I’ve never been to Corvatsch before, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I when arriving to the FIS World Cup, Silvaplana. The course was one of the best ever built and subsequently the attended riders were putting down the runs of their lives. Find out what happened with this event recap.
Article by Tom Kingsnorth

Corvatsch is the ideal location to hold snowboarding events. The 3033 high altitude provides optimal snow conditions, even in the 20° heatwave that we’ve been witnessing across the Alps in recent weeks. The picturesque resort of Corvatsch is investing heavily in freestyle snowboarding, not only for this FIS contest but also for the preseason Progression Days Snowboard Camps they hold each year, which many of the world’s best attend to dial in their tricks for the season.

The slopestyle course was one of the best setups I’ve ever seen. All the riders were able to hit the features without any speed issues, something that has been a problem for some contests this season. Marcus Kleveland remarked that the level of riding was so high because the course was so good. We were gifted with hot and sunny conditions throughout the week, the riders were enjoying the course and consequently they were able to up their game for the last big contest of the winter.

Up first were the women and it was business as usual for Beijing 2022 big air gold medallist Anna Gasser. The course set-up suited her riding perfectly and in her second run, she threw down a fs board on the down rail, leading to a backside air on the quarter, a crippler on the shark fin feature, which took her to the three large kickers, where she put down her signature double 9 underflip, cab 9 nose to a back double 10 melon and finishing her run with a 50-50 gap backside noseslide, to be rewarded by the judges with a gold-winning score of 95.40 points.

Second place went to Canada’s Laurie Blouin and third place went to the top qualifier Kokomo Murase.

The men were up next. After an awkward first run where many of the riders couldn’t find the landing gear to complete a run, the level of riding ramped up for run two and we played witness to an insane contest. Marcus Kleveland was last year’s winner at Silvaplana, but he’s been unlucky for much of the 2021/22 season. Not this time, though, as the 22-year-old put down an all-time run consisting of a cab 270 gap to boardslide 270 out on the down-flat-down rail, fs 720 weddle on the quarter to cab 5 japan over the shark fin. His kicker line was something out of a video game, with a fs triple 14 on the first kicker, followed by a backside 16 stale on the second and finally a cab 16 weddle on the final kicker. His fs blunt with corked 450 out put the icing on the cake of an incredible run that gave him the gold.

Second Place went to fellow Norwegian Mons Roisland and third place to young Australian Valentino Guseli, who we are more accustomed to see ripping in pipe finals but showed he can compete with the best on the slopestyle course.

Results:
Women.
1st: Anna Gasser 95.40
2nd: Laurie Blouin 90.20
3rd: Kokomo Murase 87.20

Men.
1st: Marcus Kleveland 91.60
2nd: Mons Roisland 90.20
3rd: Valentino Guseli 89.40