Local skier lights up Freeride World Tour stop

Francesca Pavillard-Cain finds her mojo on second stop

After a mishap on the first stop of the Freeride World Tour in Chamonix, France, homegrown big mountain skier Francesca Pavillard-Cain gathered her wits and stomped her way to a second-place finish on the second tour stop in Austria.
The Freeride World Tour is the premier showcase for competitive big mountain skiing and snowboarding, open only to athletes who have qualified through a pipeline of international events.
The event series is unique in that athletes are allowed only visual inspection of venues, often hike to get to the start gate and have just one run per competition.
“That’s something different from the qualifier series last year,” says Pavillard-Cain, “just going for it all at once.”
Pavillard-Cain won the women’s overall Freeride World Qualifier series last year, earning a spot in the big tour this year.
The series was slated to kick off in December at Revelstoke, British Columbia but high avalanche conditions forced organizers to reschedule. As a result, the tour opened on January 25 in Chamonix.
Pavillard-Cain prepared for the tour mixing in sessions of crossfit in Gunnison with skiing Crested Butte alongside her former teammates on the Western State Colorado University mountain sports team. Still, it had been since April of last year that she had competed. She admits the long break worked against her.
“It was funny going into it because I had been planning and thinking about it for so long,” says Pavillard-Cain. “After not competing since April it was kind of surreal and I was not totally mentally prepared. I was crazy nervous.”
The women’s skier division went last on competition day and Pavillard-Cain found snow conditions “pretty good but a little punchy.”
Those conditions and her nerves soon spelled her demise, as Pavillard-Cain punched through on her landing off a rock and tumbled to finish far down in the final standings.
However, with one competition under her belt, Pavillard-Cain was more than ready heading into the second stop in Austria.
“Even though my tomahawk was disappointing, I realized I wasn’t as far out of my element as I thought,” explains Pavillard-Cain.
Once again questionable conditions put the event at risk but organizers miraculously moved the venue from Fieberbrunn, Austria two hours away to Kappl, Austria and set up shop in a matter of 24 hours.
With the inspection day still in place, athletes headed out to get a visual on the venue, only to be shut down by fog.
“We couldn’t even see the bottom of the run, so they gave us pictures to look at,” says Pavillard-Cain.
She figured out her line from the photos and confirmed her line choice with a quick visual during sunrise on the day of the competition.
While they were hiking the ridge for the start gate, the wind was whipping at the athletes but wind never did rattle Pavillard-Cain.
“The hike up was insanely windy but, weirdly enough, I kind of like the wind,” says Pavillard-Cain.
Furthermore, the women skiers got to ski first this time around and, as a result, Pavillard-Cain found snow conditions that were far more favorable than those she skied in Chamonix.
Still, questions lingered about the descent with little visual inspection and a start gate that dropped off the top of a peak.
“The top had a blind entrance but after that it opened up and you could see the chutes,” says Pavillard-Cain. “I was pretty sure I knew where I was and just hoped it worked out.”
It did, as Pavillard-Cain skied her line as planned and crossed the finish line content with her run. Then the good news hit in two waves.
“First I saw the score, which was pretty high and it was pretty awesome seeing that higher score and then I noticed I was in second,” says Pavillard-Cain. “I felt like I really got into the right place mentally.”
She’s back in Crested Butte now and hopes to compete this weekend at the Freeride World Qualifier event scheduled February 13-16 at Crested Butte Mountain Resort. Pavillard-Cain returns to the Freeride World Tour with a stop in Kirkwood March 1 and then heads up to Revelstoke for the fourth stop of the tour in mid-March.
“I feel really good. It’s been a really good experience and I’ll just take each competition as it comes,” says Pavillard-Cain.