Rosa Khutor, Sochi, Russia – March 4, 2011 – Due to the abundance of great snow the Freeride World Tour athletes enjoyed a great powder day on Day 1 of the Nissan Russian Adventure Sochi 2011, at Rosa Khutor ski station, the future alpine site of the 2014 Winter Olympics. The good conditions inspired the world’s top freeriders to display creative riding and fast lines with big airs and spectacular tricks. Norwegian wild card Aasmund Thorsen impressed by winning his first Freeride World Tour competition on rental boots. Douds Charlet dominated the snowboarders with the most stylish run of the day.

Day 1 of the Nissan Russian Adventure Sochi 2011 took place on a 300 vertical meter face on top of the newly opened lift station Rosa Khutor in the Caucasian resort of Krasnaya Polyana, Sochi. The competition face was shorter and less committed than what the Freeride World Tour riders are used to but featured a playful terrain allowing the athletes to pull off a great show in perfect snow conditions. With big smiles on their faces the riders enjoyed a good start to their Russian adventure.

Ski Men Dominated by Scandinavians
The Scandinavian skiers had a successful day taking the top podium spots, and it is interesting to note that all three were skiing on borrowed parts of equipment due to lost luggage! Today's best rider was wildcard Aasmund Thorsen (NOR), who according to the judges skied the cleanest and most creative run of the day, choosing a unique line with great fluidity and taking every air with clean landings. This despite skiing boots that were too big from the local rental shop! He was followed by Henrik Windstedt (SWE), skiing a clean line including several features and sticking a back flip at the end of the run, also on borrowed ski boots that were a size too big. Erik Sunnerheim (SWE) rounded out the top three in loaner ski clothes and without his important knee brace.

Aasmund Thorsen (NOR): “I got to borrow clothes of Mati Imbert (French FWT rider) and got the boots this morning in the rental shop. They were a bit too big and I was floating in there! But it still went well.. I am really happy! I was the only one taking the big triangle (cliff jump) on top and I guess I managed to please the judges although I could not ski at 100 percent!”

Click here for full results from today’s event.

Day 2 Saturday 5 March
Day 2 of the Nissan Russian Adventure Sochi 2011 is confirmed to take place tomorrow the Saturday 5 March.