I’m not usually a one-word text guy, but when this name flashed across my phone screen last week, I knew something big was coming.

A quick follow-up confirmed it: Candide Thovex—flying Frenchman, breaker of the ski internet—would be helping usher in a new era of freeski competition as part of the first-ever Natural Selection ski event. The skier’s skier was back.

This event, , is modeled after the highly successful snowboard-focused Natural Selection Tour (NST), created and curated by legendary snowboarder Travis Rice. Debuting in Alaska in 2025, Natural Selection Ski will be part of a broader series, including skiing, biking, and surfing competitions. The snowboard iteration of the event has captivated audiences worldwide, showcasing head-to-head runs down big mountain courses that mix natural and man-made features. With the polish of high production values and streaming accessibility, the snowboard NST has become a new benchmark, putting snowboarding events in the same conversation as other popular streaming spectacles like the World Surf League (WSL).

Now it’s skiing’s turn. Rice has tapped top-tier freeskiers like Thovex, Sammy Carlson, Kristi Leskinen, Chris Benchetler, and Michelle Parker to ensure the event stays true to its freeski roots. These athletes form a unique advisory board that will keep NST authentic to freeskiing, and rumors suggest some of them, including Thovex, may be its first competitors.

But this is much bigger than just Candide. The Natural Selection Ski represents a turning point for the sport during a time of transition and uncertainty. For years, freeskiing has searched for ways to showcase its most talented athletes, but that’s no easy task for a sport built on defying convention. Attempts to define freeskiing inevitably fall short, as the very spirit of the sport lies in its creativity and disregard for boundaries. This has driven freeskiing to evolve beyond traditional freestyle, but it has also made it challenging to package the sport for a wider audience.

Historically, freeskiing has been showcased through film—a seasonal highlight reel of the best runs, stunts, and moments—but these lack the immediacy and excitement of a live sports event. The X Games took a shot at bringing some of these athletes to the screen, but it’s never fully embraced the raw, high-alpine terrain that freeskiing often requires. And while Red Bull Cold Rush—a beloved event held between 2009 and 2016 that featured four big mountain disciplines over a week—was a fan favorite, it hasn’t been revived. Today, the Freeride World Tour (FWT) is the main competitive series, gathering a global roster of athletes for big mountain challenges. However, with its recent partnership with the Fédération Internationale de Ski (FIS), FWT now faces concerns from fans and athletes alike about increased governance from FIS, which is seen as rigid and rule-bound—a tricky match for a sport that thrives on freedom and creativity.

Enter Natural Selection Ski—a fresh and much-needed alternative. Snowboarding faced a similar identity crisis until Rice launched NST in 2021. He had hosted one-off events that became snowboarder favorites since 2008, but with NST, Rice introduced the world to a refined, live-streamed version that embraced the cinematic nature of big mountain snowboarding. His formula was simple yet game-changing: gather the best athletes, pick visually stunning locations, build impressive courses, and bring in pro riders as commentators. Broadcast online, the event was a huge hit, delivering a visceral viewing experience that traditional formats rarely achieve.

While the FWT has aimed for similar goals in recent years, NST’s production quality has resonated differently with audiences. NST’s broadcasts capture the sheer scale and excitement of the slopes, with dynamic camera angles and a production team that amplifies the adrenaline. The question now is, can NST replicate this formula with skiing, biking, and surfing? The freeskiing community should be hopeful—it’s a chance to see the sport in living, trick-stomping, and cliff-dropping color.

The signatures of freeski icons like Thovex and Carlson signal a promising start. These athletes had largely stepped back from competition as freeskiing shifted deeper into backcountry and high-alpine pursuits. Their endorsement is a vote of confidence in NST’s vision and direction, and with its debut in April 2025, NST could mark a new beginning for freeskiing on a global stage.

While NST has only one ski event planned for 2025, it has expressed interest in expanding the series as it gains traction. As skiing evolves in response to changing interests, technologies, and landscapes, NST is poised to bring back the raw energy and excitement that first drew many to the sport. With the potential to reach new audiences across screens big and small, NST offers a way to redefine how we experience freeskiing, taking cues from the success of WSL in surfing and NST itself in snowboarding.

So, here’s to what’s next. With a proven formula for success and an eye toward reaching more viewers, NST could be the game-changer that finally brings freeskiing to mainstream audiences. They’ve got Candide on board, and that’s a text worth responding to.

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For the first time since its inception in 2001, Red Bull Rampage, the most prestigious freeride mountain biking competition, will include women. Eight of the world’s top women freeriders will compete on Thursday, October 10, on a dirt outcrop in Virgin, Utah, just outside Zion National Park. The riders, who hail from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Argentina, and New Zealand, have been on site since September 30, building their lines for the big day.

“It means so much to be in the first women’s Rampage,” Casey Brown, a top Canadian rider competing in the event, told şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř. “Hearing the news that women’s Rampage was going to be this year, I was over the moon. I was so stoked to start training.”

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In 2018, şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř wrote about Brown’s longstanding dream to get the coveted invite to Rampage. For years, she tried to compete among the men, and even got close in 2019, when she became the first woman invited to the then-qualifying event for Rampage, Proving Grounds. But she didn’t make the cut after crashing on the course in high winds and sustaining an injury.

Rampage features athletes descending death-defying lines, hitting massive drops, jumps, and gaps, and generally assuming a lot of risk. It’s a big, multi-week undertaking for Red Bull. The athletes each construct their own line, practice on it for several days, and finally, have one day of competition.

Organizers have cited this unwieldy event format in the past as a key reason not to include women—there simply wasn’t enough time to get all the competitors down safely, in a good weather window. Over the last two decades, there has also been plenty of chatter from professionals and spectators alike about women’s ability, and a debate as to whether female riders are skilled enough to step up to that terrain.

Brown was not the only person who wanted to prove the naysayers wrong, and see women participate in Rampage. In 2019, a group of women spearheaded by legendary mountain biker Rebecca Rusch and professional athlete Katie Holden decided to take matters into their own hands. If they couldn’t join the men, they’d ride the same terrain with a format specifically designed to help women progress to Rampage-level riding. That year, they held the inaugural Formation, with the support of Red Bull. It was not a competition, but instead a collaborative riding session that brought women to Virgin for a week to develop their big-mountain free-ride skills. All eight of the women competing in Rampage this year have attended Formation in the past.

By 2022, Formation had doubled in size to 12 athletes. Organizers and participants hoped its success would prompt the Rampage organizers to finally create a women’s category. Then, in 2023, Red Bull canceled Formation—which many people in the industry took to be a sign that women might get the invite to Rampage. When Red Bull proceeded to hold that year’s event—the 17th edition of Rampage—just for men, the outrage grew to a fever pitch. The move received ample criticism and a flurry of social media posts under the hashtag #letthemride.

Finally, on June 3, 2024, Red Bull announced that women would be included in this year’s Rampage, and that they would receive equal prize money.

The women’s course is adjacent to the men’s and starts at a slightly lower elevation. Unlike the men’s course, which served as the venue in 2018 and 2019, the women’s course has never been ridden. “It’s a blank canvas,” Holden says. “They stand at the start gate and they see the finish corral, and they have to build something from top to bottom.”

Beyond the venue, the competition format is the same for men and women. Athletes get six days to scout and create their competition line, with a three-person team of trail builders who help them sculpt the red-rock landscape into a rideable line that showcases their skill. During the competition, riders get two descents, and a panel of judges scores them on a set of criteria: amplitude (or air time), fluidity and control, tricks and style, and line choice. A winning run typically features a technical, creative line with big features ridden fluidly, at speed, and with tricks like supermans, 360s, and backflips.

“The format is super unique because you get to build your own line, test your own line, and complete a full run,” Brown said. “But it’s also like any other event in that you have to exercise so many different skills during the ten days.”

The athlete roster wasn’t the only glass ceiling to break at Rampage–the judging panel has never included a woman before. But this year, professional athletes Claire Buchar and Blake Hansen join the panel to judge both the men’s and women’s events, according to Holden, who is onsite and assisting Red Bull with communications.

Brown is one of the favorites to take the inaugural top prize, but she has stiff competition, like New Zealander Vinny Armstrong, who has won multiple Crankworx whip-offs and rides huge jumps with style; Camila Nogueira, an Argentinian living in Aspen, Colorado known for her appetite for bold, exposed descents; and Canadian Vaea Verbeeck, who brings ten years experience of World Cup downhill racing and several Crankworx overall titles.

The inaugural women’s event will not be broadcast live, but fans can follow the action at . A time-delayed viewing of the event will be shown at 9 P.M. EST Thursday night on ESPN+, RedBull TV, and Red Bull’s YouTube channel.

Brown, for her part, is most excited about the long-term impact of women’s inclusion. “Having an event like this is integral to getting more women on bikes, especially the younger girls who are coming up in the sport,” she said. “Now they have a top-end event to shoot for, and the trickle-down effect will go all the way through novice and amateur riders.”

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My favorite segment in the 2023 film chronicles the improbable comeback story of German cyclist Tarek Rasouli. One of the pioneers of freeride in the mid-nineties, Rasouli suffered a terrifying crash in British Columbia in 2002 that left him paralyzed from the waist down and reliant on a wheelchair.

The injury did little to dull Rasouli’s ambition in the sport. In the decades that followed, he became one of the most influential figures in the mountain bike industry. Rasouli continued to make a name for himself, first as a magazine columnist and competition judge, and then as an event promoter and athlete manager. He also bought a handcycle and began road riding. These days, Rasouli operates the Red Bull District Ride, one of the biggest competitions in Slopestyle riding, and pedals his hand bike most days from his home in Munich. He was inducted into Mountain Biking’s Hall of Fame in 2022.

But 22 years after the crash, Rasouli’s comeback story continues. Just last week, he went mountain biking for one of the first times since his accident—he did it at California’s Sea Otter Classic cycling festival aboard an adaptive electric handcycle called the . I reached out to Rasouli to hear about his his return to mountain biking, and was unsurprised when he told me that he had more than a few butterflies in his stomach before the ride.

“I was so nervous at the beginning, but also excited because I really didn’t know what to expect,” Rassouli told me. “There were so many times when the emotions really came up, but each time it was a real thrill.”

Rasouli signed up for the 50-mile gravel race at the Sea Otter Classic. The night before the race, he took the Bowhead on its maiden voyage, riding the dusty mountain-bike trails near the Laguna Seca auto racetrack alongside other icons of freeride mountain biking, like Richey Schley, Hans Rey, and Wade Simmons. He zipped up singletrack and bombed down the rutted, rocky trails—generally having a blast. During the ride, Rasouli says a lightbulb turned on in his brain. He pictured his life taking a new path by way of this new e-bike.

“This will mark a new chapter in life for me” Rasouli said. “Because it’s freedom, pure freedom. I’m free to ride with other people that also want to have fun on a bike and there are no big compromises anymore. They don’t have to wait for me.”

That ride marked one of many milestones for Rasouli on a bicycle. He told me that shortly after his injury he struggled to even look at a bicycle, let alone dream of riding one. As his recovery progressed, and he began working in the mountain biking industry again, he shrugged off riding a handcycle.

“I wasn’t too open to it because I was like ‘What is this thing? It’s not even a bike—it has three wheels,’” he told me. “I was like, I used to ride the most extreme terrain and jump off cliffs, and now I will ride on this thing?”

But he eventually did pedal one, and then he bought one, and then handcycling became an integral part of his life. These days he regularly completes four-hour adventures on his handcycle, pedaling it along the bike paths south of Munich.

Switching to an electric-assist bike is just another step in his journey. Over the past decade, electric-assist technology has steadily crept into the bike industry, and it has birthed dozens of innovative models that have helped people get rolling. You may have ridden one and marveled at how the boost of extra power impacts your daily commute, or your recreational trail ride. These days I pedal my kid to and from preschool aboard an e-cargo bike, and each year I see more kids and adults zipping by on them.

Pedal-assist is game-changing technology for getting adaptive athletes onto mountain bike trails, Rasouli told me. Adaptive off-road bikes have existed for years—there are recumbent and kneeling handcycles, bucket bikes and other designs that are built for the specific needs of an adaptive rider. But the steep gradients in mountain biking mean riders must pedal extremely large gears, which means they are often much slower than riders on traditional mountain bikes. Electric motors allow an adaptive rider to keep up, Rasouli said.

But it’s not easy. After each ride, Rasouli says his core muscles and chest are sore from riding the undulating terrain.

“I’m sitting upright and get to use my core a lot more on the mountain bike,” he said. “On a traditional handbike you only use your chest and shoulders and lats. Now, there’s a lot more work that goes on during a ride.”

Rasouli started the gravel race toward the back of the field and paced himself for the first of three 18-mile laps. He zipped along the dirt route and marveled at the bike’s traction on the loose corners. But the bike couldn’t handle all of the terrain—Rasouli said he had to be pushed up the steepest climb on the course. “Most people had to push their bikes up—I had a friend and she helped me,” he said. Another hitch happened when Rasouli forgot to change batteries after the midway point and had to wait on course for a new one to be delivered. After installing fresh power, he was back on his way.

After adjusting to the bike’s handling, Rasouli felt brave enough to attack one of the downhills. The thrill of descending on a mountain bike returned as he sped over ruts and rocks.

“At one point I rode downhill and my maximum was 46 miles per hour, I was just tucking and going down as fast as I could,” he said. “It felt so good.”

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