The Daily Star | Extreme snow sports event attracts fresh talent

KFAR DHEBIAN, Lebanon: Nearly 3,000 meters above the Mediterranean, around the corner from one of Lebanon’s most popular ski resorts, a group of skiers and snowboarders waits atop a mountain for their number to be called.

A start gate sits in front of them, a finish line below, but no gates are in between - just a large couloir stretching to the bottom.

This is freeride, a competition that aims to strip back competitive snow sports, dispensing with the finely groomed pistes and gates associated with traditional competitions.

Riders aren’t judged against the clock, but on more subjective categories such as the quality of the line they choose, their riding fluidity and the amount of control they display on the difficult off-piste terrain.

While freeride competitions have been held worldwide since the ’90s, this is only the second time an event has been held in Lebanon, or the wider Middle East region.

“We made history,” local rider Chris Dirany said of last year’s event. The 23-year-old, who is studying for an MBA in sports management at Antonine University, took part in one of the two qualifying events held Wednesday for the Freeride World Tour.

Dirany placed second in the men’s snowboard discipline, rated two stars out of a difficulty level of four stars. Three-star events were also held, with subdivisions of male and female snowboarders and skiers.

This year’s event attracted more international riders than before, and the young snowboarder said they were intrigued to compete in the region despite having once been under the impression that “in the Middle East there’s no snow.”

Natalie Good, a 29-year-old tax consultant from New Zealand, says that her most competitive years as a full-time slopestyle competitor are behind her. However, she was persuaded to join Lebanon’s nascent freeride community after friends reported back from last year’s event.

“This is the friendliest, nicest, best event to go to. At the top you go to drop in and everyone’s cheering for every single rider,” she said.

Good, who placed third in the two-star women’s snowboard category, noted that the European scene is more competitive, and less fun as a result. Echoing this sentiment was French rider Paul de Pourtales, whose daring line, featuring a long drop over a rock face in front of the finish line, earned him fourth place in the two-star men’s ski category and shouts of appreciation from the watching crowd.

“Freeriding is getting more competitive and less about the friendships,” said the 20-year-old skier, who is currently riding full time on the qualifying circuit. “You really get this feeling of friendship and mutual support here, and that’s amazing. The warmth of the people here is huge.”

The Freeride World Tour is keen to expand to lesser-known locations, said Ben Calmel, one of the competition’s three judges, who attends events all over the globe for the tour. “The goal is for the community to get bigger and have more visibility,” he said.

Developing the event from scratch had its challenges, he noted, because in Lebanon “people are not used to doing this kind of competition in wild terrain.”

“Having freeriding in Lebanon is something great,” said Thomas Kray, who organized the event.

“We’re developing the sport here and making a great experience for internationals,” Kray added.

On the back of the success of the past two years, Kray is hoping to bring the qualifying stop back to Lebanon next year, with approximately the same number of rides, but hopes to bring new sponsors and raise awareness of the newly established event “to bring a bit more visibility for partners.”

Hosting the competition helps expand awareness of the discipline among Lebanese riders, Kray said. He hopes for the next edition to organize capacity-building exercises such as avalanche training programs.

For internationals, Lebanon is “a very nice country to discover, and I think freeriding is a great way for people to come and discover it ... [Lebanon] has a lot to offer. It’s conditions that you don’t see anywhere else,” Kray said.

Walid Medawar, another local rider, agreed that the event can bring many benefits to Lebanon and the local freeride community going forward. “[Even] if we talk only tourism it’s amazing,” he said. “Wherever you are in the Middle East you can catch a plane, and you’re at the snow.”

Medawar, who founded local snowboarding school Republic of Snowboarding, is all for increasing awareness of off-piste snow sports. “Freeriding is the godfather of all skiing and snowboarding. You’re meant to ride the mountain, not the slope,” he said.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on February 16, 2019, on page 2.