pre season "TUX" ft. Max Palm, Manon Loschi & friends

04:02 min • 15/01/2024

Athletes

Locations

Manon Loschi

Profile and significance

Manon Loschi is a French freeride skier from the Aravis, raised between Thônes and the lifts of La Clusaz. Born in 2002 and shaped by a club culture that prizes mileage in real terrain, she erupted onto the top tier in 2024 with multiple podiums on the Freeride World Tour and became the inaugural women’s winner of the 2025 YETI Natural Selection Ski in Alaska. Her skiing is a clear example of modern freeride: calm, platform-first approaches into big airs, flips and 360s placed where the mountain invites them, and landings driven back to the fall line so the line keeps flowing. She also pushed progression with a headline-making attempt at a double backflip in big-mountain competition, signaling how women’s freeride is expanding its trick vocabulary at speed. Between broadcast runs and film parts, Loschi has become a reference for how to combine consequence with clarity.

Competitive arc and key venues

After winning the 2022 Qualifier overall, Loschi’s first full elite season arrived in 2024. She started with a statement at the Tour opener in Verbier, taking second on the Petit Bec above Verbier with a 94.00—built on fast, powerful turns and deep, decisive airs. Weeks later she repeated the result at Canada’s Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, a venue known for chalky panels and exposure that reward clean edge sets and exact line choice. She then added a third place at Fieberbrunn in Austria to finish fourth overall for the season. In 2025, she stepped into a different proving ground and won the first-ever YETI Natural Selection Ski—an Alaska face-format contest designed to merge freeride and freestyle—confirming that the same habits that score on Tour also stand up under a head-to-head bracket. The throughline is a record that travels across very different canvases: the ribbed, chalky steeps at Golden, the expansive freeride face in the Kitzbühel Alps, and the iconic Swiss finale at Verbier.

How they ski: what to watch for

Loschi skis with an “approach quiet, exit decisive” philosophy. Watch how flat her skis stay in the run-in—light ankle work, no chatter—until she builds a firm platform and pops cleanly. The air time is axis-honest: controlled backflips, tidy 360s in both directions, and grabs that stabilize rotation rather than decorate it. Landings are driven to the fall line with an immediate re-center, preserving speed into the next feature. On spines and convex roll-overs she manages moving snow proactively, making brief cross-fall-line cuts to shed sluff before re-committing. When the terrain offers the perfect lip and a generous landing, she is willing to escalate—her widely discussed attempt at a double backflip was notable precisely because it arose from a read that the feature could support it. The overall impression is of tricks used as punctuation in a sentence the mountain has already written.

Resilience, filming, and influence

The resilience thread in Loschi’s story is easy to miss because she looks so composed in competition. She qualified for the Tour a year earlier but lost that season to injury, then returned in 2024 and podiumed immediately—a psychological turnaround as striking as the results themselves. Off the bib, she has leaned into storytelling. She featured in Matchstick Productions’ 2024 film “Calm Beneath Castles” alongside an A-list cast, and she released a short project, “Abstrus,” filmed in spring conditions in northern Sweden. Those appearances show the same habits viewers recognize from contests: deliberate speed, precise reads of wind features, and tricks placed where the terrain naturally sets the line. The combination of podiums, a major film presence, and a win at the first Natural Selection Ski event has made her a touchstone for younger riders looking for a path that balances ambition with process.

Geography that built the toolkit

Place explains a lot of Loschi’s composure. The lift network and mixed aspects of La Clusaz deliver frequent laps in variable snow—early-season hardpack, storm slabs, and spring corn—so platform management and speed control become second nature. On the world stage, each stop sharpened a different tool. At Kicking Horse, chalk and exposure demand early, confident edge sets. At Fieberbrunn, the face rewards linking ribs and gullies into a coherent story. At Verbier, consequential entrances and unforgiving runouts test calm execution under pressure. For filming and late-season projects, Scandinavia’s long-light venues such as Riksgränsen add firm-snow takeoffs and wide runouts that suit clean rotations. The result is a toolkit that travels: set a speed floor, manage the surface in front of you, and let terrain choose the moment for expression.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Loschi’s partners reflect reliability over novelty. With Red Bull behind her travel and performance projects, she skis freeride shapes from K2 Skis that offer stable platforms and forgiving rocker for deep landings, and outerwear from Mountain Hardwear built for storm days and long approaches, often featuring GORE-TEX membranes. Vision and protection show up via Anon Optics, while binding choices from Marker underscore the need for retention and elasticity when impacts come fast. For skiers translating that into their own setups, the useful lessons are simple: pick a freeride ski you can center confidently; keep edges honest underfoot for chalk but smooth at contact points for three-dimensional snow; and pair boots and bindings that won’t fold when you land deep. In any backcountry context, beacon, shovel and probe are non-negotiable, and clear communication with partners adds more safety than any single gear upgrade.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans gravitate to Loschi because her lines make sense at full speed. She doesn’t chase tricks for their own sake; she organizes a face into a beginning, a middle and an end, and uses a flip or a three to emphasize the terrain, not to distract from it. That’s why her runs replay so well and why judges reward them. For progressing skiers, the takeaways are concrete: build a quiet approach, pop from a clean platform, land to the fall line and manage moving snow early. Her 2024 Tour podiums at Verbier, Kicking Horse and Fieberbrunn proved the formula under pressure; the 2025 win at Natural Selection showed it scales to different formats and even bigger canvases. Grounded in the daily reality of La Clusaz and sharpened on the sport’s heaviest venues, Manon Loschi stands as one of the clearest examples of contemporary women’s freeride—credible to judges, inspiring to audiences, and practical for anyone trying to turn highlight-reel moments into repeatable habits.

Max Palm

Profile and significance

Max Palm is a Swedish freeride skier based in the French Alps whose mix of big-mountain composure and freestyle literacy has reshaped how modern freeride is ridden and judged. He burst onto the top tier in 2022 with a milestone at the Freeride World Tour opener in Spain, landing the first double backflip in Tour history and winning the event the same day. Since then he has added more podiums—including a runner-up at Canada’s Kicking Horse stop that season—and regular finals appearances on the sport’s heaviest venues. Off the bib, he films, develops products, and mentors younger riders through resort and brand programs. With roots in Scandinavian big-mountain culture and a daily home base around Les Arcs, Palm represents the new normal in elite freeride: tricks placed only where terrain invites them, landings driven to the fall line, and lines that read clearly at full speed.

Competitive arc and key venues

Palm’s competitive arc runs through the Freeride World Tour and the Scandinavian spring classic. As a junior he stacked titles on the Freeride Junior Tour and won the Scandinavian Big Mountain Championships—held under the midnight sun at Riksgränsen—before graduating to the pro Tour. The breakout came at Baqueira Beret in January 2022, when he stomped a clean double backflip to take the win on the west face of the Tuc de Bacivèr above Baqueira Beret. Weeks later he backed it up with a podium at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort in British Columbia, then qualified to the Xtreme Verbier finals on the Bec des Rosses above Verbier. Subsequent seasons have kept him in the title conversation and on live-stream replays for the same reason his 2022 runs went viral: decisive line choice, high consequence features, and tricks that make sense to judges and fans.

How they ski: what to watch for

Palm skis with an “approach quiet, exit decisive” philosophy. Watch how flat and calm his skis stay on approach—light ankle work, hands neutral—until a firm pop from a clean platform sets rotation. The hallmark moves are axis-honest backflips and 360s used as punctuation, not decoration; when terrain offers a perfect lip with room to land deep, he’ll step into double-flip territory, but he doesn’t force it. Landings drive to the fall line and re-center immediately so speed stays alive into the next feature. On spines and convexities he manages sluff proactively, making short cross-fall-line cuts to dump moving snow before re-committing. The result is skiing that looks inevitable: a line drawn with intent where every feature advances the story.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Tour seasons include bruises as well as highlights, and Palm has navigated both, returning from setbacks with measured risk and the same clarity that won him his debut. He has leaned into storytelling with short films and athlete portraits, including a widely shared mini-doc that followed his path back to starts and showcased his methodical preparation. His product collaborations—such as signature accessories with a mountaineering-heritage gear brand—and public coaching at rail and technique clinics extend the influence beyond contest day. The net effect is credibility on two fronts: he can deliver under pressure on the steepest stages, and he’s willing to explain the process so progressing skiers can copy the habits that matter.

Geography that built the toolkit

Two regions shaped Palm’s skiing. Springtime Scandinavia taught him to read firm snow, long runouts, and natural takeoffs at venues like Riksgränsen, where the Scandinavian Big Mountain Championships have crowned generations of freeriders. Day-to-day, the French Alps and the lift-served backcountry around Les Arcs provide repeatable access to alpine faces, storm slabs, and playful wind features that ride like a natural slopestyle course. Travel to World Tour stops adds contrasting textures—chalky panels and sharky entrances in Golden at Kicking Horse, and steep ribs with exposure in Verbier—so the same decision framework gets rehearsed across very different canvases.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Palm’s partner list reflects a freeride kit built for reliability, not novelty. As an athlete with Red Bull, he balances filming and competition with year-round training. His ski platform is anchored by Rossignol, with freeride shapes that stay predictable when landings are deep and fast; outerwear from Peak Performance and membrane tech from GORE-TEX handle storm days without fuss; gloves and safety hardware from Black Diamond speak to durability in rope-tow chalk and coastal storms; and he’s been featured by 100% on vision. For skiers translating that into their own setups, the useful lessons are simple: pick a stable freeride ski with enough surface area and supportive flex to accept imperfect landings; keep edges honest underfoot for chalk but smooth at contact points for three-dimensional snow; and pair boots/bindings that won’t fold when you come in hot. Beacon, shovel, and probe are non-negotiable in any backcountry context, and clear radio/voice comms with partners will add more safety than any single gear upgrade.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Max Palm because his lines tell a story you can follow: set a speed floor, pick features that build, put the trick where the terrain invites, and land to the fall line so momentum carries to the next move. His Baqueira Beret breakthrough made headlines, but the reason replays keep circulating is that the approach scales—intermediates can borrow the quiet approaches, the early edge sets, and the disciplined exits on their next storm day. With proven wins on the Freeride World Tour, podiums at venues like Kicking Horse, finals on the Bec des Rosses above Verbier, and a growing slate of film and product projects, Max Palm stands as one of the clearest references for contemporary freeride—credible to judges, inspiring to audiences, and practical for skiers trying to turn highlight-reel habits into everyday skills.

Snowpark Zermatt

Overview and significance

Snowpark Zermatt is one of Europe’s highest and most reliable freestyle venues, set on the Theodul Glacier above the car-free village of Zermatt with the Matterhorn as a permanent backdrop. The resort operates a dedicated winter park on the lower Theodul Glacier by the Furggsattel lift at around 3,250 m, typically from October into mid-May, and runs a summer park high on Plateau Rosa when glacier conditions permit—giving riders access to jumps and rails for well over 300 days most years. Official channels position the park as a flagship offering of the Matterhorn Ski Paradise and a staple for freestylers who want near year-round laps at altitude; regional tourism also highlights its long operating window and visibility among the Alps’ top parks (Zermatt Tourism).

What makes Snowpark Zermatt significant is the combination of location and cadence. At 3,000–3,800 m, winter snow stays dense and shapeable for stable takeoffs, and summer sessions deliver salted, predictable speed before midday. A modern lift network—Matterhorn Glacier Ride I & II, Furggsattel, and Plateau Rosa T-bars—keeps laps tight, while the cross-border connection with Italy via the Matterhorn Alpine Crossing adds logistics flexibility for mixed crews.

Terrain, snow, and seasons

In winter, the park line sits just off the Furggsattel glacier chair at roughly 3,250 m. The shaping team typically divides the layout into progression zones—beginner features, a rail garden, and medium/large tables as snow depth allows—set on a broad, groomed bench with clean in-runs and long, safe landings. The altitude and aspect mean maritime-continental storms deposit dense, workable snow that sets into supportive chalk on leeward panels between resets. Outside the park, laps on adjacent glacier pistes are ideal for speed checks and filming B-roll between sessions.

Summer shifts the scene a few hundred vertical meters higher to Plateau Rosa in Europe’s highest lift-served summer ski area, reaching 3,883 m at Matterhorn Glacier Paradise. Mornings start early, with the public park and lanes running until around midday to preserve surface quality in the sun. Expect salted takeoffs, quick resets on the summer ski network, and a compact footprint engineered for repetition before warmth softens the snow. Zermatt’s official guidance is simple: start early, ride hard through late morning, and treat afternoon as recovery and review (Zermatt Summer Skiing).

Park infrastructure and events

Snowpark Zermatt is built for throughput. The winter park near Furggsattel prioritizes a clear ladder from learn-to-park features to medium/large jumps and a deep rail menu; in summer, the Plateau Rosa setup condenses into a high-frequency lane where you can stack many clean attempts in a short window. The crew refreshes features frequently—especially in summer—so lines evolve week to week while maintaining consistent speed and landings. A funslope often operates nearby in winter for mixed groups, and groomed glacier pistes flank the park for fast resets. While Zermatt isn’t marketed around stadium-scale freestyle events, its high-altitude reliability draws teams and camps during the off-season, and the public benefits from contest-grade shaping standards applied to daily builds.

Access, logistics, and on-mountain flow

Getting to Zermatt is straightforward and car-free. Private vehicles stop in Täsch; from there a 12-minute shuttle train or taxi completes the trip into the village (Zermatt arrival). For the winter park, upload via Matterhorn Express to Trockener Steg and continue to Furggsattel, or go direct when the chair is spinning. For summer laps, follow the Matterhorn Glacier Ride to Matterhorn Glacier Paradise and drop to the Plateau Rosa park area. The cross-border Alpine Crossing makes it possible to approach from the Italian side (Breuil-Cervinia) without skis when operations allow.

Daily flow depends on temperature and wind. In winter, start by dialing speed on smaller features, then step to the main jump line mid-morning as lips set and light improves. In summer, set an early alarm; the best speed window is the first few hours after opening, with salted takeoffs and firm run-ins. Expect a glide-and-go rhythm on glacier lifts: park laps → quick return on T-bars/chairs → water and wax check → back to the line. Keep an eye on the live lift/piste status before you head out, as high-alpine operations can change with winds and visibility (lift & piste status).

Local culture, safety, and etiquette

Zermatt’s freestyle scene is international and pragmatic—progression early, filming when the light is right, and respect for the glacier environment. Inside the park, follow Park SMART: inspect first, call your drop, hold a predictable line, and clear landings and knuckles immediately so the lane keeps moving. Beyond groomed corridors, remember that you are on glaciated terrain; rope lines exist for a reason. Never duck closures to “take a look” at seracs or crevasse fields. For any step into off-piste terrain, treat it as true backcountry: beacon, shovel, and probe, partners who know rescue, and a morning read of the official Swiss avalanche bulletin from the WSL/SLF (SLF avalanche bulletin).

Altitude is a real factor here. Hydrate aggressively, use high-SPF sunscreen, and take short breaks; fatigue leads to speed mistakes. In summer, when operations pause around midday, respect closures and let the shapers do quick touch-ups that keep speed consistent the next morning. In the village, everything runs on foot or by electric shuttle—Zermatt is proudly car-free—which makes staying near the Matterhorn Express stations ideal for an early upload (car-free info).

Best time to go and how to plan

For winter jump consistency and broad feature sets, target late January through April, when overnight freezes are reliable and the park can scale up with a deep base. The official winter park typically runs from October into mid-May depending on conditions, so early-season rail mileage and late-season slush sessions are very much on the menu (winter park). For summer park laps, July to mid-October is the classic window on Plateau Rosa, with best-in-class morning surfaces—plan to load early, stack attempts before 11:00, then switch to filming angles or recovery when the snow softens (summer ski info).

Build your day around two or three “anchor” features to lock speed and pop before stepping to the full line. Keep a pocket wax for quick temperature swings, and rotate lenses for flat light versus high-alpine glare. If you’re mixing riding with sightseeing or non-skiers, the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise platform and ice palace are easy adds without derailing a training morning. Always recheck lift status at breakfast on wind-prone days.

Why freeskiers care

Because Snowpark Zermatt turns altitude and access into almost year-round progression. You can learn and film on stable winter lips with glacier-cold snow, return in July for salted morning sessions under the highest lifts in the Alps, and do it all with efficient laps and real mountain views. Add the car-free village logistics, modern upload via the Glacier Ride, and a clear safety framework backed by the national avalanche service, and you get a park that rewards intent—a place to build skills steadily, session clean lines, and keep momentum across seasons.