This morning we woke up to some pretty incredible news that Julien Lopez had triggered an avalanche during his run at the second attempt at the Freeride World Tour stop in Fieberbrunn (the women skiers skied earlier in the week, check out Francesca Pavillard-Cain’s 4th place run here). The previous venue had been scrapped due to low snow after the skier women and it seems this venue should have been scrapped for too much snow.
Julien was the 2nd ski male to drop. While hiking up for his ski after punching OTB in the middle of the venue, Julien triggered and enormous slide across the hanging snowfield he was on. Julien deployed his airbag and was funneled through a rocky chute over some cliffs, staying on top of the debris. He suffered no injuries and skied off the venue after a speedy response by safety personnel. You can watch the first part of his run and listen to the guides explain the safety procedures they went through before using the venue, the avalanche occurs at 1:45.
FWT Journal 2015 – EP9 – Some explanations… by FreerideWorldTourTV
We have to say despite all the precautions that the guides and safety personnel took, it is incredible that this happened. We are so very lucky that Julien Lopez was able to walk away from this unscathed. It is obvious the guides were uncomfortable with the situation, but it seems like the show had to go on. We heard that Austria is being scrapped for the remaining fields and there will be two events in Andorra. You should probably wait for the official word from freerideworldtour.com.
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