Wintersports
Freeskiing
What is slopestyle skiing? Inside freestyle's most creative discipline
Slopestyle skiing is the creative heart of freestyle, judged on flow, difficulty and originality, blending technical skill with personal expression.
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Backwards jumps. Big airs. Scary lines. Spins, flips and high-speed launches: if you aren’t already a slopestyle freesking convert, allow us to get you up to speed. When it comes to strapping on a pair of skis and barreling downhill, there’s nothing more visually exciting.
With more tricks than big air and more potential for mind-blowing lines than freeride, slopestyle is arguably the most high-octane interpretation of freeskiing there is. Here’s what you need to know.
Freeski slopestyle offers so many chances for incredible riding
© Christian Pondella/Red Bull Content Pool
01
What is slopestyle skiing?
Slopestyle skiing is arguably the most progressive and expressive form of freestyle skiing, with riders like Eileen Gu and Jesper Tjäder helping push the sport to new heights. More than anything else you can do on skis, Slopestyle is where a rider's personality can shine through.
Slopestyle mixes elements like rails
© Jan Cadosch/Red Bull Content Pool
With huge jumps that maximise big air
© Lorenz Richard/Red Bull Content Pool
It's part of a long lineage of extreme sports, taking elements from BMX and skateboarding, which was itself first inspired by surfing. Think rails, jumps, boxes, grinds and more. Like BMX and skateboarding park contests, Slopestyle runs are judged on creativity, unique combinations of tricks and overall flair. Think Ulrik Samnøy’s graceful rails.
02
The origins of slopestyle skiing
Daredevils have been performing acrobatic moves on skis for as long as skiing has been around, with the first somersaults recorded way back in 1906. But freestyle skiing didn't really enter the collective consciousness until Norwegian Olympic gold medalist Stein Eriksen popularized aerial stunts in the 1950s.
The next decade saw a boon in creative skiing, especially in North America, where the first organized competition combining elements like slopestyle, big air and halfpipe was held at Waterville Valley, New Hampshire, in the 1970s. Flash forward to 1979 and the International Ski Federation officially recognized freestyle skiing, setting judging and competition standards for the first time,. Following that the first FIS World Cup series took place in the early 1980s.
Candide Thovex is a true innovator for freestyle skiing
© Red Bull Content Pool
Greg Stump's 1988 film Blizzard of Aahhh's helped establish freeskiing's punk-rock ethos and inspired a new generation of kids to push their skiing to the limits. It arrived at the perfect time. The 1990s was, of course, a massive decade for extreme sports, with competitions like the X Games making their debuts and changing the face of sport and youth culture. A decade later, in 2007, Candide Thovex's historic gold medal run at the Winter X Games helped push the focus to technicality and style, ushering a new era of freeskiing.
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Slopestyle courses explained: rails, jumps and features
Slopestyle courses are designed with maximum creativity and show in mind. We're talking a fast downhill run packed with rails, jumps boxes and more. Rather than following a single, fastest line, slopestyle riders are free to choose which obstacles they want to tackle and how, aiming for maximum ingenuity, height and general mind-blowing potential.
Huge rails, like Mathilde Gremaud is riding here, are a core element
© Adam Klingeteg/Red Bull Content Pool
Variety is key here. Most courses offer at least two unique lines, as well as a variety of obstacles encouraging a mix of tricks. It's no fun for the athletes or audience if everyone's busting out the same handful of tricks, after all.
There's more freedom outside of the major comps, but if there's a title or medal on the line, the course will often have snow walls to shelter athletes from the wind and a minimum of six different areas, divided between an upper section based on 'jibbing' – think rainbow rails, up-flat-down rails, transfer boxes – and a lower section favoring jumps with plentiful kickers or ‘booters’ to help athletes get air and score with flips, grabs and more.
Rails often dominate the top section of courses
© Lorenz Richard/Red Bull Content Pool
Big air jumps fill the lower sections of a course
© Lorenz Richard/Red Bull Content Pool
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How slopestyle skiing is scored
Slopestyle favors individuality, but like any professional sport there is a structure to how it’s judged. Slopestyle competition adjudicators are generally interested in:
- Execution: How well the athlete pulls off their run. Like other extreme sports, clean lines, smooth landings and a general sense of control are favoured. Wobbles and hand-dragging are no-nos.
- Variety: The obstacles are put there for a reason. If you're not doing flips, grabs, airs, grinds and more, you're leaving points behind.
- Difficulty: The harder a tricks, the more kudos it lands. Technicality is important, with spin-directions, number of inversions and the number of rotations all playing a part. There's a risk, though: get a big trick wrong, and you’ve wasted your shot. Get it right, and like Mathilde Gremaud's Switch Double Cork 1440, you could just make history.
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Mathilde Gremaud lands the world's first female Switch Double Cork 1440
Checkout the moment freeskier Mathilde Gremaud lands the world's first female Switch Double Cork 1440.
- Amplitude: Height and distance make a jump, along with your control on take-off, in the air and touching down on the other side.
- Flow and combination: A good run includes plenty of tricks, all seamlessly linked together like a beautiful dance routine on the snow.
- Progression: How far can you push the sport? New combos, or new interpretations of old tricks gain points here.
Overall, it's worth noting that each course is different and because competitors are riding against another athlete's highest 'anchor score', points will differ from day-to-day and especially between events. For example, a run that lands you 60 points in Whistler might be worth 70 in Åre, or vice versa.
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Trick categories in slopestyle
Let’s dig down into the nitty gritty of slopestyle freeski tricks. The main tricks to look out for at events are:
Flips: Flips are always performed along a vertical axis, like a Backflip. Throw in a horizontal rotation and you're looking at a Backflip with a full twist. It gets complicated with things like the Lincoln Loop, in which the skier essentially does a cartwheel, and the Double Cork where the skier does two distinct off-axis rotations
Flip tricks always go down well with the judges
© Christian Pondella/Red Bull Content Pool
Rails come in all kinds of configurations, offering huge trick potential
© Klaus Polzer/Red Bull Content Pool
Rail tricks: Sliding (grinding) or spinning on rails. Disasters see the skier jump over kinks in the rail mid-slide while Switch-ups see the rider incorporate a 180° turn to finish riding the rail facing the opposite way.
Spins: Tricks that involve rotation on the horizontal axis. These are named by degrees turned. A 1880 (or 18), for example, includes a massive five 360º rotations. A Future Spin involves six full rotations (2016 degrees) and has yet to be accomplished by either male or female competitors.
Grabs: Grabbing the skis in the air with one or both hands. Tail and Blunt grabs signify which part of the ski is being held, while tricks like the brilliantly named Illegal see the skier perform a tail grab outside of the ski.
Hybrids: Mixing different parts of different tricks.
Grabs add another dimension to flips and spin tricks
© Miles Holden/Red Bull Content Pool
Spins score big, especially when skiers get up to 900s and higher rotations
© Frederik Kalbermatten/Red Bull Content Pool
And that’s not all. All of the above can be performed 'normal' with the skier facing down-slope, 'Fakie' or ‘Switch' stance, involving taking-off or landing backwards, and 'AlleyOpp’ in which athletes spin uphill against the direction of the line. All of these adjustments add flair and points
06
Slopestyle vs big air vs freeride
If you're new to skiing, differentiating between the main categories can be difficult. As explained, slopestyle involves shooting downhill, hitting obstacles and performing tricks.
Big Air, meanwhile, is exactly how it sounds with a single large jump per run. The aim is to perform a single massive trick that's scored on difficulty, style and aptitude, taking into complexity of the trick.
Freeride is all off-piste, with riders demonstrating incredible technical skill and an ability to interpret natural terrain. This isn't about bagging tricks on a man-made course, but pitting yourself against mountains and other natural terrain.
07
Essential gear for slopestyle skiing
If you’re looking to get into slopestyle, you'll need some gear. Like all sports, how far you want to go down this rabbit hole is up to you. You could invest in literally dozens of pieces of kit, all with minute differences, but vital is a pair of skis. Twin-tip skis are best for helping you ski backwards, thanks to the upturned tails. Ski boots and bindings are a close second and third.
Twin tip skis are essential for dual-direction skiing and tricking
© Chris Singer/Red Bull Content Pool
Don't hit any course without a helmet, proper ski boots and decent kit
© Chris Singer/Red Bull Content Pool
Although slopestyle takes place on lovely groomed parks, snow can still pack a wallop if you're traveling at speed or wiping out from a height. So get a helmet. A good one. Protective padding is optional, but will also protect you, while googles and gloves will protect you from both snow glare and the cold. After that, you’ll probably want all the usual cold weather gear, from waterproof jackets and trousers to breathable base layers, neck gaiters and ski socks.
Interestingly, ski poles aren't essential – or mandatory – for slopestyle, but they definitely help with balance. Sunscreen, however, should be a non-negotiable.
08
Key athletes and the evolution of slopestyle
Milano-Cortina will see slopestyle skiing hit the biggest stage of all for the fourth time. If you can't wait until then, there are plenty of legendary trailblazers to check out, including Henrik Harlaut's Nose Butter Triple Cork 1620 of 2013 – Harlaut’s first ever X Games victory which, while a big air accomplishment, sent ripples across freesking.
Another notable name is Eileen Gu, the first freeskier to win medals across three disciplines in a single Winter Olympic Games. Meanwhile, Megan Oldham’s 2023 Triple Cork at X Games catapulted her into the history books as the first woman to land one in competition.
Eileen Gu has been breaking records since she turned pro
© Syo van Vliet/Red Bull Content Pool
Markus Eder has taken slopestyle to brand new places
© Harald Wisthaler/Red Bull Content Pool
Swedish legend Jesper Tjäder is slopestyle's undisputed Rail King
© Liam Glass/Red Bull Content Pool
With three World Cup titles in a year, Mathilde Gremaud is a contest animal
© Lorenz Richard/Red Bull Content Pool
In terms of insane stunts, in 2022, Markus Eder completed 'The most ski run ever imagined' in his The Ultimate Run film project. The same year Jesper Tjäder wrote his name in the history books by sliding a 154.49m rail on his 127nd attempt. That’s dedication!
As well as landing historic firsts, the absolute legend that is Mathilde Gremaud became the first woman to win three FIS crystal globes in one season, in 2024, helping push the sport forward for women everywhere, including the phenomenal Kirsty Muir – who's making her case for being the next great slopestlye star. And, at just 24, Mac Forehand continues to amaze, having become a world champion in slopestyle at the age of 17.
All-in-all, slopestyle skiers continue to innovate, pushing the limits of the sport and what human beings can achieve on a pair of skis.
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