Chris takes up The North Face Ski Challenge *updated*
Posted March 24th, 2010 by freestyle
Norfolk Freestyler Chris Benner has been selected to represent the UK as a wildcard entry in 
The North Face Ski Challenge Grand Final at Val Thorens in the Three Valleys in France. He will be travelling out this Thursday morning (25th March) and will be accompanied by fellow Freestyler Tom Coe who will, hopefully bring back some great video and photos of the event.
The Challenge consist of avalanche and mountain safety awareness, freeride and freestyle elements over four days, with the lads returning the following Tuesday.
Fingers crossed for a successful trip. Update on results as soon as they are available
Day 1
Interview
Mountain safety
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On Saturday night, a snow storm hit the slopes of Val Thorens and riders from all over Europe were given the rare opportunity to ski in great conditions for the freeride day and then the show went on, from Kids to Emperors, more daring and amazing at every run.
Some riders surprised the crowd and the judges with daring lines and jumps that many would qualify as quite exposed.
The Emperors class left little doubt as to who might win with an all mighty Raphael Vouillamoz leading with 11 points over second Markus Brandauer, a gap almost impossible to fill without a nasty fall.
After another overnight snow storm Val Thorens woke up under a thick layer of snow on Sunday. Riders met in their Lounge for a briefing at 8°° only to hear that they would have to wait until the Service des Pistes had finished the avalanche control and the park would be groomed from the fresh snow.
Quickly after the end of the briefing, the skies started to clear up and riders headed up to the Val Thorens snow park. The conditions, although acceptable were quite difficult mostly since riders didn’t always have the necessary speed to clear some of the landings.
After a jam session and training, participants were able to start the first run early in the afternoon. And although it seemed hard or even impossible for situations to be reversed after the freeride, the day was full of surprises and the end results totally changed.
Emperors were the curiosity of the year and also present for the first time in the history of The North Face Ski Challenge. If Raphaël Vouillamoz seemed to have a solid grip on the category, he scored a disappointing 9 after a fall and slipped off the podium. Markus Brandauer (Austria) won after a solid freestyle run in the Val Thorens park course, matching exactly his score from the freeride. Second was Chamonix 2009 winner Timothée Picq (FRA) and third was ex judge for the 2009 edition and multi participant Rembert Notten (BEL)
Chris performed well in his first international competition, and first ever competitive freeride event. From a start list of twelve entrants (two of whom did not start) he achieved a creditable fifth position in the freestyle, equal sixth in the freeride and seventh overall in the competition.
Full results attached. Hopefully more photos to follow, especially when Chris and Tom return to the UK on Tuesday.