Apart from the eternal glory of being able to call yourself a winner and going down in the hallowed halls of banked slalom champions, there were a myriad of prizes to be won- including 2 tickets to the Legendary Mt Baker Banked Slalom. The course this year was able to be built solely by people power thanks to the incredible snow conditions, they shaped the whole course purely with shovels and boards rather than have to rely on the heavy machinery.

The format is simple- point your board down the course and go to town. This is part of the reason these events draw such a crowd, the fact that they’re accessible to pretty much everyone. There’s no need to be able to huck backies and spin till you’re dizzy- as long as you can turn on your board you’re hot to trot.

The ‘Pro Men’ category draws some big names and president of ‘The We Hate FIS Club’ Terje Haakonsen stormed out of the starting gate to demolish the course for the 3rd time, beating his nearest competitor by more than 2 full seconds. Alessandro Hämmerle and Wolle Nyvelt tied for second place and swooping up the bronze was Zillertal legend Werni Stock.

Freerider Aline Bock took the Gold in the Pro Women category and absolutely made the course her bitch, followed by Mary Luggen the Austrian street destroyer and rounding out the podium was Deeluxe team rider Lea Baumschlager.

We’d be pumped to see more banked slaloms start taking off and see a wider audience of people embracing the kind of good, honest fun that only a beer soaked downhill race can bring. What better way to finish out a season of riding than hurling your body down a slushy slalom course on a bluebird spring day? Think you could topple Terje from his podium spot? Then keep an eye on their website for details on how to register for 2020…