Salomon Pro rider Cody Townsend from Squaw Valley claimed a great victory in Mammoth Mountain Freeride World Tour Qualifying Event just a few days before the first stage of the five main events of the FWT: the Mammoth Challenge 2008, from the 22nd to the 26th January!  In the women’s competition, American talent and Salomon rider Elyse Saugstad also jumped on the podium and took a great 2^nd behind Stina Jakobsson.

 

“As most of you know, the newest Freeride World Tour (www.freerideworldtour.com) is lighting a match under the ass of the world's big mountain competition scene.  With full EuroSport coverage, huge sponsors and nearly a half-million bucks in prizes this new world tour is the true world tour.  The best skiers from all over the world are coming out to try there hand at this new tour.  Because of my results from last year, I have a guaranteed position in the two most premier events of the season (the Big Mountain Pro and Verbier Xtreme) but did not have a guaranteed position in the three other FWT events (Mammoth, Russia and Tignes).  So this past week I decided I might compete in the Mammoth Quest event (qualifier event for the FWT).  The Quest event consisted of more than 160 men from all corners of the globe competing for only three spots into the FWT Mammoth event this next week.  There was three consecutive days of competition with cuts in the field after every run.  Needless to say the competition was unbelievably fierce.  But after many runs against some of the best skiers from around the world, I managed to come away with the coveted number one position.  It was a taxing and tiring event but I skied well and the judges rewarded me well, allowing me to win the comp by more than four points.  It was a great way to start the season and should help catapult me into the rest of the FWT and the filming season.” Cody