Men’s Finals: Crossing Swords in the Tords
As the rising sun tinged the Tordrillos purple, orange, and indigo, lighting up the peaks like the Mike Parillo paintings that grace T. Rice’s Lib Tech topsheets, Rasman opened up the final’s venue in spectacular fashion. Between a couple of greasy threes, a blind drop, and a staunch commitment to the fall line, Rasman clearly recovered from his wobbly semifinals start. Despite battling with Mark McMorris for the third spot on the podium, the guinea pig was a good sport, radioing up to the competitors yet to drop and passing along beta on the rippable—yet variable—snow conditions.
In answer, McMorris soared off a fatty to flatty, causing a collective wince amongst viewers who have endured any sort of ACL injury. Sparky stepped back up to the heavy cliff in a later run, earning a “He stomps the shit out of it!” from Travis Rice in the booth (Rice, thankfully, has not been domesticated by tour execs and should plan to announce full-time alongside a grey-bearded Selema Masekela when he retires from competing at the age of 69 and his newborn baby boy is all grown up and dominating the field. But I digress.) The line also earned Sparky a hard-fought third place over Rasman, whose miller flip off a cornice in run two and front three stale in run three belong on the highlight reel.
“Perhaps you caught the cheeky spoiler in the first sentence and title of this article, but Bang bested Ferg with a stellar second run of his own”
Ferg’s tweaky flavor, jungle cat speed, and edge-to-edge precision were on display in the finals. It’s no surprise that he’s many of your favorite snowboarders’ favorite snowboarder, including, funnily enough, Mikkel Bang. Ferg’s second run in the finals was his best, with a textbook method, barrel roll backie, and high-speed three.
Perhaps you caught the cheeky spoiler in the first sentence and title of this article, but Bang bested Ferg with a stellar second run of his own, thanks to a strategy he carried over from his memorable Jackson performance. “I did a trick and landed switch,” Bang explains. “So that’s definitely what gave me the win.” The poked front three didn’t hurt either, which was masterfully framed by racing drone pilot Gabriel Kocher, but it was the backside five that earned high-pitched squeals from the announcers, high fives from his compadres on the valley floor, and high scores from the judges.
Bang had been planning to spend the winter filming in Canada, but those plans, like so many others, fell through due to COVID. “When I couldn’t get into Canada, the Natural Selection saved my winter,” he says. “It’s been eight years since I competed. And obviously I would consider this my biggest win in my career. Before, my biggest win was the U.S. Open in 2010.”
“Honestly, I’m still soaking it in, but it definitely means the world to me. Just getting invited to this event in the first place was an honor and then making it all the way to Alaska and being able to land a run and get away with a victory means everything to me.”
Bang famously walked away from the competitive circuit, but that competitive background was just as key to this victory as his experience in the backcountry, he says. “If I went back in time 10 years and would have done this competition, I would have ridden completely differently.”
“Being in the backcountry, you definitely learn how to ride the variable snow and read lines and come up with creative ideas. I think that helped me,” he says. “But also, I do think that having competed in the past also helped me in this event, too. Because when the contests were on, I was always very good at calming my nerves and not being stressed out or anything.”
“Bang famously walked away from the competitive circuit, but that competitive background was just as key to this victory as his experience in the backcountry”
Bang agrees with Rice—Alaska is the only place for the finals. “Alaska is the dream. And it’s difficult. You can’t really prepare for Alaska, you know? I mean, you can, but there is nothing quite like it. So when you get there, you just need to go for it. And I think it’s a really good place to have the final in terms of making a bigger challenge for the riders.”
“This event is so good for the progression of snowboarding. We get to show a different aspect of snowboarding. It’s really cool how you can gather all types of riders—pipe riders, slopestyle riders, Freeride World Tour riders, people who film—all together in one event and it’s just as difficult for everybody.”
As far as his prize? Bang is over the moon. “Dude, I’m so stoked. I actually really needed a car,” he laughs. “I have a friend that actually works for a dealership in Norway and he sells Fords. So he’s currently talking to Ford right now to see if I can get some sort of help to get it shipped over here. I think it will be the only Bronco in Norway.”