The final stop of Travis Rice’s Natural Selection Tour broadcasts today from the Tordillo Mountains in Alaska. Now, drop in to watch the world’s best snowboarders in the ‘as live’ event.
Get ready to ditch work. The 2022 Natural Selection Tour‘s third and final event — the YETI Natural Selection Alaska — starts today. Twelve of the world’s best backcountry snowboarders duke it out on the remote spines in the Tordrillo Mountain Range in the heated head-to-head competition.
Alaska is the proving ground for the 2022 Natural Selection Tour champions. It all comes down to this.
The highly anticipated contest will run “as live” (the actual event ran under embargo earlier this month) on Wednesday, April 13, 2022, at 11 a.m. PT, 2 p.m. ET, 7 p.m. CET.
Watch it here on the video player below.
Watch Natural Selection Tour in Alaska
“Conditions in Alaska are all-time this season, with some of the best snow we’ve seen in years,” said Liam Griffin, COO of the Natural Selection Tour.
“Blower pow, stable snowpack, killer terrain. Everything aligned to provide riders with an incredible venue for the final stop of the tour. After a long season with some epic battles, it will be incredible to watch what goes down now on this perfect setup.”
Eight men and four women qualified from their performances at the TAE Natural Selection at Baldface to stamp their ticket to Alaska.
Hana Beaman (USA), Elena Hight (USA), Marion Haerty (FRA), and Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (NZL) are the top women who will meet in the semifinals in the head-to-head format.
On the men’s side, Jared Elston (USA), Dustin Craven (CAN), Torstein Horgmo (NOR), Sage Kotsenburg (USA), Ben Ferguson (USA), Mikkel Bang (NOR), Mark McMorris (CAN), and Travis Rice (USA) will head to qualifiers. The field will then whittle down to the top four riders. They will meet in the semifinals; then, the best two will face off in the finals.
Riders will drop into a pristine and powdery zone called Montrachet in the first round. It tops out at 3,800 feet of elevation and boasts a roughly 1,300-foot vertical drop. The average pitch of the face is a spicy 35 degrees.
In the finals, the top two men and two women will duel in a venue called Spinal Tap. The zone features a series of spines and natural features.
Riders will lay it all on the line to earn the highest score. Whoever pulls down the best overall ranking throughout the three-stop tour will win the 2022 Natural Selection title. Hight is in a solid position to win the women’s crown; for the men, Bang, Craven, Kotsenburg, and more are all in on the hunt.
For previous NST results, check out the tour’s website.
