A relative newcomer to freeride skiing scored big at a recent competition and is hoping to keep his winning streak alive going forward.
Sixteen-year-old Noah Rother from North Vancouver placed first in his age bracket at the North Face Junior Big Mountain Challenge in Lake Louise, Alta., held March 3-6.
“It was so unexpected because this is my first year doing freeride,” said Rother, who is in Grade 11 at Sentinel secondary. “It kind of came out of nowhere.”
Rother battled it out in the 15- to 18-year-old male skier category at the Big Mountain Challenge on behalf of the Whistler Freeride Club.
During the qualifier run on the first day Rother narrowly placed first with a score of 33.23.
The next highest score for that round was achieved by freerider Fritz Arnold of the Bridger Bowl Freeride Team, who received 33.03.
During the finals, however, Rother dominated.
“I won by quite a bit,” he admitted.
He said that both races were challenging, but he found himself most nervous when going into the finals.
“I qualified first and then it felt like there was a lot of pressure to make sure I don’t fall on my second run,” Rother said.
Rother didn’t take a fall during his final run. Instead, he flew right over it.
During a section of the run, a spot where a rock face was protruding outwards, he braced himself and then jumped clear over the obstruction, sticking a perfect landing in the mix.
“My first jump on the second day I went a lot bigger than my first jump on the first day,” he said, noting how during the qualifying round the previous day he had landed on the rock face itself before quickly bounding off of it.
During the finals, Rother achieved a score of 35.03, putting him almost 2½ points above the nearest competitor.
With scores from both days tallied up, Rother ended up with an impressive total score of 68.27 and a first place result.
While some freeriders attempted acrobatic moves doing their runs in order to score points, Rother said his strategy was to make sure his ski runs were controlled and fluid.
“I think I skied my run pretty fast and it was a constant speed,” he said.
“You can do moves, but I didn’t do any. I just went straight off of it. I just tried to go as big as I can and have clean and smooth landings.”
Rother just joined the Whistler Freeride Club this year, but he’s no stranger to competitive skiing.
He started racing with the Grouse Mountain Tyee Ski Club at age nine and competed with them up through U16s.
“I think it just really helped with things like skiing skills, but also just getting used to a competition environment, stuff like that. Being able to kind of get into the right mindset for the competitions and deal with the pressure,” Rother said.
Now that he’s not ski racing, however, he said he prefers the freedom and creativity afforded to him by freeriding.
He is set to compete in Whistler’s Junior Freeski Challenges (March 18-19), an International Free Skiers Association event similar to the one he participated in at Lake Louise two weeks ago.
“Hopefully I can get podium again,” Rother said.
This will be his third nationally ranked freeride skiing competition this year.
He’s hoping a good result in Whistler can increase his overall ranking in North America for top freeriders.
But he’s not thinking too far into the future with competitive skiing, either. For now, he mainly just wants to do it because it’s fun.
When asked about his mindset right before starting a competitive ski run, he said it can be challenging and tense, but he has found the key that works for him is to visualize the path ahead.
“I just try to think of it like it’s just any other run skiing down the mountain,” he said.
