YETI Natural Selection Tour Highlights: Jackson Hole

jackson hole wyoming our own little slice of heaven on earth but it wasn't always this way some say it began over six million years ago when the earth's crust began to stretch and give way to the youngest range in the rocky mountains the tetons mother nature's crown jewel and the epicenter of human performance the big mountain throw down as it were their beauty is boundless their bounty endless today we find ourselves at the foot of this range armed with an idea fine-tuned and evolved into the highest echelon of competitive snowboarding this is natural selection where the best men and women snowboarders in the world are free to roam where fresh tracks will write history where billions of years of evolution will harmonize with the unbridled creativity of humankind [Music] these mountains may be ancient but we're just getting started [Music] [Music] wow [Music] good morning from magical jackson hole wyoming as the sun rises on the most anticipated day two of the yeti natural selection event here from jackson hole wyoming as you can see the mountains are awake over four feet of snow falling in the last four days and while yes the world's greatest snowboarders on earth are here nature jackson hole itself this mountain is the star good morning everybody watching around the world day one of this event reverberated around the world and you said yes we are here for it we are here for this progression of snowboarding called natural selection my name is salemma massiquella and i am joined to my right by tom t-bird monterroso and mary walsh former editor and senior editors of snowboarder magazine i could not ask for smarter more knowledgeable uh snowboard insight on this incredible day i mentioned that the top four feet of snow that has fallen in the last four days how is that going to affect our course it's going to affect it in so many ways with those features that were built over the course of the last two years more snowfall it's going to change landings it's going to slow things down the riders are really going to have to adapt today here in the finals here at our host set it's about 6 300 feet but if you take that teton chair up to the start of the course you are at 9 300 feet very very quickly this is jackson hole [Music] there is no better place than jackson hole for providing the terrain and just the facilities to uh really put this thing together where jackson's located not just in the rockies but also here in the tetons it's just really ideally positioned with the aspect that it faces to the east and consistent snowfall i mean those those couple factors are really important to us jacksonville mountain resort is a great place to kick off the natural selection tour because really the very first natural selection was born here the bold origin story of jackson hole i think is also kind of synonymous to really where we're trying to go with this event we spent the last three to four years on bringing this event back and the reason being is i think the uniqueness and ruggedness of the terrain is something that we're looking for on top of that it has a really consistent snowfall every year we get tons of snow and that just leads to really great snowboarding like it's just between the terrain and the snow quality there really is no better place i think if anything at jackson hole it's it's big country out here its location here is pretty unique and kind of see jackson is a bit of a futuristic kind of outpost it's a wild place a wild place with a powerful energy as you see 50 or so hand-built structures into this natural face of the mountain this is so exciting i mean we're about to see a fantasy league level of rider head-to-head matchups right now i mean coming off of day one and the excitement that we saw today is going to be kind of crazy to see people reposting and reposting over the course of the last few days being like what have i witnessed is this where snowboarding is going the answer is yes how about we take a look back here at yeti natural selection welcome to all of you around the world we are here to make history and it is about to get very very real right now dropping first in this contest is not a desirable drop spot but giggy just stepped up and he said you know what i've done this before all dropped first giggy rough kicking it off in stunning fashion [Music] when i think of austin sweden the first word that comes to mind is speed austin sweden takes the win sweden will head in to the quarterfinals he's choking on powder lake paul versus elias elhart starting things off with a half cap into a backside 360. huge on lando's hip that's about 70 feet to the landing back seven blake with the win you call it ben ferguson versus bodie merrill that right there that miller flip over the pillow was my favorite trick ben ferguson huge backflip that was nasty oh there we go that is the trick we want to see from ben ferb just busting out a method for the people right there congrats dude i hope you make it to the end and now we're gonna get to see sage kotzenberg and victor de la rue i love that victor de la rue chose to go up against sage enormous half cap into the backside 360 tail grab opening up with a gorgeous cap five and this has officially become a nail biter [Music] sage kottenberg victorious over victor de la rue right now we are going to transition to the women's side of things four heats eight women competing and i say we have an all-star cast to start things out jamie anderson versus hannah beeman oh that was beautiful oh my jamie anderson trying to jump down into the parking lot shocked fired by jamie anderson on a beamon can she answer back hannah beamon staking her claim here at the yeti natural selection careful landing she will move on robin van gin zoe sadowski sanat a last toeside turn it just makes you want to get out there and ride those turns count zoe sadewski sanak she is going gigantic results coming in it's zoe sadowski not who will move on next up we have elena hike and haley langland send it get the points move on elena wins on a gasser marion herity this is about to get super interesting all right much better goes down on the takeoff and falls over the back side of that cliff all right but she's back up and riding marion herity right now she has the advantage i think she's in a really good spot right now because anna's run wasn't enough to advance if marion can put down a line it's mary and her team who will take the win for that heat all right so here are your leaders from today that will move on to the finals day hannah beeman will be going up against zoe sadowsky sanat and then elena height versus marion herity as we continue back into the back half of men's qualifiers this is going to be fun eric jackson and mark mcmorris [Music] that is the eric jackson that we know and love all right mark mcmorris wow i mean honestly what can mark not do really oh wow hello tree that combination right there i think that's one of the best uh back to back lines that we've seen today oh you spoke to me i never thought i'd get to compete against you yeah seriously rasman vs travis rice this is travis rice's time to shine [Music] chris rasmus is coming in and saying hey jackson i'm here it's like the best run ever i kind of just forgot what i was doing for a minute i'm coming for your next run travis is fired up this is the tiebreaker we only could have dreamed of so close we're gonna get to see travis ride here we go nils midnight versus pat moore [Music] all right so cab five a beautiful method right there starting off with a really smooth three heading into the second uh jump with some speed oh man front seven wow that was ridiculous and he put down the best run of the day journey stock and nipple bang and here goes mikkel oh wow finding that touchdown so effortlessly that was beautiful [Music] it is official nickel moving on those were finals level runs in qualifiers incredible i wish it wasn't over but i cannot wait for day two it is finals day here on day two yeti natural selection we get into the men's quarterfinals take a look at this austin sweden versus blake paul here we go austin sweden this is the guy you want to kick off this event blake paul drops into the course there are few riders that combine the spontaneity and flow that he has on a snowboard lake paul getting the edge ben ferguson versus sage kostenberg there it is the cab 9 the day thus far ben ferguson going for that under flip this is a whole new line for ferg [Music] and you know he is stoked to drop a full back 720 to put the period on that ben ferguson moving on the most hotly anticipated battle travis rice mark mcmorris huge backside rodeo that was quintessential travis rice gigantic cab nine little trouble riding out there mark mcmorris if you're talking about riders who embody snowboard competition you're looking at him right here torch past no one's going to forget that mark mcmorris took out the ghost nickel bang versus pat moore two supreme style masters [Music] pat moore there's that fact seven if there's anybody who just eats breathes snowboarding it's fat mikhail bang a switch method into pal arguably the hardest trick in snowboarding nickel's in shock i think he got it for that switch method well we knew that they were gonna come out firing and they have these writers showing why they are the best in the world a final four for the ages indeed and now we take a look at that women's bracket mary so we have hana beeman zoe sadowsky senate elena height and marion erdy they made it through day two it is on here at the yeti natural selection and it is the semi finals zoe sadowsky sanat and hannah beeman [Music] coming up a little short she went a little slow on that rotation didn't get the wildcat around [Music] zoe's blown my mind i didn't think we'd see such powder landing prowess out of her [Music] it will be zoe sadowsky sanat who will move on to the finals next heat elena height marion hardy coming up a bit short right there marion herti she's got a lot of speed here at the top of the course so there you go marion herity with the high score of that heat that will put her in the finals i i think there's probably a lot of side bets that just got lost we we were not expecting to see both of those heats pan out this way all right we're going to kick things off go right to the top for the men's semi-finals blake paul against ben ferguson i gotta say though after watching ben's first runs i think blake he's gonna need to step it up a little bit i mean he's got such good style so fun to watch snowboard so the door's open we know ferguson's got it in him and here he goes coming in switch into this first hit gap five looked like he was trying to poke it out and tap that tree frontside 360. nice powder turn now at that backside 720. ben ferguson comes in with an 85. he will move on to the finals closed up dude semi-final heat number two nickel bang against mark mcmorris oh looked like he was just trying to run his nose across that rock and he went a little bit too hard into it good to see mikkel back up and riding strong backside five that's one of the harder tricks i'd say in this course landing switch [Music] huh right mark starting off with a wild cat beautiful backside seven getting a little bit off access you too man over the course of the two days of competition we've seen mickel taking some of the most unique lines and putting down some of the most unique tricks here he comes into that hit yes [Music] and there you go he did a backside five and he rode switched the whole way down until he found another hit to do a cab five if mark's paying attention he watched michael's run he knows that nickel put down that rock tap mark is not about to to just lay back i'm nervous there we go back seven [Music] oh wow beautiful frontside 720. hold on to it this is a nail biter this is a total nail biter wow wow look at those scores mark mcmorris is your winner in heat two of the semifinals and he will be going up against ben ferguson in the finals wow i mean this is amazing that you know never thought we'd see this match up a competition i know you've said it before but once again this is going to be a ridiculous finals you know part of our mission statement is to you know motivate people to forge a stronger bond with the outdoors for natural selection you know mother nature it's a main character working with our lead sustainability partners conservation international and yeti we acknowledge that the natural selection tour is this amazing opportunity to sort of bring environmental consciousness to the main stage we all agreed that in order to be leaders in this space that we would make this tour 100 carbon neutral we are really excited to be partnering with jackson hole mountain resort to host this event as they have recently transitioned to being 100 wind powered as the tour's official sustainability partner we are focused on reducing single-use plastic we've brought in reusable bottles along with our hydration station water silo we created limited edition drinkware with proceeds all going to conservation international's reforestation efforts trees are mother nature's best carbon sequesters and engineers and so we believe that if we are able to protect large tracts of these natural landscapes that we will be able to keep carbon in the ground where it belongs and keep it from arming our planet [Music] all right so we are going to move on uh talk a little bit about the format as we head into the finals because it is going to be a little bit different we do now have the tiebreaker element of that yes the tiebreaker is back i mean this puts some extra heat into the finals right now you know this is a very consequential uh this is very consequential round for both the men and the women and so they have that potential opportunity to have a third go and someone is going to take two out of three in order to be crowned champion yeah absolutely uh we're gonna get right into it this is the women's final here at natural selection marion herity up against zoe sadowsky sanat marion the three-time free ride world champion will now be showing us her skill set here at natural selection uh let's hear a little bit more from her i grew up near to charles and now i'm living close to chamonix and the mountains are crazy it's about big mountains there i think the mountain is the most important in in our sport because if you are the body ready for that and not the mind it's not good for you and for sure i like to work on on the mind for that well whatever she's been doing it's been paying off i gotta say this is a huge contrast in approach to how these riders ride this course marion herity dropping in now of course takes a little bit more of a big mountain approach to it whereas zoe sadowsky sanat is the freestylers freestyler so marion making her way down this course the goofy footed rider from france grew up riding chamonix and coming up a little short on aircraft carrier right there but you can really see like her strength on her board that she can pull that landing through not quite on that one unfortunately if i could critique one thing in marion's uh semifinals and the first run of finals it's that this is an all-mountain freestyle contest and she is not grabbing her board on a lot of these straight airs so how zoe sadowski sanat answers back right now if i'm zoe at the top i'm thinking okay tricks this is going to be about tricks is how how i'm going to win this title well and we've already seen from zoe too like she's been attacking this course that first run she did in quarterfinals um on day one she was going so fast and so big and then she was implementing her tricks so but right now we're looking at marion heriti's first run she's finishing things up so you know two falls in that run she was going fast but there is opportunity for zoe to come in if she can put down a run like t-bird was saying that has a couple solidly landed freestyle hits she is going to be rewarded for that and in this matchup today okay so zoe sadowski sanati was the wild card that came into this event she told us earlier she's been having so much fun it's been paying off she's gearing up now for the finals this is what she had to say so excited like after scoping the course was a good crew and um yeah taking a look at all the hits i'm super stoked and yeah just can't wait to ride the thing my goal coming here was to um do a wild cat somewhere off a hit that i've never hit before straight into competition so yeah should i do that zoe sadowski sanat about to drop in our youngest competitor in the female field only 19 years old she's a relative rookie both in the competitive environment and in the back country but let me tell you all of the females that rode in the natural selection every single one of them said i never overlooked zoe sadowsky sanat well if you watched her if you've ever had a chance to watch her just hit big air jumps in a big air contest she is so powerful and she's really taken it to this course and that's what i'm talking about she's grabbing her board there's a huge wild cat from zoe she hangs on there that was awesome she she honestly i think must have one of the most powerful cores in all of snowboarding she can really hang on to a landing i've seen her go deep on big jumps right there i mean she can come through getting a little slash in there so zoe is definitely taking a more freestyle approach here in women's finals at the yeti natural selection going for the great wall backside three and ragdolling in the landing however that's a strong run in comparison with marians yeah i do think that the judges are going to like what they see there because of that top section um you know that just she was creative she was solid [Music] and we've talked earlier too just about the overall appraisal of a run and in this case this was the first rider marion herity who dropped in she had some errors but was missing the crabs and the tricks that are needed in this freestyle backcountry event and you say freestyle right as zoe sadowsky sanat is flying through the air huge wildcat there loops out a tiny bit and then this backside 360 did not go her way however i'm gonna give the run to zoe and there you go t-bird yep zoey sadowski sanat with a 70 on that first run that is with a fall yep that's a commanding lead going into run two all right we are now going to get ready for the men's finals um and the format now again it's a little bit different than what we saw earlier in the quarterfinals and the semifinals because we now have that tiebreaker element back into it and i absolutely love that yeah so the rider with the highest score uh from previous round will drop second that is an advantage and we are back into tiebreaker time which really adds to the drama because it makes it a best two of three run format ben ferguson matching up against mark mcmorris and this is i mean this is a pretty equally matched in terms of the these two riders approach it's pretty equally matched they both have an incredible contest uh portfolio and they've also established themselves as two of the best backcountry riders on earth ben is a former pipe rider mark is the current face of slope style competitive snowboarding and it's going to be fun to watch absolutely well let's hear from ben winning this event would be insane like just even just being invited to this event like i feel special i was driving to the resort today and just being like wow i'm like here this is crazy i remember watching the like ultra natural and those back in the day and just being like wow that's a whole nother level and so even just being here is insane winning the thing would be awesome i've never actually like won a snowboard contest in my life so i've done pretty good in some but getting up on the top of the podium would be really special but i'm here to have fun and shred so i'm not too stressed and you know it's interesting because common theory would would lead you to believe that the rider who's dropping second has the advantage the way ben has been riding today he might have the advantage sometimes it's better just to go you know what you want to do just go out and do it find your line on the course so ben ferguson on course first run of men's finals cab under flip into that front side 540 and he goes down but that's what we're talking about with the creativity it's taking off switch it's landing switch it's finding your line because it is deep out there i imagine that uh that mark is uh watching that going okay okay the door is open i mean think of the riders that these two have already eliminated today you know mark took out travis rice uh ben took out sage kotzenberg that backside nine that's why ben is on one today he came with a different mentality you also have to think these guys have taken a lot of runs leading up to this without that fall if i could speak directly to ben i'd say that's a finals winning run if you don't fall next time yeah absolutely all right so mark mcmorris was up top watching what just happened from ben ferguson uh he is arguably the best slope style competitor there's ever been and now he is competing in natural selection what a fantastic matchup let's hear directly from mark my drive stems from wanting to be the best all-around snowboarder i can be and my love for the backcountry and um i would never want to be narrowed down to as just a contest snowboarder and i've always enjoyed being in the backcountry and i have so much to learn still and doing well at the natural selection tour would be a huge plus for me just as i've never really competed all that much in backcountry snowboarding and i really love it and want to transition my career that way but to win the natural selection tour would be like a dream come true and yeah i guess nothing's too far out of reach yen you know you're looking at the current the most dominant slope style rider of all time if mark pulls this off and takes out ben ferguson in the finals he enters a different stratosphere of professional snowboarding which i did not think was possible before this event existed well absolutely i mean the last time we really saw him in the backcountry at a competition was 2013. he has gotten so much better since then he has put a lot of time filming in oh wow double wildcat from mark mcmorris and over end double backy he's in a different stratosphere right now he's on he's on another level front side 720 catches a little bit of snow there so he did fall right there mark mcmorris did go down adding to the drama of this finals similar to ben ferguson wow from wow so that was new that was new which goes to show you that mark is always thinking two or three steps ahead of his competitors yeah there's a if there is a place that i feel like would feel dangerous to be in it is dropping before margaret morris thank you dang it nice back nine dude i love that yeah that is so awesome checking out the yeti recap here this is ben ferguson there's that cab five right there that snow is deep into the front side 540 and that's where he went down but he follows things up with a backflip into that insane pow slash and the backside 900 on the great wall oh that angle on the great wall really shows you just how big that step down is the land switch in this snow is hard and it's eerily similar these two runs because both of them had falls mark struggled a little bit more even just riding down at the end of his run so you know his flow is going to be compromised check out that double wildcat from mark mcmorris but he goes down at the bottom of the landing getting caught up in some tracks but you could really tell mark wants this because he added some new difficulty to this run and the front side seven he catches his nose twice the thing about this is a mar excuse me a run like this for mark is only going to make him more determined at the top you know these guys they seem very casual at the bottom they're friends but they are fierce competitors well and it also goes to show you that even the best in the world you're used to seeing their highlights and video parts and their landed runs on slope style courses even the best in the world take tumbles right exactly oh so it is mark mcmorris with the lead after that first run 81.6 but still those scores are relatively high with the falls it could have gone either way in my opinion at that point that's just a coin flip uh the natural selection tour is the first of its kind showcasing the world's top men and women riders from olympic icons to big mountain legends as well as emerging snowboarding superstars naturally it's fitting that an off-road icon such as the ford bronco sport is on board as well the natural selection tour is the first competition of any kind to partner with ford featuring the broncos sport and both the female and mel overall tour winners will receive an all new vehicle with travis as a newly minted team ambassador he took the ford broncos sport out for a spin earlier this week see how this thing rides [Music] [Music] [Music] the road to alaska on this tour six finalists in the first two events are going to advance to the finals at tordillo mountain lodge in alaska from jackson hole top three men top one woman and from the bald face event one man and one woman in this inaugural natural selection tour of course this jackson hole stop brought to you by the fine folks from yeti we had a benediction this morning some church if you will austin sweden praying to the sun gods and saying please son come out and here we are on these final runs and we got some sunshine boys the entire dynamic of this event changed as it does any good powder day when that sun comes out yeah from no depth to just a whole vision of what is possible we just got a glimpse of that in the final runs makes you understand why this course was built the way it was and we are seeing it written uh in the way that it was intended we showed you those beautiful shots of of jackson hole and and the teton range how is it that nature does its thing that allows us to play in this way let's learn you know here at jackson hall we are in bounds but we are in a section of closed terrain that we've been managing for the event travis's vision led us to use this terrain specifically the fall line and the run outs of that pitch are exactly what we're looking for fill that in and make it what he has in mind and what we've been doing is accentuating the natural terrain utilizing natural lips and making transitions where there wasn't any to begin with i mean we couldn't ask for a better venue what we're doing here is not standard avalanche mitigation techniques so for the course specifically steep areas like the landings we're getting in on top of those after every storm cycle and manipulating the snowpack we're using a special vert snowshoes in a pattern kind of like an egg crate to sort of stomp out and take out any air pockets or suncrash with time you get this really stable extremely soft landing that's just like landing in air obviously a lot of inherent dangers in the back country on the course we've done a lot of work to mitigate all those hazards riders will have a transceiver we've got a drone crew who are eyes on the whole time we've got ski patrol stage at the top ready to respond we're feeling pretty confident in the snowpack we're confident in our safety plan and i think we're going to have a real solid safe event when you're the ceo of natural selection and you have a degree in quantum physics between that and travis rice's vision that makes you understand how this course comes to life and our thanks to the fine folks at backcountry.com it's been so interesting watching the dynamics at play as we get ready for run two uh of the women's final with young zoe sudowski synod putting on a a a clinic in that first run from a technical freestyle ability it'll be interesting to see where marion who is i mean she is a champion she comes in here three-time defending freeride mountain champion she's going to have to do something different if she wants to win this final and she's already a little bit in the back seat so if i'm marrying right now i'm like hey this could be my last chance to be crowned natural selection champion so you got to throw it all out there you got to try some tricks yep you got to push the tie break and that is not a good start for marion erity going down on the first feature however if we've learned anything from this new format it is that falls don't necessarily matter as they do in traditional contests so get back up put your best foot forward and try to just start accumulating points so flowing through the course popping off the side and going down again yeah i look like that one kind of snuck up on her and i'm getting the sense that she's not as uh light on her feet right now as she was hoping to be but tossing out a backy right she's not giving up so marion airdy right now if i'm zoe sadowski sanat up top though i'm sitting there going all right i could win this thing from wild card to finals and now looking at potentially standing on the top of the podium it's a big uh a big journey zoe's been on let's see how it uh ends up for marion here she comes into the corral mary and her team knew what she needed to do and but thus far zoe sadowsky sanat has been the best female rider at this event and that's why she's in the position to potentially take a victory lap here in finals i think it's pretty easy to say that a lot of people underestimated zoey coming into this competition zoe did not underestimate so i saw her getting a back protector this morning that she uh she borrowed from austin sweden and she clutched that thing like she'd just been given gold and you wonder what that does for for her confidence i mean her confidence has to be through the roof right now she is going huge massive tail grab and there's that the goal she came in to natural selection with the wildcat on that huge feature let's call this what it is this is the natural selection championship victory run 100 percent zoe sadowski sanat is reintroducing this herself to the snowboard world she's not just a big air rider she's not just a slope style rider she is an all around incredible snowboarder backside 360. that's the cherry on top that's the best one we've seen today and that was her victory lap i don't think there's any secrets here you can hear the crowd save the best for last a final full pull and marion heard it right from the beginning yeah i just think it was a really disappointing run for marion i don't i don't envy being in her shoes right now however to make it to the finals she did prove why she's in this field but check out zoe sadowsky sanat that huge wildcat and then the backside 360. she's staking her claim in a whole new genre of snowboarding went down on the backside 360 in that first run got ragdolled and then just goes back up and says i know what i need to do to do it again didn't even quote unquote need to do it showing that strength landing just right there on the back end of the knuckle wheeling out with joy as she realizes that it's just a matter of it being official from the judges we're looking at the inaugural women's champion of this natural selection numbers do not lie a 96. unbelievable zoey that is heavy metal zoe sadowsky sanat again 19 19 years old she just rode through that course like she's been doing this for decades look at the people in her wake jamie anderson hannah beeman elena height like some of the favorites coming into this event and look who is standing at the top of the podium i mean and that's our wild card and that's what happens at an event that's never been done before is the wild card can come in as the underdog and then just dominate it was domination from zoe sadowsky to not start to finish she rode so well and like you said she was a bit of a sleeper didn't have any of that pressure in being the wild card and you think about like some of the names that you mentioned expectation is high when you're a legend when you're the most decorated uh women's competitor where you're someone like hannah beamon who has been one of the people who paved the way for uh this style of women's writing um but zoe sadowsky sanat saying thank you for paving that way i will take this torch and take the championship and we'll check in with zoey who i believe is on headset hello zoe sadaski sana congratulations thank you i'm so stoked to learn that last one we talked about your being a wild card and how that might have taken some pressure off what was it like for you once you realize okay i'm coming here and you see the field that you had to battle what was your mindset um really i just wanted to land some tricks that i was stoked on and land a full run and i was just so honored to like be able to ride with my favorite snowboarders and learn a lot from them and like yeah being here i've definitely learned a lot about riding pow and and landing so yeah i'm just so stoked well zoe congratulations on being the best all-around woman in snowboarding here as the inaugural champion enjoy the celebration thank you so much no worries so much more we are going to see from zoe sadowsky sanat you see the path uh that it took to get here uh again and how about hana beeman the loss and then continuing to be there to coach her to the championship a rising tide raises all ships amen when we stop and think about what it's taken uh for this event to take place i want to build 50 natural features not in the backcountry but inbounds hey jackson staffed are are you with me can we do this and they did it together we've had a blast working together building stuff so it can be a struggle but it's it's a fun challenge we're always solving problems every day making things work so that uh we can get the whole course built in time and have a blast this winter on it looking sketchy with no snow but it's gonna look awesome with this i imagine that that's a takeoff which looked insane you know you see how much work went into this thing it does improve the rideability because before it was just this kind of cliff zone to pretty flat [Music] we're just trying to really enhance what's already here and just make sure that a lot of the dangerous aspects are smoothed out let mother nature take care of the rest [Music] we are in anticipation of mark mcmorris and ben ferguson's second runs mark mcmorris in first ben ferguson finds himself behind now of course remember in this finals we're not going back to the best score after the second run all ben ferguson has to do is win this and it is a new game with a tiebreaker and i know at home you're even if you're a mark mcmorris fan you're rooting for ben ferguson in this run so we can get more snowboarding and it the pressure doesn't get to ben he's stood at the top of every major snowboard contest in the world let's see if he can put one down cab 540. into the front side five ben ferguson is flowing right now popping back around a regular and what's it gonna be here beautiful method from ben ferg that trademark method i think for the future we should have a mandatory method in every run i agree that's legislation i'm behind shout out to our drone pilots the drone racers as it looks like ben ferguson went down on the 720 we'll see it back in the replay and if i'm then i'm getting one or two more pow slashes in there before hitting that rider corral all right so we saw that fall from ben ferguson a great run all the way through style and technicality mark mcmorris is not interested in a tiebreaker he wants to slam a door the most decorated competitor in snowboarding and as we've heard from competitors like sage earlier mentioning that a win here would have been more uh important to him than another gold medal in the olympics i mean this event carries a lot of weight in the snowboard world so cab underflip to start things off going double wildcat and he stomps it mark mcmorris is not holding back he is not taking a victory lap clean back seven getting pretty corked out having some seriously beautiful turns in between each of these hits it looks like he knows exactly where he's going right about now and this isn't just to stay on your feet run mark did kind of go down there a little bit on that method it's going to be up to the judges to call this one but super strong run a little back flip at the bottom just to to make them forget about that fall coming out the it's so hard landing land in the spot [Music] yeah in the yeti recap is this the final run of the inaugural natural selection first stop ben ferguson combo platter up the top was strong cab underflipped a front side five the textbook benford method into the back seven he might have been trying to go back nine it looked like he was thinking nine and i think he came around and saw the lib realize he didn't have enough time well you heard mark asking me in the bottom was that 700 or 900 you're going for yes so he opens up right there and tries to put down the landing gear but his body is still rotating and he goes backseat on it but mark also had a fall so let's inspect what went wrong here there's that cab underflip similar to ben's run the double wildcat i mean and that's a chopped up landing he couldn't have landed that better and ridden away more clean in the back seven he stomps it perfectly [Music] and just on a method right here gets a little squirrely in the landing i'd say he had a much less consequential fall here more of a wheelie bar he kind of slid out but ben definitely went down a little harder and mark put down his tricks there is no question about that and it is official you see the depth of the mutual crazy admiration but mark mcmorris what else can this man do in professional snowboarding and look at the road that he took to get here coming into today with the most highly contested match-up yeah with travis right off the bat and think about what it does for mark's confidence to come in today in the first uh the first few runs and knock out travis rice for someone that that builds their momentum based off confidence it's almost over right there right it gives him such an advantage well we'll find out from the man right now he's been in a happy mood the last four days cruising around the mountain and there he is signature purple congratulations first off uh mark what what was your mindset knowing that you had to start your day off against the goat thank you salama um that was uh not a lot of sleep just focusing on what uh what are my advantages against him and there wasn't a lot stacking up but i was able to ride the way i wanted to and then um he rode good too so i'm glad it was a good fight and i uh a match-up i never thought i would say i was in or win so it's a it was a nerve-wracking morning to say the least mark you and ben obviously are super close friends but you're also both very fierce competitors what was that chairlift ride back to the top like after that first run between you and ben uh really all we talked about is how lucky we are to be in the final and that neither of us thought we would maybe even make it past the first round you know there's just such a stacked field and anyone can rise to the occasion but it was just such a treat to be there together and as really good friends and then go head-to-head and everyone to stay safe as we did it's just a true true treat mark as you made it through the rounds today one by one did the stress grow or was it alleviated a little bit knowing that you had made it one step further um the stress peaked when i had to drop after travis and it actually um it just disintegrated after and it just became really fun i was a little bit worried for mikkel but um more or less when he hit the rock and then he greased his run and i figured there was no way i was going to be able to beat that but i ended up riding doing my best run at that point and yeah just started to build and have more and more fun and feel less and less scared of uh getting lost in the trees mark x games olympics you know so many events you know trademark events and snowboarding that you've won what does it mean to be able to take all that bring it here to natural selection and get this win what does this win mean this win is the biggest in years that i've had maybe my biggest to date when all your peers care about event you know it's the biggest one and you saw how how viral that qualification day went and people love to watch the snowboarding and this is the true uh essence of snowboarding free riding with freestyle components and um wish jake was here to watch us go nuts on this course but thank you to travis and red bull and yeti and the whole gang behind this whole event for making a true true snowboard event ah thank you congratulations to you mark you are a fine ambassador of the sideways stance and enjoy this win sir thank you guys let's have some fun tonight congrats mark nice work cheers thank you let's all make some turns let's go shall we you at home if you haven't gone snowboarding yet this year and you have the opportunity to go snowboarding thank you snowboarding thank you everybody behind the scenes for bringing this thing uh to life and we will take you out with the problem highlights from this inaugural historical first stop of natural selection brought to you by yeti take care everybody she is going huge massive tail grab there's a huge backside 360. that's the cherry on top that's the best one we've seen today she is very strong member of the future of women's snowboarding the inaugural women's champion of natural selection margaret morris is not interested in a tiebreaker he wants to slam a door it's a cab underflip to start things off going double wildcat and he stomps it mark mcmorris is not holding back give it up for mark mcmorris your champion selection this means a lot more than anything that i've ever participated in this is a win for snorting and i'm honored to be a part of it [Music] you

Channel: Red Bull Snow

Views: 179,784

Keywords: red bull, redbull, action sports, red bull snow, wintersports, red bull winter, extreme sports, red bull snowboarding, red bull signature series, red bull skiing, red bull winter sports, action sports channel, natural selection tour, red bull snowboard, red bull snow youtube, snow, powder, snowboard, travis rice, mark mcmorris, yeti, jackson hole wyoming, jackson hole, powder skiing, backcountry snowboarding, backcountry skiing, mountain life

Id: 1AxuRogFeSY

Length: 59min 21sec (3561 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 03 2021