The Freeride World Tour (FWT) is one of the most highly anticipated ski and ride competitions on Earth. Athletes from around the world embark on a global tour of legendary ski venues to showcase their skills on untamed terrain. They get one shot — one run — at each venue, and are scored based on the difficulty of the chosen line, their speed, smoothness of the run, tricks, and landings on natural terrain.
This year, the tour begins in Spain, and then proceeds to France, Georgia, Austria, the U.S., and concludes in Switzerland. The athlete roster is stacked with pros, past competitors, and up-and-comer rookies alike. They’ve been training, dialing their equipment and kits, and mentally preparing for the first stop in Baqueria Beret, on Jan. 15.
Ahead of the event, GearJunkie connected with several of this year’s ski athletes to discuss their gear, preparation, and how they’re feeling heading into the competition. Everyone was excited (and perhaps a little bit nervous) for this year’s tour to kick off.
You can tune in to watch the competition’s first stop on Jan. 15 live or on demand on the FWT website. Livestream coverage begins at 12 p.m. CET, and the first competitor will drop into their run 15 minutes after.
The competition will also be available on the FWT YouTube channel, through Ski & Snowboard Live, or on select U.S. networks, including Peacock, NBC, and USA. Highlight clips will be available on Red Bull TV.
The Athletes
Martin Bender, 21 (Switzerland)
Bender got his start as a downhill ski racer, but made a splash in the freeride world when he won the FWT Junior World Championships in 2022. He qualified for the pro tour in 2024 and, last season, took second overall in the men’s skiing division.
With the possibility of freeriding becoming an Olympic sport in the near future, Bender has his sights set on being among the first to compete as an Olympic freeride skier. That means he’s also determined to qualify for next year’s FWT.
“Hopefully, I can make it to the finale in Verbier and qualify for the next season,” Bender told GearJunkie. “That’s what I’m looking for.”
Molly Armanino, 32 (USA)
This ain’t Armanino’s first rodeo. Like Bender, this Tahoe-based skier got her start in downhill racing. In 2023, she took second place in the FWT and was crowned Vice World Champion. Armanino had to sit out the 2024 season due to an injury, but in 2025, she returned to the tour. She also took first at the 2025 Kicking Horse BC Pro and starred in the 2025 Teton Gravity Research (TGR) film Pressure Drop.
Armanino is the real deal. She’s been competing hard for years, but this time around, she’s approaching the FWT with a different mindset.
“I found that the last couple of years, as much as I have been stoked about my career developing, I put a lot of pressure on myself and I didn’t really take the time to appreciate where I was at,” she said. “So I’m hoping this year I can stand on top of some of these mountains and take a deep breath and be a little more present and appreciative of the opportunity.”
Wynter McBride, 25 (USA)
McBride is one of the FWT rookies this year, and she is bubbling with stoke. Prior to becoming a competitor, McBride was a freeride coach for the Snowbasin Junior Team. Then, she became a judge working with the International Freeskiers and Snowboarders Association (IFSA), and eventually started competing herself.
In 2025, she took first at both the FWT Qualifier and ISFA Challenger events.
“The whole thing is really exciting for me,” she said. “I’m most excited to meet everybody and build relationships with new people. And then I’ve never been to Europe. So, going to travel in Europe is really exciting, and I get to do this full European winter, which is so, like, I never thought I would do that!”
The Gear
When competing with the world’s best skiers on terrain specifically selected to be challenging, it’s essential to have your gear dialed in. FWT athletes spend a lot of time testing their kits, refining them, practicing with them, and becoming intimately familiar with their equipment. They rely on their gear to perform consistently and to get them safely down the mountain. It’s about trust and performance.
FWT athletes are required to carry a transceiver, helmet, back protection, and a backpack with a probe and shovel. But the rest of their gear, they choose themselves.
We asked our three FWT skiers to run through the gear they’ll be using in this year’s competition. All three mentioned ZipFit liners; two out of three prefer mittens to gloves; and one even wears the same lucky underwear on competition days. There’s a strategy to building your FWT kit, and everyone’s is different.
Martin Bender’s Kit
“I’m kind of superstitious. So I always use the same [gear]. And underwear as well … I think it gives me luck,” Bender said. “I know it well, and I’m confident it works. When you have a kit you can trust in every day, you can be sure that it will work on the comp day.”
Molly Armanino’s Kit
“Because I came in from a ski racing background, when I first started freeriding, I had super–high flex Head racing boots and really stiff skis that were a little long for me. I think at the time I was skiing like 180s, and I’m 5’4″,” Armanino said. “Some of the dudes were skiing shorter skis than I was. And I was like, ‘What am I doing?’”
Wynter McBride’s Kit
“I can talk about gear all day,” McBride said. “I’m a big fan of going to your local ski shops and trying stuff out. Like with skis, go demo a pair. There are a lot of really great skis out there right now, and you need to figure out what works with you … people talk about finding their ‘magic ski.’ Maybe that’s kind of silly, but I found mine, and it totally changed my approach to skiing.”
Training for the Tour
Everyone trains for the FWT differently. Unlike Olympic teams, these athletes are competing as individuals and are responsible for their own training regimens and preparation for the competition. Confidence, experience, and nerves can all play a part in how an athlete trains and how much.
Perhaps not surprisingly, all three of our FWT athletes had trained differently in the lead-up to the first event in Spain. Bender, for instance, didn’t hit the gym or hire a coach. Instead, he said he just hit the slopes.
“My training is more just skiing with my friends in Verbier, trying to drop stuff, and trying new things,” he said. “If you are having fun, you are doing it the right way.”
Armanino, by contrast, said she had learned some ski-specific gym training from her friends, and fellow pro skiers Madison Rose and Jimmy Ryan. She said she’s trying to be a gym person and incorporate more strength training into her preparation. But the most helpful training she said she’d done was with a sports psychologist whom she recently worked with at a resort near Salt Lake.
“He’s helping me with visualization and more mental training,” she said. At the resort, she worked with him on her 360s, hitting the same line over and over, trying to add more pop and style. Her coach filmed her, reviewed the footage with her, and then asked questions about what she wanted the trick to look like, so she could more clearly visualize it.
“Toward the end of the day, I felt like I had a breakthrough, just being able to talk it through with somebody, instead of just going and skiing with friends when you blast through all of these things.”
Of the three athletes we spoke with, McBride appeared to have put in the most training ahead of this competition. She’s new to the circuit, and as such, she wanted to be as prepared as possible going into the event.
Not only has she been skiing a lot this season, but she’s also been doing ski conditioning at the gym, weightlifting, and crosstraining; she’s also been practicing new tricks on trampolines and rewatching past FWTs to learn the courses.
“I guess I’ve done a lot,” she said, sounding as if she was realizing that for the first time. “I just want to show up in Spain and feel like I put in my best effort to do my best and show up my strongest.”
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