Skiing
The first Red Bull Cascade contest brought the world’s best male and female freestyle skiers to the ultimate course in Colorado, USA. See who were crowned the champions.
Summary
Red Bull Cascade, the new freeski competition from the mind of Bobby Brown, wrapped on April 22 after two days of epic skiing by world-renowned athletes.
The bracket-style contest saw 14 men and women freeskiers put down their best top-to-bottom run on a course designed to challenge every discipline of skier. “These past few days of the contest have seen some of the most creative skiing of the season,” Brown said. In the end, Alex Hall and Grace Henderson were crowned the champions.
“After years of planning this event, it’s amazing to see it finally come to life,” said Brown. “Alex and Grace truly put down runs that complemented their styles and took advantage of the course design.”
Skiers dropped into a two-mile course by Brown and legendary course builder Charles Beckinsale. The course was located on Winter Park Resort’s Vasquez Ridge, incorporating natural elements alongside man-made jumps, hips and rails. Each run was judged on a points-based system on creativity, speed, choice of line, difficulty and energy - with a total of 50 points possible per run.
The first round of the contest saw matchups with all the men, with six moving on to the finals the following day. Jaw-dropping performances by Alex Hall, Birk Irving, Blake Wilson, Hunter Hess, Konnor Ralph and Mac Forehand clinched spots in the next round.
In the men’s semi-finals, close matchups ensued. Smooth and creative runs by Hall, Hess and Forehand advanced them to the finals. The two women riders, Grace Henderson and Caroline Claire, automatically completed a three-run finals heat. Below are the final results and judges’ scores.
01
Final contest results
Men
1. Alex Hall
- Run 1: 48 points
- Run 2: 48 points
2. Mac Forehand
- Run 1: 47 points
- Run 2: 35 points
3. Hunter Hess
- Run 1: 46 points
- Run 2: 46.5 points
“Red Bull Cascade was a great end-of-season contest to bring out the creativity in all of us,” said Hall. “The course perfectly blended elements that we see in backcountry, like riding through the trees, to monster jumps and gaps in slopestyle. It really had something for all of us to own and create a flow with.”
Women
1. Grace Henderson
- Run 1: 44.5 points
- Run 2: 45.5 points
- Run 3: 48.5 points
2. Caroline Claire
- Run 1: 42 points
- Run 2: 43 points
- Run 3: 43.5 points
“It was such a good time riding altogether in such great conditions. The energy was unmatched, being able to jam with all these amazing skiers,” said Henderson. ”Seeing everyone put down some technical and flowy runs really helped me level up my skiing too. I definitely look forward to coming back next year.”