These are not the full results. Day one was just the quarterfinals for the women and the chance to advance to the quarterfinals for the men. It WAS a day full of upsets though on the course. Rider upsets, a few judging upsets… even the drones were upset at the fans and cut out for an hour before dropping in and out on the final few runs. Travis Rice did advance to finals though so, nothing TOO crazy on the upset front. Pretty funny that one of the most anticipated battles (Travis Rice vs. Red Gerard) had the most technical difficulties, including missed tricks shown later and a tie on the second run. The deliberation was long, we are just glad we aren’t judges because that one was close. We will give them all a pass since they brought this one live to us from a remote zone (and even with the delay was the best contest we have watched all year), but we will not give Todd Richards a pass along with the announcing crew doing a synced up cheers at the very end. The feed is slightly delayed all day and then they perfectly time opening beers with T. Bird in the field? That is the only conspiracy coming out of day one we want to dig into.

As far as riders doing the talking, Dustin who has been touted for months of having home-field advantage doubled down because he also helped build the course went huge on a line that he had his eye on for awhile, but Sage Kotsenburg went massive as well and landed his run to take him down. Blake Paul took a cruising second run leaving the door open for Mikey Ciccarelli to move on, and Mikey kicked the door off the hinges. Hailey Langland had probably the biggest upset of the day taking down the defending champ, Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, with two impressive runs besting both scores of Synnott. She even got a brand new snowmobile for her efforts. As far as close calls from the judges, Marion Hearty taking down Robin Van Gyn came as a shock to both rider as they sat at the bottom hearing the scores. Jamie Anderson also came from behind on her second run against Elena Hight and after even saying, “That was loose. I think you got it,” to Elena, the new mom moved on. To round out the women’s quarterfinal, Mary Rand came out of the Duels and took down the mainstay all star Hana Beaman, who has took the championship in Alaska back in 2022. Some riders most definitely had to change their plans as the broadcast crew alluded to slides (avalanches) in some areas making features and landings unrideable, but even in that last battle between Travis and Red, new tracks were still being set. An incredible showing for Revelstoke and BC just flaunting what they have going on up there.

Austen Sweetin and Ben Ferguson were close after the first run, but Austen let loose on his second knocking out another heavy favorite in Ferguson. A lot of people were hoping Ferg was going to finally reach the top of the podium, but maybe it will finally be time for Sweetin to step on the top step! Mikkel and Nils might have had the most exciting bracket match on the day. Opening up a new side of the course and absolutely showing off both of their backcountry talents for the crowd. It was a long one, but to be honest, probably the best contest of the year. We would have watched six MORE hours today if we could. LIVE SNOWBOARDING IS THE BEST. A few hiccups is nothing when you get to see that much talent all competing on a natural course with so many chances for different interpretations. Now we can only hope we can have a few live stops next year to enjoy a tour that, in the riding department, is the best thing going on in competitive snowboarding. Full results below:

The highest scores on the day and brand-new snowmobiles went to Sage Kotsenburg and Hailey Langland! Not a bad day for no finals! Finals day is also going down in Revelstoke, but we will have to wait in the weather window to see when it goes live! Stay tuned for more.