Big White Ski Resort is hosting the World’s Best Snowboard Cross athletes for the Inaugural Barrels & Berms World Cup. The field
contains the who’s who of the sport from Olympic Medalists to World Champions in both the male and female fields.
The action kicks off today (Friday) with the Qualification time trials where riders attempt to qualify for Saturday’s Finals. The conditions at Big White Ski Resort through the training days have ranged from variable to bluebird visibility over world class snow conditions. Big White Ski Resort is certainly living up to its reputation for hospitality, snow conditions and a World class venue, with over 4 meters of snow having fallen this month! Snow conditions at the resort are drawing crowds from around the world. Due to the deep snowpack the course building crew from White Industries in partnership with the Big White Ski Resort Event Team have constructed a World Class course for the event.
The course is over a 1000m long, with a good speed averaging at around 50 seconds per run. It contains a good mix of jumps, airtime and rollers, which helps to create closely contested heats with lots of passing action. This should make great TV viewing. There is a lot of snow here in Canada which is a wonderful change having just flown across from Germany where resorts are unfortunately looking a little green! Uwe Beier, FIS Snowboard Cross World Cup Race Director
The Event weekend is scheduled to host 2x World Cup events. Due to the lack of snow currently in areas of Europe, which has caused SBX event cancellations and the need for the International Teams and athletes to have as many Individual SBX results as possible in the competition season there has been a change in the format to the Barrels & Berms event from a singles event and a team event, to two singles events. Statement from the Local Organizing Committee below –
BIG WHITE SKI RESORT, BRITISH COLUMBIA – “The Local Organising Committee (“LOC”) of the 2020 Barrels & Berms FIS Snowboard Cross World Cup has officially changed the event format from running the planned combination of Individual SBX World Cup + Mixed Team SBX to a double Individual SBX World Cup format. The LOC decision to host the additional Individual SBX World Cup race in Big White Ski Resort was made due to the cancellation of an Individual SBX World Cup event in Feldberg (GER) which left the FIS SBX Tour athletes short in World Cup events. Following discussion with the international teams and coaches, the request was made to shift to host two individual events back-to-back. Due to the great snow conditions at Big White Ski Resort, Canada and a willing Local Organizing Committee the event change has been made to this format to best support the athletes and the tour internationally. Big White Ski Resort is looking forward to being the only host on the Tour to run a double Individual SBX World Cup for the 2019 / 2020 Season.”
