Successful freestyle festival at the LAAX OPEN 2023

An absolutely successful freestyle festival with everything you could wish for: from top athletic performances by professional freeskiers and snowboarders in the pipe and park to relaxed runs in fresh snow and four open-air live concerts at the rocksresort. LAAX has been living freestyle in all its facets for over 30 years.

"This is my second time competing in the LAAX OPEN. There's so much history behind this event! It makes me really excited to be here," says current Olympic champion Zoi Sadowski Synnott, who can now also call herself LAAX OPEN champion – in 2021, she had to give way to the eternal best, Jamie Anderson (5 OPEN victories in LAAX). In 2023, the young snowboard ladies are coming to the top – Mitsuki Ono also wins her first LAAX OPEN title and her first World Cup victory in the pipe, where Kelly Clark and then Chloe Kim had dominated for years. Things turned out differently in the women's freeski competition: here, experience and routine still prevail over youthful enthusiasm. Johanne Killi, the same winner as in 2014, will be beaming from the top of the podium in 2023.

150 accredited media representatives and just as many volunteers, a World Cup entourage of 400 people including riders, coaches, equipment, mental and physical support staff, CHF 165,000 in prize money, 6,000 World Cup points for six new champions, 12,000 enthusiastic people at minus 15 degrees Celsius at Crap Sogn Gion at 2,252 meters above sea level to marvel at high flyers in the superpipe, with airs over 6 meters high from the coping, i.e., 13 meters to a safe landing on the flat. What a performance by Scotty James and Queralt Castellet – who practically live in the LAAX Pipe – but above all by Valentino Guseli and Kaisha Hirano! In the end, it was Ruka Hirano who raised the victory trophy into the night sky above LAAX. The crowd was thrilled, even if they would have liked to celebrate Jan Scherrer on the podium as they did in 2022.

The concept of combining freeskiing with snowboarding at Europe's most prestigious freestyle event has been a success, not only because of the winner, local hero Andri Ragettli, who has a fan base ranging in age from 0 to 100 who adore him. It was wonderful to see everyone coming together during the slopestyle on Ladies' Friday or on the final Sunday, when boards and riders mingled in the start zone before the contest began. Creative fun in the LAAX snow park – after the pros, now open again to anyone who feels like it.

If you want to watch the slopestyle competition online again, we recommend YouTube LAAX Freeski & Snowboard for the preliminary round and Red Bull TV for the finals. If you want to immerse yourself in the LAAX OPEN 2023 for two minutes, check out the event wrap-up edit.

All information and results can be found at laax.com/open.

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