After three weather days of fun pow shredding, and way too many hours spent staring at pictures of the venue, the 2nd stop of the Swatch Freeride World Tour by The North Face went down in Courmayeur, Italy, on the Tete d’Arp. Sunshine, boot top pow, playful features, and some of the world’s best freeriders made for quite a fun day of riding.

This was the first European stop on the tour, and the first time to the Alps for some of the North American competitors. Sammy Luebke really enjoyed his first time competing in Italy, and just missed the podium by less than half a point. “The European venues are way bigger than what we rode in the Masters. his one was super playful, but really rocky,” said Luebke as he caught his breath at the bottom of the venue.

The Tete d’Arp competition venue is approximately 2,000 vertical feet. It consists of a steep upper section with a few main entrances, and a mellow pitched lower section with lots of sendable rock booters. Jon Rodosky was able to tie a solid run together down the whole face, including a couple 360s, a nicely poked method, and a laid out backflip. He was extremely stoked to land is second place, “I was having a great time, and was just throwing whatever felt natural – threes, a method, and the backflip was the best!”

Frenchmen Aurelien Routens took the win with a fluid run down the main couloir. Many of the 34 skiers went down the same line, however, Aurelien chose a creative variation and found some fresh landings, which he stomped. “There wasn’t much powder after all the skiers went, but I found some take offs and landings that were still fresh.” This win puts Routens into the lead for the overall FWT point standings.

The tour heads to Chamonix on the other side of Mt Blanc, for stop three, where a Saturday competition is looking likely.

Miss stop one at Revelstoke? Check out the recap and gallery from the Freeride World Tour stop 1 at Revelstoke.