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 on the Rocky Mountains, the Teetons, Mother Nature's Crown Jewel, and the epicenter of human performance, the big mountain throwdown 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. These mountains may be ancient, but we're just getting started. When in the presence of the Grand Teetons, your soul is lifted. You can feel the spiritual energy. There is a reason why Native Americans like the Shoshone and the Crow made this their playground. We respect that ancestral energy as we are here to make history at the Super Bowl of backcountry snowboarding, the Yeti. Natural selection here at Jackson Hole. It is a beautiful morning here. My name is Sulema Masekela. I am joined by T-Bird and Mary Walsh, two snowboard scholars, both editors and senior editors at Snowboarder Magazine. This is history. Do you feel the energy that we're in today? This is hands down the greatest roster in competition history, 24 of the world's best from around the world. It's really going to tell us who the best all-around snowboarder on planet earth is. Totally. I mean, the excitement has literally been building for over a decade and culminating in this day right here in Jackson Hole. I am stoked. Yeah, I am definitely fired up, and we know that you at home are as well. Instagram and Twitter lighting up. You guys have been communicating that you have been waiting for this day. Hit us up. Show us how you are watching at Natural Selection, at Red Bull Snow, at Red Bull USA. A beautiful shot here of magical Jackson Hole 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. It's a gem. Jackson Hole is an actual gem. And I love this place. I couldn't be happier to be in Jackson Hole. Yeah. Four square miles of pure joy. This is Jackson Hole. There is no better place than Jackson Hole for providing the terrain and just the facilities to really put this thing together. We're 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 couple factors are really important to us. Jackson Hole 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, Jackson Hole, it's big country out here. Its location here is pretty unique and kind of see Jackson as 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 for more on this course. A little GoPro inspection with the one and only Sage Kotzenberg. Yo, what up? We got day one here, Natural Selection, beautiful sunny. Yeah, we got a course inspection today. The wheels are in motion for a big week. I mean, the amount of hard work and hours that just went into this is it's unreal. Look at that thing. That's a proper cheese wedge. Come on.  This one's a big boy. Yeah, it's a hawk. This is made for Mr. Sage. I'm gonna go ahead and say. If some feature you want to hit gets pretty tracked, there's another one like not far away from it that's like just as dope as it. Course is a wrap. Comp Day will be amazing. Hope you all tune in. It's gonna get rowdy. Options on options on options. We had the chance to inspect this course a couple of days with the riders. It's just it doesn't make much sense when you're standing up there. And the amount of work that a lot of this field has put into this in that summer build. It's all come to fruition today. Yeah, we'll learn more about that as we go along. You heard the passion in Sage's voice. What's the vibe up at the top of the hill as the riders are ready to make history? We check in with the soul, the voice of snowboarding, Stan Lavelle. Thank you so much. Honestly, the vibe up here is a little bit more lighthearted than you would think considering the competitors that we've got here today. I was just in there for the riders tent and Travis just reminded everybody that we're here to have fun. What we're basically looking at as a perfect powder day. So, you know, vibe is pretty good, pretty lighthearted. Stan, there's 3000 vertical feet distance between us right now. Sun's shining down here. What is the weather doing up on the course? Yes, down there. I'm thinking you've got a little bit more sun up here. It's kind of an eight degrees with the occasional wind. Sometimes gusts up to 30 miles an hour. It definitely could affect the riders throughout the day. We will see. But in general, pretty nice. Thank you, Captain. We will be checking in with you later as we know tons of fresh snow in the last day and a half, somewhere around 10 inches. We'll see how that wind affects the snow, what it's done to settle on the course.  You see the names there. We had a randomizer that put all the names in the hat. The athletes got together. Hey, that's you, T-Bird. Yes, indeed. I was referring to it as the night that a dream became a reality because it was all talk leading up until the event, but until the riders started getting chosen for the heats, that's when it got real. And it was crazy.  I mean, the later picks, you didn't slide your name into an open spot.  Yeah, the first eight men and four women's names were picked out of a hat and then those first riders that were picked got to choose which slot they wanted to be in. And it comes down to strategy at that point because it's, you know, do I want to go against this person as opposed to where in the order do I want to drop? Yeah, and we see that in the first heat. Austin Sweeten had picked that second spot in the first heat. Gigi Ruff, instead of taking a safe space, said, you know what? I will drop in first. I'm the veteran here. I've been to all three of these in the past. And I've won. Yeah, and I've won. He literally said, someone's got to do it. And to see these names next to each other on a start list, Eric Jackson, Mark McMorris, just unbelievable. Yeah, here in our qualifying, you'll see these head to head match up. It's the best of three head to head competition, Mary. Yes. So this is really exciting. We're going to start off today with the men's qualifiers and each gentleman is going to have, like Salema said, three opportunities to advance to the next round, which will happen on day two. And then we're going to go and do the same thing for the women. Yeah, it's going to be really interesting if it's one to one, basically, if one rider wins and the other one wins, we'll have a rubber match on the back end. Our judging criteria, three capable judges that are judging on overall impression. And how they've been describing it to us is they are appraising the run. It's a top to bottom run that includes difficulty, amplitude, variety, execution. And this is really unique because, you know, this is a very challenging course. And again, it's important to say that the riders have not written this course yet. So they could have a bobble. There could be a fall. You can still advance even that because it's going to be overall appraisal. So much more here as this Super Bowl of backcountry snowboarding begins. The first stop of this tour of natural selection, Yeti natural selection at Jackson Hole more when we come back. He has a lens wiped. There's a welcome back to the first stop of the natural selection tour. This is the Yeti natural selection here at Jackson Hole. This field is as all star as all star could be. If you took the all star game and then made it the Super Bowl, that's what this is here in qualifiers. The Olympic medals, the X Games gold medals, the video super parts, the riders of the year, all stats, stats, stats of the heaviest as we see the first four here in qualifiers. I mean, look at that 10 years of difference between Gigi Ruff and Austin Sweden. It's arguable that Gigi was the motivation for Austin Sweden as a as a grom. You got Blake Paul versus Elias Elhart, and it is about to get very, very real right now. We'll get deeper into the field shortly. We talk about Gigi Ruff versus Austin Sweden. 20 years of backcountry prowess for Gigi Ruff. This kid, he came on the scene as just a skinny European kid that people said, who's that? And he's one of the riders who has definitely redefined and helps at the standard for what backcountry riding means. My favorite part about riding in the backcountry is probably that no day is the same. There's always different things flying at you. And yeah, it's whatever you make of it. It's not just an analogy I take for backcountry snowboarding. It's really just living in the spur of the moment. And that's what kind of has carried into my life. Mary, how would you describe Gigi Ruff? Well, I think Gigi, honestly, he really embodies what this event is all about. He is the style master. His flow on his snowboard in the backcountry is really the perfect embodiment of the dance. He is the original.  When is the last time you saw a 39-year-old rider drop in? And what that speaks to is Gigi's longevity and his experience in the backcountry. Absolutely. I mean, Silver, he got the second position at the first supernatural event in 2013. He wins after losing the Travis in 2012. He wins the ultra-natural event to still be considered one of the standards of what this style of riding is 20 years in his career. And you see with that zen approach, he's someone who interacts with the mountain. And when you think about the transfer, it's for what people are familiar with, with half-pipe riding and slope style, you have to build relationship with the mountain, learn how to speak to the mountain. And Gigi Ruff is that person. As you see, for the first time ever, we have racing drone perspective of every rider. This is what we would, this is giving me chicken skin. Gigi is flowing through this course. And as we mentioned earlier, visibility a little tougher up there than down here in the lot. Mary, how's weather going to play into these courses today? Well, I think it's just, it's really interesting because already, like we said, oh, it goes down a little bit. But, you know, knowing Gigi, he's going to find a line, pick it right back up. You know, the weather really does play an important role because the riders are experiencing the course of the first time and this visibility could really impact where they're going. That snow is deep. Yes. This is the first time anybody has ridden this slope. That was gorgeous. Gigi Ruff kicking it off in stunning fashion. You know, I bet all the riders at top just through the side relief seeing that right there. And this really makes you appreciate what it meant when Gigi said, literally last night, in the seating event, he said, someone has to do it. Yep. Someone has to take this first spot. You're coming in blind. No one has ridden this course before. You're not even sure how what the snow is going to feel like in landing and Gigi setting the pace. And, you know, that's why he's just one of the elder statesmen of snowboarding. The word legend gets thrown around a lot, but he embodies it. All right. We will throw out all these accolades and all sorts of love for these riders. But at the end of the day, this is the hunger game of snowboarding amongst the best in the world. Austin Sweeten now has this benefit of having seen Gigi go. But really, when you talk about Austin, I mean, this kid is the pride of the Northwest and his ability, his cat-like reflexes are going to be standout in this event. My favorite nickname is the froth goblin.  I think this event is incredible in the sense that it gives free riders a venue to compete.  It's like, that's what we dream of, is free riders. I'm proud of it. Like, thinking about it, I get so excited. He is definitely someone, SFD, straight down is what you get from this guy. And when I think of Austin Sweeten and I believe we're going to see it here, the first word that comes to mind is speed. This kid rides so fast and I really think that's going to play to his benefit as he makes his way down this course.  I mean, the slopes of Baker really, really curated his style and his style of snowboarding. This run is getting redicked. Austin Sweeten is letting the world know exactly what he's about. Gigant, wow, that was huge to the flats. Wow, it was ridiculous. Straight to the valley floor on that one. That was enormous. Oh my God. Hey, he made me look good with that speed reference though. Sweeten sent it to the valley. SFD, that's what we said straight from the top. I'm shaking. Same, same. I think, you know, we've been here in Jackson. This is what our fourth day here and I think the cumulative energy just got unlocked. Imagine what the rider tent is like right now. That was ridiculous. And lest we look over that front one butter back to regular. I mean, if you're talking about appraising a run top to bottom, I think you got to give it to Austin Sweeten there, even with the fall. For sure. I mean, this is insane. Right off the bat, we said he was going to point it. And so of course, this is giggy rough here in his first run goes down. Now what you need to keep in mind is Austin had the benefit of watching giggy ride.   I mean, really breaking down what is happening on there because being able to infuse that much style into a course that they're riding for the first time is really truly incredible and shows the depth of these riders talent. And the other thing to keep in mind is there's just as much powder in the landing as there is on the takeoff. These are not stomped down as we transition to Austin Sweeten and watch how big this kid goes. I'm still in awe of this angle.  Yeah, this is incredible. It's literally like we're following him along this course. It's really amazing. Gigantic backside 360. I feel like I'm watching the demo of a video game, like the demo before you get to play like this is how perfect it could be. And then just the fullest Chuck ever. And last year at the test event, Travis Rice hand selected Sweeten to open this course and he did the exact same thing. Bottom jump all the way to the flats. I mean, I think Sweeten is really a rider who we talk about reading the mountain, being able to navigate the lines and being kind of one with that element of mother nature and he exemplifies that. He had about 20 feet more airtime than I think he was expecting. That was my favorite part for him, the way he just tap dance through that section. Oddly enough, ironically enough, or coincidentally, it reminded me of giggy up at bald face. He attacked those gap out to butter pads and that's what put him in those top three positions. Now remember, this scoring isn't necessarily the biggest deal here in this first round because it is best of three. We will get both of their scores from the first runs right now. And I think we all knew that Austin would get the edge. But again, the falls not being as big of a factor as you would normally think in an event because of the style of snowboarding that giggy display despite the falls. Yeah, I think this is a very true to snowboarding format.  So right now in the lead before we get into the second runs, obviously is Austin and they'll go back to the top. Next up, Blake Paul versus Elias Elhart. Head to head. Yeah, we got Blake Paul, of course, who is a local boy. There's a home game from him here in Jackson, Wyoming. This is where he grew up. He knows the energy and emotion of this mountain and he is here for it. I mean, the energy is pretty classic. Everybody's like, have you seen the course? Like, what's up with the course?  And heard it's huge. Heard there's like 50 jumps. So it's kind of just that style, which is awesome. And yeah, I think people are just stoked. Like, I've never been here. Or like, I only came to Jackson once and a lot of that. And I think a lot of the riders are just kind of, especially this time and with everything going on and the pandemic, people are stoked to just actually be on a trip and be together safely and responsibly and also try to pull off this event. I think people are just stoked to ride and kick off what you guys have started and everything that people have gone through to make the event happen. You have to love that level of appreciation. And even for us, when I put on the headset this morning, I realized this is the first time that I got the opportunity to sit and do the thing I've been doing for 25 years in a year. And it is not lost on us what it took to make this event happen in the time of COVID and Blake Paul in full appreciation here on his home mountain. Many would say he is the heir to the throne of the Jackson Hole snowboard scene. When I think of Blake's riding, as you're going to see here, he's very light on his feet. He's nimble. He's agile. And he's very adaptable in his vision. That was insane. Wow. That was so rad. And I believe that is Lando's hip he was just hitting on the top there. That's opening up that a really great feature here in the course and totally echoing what you're saying, Bert. I mean, when you watched Blake's snowboard, it's almost like he's kind of cruising along the top of water. Wow. That was wow. 360 stomps it perfect. Blake is putting together a very fine run right here. And I love the way he's using the different shapes of the mountain to get some pow turns in there. Because in this event, a pow turn means as much as a trick. Yeah. This is it is it is everything in between the obstacles that counts just as much on a day like today. And that was gorgeous. I think, you know, it's interesting. We do want to take into account that Blake Paul does have a bit of home court advantage and he's really using that. Well, of course, snowboarding in international affair. It is an international family and a large part of today's style is emanated by Elias L. Hart, growing up in a small town in Germany without a park. It took a lot of train tickets to satisfy Elias' curiosity about big mountain riding. Well, the snowboard scene in Germany took me a while to find it, actually. You know, I grew up in a fairly small place and we didn't really have a park or a scene or anything. Just a bunch of my friends, we were skateboarding in the summer and then that's how I got to snowboarding. And then I discovered a park which was one and a half hours by train and that's when I was really introduced to this whole snowboard world and got really excited about it. So living in Innsbruck, I was looking for a place that I really could call home and snowboard, like really be at home and do what I want to do the best way possible and still not miss out on studying or do things that are a part of my life, too. And that's why, for me, it's hard to imagine a better place. If you think of Travis Rice as being all-powerful, the type of rider that you just are like, what is that person? Elias Elhart is on that level of Travis Rice. When you get hand-selected to go to Alaska with Travis Rice and ride with him, which we all saw in Dark Matter, you should be here. Yes, and I think also Elias is our first rider to drop who has competed in other backcountry competitions. So this is not totally new to him right now. Elias finding his way down this course. Gigantic backflip. And that's just a fun trick. Like, you know if a rider throws a big backie like that, they're having a good time. Tiber, a lot of times we talk about what it takes to be able to, like, land in powder. Like, that it is an art. What is it that makes it so difficult to get that muscle memory to make it look like you're landing in a park? It's just you have to learn how to land on your back foot, but not make it look like you're washing out, right? And not get that nose out of the snow. Honestly, it takes years and years and years to transition from being a park jumper or a traditional park rider into a full-fledged backcountry rider. It's just deep out there. It's deep. Wow, so here we have Blake heading down the course again, and you know, Blake grew up in this zone. Obviously, all these features weren't necessarily there, but this is not an unfamiliar territory for him, and you can really see that in how he just navigates the contours of this terrain. He looks very comfortable on this course. We were talking earlier in the week, and he was telling me that this zone, it's a gladed out slope, and it used to be a hike to only zone, and he would hike up there with his buddies with all his avi gear, and that's kind of where he started riding in the backcountry. Now, of course, there's the Teton lift, and you can access it quickly. You can just tell this kid is wise beyond his years when it comes to riding a snowboard. That backside 360, he puts it down so clean, and he's always thinking ahead. Yeah, his run top to bottom, that was gorgeous. I mean, I think we're gonna see that reflected in his score.  And now this is gonna be an interesting score because they both had a fall in their run, and Elias's was a little bit more impactful. I think Blake's affected his run less than Elias's, but Elias's was down toward the bottom of the course. Blake's was up a little bit higher, but you see, I mean, this is an insane matchup. I thought that combo and the riding that went in between the setups, I mean, that was the definition of flow. It absolutely was. As Elias is finishing up his run here in the Yeti recap, check this out. Frontside 360, tail grab, and watch how deep this snow is. He just catches the knuckle right there, and that right there is called a rag doll. And that's the thing, right? Of these riders got to watch drone angles. They studied drone angles. They got to hike around the course, but the big question that you heard from plenty of the riders is what kind of speed am I gonna need here to not go too deep, i.e. Austin, Sweden, and to not come up short and knuckle, as we just saw with Elias. And I think what's so interesting is we're gonna see that change throughout the day. As the riders get comfortable, you kind of called it there, Tiber. Blake Paul with the first one, and Elias is like, okay, my friend, I will see you in round two. We are not done yet. And so if Blake wins his second run, that eliminates Elias in this head-to-head format. Stakes are high. Ben Ferguson versus Bodie Merrill. As a bunch of people are now just screaming at their screen that we just said that. Ben Ferguson versus Bodie Merrill. I mean, when you talk both of these riders, skill sets across the board, in Ben's case, edge control, spontaneity, I mean, from park to pow, you name it. Ben Ferguson is, generally speaking, your favorite snowboarder's favorite snowboarder. 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 ultra-natural and those back in the day, and just being like, wow, that's a whole other level. So even just being here is insane. Winning the thing would be awesome. I've never actually 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 the reason, in my opinion, Ben Ferguson is that favorite snowboarder, even though, as he said, he's never won anything, is his integrity when he rides is about pure snowboarding and all of the joy. And he never, ever compromises himself to please perhaps what's in the eye of judging. And that's what's made him such a standout, is like, this is my snowboarder. He stays true to himself, and he snowboards the way he wants to snowboard at any given day. And I think, you know, you see it. Ben comes from, he grew up in Bend, Oregon, on incredible terrain, a Mount Bachelor, but he comes from a background competing in halfpipe with incredible edge control. He's known for these giant arcs on the halfpipe wall, and he's just such a strong all-around rider. Backside 360. Ben looking to take that rider's right line. Huge backflip. This kid can do it all, ladies and gentlemen. Two times ex-games medalist, 2018 Olympian in the halfpipe, and... Oh, there we go. That is the trip you want to see from Ben Burr. Just fussing out a method for the people right there.  That's the standard setter so far for me. Yeah, he's got to feel really good about that one. I mean, first point in the course, he just looked like he was at home. And this is where that strategy from last night in the seating takes place. Ben choosing to be like, you know what, I'm going to watch a couple of rounds. I'm going to... He chose specifically to be in this third round to have seen some things go down, and it looked like he had that visual advantage. Bodie Merrill, like I said at the top, I mean, just all-around incredible snowboarder. He is one of the few people that is equally as feared in the streets as he is in the backcountry. I grew up skateboarding. So I've always been drawn to rail riding and urban terrain, snowboarding. And then also I grew up riding, competing in halfpipe. So I really like transition and park. And obviously backcountry snowboarding is really fun. So I just... And throughout the year, I kind of get bored with one thing, you know? If I'm just going and hitting a jump or riding a line all year long, I get kind of bored. So sometimes I want to go on a rail trip and then, you know, maybe go up to Alaska or go snowmobiling. So it's all just so fun that I don't want to pigeonhole myself into just one type of riding. This guy, three ex-games real streets in a row, just dominated it from 2013 to 2016.  He's sending transitions and step-downs and doing one-foot combinations and things that you're just like, what is this do? He's the only rider in the field that has won an ex-games gold medal in street and in backcountry. This kid might be one of the best overall snowboarders, most well-rounded snowboarders alive, unfortunately going down right there. However, that does not mean that this run is over. He can make up a lot of points in the rest of his run. Yeah, that was early on, a nice hand drag right there. And I think Bodi is all about power.  And you know, when I think during his, the rest of this run and his second go, he'll be able to really kind of use that to his advantage. So Bodi making his way down this course. Which way is he going to go? Another thing to note is last night, Travis Rice, he opened up the entire course. Backs and chicken wing. There is that Bodi's style right there. Unfortunately, he did not put the landing gear down as he would have wanted to, but so sick to see that happening.  Yeah, it is deep out there. No one has ridden this slope in about two years. So the snow has been building up since it started falling here in Jackson Hole in November. Wow. So here we have Benford coming in again. This is, I think, just such an insane matchup. And you know, I'm kind of curious on which way the judges are going to go on this one. I just think it goes to Ben. It speaks to his adaptability, his spontaneity. He just flows through the mountains really unlike any other rider right now.  Attack mode 100%. And when Ben's in a competitive setting in the halfpipe, that's what he does. Ben does not take practice runs, safety runs. He sends it every single time he drops in. I just want to, I want to feel as good as that trick looked once in my life. Totally, totally. And here we got Bodie Merrill. And unfortunately, yeah, he just went down hard early in the top of his run. And there's that back seven tweaking that Japan. That right there, that Miller flip over the pillow was my favorite trick that Bodie pulled off in this run. Yeah, I think these, the trick selection that we're seeing from Bodie is very iconically him. I mean, these are things we've seen him do in video parts. And it's really cool to see him applying it to the natural selection course. And look at this tweak. Nobody tweaks like Bodie. That was beautiful. But unfortunately, not quite enough speed. Just if he, if he had two more feet of airtime, I'm confident Bodie would have stopped that. Talk about mobility and flexibility. And as we knew was be the case, Ben Ferguson getting the best of that first run. But this is where it gets exciting, right? Like you lost your first run. You're going up there. Yeah. Pretty fired up. You realize like your life is on the line. Now we're in the hunger game section of the deal as we head into the second runs. All right. Sage Costenberg and Victor De La Rue. I love that Victor De La Rue chose to go up against Sage Costenberg. People were dodging that opportunity, but Victor said, Hey, I'm going to be that dude. Why?  He cut his teeth, pointing it down some of the most ridiculous mountains in Europe. And he is here to go for it. For me, what's the most difficult between hitting a backcountry jump or riding a steep line?  And it's the same for for riding. If you want to feel good and do good, you just need to go out there and go for a couple of days and in a row and keep riding. About this event, what I'm really looking for is to get the first run out of the way and then to know the course, know the snow and feel good on my board and then go on it and crush it and have a really good time on all the features. From Val Thorens, France, the 2019 overall winner of the Freeride World Tour, backcountry is where he lives. And this is going to be a very interesting heat because Victor Galerou caters a little bit more to the big mountain side of snowboarding because he rides in France. He rides Chamonix quite a bit whereas Sage Kotzenberg is more your traditional backcountry freestyle rider. So I'm super excited to see how this heat unfolds. Victor going down right there at the top of the course. The good thing about this course is if you go down in a slope style, you're just hitting a couple of jumps. At least here, if you go down at the top of the course, you're getting a power run. I love the point, Mary, that T-Bird makes in that, yeah, you can ride the Freeride Tour and have the success in big mountain, but this is the blending of everything that we know about snowboarding. Right, this is 50 handmade built kickers into natural terrain and you really have to be able to ride the totality of it. Yeah, this is really, I mean, this course is putting the test on people about being in all-around snowboarder. I mean, you need to be able to re-terrain hit jumps and like navigate a whole fresh backcountry course. It's pretty incredible. I would say Victor wanted more from that first run, but no doubt it's got to feel good to be like, okay, I know what this feels like and I know what I need to do. Absolutely, and now we're going to get to see Sage Kotzenberg and how he answers Victor's run. Winning the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winner Games, Slope Style Gold Medal took Sage and made him a household name and he easily could have just said, you know what, I'm going to stay here and dominate in this space. Instead, he decided to switch gears and go towards the mountains and see what else he's made of and he has not disappointed. Yeah, moving away from competitive snowboarding and Slope Style and Big Air since was, it took a lot actually. I thought it would be a lot easier to just say, okay, I'm walking away, but you know, you get some X Games medals, you get an Olympic gold or a couple of Aaron Styles and you know, that competitive drive and you know, it lives with you. I would choose to win the natural selection title over winning the Olympics again because this is the evolution of the sport and I want to be on that frontier and I want to be against the top guys riding the backcountry and that's where I wanted to take my riding since I was a kid, so this is the pinnacle. That's a crazy sentence to hear. I would rather win here at natural selection than win another Olympic gold medal and go and see Dave Letterman. They say the great ones differentiate themselves because of their vision in their drive. That's Sage Kotzenberg. He's got vision, he's got drive. This kid is determined to win this thing. Opening up with a gorgeous Cab Five. It's so great to see Sage on this course. Oh wow, oh wow, he's having a good time out there. You know, when he was competing in Slope's Olympic air events, he was honestly one of the most fun competitors to watch and seeing him back in competition in this kind of arena is so exciting because this is where he thrives. Many people, when you talk about Sage, people see him as taking that torch from Travis. From Travis Rice. And they've been spending a lot of time together with Travis has been sort of in that mentoring role with this next phase of Sage as a rider. The goats recognize the potential goats, right? They see Travis fully see Sage's vision and his drive and his work ethic, and we just saw it right there. He just went top to bottom, flawless. Yeah, that was incredible first go for Sage. He's got to be amping down there right now. Well, after seeing, you know, De La Rue go down early, and this is where it happened right there on that half cab. He just unfortunately washes out, but he keeps it going. I mean, Victor put down a pretty good run. That back three tail is not small, is not small. It is huge run from now on also. Absolutely. And on the contrary, you can find the right line on those takeoffs and use that so you're not taking off in super deep power. I think personally, Victor and Sage chose really good drop positions, right? I wouldn't want to be first. I wouldn't want to be last. And originally we were going to have this opening around just be on the looker's left side of the course. Travis Rice is deciding yesterday, you know what? We're going to open up the entire course. We'll be able to reset it for the next round, and that just expands the possibilities here in the qualifiers. That is a huge score for Sage Kotzenberg. And for Victor De La Rue, it's like, oh, I really am going to have to get on all of it. Again, I love the fact that he chose to step up and be like, I'll take on Sage. Yep. But right. And he's also realizing like, this was my life choice. Yes. It's hard to pick favorites in this, but I think everyone was looking at Sage and what he would do before he dropped. So he delivered. He did from right under the tower, too. There's already track there, yeah? No, that's gone. You know, there was a built up wind drift that thought I would sink in. The Grand Titzons are showing off today at stop one of the Natural Selection Tour. This is Yeti Natural Selection live from Jackson Hole.  Some of you who are up in the middle of the night that sets your alarms specifically so that you could be here front and center at qualifiers. And our first four rounds have not disappointed. Head to head competition. Gigi Ruff and Austin Sweeten. Austria versus Washington. And Austin Sweeten in the lead against, you know, arguably the most dominant person in this field, Gigi Ruff. And most influential. I mean, this is where it's going to get real because if Austin wins the next run. It's a wrap. Gigi's out. He's eliminated. Again, for context, Gigi Ruff, second place in 2012. Gold medal at Ultra Natural in 2013 was here in 2008 as we welcome in Jeff Moran. Hello, sir. Great to be with you guys. This is your backyard, your years and years in snowboarding, both in Vermont and here in Jackson Hole, coaching, etc. Like what does this mean to you so far in what you've seen taking place here at Jackson? It's mind boggling. Like first off, we were talking earlier about how this used to be a hike to only zone. So to see it opened up over the last few years with the new Teton lift and to be able to get a lot of laps through there. But it's never, ever been anything like this.  We've never had that much snow where you just get to go up and pick any line down. I mean, it's absolutely insane to see what they've put together. I mean, no one ever thought there'd be a massive, would you say four square miles or something like that, of terrain at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in bounds that was closed. And then everybody just gets their own powder run. And you've lived here for a long time. You live here a year round. Were you watching it from down here be constructed this summer? Just features popping up left and right? Yeah, it was crazy. And to go up there, I went up early season with Travis and took a run through. We were with the drone pilots just checking some stuff out. There was less snow early December. And to be able to see firsthand how much of an enhancement they made for all the different features. I think Liam Griffin, the COO of Natural Selection Tour, said it best, he said, if you can take off of something, there's a landing. And not just straight down fall line, but in multiple directions, as we've been seeing with some of these hits. And that was what a lot of the riders were saying. They're like, I know what my, immensely what my line is going to be, but also there's that thing when, any time that you're snowboarding, you're like, I want to hit this. But then all of a sudden you're like, Oh, what's that? Like, is that, is that going to, are you going to deviate? Are you going to be like, be curious George in your run? And I feel like the advantage these riders have, right? Is that, you know, this is Travis Rice's brainchild, trust in Trav. All right. Gigi is behind against Austin. What, what do you expect here for me? Gigi's, Gigi's one of the Godfathers, right?  As Bird mentioned earlier, he's competed in all three of the previous Natural Selection events and even one one. So I think he's got, he's got a feel for it now. Someone had to go first, as he said, and he's probably having fun.  I love that he was able to hold it together there. It looked like he could have gone down. And he's opening up a whole new line. He's completely deviating from his first run and Gigi goes down. That is not good news for Gigi Ruff with Austin Sweeten standing in the start gate, ready to drop next. I agree. And you know, it's not like Gigi came out and didn't want to win, but he's proven himself.   Well, and we were talking about that earlier in his first run. When it came time, I mean, dropping first in this contest is not a desirable drop spot, but Gigi just stepped up and he said, you know what? I've done this before. I'll probably do it again. I'll drop first. Yeah. That was my favorite line last night. Someone's got to do it. We all thought that first drop spot was going to be the last one. Yeah. And it got filled in. Yeah. So I'm sure Blake Paul is happy. He just, he heard him say that. He was grateful. He's like, I didn't hit anything. He's got a big smile on his face. Well, it would look like the advantage definitely is in Austin's hand. This might be a victory lap. Yeah, I'm interested to see what Austin does here. Will he send it? Or will he just take a little bit mellower of a run and put down a good score, stay on his feet, and advance to the next round? Because he does know that Gigi went down two times in that second run of his. I'm not going to lie. I really hope for a pull-pull from Gigi. I wanted the first, you know, rubber match, having it come down to that third run to be between like master and student. Yeah. I think it's really fun to look at this as it's like high stakes backcountry Rochambeau, right? Yes. Yes. High stakes backcountry Rochambeau. Well, and also keep it in mind. Put it on a T-shirt.  He can't hold back. As we saw. So, sweeten on course. Can he advance to the next round? That was enormous. Backside 360. Catching the last little bit of that transition right into that turn of gigantic frontside hack. Nice method in the middle of the course right there. Dip it into the trees going around that feature. Always heading into kind of a newer zone than we haven't seen any lines in yet. So sweeten staying on his feet. Look at this dude just pointing and burning. This course. Nice full manner all the way through to end it. Austin sweeten sending a message to whoever is next. This broadcast is basically 24 live video parts. He's choking all the time. He's choking. He's so deep. Kinky just said you didn't pull your mask up. Once again teaching all the youngsters lessons. Yeah. Hey, what's the snow quality up like there? It's choking. It's choke yourself good up there. You know we got. So let's take a look at what went wrong for Gigi Ruff. Frontside three comes up a little short and then kind of airs to the flats. And yeah, he just went down two separate times in that run. But hats off to Gigi Ruff. I mean, I'm not a betting man, but I'd put money on Austin sweeten advancing to the next round. We'll see what the what the scores come in at. But look at that backside three sweeten. I mean, you got this is this is what the vision was when Travis said this is this is what I can see like this ability to transfer from jump to jump through natural terrain and make it look like you're just riding the resort. I gotta say it's it's it's amazing to see how quickly they're able to modify their lines. One of you. Tiebreaker. Thank you. Wow. We forced our first tiebreaker. And here we go. Right. This goes back to what we were talking about before about especially in this format. Your falls don't necessarily mean anything. And also the fact that I think that Gigi chose to put himself out there on a part of the course that hadn't been hit yet. And the judges taking that into consideration saying, OK, he raised the stakes. So look at that. That's what we get for assuming. We're going to go to a tiebreaker. All right. Next up we've got the back country prince hometown hero, Mr. Blake Paul. Spent a lot of time on the road riding with Blake here at Jackson when he was younger going to contest with him. And it is I gotta say it's he's near and dear to my heart and it's really makes an impact to see him here riding in this field today. I mean, I had the pleasure of interviewing Blake for Snowboarder Magazine in 2018. And when it came time to title the interview, I settled on the prodigy. That's the best way to put it. He is the next back country superstar in snowboarding. So Blake looking pretty good on this course here, taking a very similar line to his first run, hitting that Lando's hip, huge backflip, airing down into that Powell field. And you know, Jeff, we were saying the beauty of this course is what happens in between the hits counts just as much as what happens on the hits. Absolutely. And I think that's a huge point. Back seven. I think that's a huge point that we need to keep hitting home. This is much different than a traditional slope style. And this is a full on freestyle back country powder run. Yeah, we just got victimized by our years and years of calling specific a specific style of contest and not being able to factor in things that we normally would talk about off microphone that are being factored in in real time here in this event. And you got to love it. So Blake Paul putting down a burner of a run. He is currently in the lead if he wins this second run that would eliminate Elias Elhart. We were talking last night about Elias Elhart in Dark Matter. Yeah.  And then there's that that moment where Elias is like, yeah, I'm going to sit this one out, Travis. You can have this. I'm not feeling it. And it lets you know like all these riders are unique. And that for each each rider, this is calculated risk. You know what you're capable of on a given day. And if you're not feeling it, whether it's out in the back country on a shoot or here on this course, you're not going to do it. Absolutely. And what I love about Elias is is he's always seeking for more, seeking to be greater. You know, he's filmed so many incredible video parts over the years. He has recently got into concepting and directing his own snowboard films. There's a film out there called Contradiction. There's a film called Narciss. They're beautiful. I mean, this guy is much more than just a phenomenal snowboard. He really makes snowboarding look fun.  I had to hear it with the rocker. Starting things off with a half cab into a backside 360. I'm a big fan of the back threes with a stale fish grab. All right, little butter three. And you know, as we're starting to see, the course really opens up after they get through the first third or so of the course. And I think the riders are starting to get a better sense of where all the features are. And a reminder, none of these riders have ridden this course yet. They've had a chance to inspect it from the sidelines. But this is all of their first time through. So some of them are taking a more popular track. That last or the last hit is getting hit quite a bit. But every single one of them, first time through. And again, normally, we'd be like, oh, well, it goes down on the 720. The judges are also like, he decided to throw a big, old, huge front seven. Yeah, that situation. Yeah, the credit for saying, OK, we're going for it. I mean, after the surprise of what happened in Gigi in Austin's heat, I really don't know what's going to happen here. If Blake wins, he advances. If Ilias wins, it forces our second tiebreaker. And again, overall impression. Right, the spray is all. I really, really dig that. So let's break it down here. Frontside 360 from Blake Paul. Huge backflip on Lando's hip. Check out that second angle. That really puts into perspective that's about 70 feet. They're going to the landing. And it's not the longest landing. I mean, it's off camber, right? Like, it's a hip. You have to. If you go too deep on that, there's snow there. But it's not where you want to be. He nailed it. Those turns. I love on that hip, too, the way he landed and literally checked straight into a turn. Yep. That's awareness. That's backcountry awareness. Here's Ilias Elhardt, huge backside 360 stale. And there was quick decision making. He went into that second jump, like, on a hair's notice. I feel like Ilias and Blake are both very nimble, very agile. It's a good pairing for this first round. And here's the frontside seven. Just goes down at the bottom of that landing. You know, I think Blake's got it. It's just my opinion. We'll see what the judges say when the scores come in. And last night at the seating event, Blake's the last name to come up, right? Like, Blake didn't get to pick his spot. He was put with Ilias. And he's doing a really good job. And there it is. Blake with the win, you called it. And while this is a head-to-head match, the mutual admiration and the fact that this is an event that is collectively moving the sport forward together is not lost on any of the field. Now, gentlemen, it gets heavy. Two all-terrain vehicles in Ben Ferguson and Bode Merrill.  This is like, this is what you would wish for, but you'd never think that you'd get to see it like this. I'll be honest, coming into this event, I wanted to see two things. I wanted to see Ferguson's method and Merrill's Miller flip, and both of my boxes have been checked. It's already happened. You can head home now. Thank you. All right, so if Ben Ferg can stay on his feet and land this run, he's going to be in a really good position to advance. Frontside 360. I like the back to front. And look at that pow cloud. These are dream conditions up on that course. Huge backflip. And Ben Ferg goes down, head over heels, but you've got to keep it going. As we've said time and again, we do not yet know how falls are factored into these riders' runs. Back seven. That was nasty. That was hot. Looks like he's down there in the Settly Crawford Bernie Senders zone. Oh, the names for these 50 yourselves. And the way the names have changed over the course of the last few days. I love the Bernie Senders. What I love about Ferg's approach is he's not a feature-by-feature get-to-the-bottom guy.  And what that speaks to is growing up riding Mount Batchelor, Oregon, that mountain is so featured and so playful, much like Jackson Hole, that it's just a very similar landscape. I think that gives Ben a bit of an advantage. I agree. I agree. When we were scoping the course the other day, I don't know who it was, but someone asked Bodie. They said, so at what point in the run are you going to unstrap? And I'll be honest, I would love to see, like if he stopped and unstrapped, I have a feeling it wouldn't take away from his score. We were talking about that earlier.  And it was interesting, there were certain parts where people would be like, I don't know if that's cool. And I'd be like, what do you mean you don't know if that's cool? This dude can step down and do whatever he wants with one foot and do sevens and inverted combos, just because you can't do it doesn't mean you can even try to discount it. At this point, Bodie's on just a superhuman level in the snowboard world. And he actually got in as a wild card entry online by the judge's vote. And now he's here in Jackson Hole. So after that first run, what would you like to see from him in the end? I want to see Bodie be Bodie. That's what I want to see. And I think that's what we're going to see right here. Oh, there's that. Is that Merrill's hit? I think that's his. Oh, Merrill time. Bodeman goes down on that Miller flip transfer. Yeah, he was trying to get it all the way around. To five? To five, yeah. Yeah, step it up a little bit. And that right there, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the problems that backcountry riding poses.  You pick them up, ride down to the bottom. They come off in a backcountry course. They're full of pow. You can't see very well. As it was literally just displayed right there. Like, you're fighting the CN conditions like this with goggles. Yeah, yeah. Without goggles, like, I don't want to turn. I want to turn. I don't want to turn. And I want to send a shout out to Mother Nature. Mother Nature, as we've all been hearing, is a huge factor in this entire contest series. Paying homage to we wouldn't be here without Mother Nature. The rock features, the amount of snow. So it's huge to see what she has provided for us and our global snowboard family. She is the main character of this tour. And I love the fact that that was Travis's deal from the very beginning.  And as we'll learn more through the course of the event, just the manner in which an area like this affects the coasts out to California, how the waters that melt here in the summer lead into the Pacific Ocean. Like, the connectivity when you speak about nature is truly on display here. And here in the Yeti recap, as we transition to Ben Ferg's second run, he's in the lead. I think Ben's going to take this one. And you know, you got to feel for Bodie Merrill. Like, this is a cutthroat contest. You get two runs. If you can't win one of those heats, that's it. And I love that, like, you know, unlike other events where we'd watch 16 riders go, go, go, go, and then try to compare between rider two and rider 14, like, it's clear cut. It is clear cut. And it's ability for the riders to really, really focus against another person as opposed to the whole field. Absolutely, yeah. And that's, you know, that Miller flip five right there. That's where it went wrong for Bodie Merrill. And he just had a tough run. I mean, it says it all right here. I was going to say, you can see it on his face, but he didn't give up, right? Like, after that Miller flip, I mean, he was down. He had to unpack his goggles. He could have just taken some pow-turns and called it, but he didn't. Yeah, Ben, congrats, dude. Well, just like we thought. Dude, I hope you make it to the end. Ha, ha, ha! Ferguson. We got this, dude. Woo! I like that. I hope you make it to the end. Yep. I pass you the torch. I do it for my district. All right, Sage Kosterberg in the lead. Victor De La Rue put it down. Or used to will be on the sidelines joining Bodie Merrill. I mean, at this point right now, Victor's trying to stay alive. Stay in the game. So Victor riding switch right here. Oh, he's right there. I think he's going to kick things off with that enormous half-cap into the backside 360 tailgrab. So very similar to his first run. Where is he going to go from here? That was good looking. We're starting to see a lot of the tracks head to some of the similar features. Some of the takeoffs are getting nice and padded down. It'll be interesting to see how we get later in the field and riders choose new lines. Exactly. And that course is enormous. This is going to be very consequential for Victor. Frontside 360 and goes down. And with Sage Kosterberg standing up top, that's a tough position to be in. He definitely was looking to not fall. You know, it goes back to the different styles of rider that Sage and Victor are. Sage has spent so much time in the air jumping, be it in the back country or in the park. Victor has spent a fair amount of time jumping in the back country. But he has a bit more of a big mountain approach to things. And to that point, as we've been talking about all the different disciplines from video part to slope style half-pipe to back country competitors, this is kind of an opportunity to decide the best snowboarder in the world. Absolutely. I think when Travis set out with this idea, he wants to crown the world's best snowboarder by the end of the tour. The world's best snowboarder of the world's best snowboarder. Exactly. And that's the thing. Every time that we go to introduce somebody and you look at the credits of why people are here, there's nobody who's like, oh, I'm just here happy to be here. No, there is none of that. Literally, every person on this list, male and female, is a first-ballot Hall of Famer or future first-ballot Hall of Famer. There's no denying that. And again, at the top of the show, Sage Kossenberg's saying I would rather win this event than go and win another Olympic gold medal. That's heavy metal. That's heavy. Switch backside 180 from Sage. Looks like he was reaching out, trying to get some of that tree. Into a gigantic backflip nose grab. Sage is definitely taking a different line from his first run. Yeah, I do have that. I think that's going to help him in scoring if he can stay on his feet, airing into that nice little pow pocket there. Opening up some new terrain. Why not get some fresh while I'm out here? Frontside 360 and Sage goes down. So now it becomes a battle of the slams. Yeah. How are the judges going to score that? No guarantees. They were both toward the bottom of the course. Exactly. The top sections were clean. I think there's going to be less of a discrepancy in score coming in between Victor and Sage than there was in the first round. And this has officially become a nail biter. Yeah. There's basically no victory laps until the actual victory lap at natural selection. And I love that. Yeti recap coming up. Here's Victor with that half cab opening up. Quick decision making right there for the riders. That was a great combo. Big old laid out backflip. And here is where Victor went down on the same trick as Sage, a front three, but on a different feature. Jeff, who wins this one? You know, I'm going to have to go with Sage. I think Sage has it. I'm in that camp, too. I think Sage's run was just a little bit cleaner. They both went down on the same trick, approximately the same location on the course. Sage had a switch backside 180, had a backflip. Victor also had a half cab and a backflip. And they both went down on this trick right here. Sage, though, opting to go for an unhit feature. Exactly. Which has no tracks in the landing. Right, and I was going to say that's going to play in, because he didn't take the familiar line. We saw that in the heat that we called wrong. And there we see it. A little bit closer than the first one. One more on the previous one. Pressure to the final. Thank you. Well, do. All right, bye. I love that back to back. We just see like, hey, keep going. And in many ways, this is the culmination of Sage's career. He said I'm going to step away after all these accolades. I'm going to be a backcountry rider. Step one, complete. All right, let's see who advances here. So we have one tiebreaker. That's going to be Geeky Ruff in Austin, Sweden. Blake Paul has eliminated Ilias Elhardt. Ben Ferguson has eliminated Bodie Merrill in Sage Kotsenberg, reigned victorious over Victor Delaru. Did you ever think that would come out of anyone's mouth in a snowboard contest? No, absolutely not. But that's what makes this such a historical day.  This format had never been done. All sorts of lines that will have never been done here. At step, the first stop here at Yeti, natural selection, Jackson Hole. My dear, so where is the aircraft here? So I need to step in. The idea kind of started to form and grow pretty naturally. I think there was a what if we did an awesome competition with natural terrain and natural snow conditions. 2008, the Quicksilver natural selection here at Jackson, it was such a ride. I mean, we got more snow than I've ever seen fall in the course of a week. We almost didn't pull it off because I think we had like 80 to 90 inches over the course of that week. Rolling into the natural selection has never been done before then. We needed two real things in order to pull it off. One was support from Jackson Hole, and the other was a company that believed enough in it to get behind us. Bob McKnight at the time was CEO of Quicksilver, and he definitely single-handedly was like, I believe in this vision. And Quicksilver fully got behind it and titled that event and gave us support and resources in order to pull it off. The original natural selection that we did, I think it made a pretty solid impression. But the ball has always been rolling towards this type of an elite tour of this type of riding. 2008 vision leading us to where we are here at Yeti Natural Selection. Jackson Hole, shout out to Bob McKnight, probably the furthest shredding CEO in history. And you woke up this morning, Jeff, and you found a flashback in 2008. I was going through a drawer at the house, and look what I came upon. It's the original Flyer booklet from the 2008 natural selection. It's got the 17 riders who are here.  Mark Landvicks on here. He's been involved with helping build the course. Yeah, Gigi. Yeah, I mean, it's in pristine condition. I didn't even know I still had it. So it was nice to have that show up in life today. Keep that safe. It's probably already worth something.  Hit me up. Your impressions so far as we head into our first tiebreaker, Mary. Oh, my gosh. The excitement, honestly, I think we're so, so stoked. And heading into a tiebreaker, the energy couldn't be higher right now. Yes. First time ever in this head-to-head format where you win one, your competitor wins one. We're not going to be like, what's the best score. We're going to go into literally winner take all in this third and final run. And that, that now all of a sudden is when the score comes into play in this final run. And it's a new energy. As a competitor, what's that like energetically? Because you've never been in this situation before. I think it kind of gives you a blank slate every run. It's just a kind of an opportunity for a total reset. That's a great way to look at it. Yeah, I mean, they're both starting from scratch. Gigi Roof, again, I mean, was here in 2008, 20 years of just legendary snowboarding against Austin, who is likely someone to take that torch in the rest of his career. But the man who literally can just meld with any and all terrain and has blown us away, going all the way back to that's it, that's all. Here is Gigi Roof. I mean, I remember watching Gigi's part in Happy Hour back in the early 2000s. And the way that he rode then stuck with me so much. And it's the same now. Oh, my gosh. Oh, going down there. Raising the stakes with that back 720. Again, 39 years of age. Like, I still see him as a kid.  What kind of natural thing are you selecting for your agelessness? Legend. He's kind of the Paul Rudd of snowboarding in that sense, I think. Living the good life and it shows. You know, this is a really tough tiebreaker. Oh, there we go, Gigi, having some fun on the course. Because I don't want either of these guys, honestly, to be stopped from the competition. Like, they're both so smooth, so fun to watch. And they've been explosive on the course today. Gigi with a little bobble there. I think that was a better looking run than a couple of his first ones. I messed up the nicest one. Sorry about that. So you hear Gigi remarking there about messing up a landing. I mean, that's one of the things that comes into play when you look at traditional competitions. You know, it's a groomed landing. Anyone can have a fine full pull on it whenever they go. But here, the course is changing throughout the day. I just like that he apologized to the audience and fell. I mean, that is the Zen master, Gigi. That was a Zen frustration that we heard him pull out. Pressure is on, though, for young Austin. Because nothing is guaranteed here. We know that he is going to just point. I wonder if he will take a new line. Yeah, he's got to have some confidence going into this because he has ridden so well today, honestly. But like we said, it's anyone's game. It's like you're starting fresh right now. So what's he going to do? Is he going to take, yeah, go into a fresh lane, open up some new features, or kind of go with something more familiar? One thing that we've seen from Austin is he's definitely not hitting the knuckles. He's taking it as far down the landing as he can go and still staying on his feet most of the time. So it'll be interesting to see how this new line ends up. I mean, I think that's part of his explosiveness. Oh, that was beautiful. You know, Austin's not a huge guy. And so I think he's used to pointing it wherever he needs to go. So it's great. That was gorgeous. Wow. Woo-hoo-hoo. See a little bit of the kicking chicken there, but he rides away from it. He went so deep. And this is just great. I mean, look at those turns. I mean, this is where you see the idea of the video parts that Austin films. This is like a look into a run for filming when he's making a segment. Coming in way on the rider's left side of the course, that was definitely a new line that we haven't seen others take. But Austin, living up to his reputation of just sending it. I mean, you could see how fast he was going as he popped just an impromptu Ali transfer out of that one backside turn that probably flew him like another 15 feet into his toe side turn. Oh, completely. I mean, he's just a great rider to watch. And like we said before, it's these two generations of snowboarders coming together. Both have so much power and fluidity. And here we go seeing Gigi again. Gigi on the Yeti recap coming up just a little short on that seven. We all wanted it for him. And that was just massive from Austin right there. I mean, he looks so comfortable on this course right now. That's a good combo, the back to back threes. And he nailed the landings on those first two. This one not so much, a little reminiscent of his first run, but still putting down some solid tricks. And again, look at that. A new line right there. Absolutely enormous. That was like 100 feet. Yeah, right to the bottom. I mean, that's just insane. And that's mind blowing. It didn't bog him down, though. He kept it going.  What are you thinking as they wait for the scores right now? Right, I mean, so much is going through their heads. Those little bobbles have got to just be like percolating to the top, right? Because everybody wants to put on a perfect run. And that's so hard in this kind of conditions. And I think the finesse that they're navigating this with is really exemplifies what kind of riders they are. Austin Sweeten takes the win that time after the somehow another 100 foot recovery. I would still be being, they'd have to send a crew to dig me out for the hole that my big buddy, Body, would have made. But I love the fact that we got to experience a tiebreaker right off the back here in these first four runs. Austin Sweeten joins Blake Paul, Ben Ferguson, and Sage Kostenberg as they will head into the quarter finals. And look at what we have left. Four more rounds to go here in qualifying on this historic day one. First stop of the supernatural tour. This is Yeti, supernatural Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Thank you, Nature, for providing us a full-on playground for this show. Natural selection tour here at beautiful Jackson Hole. We have just finished up the men's competition. Heats one through four. Heats five through eight will take place later on. But right now, we are going to transition to the women's side of things. The women's competition, there are four heats, eight women competing. And I say we have an all-star cast. Welcome back, everyone. I am Tina Dixon, and I am joined by two announcers that you have already had the privilege of listening to Mary Walsh and T-Bird. You guys, that was quite the start to this event. Bum not to see Gigi Ruff move on, but that's how it goes. And now we transition to the women's field. I look at this list, and I could not have put together a better list of women for this event. It's truly incredible.  Yeah, I mean, if you look at every single heat, it's a legendary backcountry rider against a top tier elite level competition snowboarder. Yeah, I love the fact that we have the matchups. I mean, that's been one of the most unique aspects of this event, is you take two riders, match them up against each other, and then they go and have some fun. Here's the format for the women. We have four heats.  There are eight riders, and it's similar to the men's. They will take one run each rider, and then they will go back up, take another run, and if they need to do a tiebreaker, that will happen. And then we will take the top four women from today, and they will move on to the day two final. Let's take a look at the judging criteria. Just remember that Dave, difficulty, amplitude, variety, and execution. And again, we're gonna see the same thing that we saw with the men's side, the first four heats, is that these women are being judged on that overall situation, the appraisal of their top to bottom run. Yeah, I mean, we saw a couple rounds there where one of the guys fell, still won that round. Yes, I mean, no doubt this course is very, very challenging, and so we're gonna see the ladies really, really step it up right now. Yeah, and it's uncharted territory for the women, really. I mean, you look at this list right here, Jamie Anderson, Hanna Beeman, Robin, Benjean, Zoe, Sadowski, Alayna Hailey-Layland, Anna Gasser, and Marion Haridy. I mean, it's a combination of everything, Olympians, Olympic gold medalists, and to start things out, Jamie Anderson versus Hanna Beeman, Jamie is the greatest competitor snowboarder of all time, full stop. She's the most decorated female ex-games athlete. She's won due toward the US Open, Grand Prix, oh, and two Olympic gold medals back to back. And many think almost a third. Let's hear from Jamie. Having the natural selection title would be unbelievable. I just feel so honored to be here and have the opportunity to compete on literally a dream course, so I'm just happy to shred. I don't think I really have a strategy. I don't really know how I'm gonna go about it. I'm gonna try to ride through inspiration. I have a lot of different ideas, but I'm not sure how it's all gonna come together, but more will be revealed. So she says she doesn't have a strategy there, but I will say that after the seating event last night, she was hovering over the map and looking at the course with Travis Rice really studying and knowing Jamie and how competitive she is, she's gonna take that competitive nature and put it out on the course today. Yeah, I don't think you get a trophy collection like Jamie has without an element of competitiveness in your psyche. And she really staked her claim to the backcountry while just starting off beautiful right there. In her recent movie, Unconditional, and she said, I have all these slip style medals, I have big air medals, but I'm also gonna plant my flag here. Yeah, I feel like that was Jamie telling the world, I'm not just a competitive snowboarder. Yes, not only is she, she doesn't wanna just be the best competitive snowboarder in the world, she wants to potentially be the best snowboarder in the world. Absolutely. So going down right there on that hip, she picks herself up. And you guys were talking about this earlier, the judging system, yeah, there's that criteria, but really it's an appraisal of the entire run. Oh, going down. Ooh. And really when you're dropping first in any contest, you're the standard center. So every other girl is up there watching right now, like, okay, what's Jamie gonna do and how are the judges gonna score it? And they have the ability to tweak their runs, moving forward. Unfortunately, Jamie falling twice, we're gonna have to see what that score comes in at and then the bar is officially set for the rest of the field. Yeah, and I don't think we can talk about this enough is the fact that the riders don't get practice. I mean, Jamie's used to a slope style event where she gets practice after practice after practice. These riders, yeah, they did get a chance to slip the side of the course and kinda look at the features, but they don't know the timing. You don't know the speeds. And so that brings up the question, do those back country women, Robert Benjean, Hannah Beeman, do they have a competitive advantage in this situation? Because a lot of that is natural instinct and Hannah Beeman up next. Hannah's storied career really comes from just that diligent work ethic blended with, I mean, really her natural skill that only a few riders have possessed the last two generations. She has dominated the contest scene, but the last probably eight years, she's really dedicated her time to pursuing and filming in powder. I think I was pulled from more of the terrain park riding into the back country because it just offered a little more interpretation of what I wanted to ride. And it was super challenging and it was also rad to be in those mountains, you know? Like the park scene is super fun and you're shredding with your friends, but there's something special about going up into the mountains with your crew and seeing something that you get stoked on and riding it and feeling like you really accomplished something special at the end of the day. It's true, when you go up and you check something out and you work on it and then you ride it, there's that feeling of reward and something to talk about that. She spent a summer up here helping build this course. So she's got a really invested, she's invested a lot of time into this. When I think of Honda Beamon snowboarding, I think power mixed with precision. She spent so much time in the mountains, she's so aware of her surroundings and the features that she's riding. That was a huge method from Honda Beamon. Oh, going down there, but you can see she opened up that new area, like she was going right for it. She was here in the test event last year and so, and you know, from building this course, obviously she hasn't dropped into it, but she has a little bit more familiarity and of course is used to picking lines in the backcountry. Well, and I wonder, you know, we can speak to Honda later about it, but I wonder what her mindset was before Jamie's run and how that changed her strategy, if it changed her strategy after seeing Jamie Anderson fall twice on the course. I think what's so interesting about this matchup, I mean, this is a hammer matchup is because Honda helped introduce Jamie into the backcountry when they were filming for Full Moon. You know, she was imparting her wisdom to help Jamie learn.  I really could not have picked a better heat to start the women's competition off. I did not feel like I had enough speed. I slowed down too much for the great wall. So there you go. You're getting live reactions from the riders themselves after their first runs. But I felt the crust on Boaties. That's what happens when you drop first. You're the trendsetter. You're the one that provides the beta to the rest of the field watching in the rider's tent. And it says, hey, you need to go faster on this hit or you need to go slower on this turn. Totally. And that's where we see Mother Nature really come into play on this course again. I mean, right now, the sun is coming out a little more up there. You can see it shining on Hannah, excuse me, down in the finish gate. And is that making things a little slower already? This is Jamie Anderson on Lando's hip. Huge backside three. She lands a little heavy on the nose. I mean, and on Jamie's first hit, it looked like she just got stuck in a track. So then that goes back to next runner, they're going to open up a new part of the course to get fresh snow.  And you mentioned something earlier, Teebird, that these snowboarders process data so fast that they can go back up. And even if they do do a different line, well, they know the snow conditions better. All right, here are the results after that first run. So Jamie Anderson is currently in the lead. They will both go back up and take one more run. But right now, they've at least had one run on the course. They know what the conditions are doing. And we're going to move on to the next team, because this one is super interesting. You've got Robin Van Gin, really the purist, as you said, Teebird. She films in the back country. Her eye for potential in the mountains is second to none. Her education of snow safety, her stability. I mean, it's PhD worthy. And her incredible career in the mountains has culminated in Robin's side job as a guide at the world renowned Bald Face Lodge. And now she's here dropping into natural selection. Here's what she had to say. I started guiding when I was 19 years old. I was a snowmobile guide and whistler. And really, when I looked at snowboarding, knowing what I wanted to do, I knew I wanted to ride back country. And I really wasn't there career-wise. So I took it upon myself to kind of find other routes to get there. The main goal has always been ride powder. So guiding has been amazing development for me. It's taught me so much about the back country, about the mountains. It's really improved my skill set in the mountains and riding back country freestyle. So yeah, I feel like there's so much to know. And you can never know it all. But I do think that's something that's going to help me. And I spoke to her last night. And she said, you know, I've got three runs. I've eyed out three runs. I'm going to really want to do those runs. She knows what she wants to do. If anything, she was concerned about her lack of competitive experience. When you're hand selected by Travis Rice to be a star of depth perception, you know you've made it. That validates Robin Van Jyn's decision to always be a back country snowboarder and not falter from that course. This does exactly the same. Exactly, Timur. I mean, that's the thing is in the last half decade, Robin has emerged as one of the women in the back country really setting the pace of what is possible. I mean, her riding is strong. It's fluid. And as you said, Tina, she's a tail guide at Bald Face. She knows how to read a mountain. So Robin making her way down the course, staying on her feet, putting together a nice run, opening up that rider's right zone. Frontside three and Robin Van Jyn goes down. Now she fell at the bottom of the course. Jamie and Hannah both fell kind of in that mid range on the course. So, you know, it's going to be exciting to see how the judges are going to factor that in, right? Will her score be a little bit higher, even with a fall at the very bottom?  And those count. Those turns count in this event. Yeah, you have to remember that it's not just tricks. This is not just a trick event. This is riding the entire mountain, reading what it's doing. Oh, and next up, Zoe Sidowski-Sanat. I am really excited to see her ride. She came in as the wild card. Coming to us from New Zealand, she really skyrocketed into the snowboarding conversation. When she took that bronze medal in the big-air competition at the Olympics, and everyone started asking, all right, who is Zoe? She's then solidified herself with winning X Games Gold, Silver Medals. She's put herself in the elite company with Anna Gasser and Jamie Anderson, and now dropping in. So excited, like, after scoping the course with a good crew and, 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 do a wildcat somewhere off a hit that I've never hit before, straight into competition. So, yeah, trying to do that. I am so excited to watch Zoe ride today. She really exploded onto the scene at the Olympics, and wowed everyone in the big-air and just showed that she was here to stay. And since then, she's gotten the X Games podium. She's been a constant competitor in the women's circuit, but this is really her first showing in a back-up situation for everyone. And you would not know it. She is going gigantic, falling on that second hit. But I mean, this is the quintessential story of the rookie versus the veteran. Robin Van Jyn, the veteran, Zoe Sadowski-Sanat on the world stage here in the back country as a relative rookie, making her way down the course. So as of right now, Zoe and Robin both do have a fall in their runs. They're taking completely different lines, which I'd like to see. Ooh, yeah, you can see Zoe going kind of on a little bit of those less sizable poppers, still very sizable. And oh, getting a nice just toeside carving right there. You know, and we did see this in the first couple runs of the men's field with Iggy and all, where they were going down once in a while because they haven't gotten eyes on it. They haven't. It's one thing to look at a course. It's another to ride a course. It's so great to see the support between the competitors right now, because that's what this is. I think everyone is so stoked to be here and just be a part of this event that I imagine that weighs almost as heavy as actually getting via the go-ahead. All right, well, let's take a look at the runs, starting things off with Robin Van Jyn, tons of power and flow. So this is just a massive three right here. I mean, that's the kind of thing you want to see and why Robin has one back-to-back women's video parts of the year. This is the kind of riding that she does. It's a no-holds-barred but controlled. And then next up, it was Zoe Sadowski-Sanat. She started off going massive, huge, straight air. And I think she wanted to do something different there, but I think she was taking a little bit too much speed into that second feature. There's that wildcat she wanted to do, more of a straight-over backflip. But it was one of her goals coming into the event. And there is that front-side turn. You got to appreciate a good front-side turn. But how is it going to be scored? Yeah, this one, I feel like I'm not sure how the judges are going to call it. So there you go. Zoe takes the lead on that first round. And there you hear Robin going, all right, let's do this. Let's go back up. So we have just finished up the first two heats for the women's quarter-finals. And next up, we have Elena Haidt and Hailey Langland. And what a match-up this one is. Elena Haidt, what can you say about her two-time Olympian? I watched her compete in the halfpipe in Torino in 2006. That was a long time ago. And now she is here. She's an icon. She's one of the greats. But she is now challenging herself and taking the opportunity to venture into the unknown and get outside of her comfort zone.  It's really exciting to be able to challenge yourself in a completely new aspect of snowboarding, but still have it be the sport that I love so much. I think that what sets snowboarding apart from a lot of competitive sports or sports that people follow is the mother nature aspect. We have this element of just surprise that everyone has to be ready for and it really keeps you on your toes. The element of surprise is more true than you know it. I mean, this resume is untouchable. Six-time X Games medalist, two-time Olympian, star of blank canvas, and get this. The first woman to ever land a 900 in halfpipe competition. Couple that with US Open and due to her wins. I mean, Elena Haidt has already reached that legendary status in snowboarding. And here she is at natural selection, putting the cherry on top of that untouchable resume. I mean, it's been so exciting to watch Elena's transition from the contest scene to the back country over the last couple years. I mean, even just her riding over two seasons in blank canvas really exemplified a snowboarder whose abilities transcend any kind of terrain. And so dropping in today, so excited. Oh, that was, oh goodness, not putting the landing gear down, but looked gorgeous in the air. So hopefully next run she can get a rebate on that. Yeah, Lando's hip has not been kind to some of the competitors. So Elena Haidt putting down her first run, getting some turns in that is what it's all about right there. You know, the thing about Elena that's really exciting too, is that she really, more than anyone I think, straddles that line between a competitor and a back country rider, because obviously Jamie has, you know, been in the back country as well, but Elena made the full commit. She's not competing anymore in traditional half-bite contests and she's been diving deep into the back country. And so I think that is a very unique position for her to be in with the mindset and the skill set in this competition.  All right, next up, Hailey Langland. And you know, she was introduced to us when she was very young. She rocketed to the snowboard stardom a few years back when she showed up at X Games, landed the first ever cab double cork 1080 in 2017. But Teebert, she was knocked out of X Games last week because of an injury, but she's determined not to miss this new challenge today. Last Friday at X Games, I ended up dislocating my elbow right before the contest started and I had to miss out on the contest, but natural selection is such a high honor to even receive an invite that I felt like I couldn't really pass it up. And it kind of works out with an elbow dislocation, you just kind of sit in a hard cast anyway. And luckily I have a pretty badass doctor who was just like, we'll throw in a hard cast and you might as well just go try and ride.  Yeah, she was walking around. I mean, that arm is in one position only. She had a full elbow dislocation in X Games practice and here she is dropping in for her first run at natural selection. And it's that left arm, if you are asking what elbow, it's that left one. She's actually got a kibble God's mittens, I believe, because it's big enough to go over the cast. But I mean, you know, she still doesn't seem to be having too much trouble. Look at that. Oh my God, going down, but look, she just looked beautiful in the air with that. True Haley Langlin style.  She really is one of the most stylish riders alive and she's been dipping her toes in the backcountry. As of recent years, she had some clips in the acclaimed film Joy. And that was really her first introduction to filming in the backcountry. And she's made it very clear that she wants to be a backcountry rider. Well, and how refreshing is it too? Because every time you go ride backcountry, it's always different. But when you drop into a slope style course, you typically do the same run or very similar runs. Wow, look at that butter. That was so cool. And again, really points to this kind of iconic style that Haley has always had from a very young age and she brings to everything that she does. This is technically, you know, not a lot of tricks in there as opposed to Elena Haidt. They give each other a hug and we're going to see where the judges score this after the recap. I love the fact that they're both just covered in snow. Just, you would never get done with a half pipe competition and just be like that, you know, covered in snow and out of breath and laughing that hard. I mean, that speaks to what a pow day is, right? It's what you want to do on a snowboard. You want to ride powder with your friends in any given environment. All right, let's take a look at the Yeti recap of both of the runs. Elena laced that one. Tail grab off the hip. That was really beautiful in the air. Yeah, she found that little pocket of fresh powder landing and then landed a little bit low on that second hip right there. You know, I know we've mentioned it before, but I think it's worth saying again is that we have never, ever, ever seen anything like this for women in snowboarding. I mean, this is incredible. And to have all of these women together, riding a course like this and then doing tricks like that, that is the sheer enjoyment of snowboarding right there. Like, that is amazing. I mean, this is a big day for snowboarding for women and just in general. Yeah, this event is just unlocking different levels, right? Moving forward. Did you overshoot? All right, so let's see the scores. That's so big, that first one ran in. So Elena Haidt will take the lead on that one.  Next up, oh boy. Okay, so Anna Gasser is the next competitor to go. Now, she has taken the world on and basically won every major snowboard contest. Now, Austria is Anna Gasser. She's quickly been transitioning those park skills into the back country and emerging as one of the most promising power riders on the planet. And for me, it was always a natural step to go from contest to back country one day because when I started snowboarding, it was because I watched video parts and I didn't really watch the competitions at first. It was the videos that made me want to snowboard and that's why I always wanted to go into the back country. That's how a lot of us got started is watching video parts. Yeah. That's what made me, I would spend Sunday afternoons, like from nine to five, that was my job and just watch video, after video, after video. I'm sure she's watching the video parts and I have a lot of the riders that she's competing against as well on that side. I mean, in worth noting, she only starts snowboarding just about 10 years ago when she was 19 years old and she really has a lot of natural skill got good very quickly. You know, I spoke to her yesterday and I was like, how are you feeling? She's like, I'm excited, I'm nervous, but she's excited. But that's true Anna Gasser style is, yeah, she always admits she's a little nervous, but I just think she uses that to her advantage. Yeah, I feel like she's very humble when she talks about her snowboarding as is the entire field, but she really lets her riding do the talking. I know it's cliche, but it's very true. So Anna went down there and she's gonna snake through those trees. Looks like she kind of got hung up in the flats there. You know, I think this is a moment where a lot of these competitors in the men's and women's field are both like, whoa, this just got super real.  Yeah, and a lot of these riders, in fact, the majority of them, I would say have just so much experience in the back country and that lifetime of experience comes into play. Like Robin Van Gene, I mean, she has so much experience in so many different types of conditions and they all change and you all have to ride it differently and that experience really is, I think, going to make a big difference. Totally. I mean, Anna really getting into the back country for pretty much the first time this past season filming for the Burton Team movie. And it is a powerful way to know how to read this terrain and to navigate it. And yeah, that's a challenge, definite challenge. Absolutely, and I think, coming up, we're gonna see Mary and Erdie and it's gonna be very interesting to see the different styles of riding between Anna Gasser and Mary and Erdie.  Anna Gasser finishing up run one and now you have to ask if she'll go back up and maybe throw some tricks in there and something that she's a little more comfortable with. All right, Mary and Erdie winning three titles in any sport is a feat in and of itself, but when it's the Freeride World Tour, it's nearly impossible to comprehend. That's French rider Mary and Erdie's crowning achievement in snowboarding, but the sky is the limit with natural selection. I grew up near to Charrous 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 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 the mind. And she almost didn't make it to this event. She just caught her visa last week. Talked to her last night. She was really, really excited to be here. She's used to doing those big mountain events where the runs are steeper, there's less features. So this is really new terrain for her. I'm really excited to watch Mary and Ride because seeing her talent and prowess on big mountains at the numerous stops of the Freeride World Tour, but never in this kind of kind of jumps and oh, no problem on the first jump she's giving it a straight air, probably feeling things out, but she's looking good. Finding all those little nooks and crannies, those poppers on the course, pointing it into that backside hip and she finds a fresh pocket but goes down in the previous tracks from the other competitors. That feature really is becoming a challenging area for the riders. It looks like it's a favorite, but it's just hard to put the landing down. You know, it makes you wonder, a lot of these coming up a little bit short on that gap and she keeps going, but you know, when you look at a course like this, there's stuff under the snow that you sometimes don't see on that hip. I'm wondering if there's something like a lip or a bump that these riders are hitting. Other tracks from earlier season, whatever it may be. You know, I feel like the riders are also just stoked to get, put a run down, get familiar. We're already finishing up her first run. And that was run one. It was run one. For the women. Yep. They will each go back up and take another run. So as they wait for their scores, we're gonna take a look at the Yeti recap and what these riders just did. Here's Anna Gasser. Quick recap of her run, big old straight air and right there, she goes down in those trees before that second feature, but she's back up, goes down on another feature and gets some real pretty pow turns in there.  I think Anna said last night, this is the European battle right here between these two. Yeah. And you know, neither of them probably had the run that they were looking for, but now that they've, oh, that was impressive riding away from that knuckle. You know, I think they're gonna really look to that second go there. They know the course now. I'm excited to see what they do. Yeah, so again, we're in a situation where both riders had two falls in their run. They took different lines and we're gonna have to see who's gonna take this first heat. Scores coming in. Oh, and it will be Mary and Herity who will take the lead on that first run. And we are just finishing up the first round in the women's competition qualifying. Oh, we're gonna. Now it's gonna get real. Yeah. Now you have riders who are in the lead and it's gonna come down to one run in the next run too. Now you can take your experience and your knowledge from that first run, apply it to that second run. The pressure is on. We're gonna take a quick break and be right back with more of the natural selection. Nature is medicine. It's always been where I find my solstice where I just feel good and grounded and connected. Being out in nature just makes me realize that I'm a small part in the really big picture. Just being able to be outside really soothes my soul and my mental well-being. I really believe that nature is medicine from clean air, fresh water, access to just open spaces. I think that there's so much wellness and grain in nature. I support B4BC because I know everyone has been touched by cancer and breast cancer definitely has affected a couple of people in my life. I really support their cause of trying to help those people through these hard times as well as promoting a healthy, active lifestyle and prevention. I can always clear my energy and feel better just by getting outside in nature. My connection to nature is everything. Check us out at b4bc.org or on Instagram at b4bc. One, two, the Yeti natural selection tour here at Jackson Hole. We have just finished up. Run one of the women's heats. And again, thanks so much to Boarding for Breast Cancer. What a great foundation. And you heard it from the women that they just love being out in nature and it's their therapy. And that's absolutely true that being out in nature and riding these types of mountains is so therapeutic. We're going to get underway with Runs 2. But I want to thank Jeff Moran for joining us. Jackson Hole's own Jeff Moran. Welcome to the booth. Thanks, Tina. It's good to be back. So what do you think? I don't know about you guys, but this might be one of the best days of my life. This is absolutely insane that the anticipation leading up to it has been crazy and to now see it actually happening, it's everything I wanted it to be. Well, and so leading into this second run for Jamie Anderson, when is the last time there's been a snowboard competition where there's been this much uncertainty surrounding Jamie Anderson's run, right? She's so dominant in a competitive environment, but she's up against Hannah Beaman, who's one of the most seasoned backcountry riders, a lot. Yeah, how much does that competitive experience translate to today's event? It does translate, but there's so many different variables The environment is completely different for Jamie Anderson, but this is when the greats prove that they're the greats for a reason. I don't think it can be understated how hard it is to land in powder. You were talking about it earlier. You got to learn the specific techniques, and you got to remember that the landing you see coming up under your feet isn't necessarily exactly where you're going to stop. And Jamie just landing in that track again, that's another thing too. As soon as a course gets ridden more than three, four, five, six times, you're going to have tracks. So you've got to find that fresh snow, which is what Jamie just did. Yeah, she just did a beautiful backside 360 off of that. Atlanta. Jamie Anderson trying to jump down into the parking lot. Maybe she wants to come into the booth. To the bottom. So you guys were talking about how hard it is to ride or land in powder, and she's going backside 180 on that. Trying to land switch in this snow. This snow is deep. It's so deep out there. Yeah, it's just been filling in all season long. Jamie went gigantic on that back one. Yeah, I want to take a look at that backside 360 also. That was an improvement, I would say, off of her first run. I would agree. Yeah, I think so. See Jamie taking some deep breaths there. It's a lot of work to get to the bottom. It's a lot of work getting to the bottom just making turns. All right, Hanna Beeman, up next. The pressure is on for this back country specialist. If anyone can handle the pressure, though, it's Hanna Beeman. She has been doing this for a long time. She's dedicated her life to it, and she is amassed an incredible skill set. I wonder if Hanna is going to mirror her first run line, or if she's going to open up a new part of the course on this one. There's the risk-reward decision-making, right? Like, you go into a new zone. You may not know what's coming up, and you may have to figure out the speed for the takeoffs. But you're going to get extra points. You're going to get some thumbs up from the judges for going out on your own. Yeah, venturing into new territory and creating a new line. And that is, it's like, do I take the risk and do that? And this is moving quick. Those are split-second decisions. So Hanna Beeman on course. Look at that fresh snow and that new line. She is taking a new line from her first run. Huge backflip. Stomped! Count it. Hanna Beeman staking her claim here at the Yeti Natural selection. That snow looks blower. Looks unreal. You know, I got a chance to sort of do a little bit of the scouting with Hanna. And she's like, you know, when we go film, we build our jumps, and then we test the speeds, and we get a chance to really, you know, check it out before we start filming. And that's just one jump. Now I've got to hit, like, four or five features in a row and not know the speed. On the fly. On the fly. But that's the experience that, like, quick thinking. This is always my favorite part, right? Like, they're competitors, but this is what it's all about. Like, they get everybody out here, the homies, they're all friends in the hugs and high fives. It's the worldwide snowboard community. All right, let's take a look at the Yeti recap at both runs. Here's Jamie Anderson. Really smooth at the top. And watch her land right there in that track. And that's why she went down. But then check this out. Huge backside three, finding that nice little pocket of fresh pow. And here's that backside 180. She is so high in the air right there. She almost ran out of transition. That was very Austin Sweeten of her. Well, and you know the difference is, if that was a park jump, I've seen Jamie land dead flat on a park jump and stop it. But this is pow. There's more to consider. So now here we got Hannah Beeman with that massive wildcat that was trick of the heat. And taking a new line and just fresh snow powering through. Yeah, the wildcat and then the new route that she took, those are going to go in a really good direction for her. They're definitely going to play in Hannah Beeman's favor. Yeah. So right now, Jamie Anderson in the lead, if she wins this round, Hannah Beeman is knocked out. And we're going to do a tiebreaker. The heat is on now. Jamie and Hannah are tied, which forces a third run. It's kind of like, yeah, I get a third run. Now what am I going to do? All right, next up, Robin Van Gin. Again, we talked earlier, probably the most experienced in the back country. She does not compete, but she has some of the best film parts out there.  Zoe Sadowski Sinat, the youngster from New Zealand, is currently in the lead. I'll be honest, coming into it, I didn't think this is where we'd be going into second runs. I didn't either. No. I mean, it just speaks to the unpredictability of this course. The guy and girl who win this event are going to be the most adaptable, the most strategic, and the best snowboarders that are here in Jackson Hole. Absolutely. There's no one type of background that sets any one of these riders up for success. You have to have a mix of a massive bag of skills. So here, Robin Van Gin dropping in for her second run. Heading into Genesis. Big straight air into a frontside three. And Robin powers through, but then catches her nose in those tracks. But again, she's going to keep it going. This speaks to that line appraisal that the judges have framed it as where falls do not count like they do in a regular competitive slope style or half pipe event. Yeah, other competitions, you would say, all right, look for your next run. Look for your next run, but that's not necessarily the case because she keeps it going. Backflip to Fakie. That was insane. Right, she knew. She knew the run wasn't over just because she had a bobble. There was still time to impress the judges. So now, if you're Zoe Sidowsky-Sennacht, what's your strategy?  Because even if you take that approach, it still may not beat Robin Van Gin because she threw down big tricks. I think the stay on your feet, Zoe's in a good spot right now. I think the stay on your feet is going to be a good strategy on this one. Well, and you have to remember, I mean, she's coming into this off of doing three contests back to back to back, and not only doing them, but like finishing up on the podium. Yes, she got a silver at X-Gate. So she's, when it comes to competitions, she knows how to handle the pressure, the mindset, get herself in the right frame of mind. Yes, this is backcountry, but there still is that sort of pressure and mindset that you need. There's different levels of advantage, right?  And that's been really an interesting thing to hear from so many of the riders about how, whether they're long-term video riders or they're currently competitive riders, taking that mindset from a competition and bringing it into the backcountry. Because even the people who are big-time video-part riders right now, almost all of them came up competing and they have that in their blood. All right, so Zoe Sadoski-Sanat on course for her second run. Woo! Oh, she's not playing it safe. Zoe is sending it frontside three and goes down. That looks so good, though. It was so beautiful in the air. It was. Yeah. You know, Zoe's one of those riders, grew up in New Zealand, and she said she would go to Cardrona and lap the park, but then she would go to Treblecombe and ride Pap. So she does have experience, but she is definitely a traditional, competitive snowboarder in the sense, in the term. Well, then you have to remember too, we really only got introduced to her in 2018. Yep. I just like how appreciative she is just to be here. And that's a really great thing to hear from a lot of the younger riders is like, and even some of the older riders, they're all talking about how they're riding with their idols and their favorite snowboarders. Like, each one of them is the others' favorite snowboarder. Yeah. Yeah. This is gonna be a tough one to call. They both had a couple of bobbles. I'm on everything, everything. I do like that we get to hear their conversations at the bottom. It's always just pumping each other up, putting them on a pedestal. It doesn't matter, you know, how the run went. Like, everybody's so excited for one another. And it's like, regardless of the outcome of your run, ultimately what we're doing here, what they're doing is riding powder with their friends. Sure, it's a competition, but I've never seen any of my friends in a bad mood on a powder day. It just doesn't happen. Let's take a look at the Yeti recap. Both their runs. Robin Van Jyn with the 360. So Robin didn't fall in the landing. She fell after the, she rode out of that and then caught her nose in that tracked out zone. And there is the huge laid out backflip from Robin Van Jyn. I love the fact that she tried to bring it to fake. Makes it that much harder, might improve her score a little bit more. And now it's going to be interesting to compare that to Zoe Sadowski-Sanat's second run. You know, every minor component of the run makes a difference. Look at these first two runs of Zoe's. They look so good. She did go down on that, on that frontside three, but she looked, like Tina said, it was so beautiful in the air and all of that is being taken into consideration. Yeah, this is going to be a tough one. Yeah. I mean, I know it's cliche to say I'm glad I'm not a judge, but I've never used it and meant it like I do now. A contest like this has never happened. Robin takes that heat and we get another tiebreaker. It's tiebreaker number two. And you know, I feel like they're both down there going, okay, cool. I'm excited. Yeah, where am I going to go? I'd be excited too if I got to take a third run in natural selection. Just think about all the fresh lines that are still up there. Okay, Elena Haidt in Haley Langland. That's the next matchup. Elena Haidt is currently in the lead. She's up next, the former halfpipe rider, two-time Olympian who has transitioned her career to the back country. Recently put out a film, a blank canvas. If you haven't seen it, find it. It is unbelievable. Well, we were talking yesterday, right? And she was talking about how riding a spine and that line is similar. Can we take a step back? There's similar aspects of riding a halfpipe. Just kind of opposite walls. Exactly. Yeah. I think a really interesting common thread is about how so many of these riders, like I was just saying, they came up competing. Some of them took their competition careers much further than others. But they all had to make a conscious decision to move into the back country, but it wasn't just that they wanted to do it. They needed a support system. They needed to have a crew to go with to show them the ropes.  Like you've got to have a support system. 100% back country riding is all about teamwork. Yep. So Elena, landing in that similar bomb hole, they're in that hip landing. She's going to keep it going. Skipping a feature, little front side air. I get the sense that a lot of riders are getting drawn into Lando's hip. It's just kind of where they end up if they're going riders right of the course. It's like a funnel point. Yeah. It's the bottleneck. There are not a lot of good landings left in it. Yeah. I mean, you can see that this thing's getting a little tracked out. Absolutely. But you know, when you're in the back country and you're hitting a jump, the chances of landing first try are pretty slim, even for the best in the world. So you have to learn where to navigate, where to point your trajectory to try to find that fresh snow and not land in those tracks. Exactly. There's a reason why there's one takeoff and a landing field that's like 100 yards wide. Yep. It's so great. No matter how many bobbles people have in their run, they're so excited at the bottom. All right. Haley Langland up next. She was not going to let a dislocated elbow keep her out of natural selection. She was invited and she said, you know what? I'm still going to do this. So she's got her second run and she's got work to do because Elena Haidt right now is in the lead. You look at that left arm. It doesn't move. That's the position it stays in for the entirety of this event. Can Haley Langland force a tiebreaker against Elena Haidt? It's going to be a lot of mute grabs. Tail grabs. I mean, to her credit, though, you get an invite to natural selection. You don't turn it down. You drop in under any and all circumstances. Haley Langland is a beast. That's a good point. I mean, we've heard from a lot of the riders talking to them over the last few days. It's nerve-wracking when they got the call that they were invited. Like they were excited, but equally terrified. And she kind of had it out, right? Like she could have said, well, I got invited to natural selection, but I had a reason why I couldn't do it. And she didn't take the out. She still went for it. I respect that. I've seen Haley at so many slope style events where maybe the judges judged her a couple of points less than or too small of what she should have gotten. So I feel like competing on that level is so grueling sometimes. And this can be, again, really refreshing for a rider. So Haley goes down toward the bottom of her run, but that's at the very, very end with one fall, stayed on her feet, definitely avoided the bigger airs. No question about that. Took a little bit mellower of a line as opposed to Elena Haidt, who sent in and had two falls in there. Yeah. It's going to be interesting to see where this sits. Sandy, Chad, Connor, if you guys can hear us out there, we appreciate all you guys are doing, because you do not have an easy job this week. I was talking to the judges last night also, and Chad was like, I feel the pressure. I hope I do a good job. I really do. All right, so let's really break this down here. Like I said, Elena straight up was sending it. She was going huge. All risk, let's see if it's all reward. That is a good-looking method. She landed in a deep hole right there. I don't know a single rider on earth that could power through that, if we're being honest. That thing was deep. If there is one, that person is here right now. 100% chance, yeah. So as you see here, Haley taking a little bit mellower of a line, staying on her feet. This is where the judges are going to earn their money. I hate to say it. And some internet comment commentary. So Elena in the lead. Elena wins. It takes it, not forcing a tie break. All right, so there you go. Elena, we'll take that one. I got to say, I agree. I agree with the judge's decision. I think you always reward risk, right? Send it, get the points, move on. Absolutely. All right, our final heat for this round. Anna Gasser against Marion Heritage. Marion right now is in the lead. Anna had some bubbles in that first run. She did. She really needs to clean a lot of stuff up. I mean, it's really, it's all about flow. And I don't exactly know what happened to Anna, but she was kind of sitting in the same spot on that course for about 30 seconds, right? And Marion, to her credit, flowed an entire run, had a couple of tricks in there. Maybe played it a little bit safer, knowing what had happened to Anna on her first run. But this is about to get super interesting. It's a similar line to Anna's first run. All right, much better. Oh, no. Goes down on the takeoff and falls over the backside of that cliff. All right, but she's back up and riding. Finding a new line, because from the top, these riders have it sectioned out. I'm going to go from here. I'm going to land here, and then move on to the next feature. The minute that's interrupted, you pretty much have to start from scratch from that point. Right, your game plan is blown. Completely changed. You know, sometimes when you are familiar with a resort, you go resort riding, but you have a powder day. You know where all the little nuances are in the mountain. And you have to remember, these riders don't even know that. I mean, and then that obviously brings up the question Travis Rice and Blake Paul, two of the men's competitors.  So that obviously gives them a distinct advantage in this contest. And Herity right now with the lead, she has the advantage at this point. The three-time Freeride World Champion coming to us from France. She knows how to go from the top to the bottom of a big mountain event. She knows how to read the mountain. She's light on her feet, and she's an incredibly skilled backcountry snowboarder. I think she's in a really good spot right now. Yeah. Kazanna's run wasn't enough to advance if Marion can put down a line. It's interesting to see with each run, right? Especially in the women's field right now, we have so many competitive pros up against big mountain pros, or I mean, if you wanted to call them that. And so it's interesting to see how tricks are playing into route finding. Absolutely. Absolutely. Marion on course. Man, that drone angle is so alive. Crowd's getting into it. Marion goes down on that first hit straight air. It's follow along as she finishes her second run. Heading toward the hip. And she skips it. She opts around the hip. Still got some air though. There was still a little feature there. Wasn't as big, that's for sure. Searching out all those new, it's a similar line to what we've seen before, but it's just a little bit off. And there she gets that landing on that. I think she stays on her feet from here on out. I think she's going to take this round. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Getting some drops in in the other competitions that she does. Recap first up, it was Anna Gasser who is traditionally competing in slope style and big air and is so talented. And now taking those skills to the back country, showing us some really nice turns, but had a couple problems on the landings. Getting a little bit lost up there on the mountain. It was right before the takeoff with that second feature. And then she literally fell off a cliff. But Marion really put together a nice run from top to bottom. And you know, T-bird, you talked about this, just the flow. She could have hit that more perfect, right at the ribbon of the top of that landing. Yeah, she found the sweet spot on that one. And it's going to play in her favor. I think this one's going to go to Marion. And that would be crazy. Anna Gasser would be eliminated from the natural selection. Anna Gasser is Anna Gasser. Yeah. And she might not move on. But that just goes to show that this is such a different and unique setup than anything else out there. It's uncharted territory. All right, so there you go. The score is coming in. And it is. It's Marion Heritage, who will take the win for that heat. The French rider to the day two finals. Right. So now we have a couple tiebreakers that we need to handle. Yes, we do. First up, Jamie Anderson against Hannah Beeman. This is a potential matchup of the day. Oh, absolutely. And then after that, we will move on to Robin Vengen and then Zoe Sadowski to not. They will also do a tiebreaker. So we've got some exciting matchups coming up, like you said, could be the heat of the day. We'll take a quick break and be right back. Welcome back, everyone, to the Yeti natural selection here at Jackson Hole.  And here we have seen some of the best snowboarders in the world tackle a course that we don't typically see when it comes to competitions. It's basically taking backcountry snowboarding, that type of skill set, and applying it to a competitive setting. But you're still essentially riding a backcountry course. I was at backcountry in the front country. I mean, this has only been done three times before, but this is the first time that women have been involved. It's absolutely incredible to have such a diverse field. Well, diverse of the world's top pros, but diverse backgrounds of how they got here. Yeah, and it's just so great to see the mix of all the talent that has gathered here at Jackson Hole. Well, we have Stan up on the mountain. And Stan, can you hear us? How are you doing up there? What's the word? I can read you loud and clear. I'll tell you what, it is excited up here in the rider's tent. Every time somebody lands something, put something down, it's like your home team just scored. The whole place erupts, high fives. People are stoked. And the riders are trying to feed out and feel out what happened in one run, especially the riders that still have to go. Hey, Stan, how's it going, my man? I'm wondering, how has the vibe changed? Has it gone from like a nervous energy to a positive energy up there? How has it changed since before the contest till just about halfway through?  And I think the second that Gigi did that 720, everyone let their guard down, followed quickly by sweet and just taken it to the lot, basically. Everyone's pretty jovial. And you've got the guys who still need to go kind of trying to suss out the riders who've already gone and find out what's still fresh. And as Travis put it, the left side is still open, everyone. Oh, wow. Well, there's a lot more snowboarding still to be had. Hey, thanks so much, Stan. Have fun up there. Kind of jealous that he gets to hang out up there with the riders. Although I probably would have already put my board on and gone, tried to find some powder myself. All right, thanks so much for joining us. We are now going to take a look at the tie breakers. We are just finishing up the women's competition here, the quarterfinals. This is going to be intense. We have two heats, two tie breakers that need to happen. The first one is Jamie Anderson going up against Hannah Beaman. Jamie Anderson will drop first. You are looking at her right now at the very top of the course. I saw her last night hovering over the map, really trying to study it. Yeah, these are two of the best snowboarders who have ever lived, point blank. So maybe Jamie is heeding Travis' advice. Left side is still open. Looks like Jamie got caught up in Hannah's first run line. And there's an advantage and a disadvantage to taking a new line. Yes. You get fresh snow. All that was beautiful. That was massive. Coming right back from that little bubble, but it's not really slowing Jamie down. And again, it's a clean slate. There's no scores right now. This is all about who wins this heat and moves on. Yeah, Jamie proving that she is equally adept in the back country as she is on a slope style course, finding a totally new line on that rider's left side of the course in this tiebreaker between her and Hannah Beaman. You know, this course is so vast. You forget how big and how wide this course really is. I was up there the other day. I was at the test event, and it was about 1 tenth. Kind of right down the middle of this course is what the riders were hitting. This thing is huge. If you're standing on one end, you cannot see the rope line on the other side. I actually asked Liam about that, if any of the riders, if he thought the riders at the test event would have an advantage.  But this course has been built over the last year. This summer is when most of these features went in. So it's brand new to everyone. Yeah, and I think the riders who were part of that summer do have a little bit more intimate knowledge, because they spent eight days up there building a lot of these takeoffs and landings. Yeah, their hands got dirty. And one of those riders that did invest some time over the summer building the course is the next rider up. And that's Hannah Beaman. And speaking of the test event, she also rode in the test event. So she really has put some time in. I think with Hannah, she has the knowledge of the back country. It's just linking everything together and putting that flow in. And I got to say, Jamie's run was strong. It was a good run. But knowing Hannah Beaman as I do, she's going to send it. She's already talking about aircraft carrier, again, going back for seconds. She doesn't hold back. And that's what's been great about this event, too, is you can sort of, you bounce ideas off of others. Hey, what do you think of this? What about this line? Yeah, it seems like there's some feedback getting cycled up the course, right? Like the riders who are waiting to drop, they're getting some ideas from people who have already taken runs. They're getting an idea of what parts of the course are getting tracked out more than others. So I have a feeling some game plans are probably changing by the minute. All right, on course, Hannah Beaman, can she answer back to the shots fired by Jamie Anderson in this tie break round? What's up, Doug? Huge Wildcat. Oh, beautiful landing. Puts it down super clean. She's got a lot of speed going, too. And she pulls ripcord on that one. Maybe something was off with the speed a little bit. I think it is highly important to just put down a clean run, stay on your feet. And this is going to be a nail biter. There she goes, opening up a new feature right there. Another component that's coming into play is not only the landings that are getting tracked out, but those tracks in between the takeoffs, those play a part in making whether or not you're going to stay on your feet. Oh, yeah. Those can get you. That was a great run. I can't believe I did that. All right, well, let's take a look at the Yeti Recap. Both of the runs, it started out. This was the tiebreaker. They both were scouting out some different lines, different areas. Jamie Anderson went first. And that might be the difference maker for Jamie. I mean, that back three was gigantic. Massive. But keep in mind, Hannah had that huge Wildcat to kind of cancel that one out, so it really might come down to that one fall from Jamie Anderson. And also, it is an appraisal, but top to bottom, Hannah probably put together a more complete run. As we take a look here, I mean, I feel like Hannah knew it when she came down. I think she knew she put down something pretty special there in this tiebreak round. Check out the Wildcat. I just love the landing on that. It couldn't have been better. Solid. Yeah, that was perfect. And I feel like after she put that down, things got a little bit more conservative. From there down, she knew she had to stay on her feet. Which is a smart play. I agree. Oh, scores coming in. And it is. It's Hannah Beeman with that 82.3. And she will move on. I was with Jamie last night. And she said she chose Hannah Beeman. But it's because she wanted to drop earlier in the contest. And she said, Hannah Beeman is my idol. I've looked up to her for so long. And she almost felt bad picking her. But Jamie's like, I wanted to drop first. And Hannah just eliminated Jamie Anderson. And you heard Jamie say, good job. All right, next up, Robin Van Jyn. She told me earlier she had three lines picked out that she wanted to do. She gets a chance to do a third run. The advantage with her now is she's been on the course a couple times. She knows what the snow is doing, how deep the landings are, where she sort of needs to position herself when she's in the air to set herself up to land and ride away. Yeah, and riders like Robin, who have spent so much time in the back country, they can compute that information so quickly. And unfortunately, coming up short on the knuckle of that second feature right there. Yeah, she got thrown off the lip of that right at the get-go. But that's what happens. You know, a slope style course, all those jumps are manicured and packed down, not here. And a lot of times those takeoffs become rider after rider after rider hit them and can turn into a rut.   Right, it can work for you or against you. It's packed down. You might have a little bit more speed and nicer, smoother takeoff. But you could also get hung up in it. Robin going over the side of the tree is not throwing this runaway yet. Look at that. Where did this section come from? It's a wide open powder field. What did Travis say? The whole left side is still open. Yep, it is. It is super exciting that we decided, I say we, that Travis and team decided to go the whole course today. Like I know that was in everyone's mind. We wish all the features would be open. It has everything to do with conditions and snow and weather coming in. And they went for it. And I feel like the riders are really having fun with it. And in last night, Travis told a bunch of people that when they were coming up with a probability of event scenarios, the situation we're in was about a 10% probability. Yeah, and then, I mean, look at the skies too. We got a little bit of blue sky out there also. It has been wild watching the weather shift over the last few days, right? Everybody's been glued to the weather, trying to figure out when the event day is going to happen. And there was snow in the forecast for today, and they took a chance. And look at it. It is, I mean, it's not bluebird, but there's a lot of light on the course. Yeah, there's light. And Zoe Sadowski-Sanat is up next for her third and final run for today. She's really proven herself, though. She's put together some nice runs. I'm impressed. Yeah. We didn't know what we were going to see out of Zoe in this sort of environment. And after her first run, she's really impressing me. Yeah, she came in as the wild card. When I was speaking to her earlier, and we were on the course, I didn't even solicit it. And she just looked at me. She's like, I am so happy to be here. She's like, I've done three events in a row. I'm tired, but I am so, so happy to be here. She's absolutely proving herself as one of the new up and comers in women's back country snowboarding. Yeah. If she wasn't, she wouldn't be here right now. Yeah. All right. Zoe taking the riders right side of the course. She's going for the butter pad. Oh, yes. Gets it. That was big. That was amazing. If Zoe can hold this together. Huge backflip. That was one of her goals, come to natural selection and send a backflip over one of these massive features. See, those are the little details the judges are looking for. I was just going to say, even with the fall, she kept the speed. She kept the flow. She kept the intensity of her run very high. Absolutely. She went back, found another feature, not one of the biggest ones, but made sure to grab her board. Grab your board. What the judges want to see. Not up there. Snow snake. There's a few hidden out there. Where did that thing come from? The ghosts are out there. Still, I have to say, that top of the run was really good. That backflip was giant. It's grueling. If we were just out there riding power with friends, we'd be breathing hard. 100%. At a traditional snowboard event in the Slope Styler, the halfpipe, you never see riders come down laying down fully gassed. I mean, this takes a lot of energy. Look at the Yeti recap. I love their conversation between the two of them. All right, Robin Vengin dropped first. This is what she was talking about when she hit the back of the landing. You could see it coming too, right? I think she knew as well as we did. Coming off that lip, she had not enough heat. Still kept the run going and found some real estate, untouched real estate at that. Yeah, I mean, no matter which way you shake it, Robin Vengin moves through the mountains like no one else, right? Her big mountain lines and her movie parts, I mean, they're just some of the best. But Zoe Sadowski-Sanat had an incredible top section. Yeah, that was big. That was huge. And I don't think, have we seen one of our women riders hit that butter pad yet? I didn't think so yet. Opening it up for the women's field on that feature. I really like that top angle because the drone angle does flatten the slope a little bit. That top angle does show how steep the bottom section of that course really is. Maybe there was a moose behind that tree. I've literally almost run into a moose on this mountain. They very well could have been a moose there. Things people from Jackson Hole say. Watch out for the moose. All right, results coming in. It's Zoe Sadowski-Sanat who will move on. Anything goes today. It's true. Anything goes here. So the competitive athlete, Zoe Sadowski-Sanat, the wild card, will move on. She won that tiebreaker. I mean, the finals on day two is going to be heavy. And again, a mix, a little bit of everything. Yep. All right, so here are your leaders from today that will move on to the finals day. Hanna Beeman will be going up against Zoe Sadowski-San