  Second place went to Eva Walkner from Austria.

Candide Thovex (Fra) took out the mens competition in his first ever FWT event with Kaj Zackrisson (Swe) and Tim Dutton (usa) completing the podium.

Janina on the podium in Chamonix