Sugar Bowl Is The New Home of Freeride, According to This Skier

Stowers positions the Silver Belt as a welcome refresh to the established competitive freeride hierarchy. As they explain, the highest levels of freeride competition, like the Freeride World Tour or the Natural Selection Tour, are gated behind rigorous judging and invite systems.

The Silver Belt, in contrast, began with an open qualifier. Anyone could sign up for the competition, provided they had the guts. If they skied well enough, they could appear the next day alongside pros like Xander Guldman or Jess Hotter.

The Silver Belt offered a few more twists.

Instead of sorting the skiers in the finals through a traditional judging booth, it opened the floor. At the end of the day, the athletes gathered to watch footage of every run, collectively voting on who they believed skied the best. Another up-and-coming event series that focuses on park instead of freeride, the Jib League, uses a similar format, with athlete judging and an open qualifier.

The Silver Belt skiers were also allowed to alter the venue before the competition. They constructed hips and booters all over the mountain, facilitating bigger tricks. Still, at its core, the Silver Belt was a freeride competition—a blend of freestyle and technical fundamentals were prerequisites for success. 

But how was the skiing? Top notch.

“I’d be lying if I said the ski women’s field didn’t absolutely steal the show on finals day,” said Stowers in their video. “Hannah Epsteyn took the win with one of the most incredible runs I’ve ever seen in any freeride competition.”

Stowers wasn’t exaggerating. Epsteyn’s run, which included a colossal double backflip, was pure freeride and irrefutable evidence that Sugar Bowl, with the Silver Belt, is on to something.