On Kanin mountain today Austrian snowboarder Roland Hofer became the winner of  the fifth edition of Freeride Battle, a Freeride World Qualifier event. The Women’s competition had to be cancelled due to poor visibility.

Male snowboarders and skiers finished their run in Freeride Battle Kanin 2010 today before a cloud covered the mountain and the contest had to be stopped.

All 17 male snowboarders made it to the bottom while only 35 out of 45 male skiers were lucky enough to drop in before the competition was interrupted. According to the regulation the results of men’s ski category can be made official since over two thirds of the field had their runs.

All female riders were still at the start when the competition was stopped, 8 skiers and 6 snowboarders. Conditions did not improve and later the women’s competition was cancelled since the weather forecast for Sunday, the reserve day, was bad.

The title of snowboard champion of Freeride Battle 2010 went to Roland Hofer of Austria. It is the 2nd FWQ win for the 28-year old park shaper and snowboarding instructor from Saalbach-Hinterglemm. He won the 2009 edition of Mystic Experience in Aosta, Italy. “It is my first time here, I like the mountains and there is lots of snow. It is my third freeride season. One of the reasons I compete is because in freeriding your are never as safe as you are in competition.”

The 2008 and 2009 Freeride Battle winner Niklas Hollsten of Finland placed second and another Austrian Christian Schnabel from Arlberg placed third.

Freeride Battle organizer Jan Ma?ek wraps it up: “I am sorry we had to end the event without a completed men’s ski run and no women’s competition at all. We’ve been doing our best to ensure at least one run to everybody as long as it was safe. In the end safety reasons prevailed, we had no choice. Being a part of Freeride World Qualifier series not only brings us top riders who even in hard conditions showed some super-exciting descents, it also requires more responsibility from us. Apart from great riding we were also excited to see new faces and make new friends. All this keeps us motivated for further events.”

Results Snowboard men
1 16 HOFER Roland AUT 22
2 30 HOLLSTEN Niklas FIN 18,7
3 10 SCHNABEL Christian AUT 18,2
4 36 NISSINEN Juuso FIN 17,1
5 22 VAN HELFTEREN Irian NED 16,3
6 26 STOLL Berny GER 15,9
7 28 GUICHON Carl FRA 12,9
8 34 LOBODA Miha SLO 12
9 24 MA?EK Matevž SLO 11,9
10 32 SCHARL Johannes GER 10,6
11 2 KOFLER Wolfgang AUT 9,9
12 18 HÖLLWERTH Markus AUT 9
13 12 RUGELJ Jan SLO 7,4
14 14 ZALOKAR Tine SLO 6,3
15 4 KALCHER Thomas AUT 5,9
16 8 NAPEROTTI Peter SWE 5,7
17 20 ROGIC Marin CRO 5,4