Because the weather at Chopok is very unpredictable and it had surprised the organizers few times before, there were five days reserved for the competition this year. It had been also decided that every rider would have only one run to show their best, so that there is no need to calculate with the choice of the line for qualification and everyone can charge right from the start, it also makes the event smoother. Friday was reserved for registration and face inspection, Saturday was supposed to be the race day.

However, the weather wasn’t perfect, it was quite foggy and so the face check was postponed to Friday morning. We spent the day riding in resort, is started to snow in the afternoon which we were all glad for as it was quite icy and crusty in the couloirs. Then we had a common dinner at the top of the lift in Rotunda where we got the info about next days. The forecast was unclear, it was supposed to snow pleasing 12cm over night, but the cloud coverage for the next day was about fifty-fifty so we went to sleep and knew we will see tomorrow.

We couldn´t see much in the morning though, it was foggy at the Chopok and the race face again and so we pretty much repeated the Friday scenario. Riding was much better thanks to the fresh snow, but it lied on top of the ice which made it quite unstable. We were surprised to meet a group of about seven years old kids with a ski instructor under one of the couloirs in Derese the very first run, some of them partly covered in snow. They had got lost in fog and gone to the couloirs instead of the piste, they all got safely down with a help of mountain rescue. There is a meeting again in the evening, the forecast is unclear again but the clouds are slowly disappearing and so we hope it will be possible to compete tomorrow.

Finally we are getting up to a sunny morning, face check starts at 8am and the competition at about 10am. Ski men go first, then ski women and snowboarders in same order. Parts of the face are a little icy, but most of it is covered with a layer of fresh snow, so the conditions are almost perfect. I started fifth from the end and so I had been able to see most of the runs only from top, but it was worth watching. An amazing, technical run with big drops had Pavel Božák, and he took a third place for it. Unbelievably fast line showed Peto Fliega from Slovakia and he ended up right bellow the podium on the fourth place. Most of us had agreed that both riders could have ended up even higher, but the judges liked the most a run of Leo Slemett (FRA) with two 360s and second place took Dorian Konrad (AUT). I had chosen a line with three smaller drops in the upper section and a straight line through a couloir in the bottom, which was enough for the 11th place after all. One of the Austrian riders in the ski women category had had a nasty crash and had to be transported by a heli, fortunately without serious injuries.

The race had to be interrupted for two hours, but the rest of the riders didn´t let that influence them, at one point it looked like Slovak girls could dominate top 3 places, but the Russian rider Anna Khankevich took second place after all, with Stanka Hajdukova on the first and Kristina Jamrichova on the third place.

In spite of the rest of the competition ending up without Czech or Slovak rider at the podium, it was a successful event given the big competition. The both countries showed that there are riders good enough to compete with top FWQ athletes. This competition is supposed to get one extra star next year and so we can look forward to another great event and great runs.