A day of “underdogs and unexpected brilliance” made for a thrilling final stage of the Tour at the YETI Natural Selection Selkirk Tangiers.
With dream conditions below and bluebird skies above, Mother Nature laid the ideal stage for an absolutely historic day in backcountry snowboarding at the YETI Natural Selection Selkirk Tangiers, the 2024 Natural Selection Tour finals. Twelve of the world’s top snowboarders took full advantage of the stunning interior British Columbia, high-alpine venue called Mosquito. Here they put down big lines, massive spins and a whole lot of style resulting in clean, video part worthy runs throughout the competition.
In what riders called “really, really, really, ridiculously good powder” France’s Marion Haerty and Canada’s Mikey Ciccarelli were crowned the 2024 Natural Selection Tour champions…then drove off in new, all-electric Rivian R1Ts. Three hours of action from deep in Interior British Columbia’s backcountry are now streaming on demand on Red Bull TV to smart TVs, phones, computers and big screens worldwide.
Watch YETI Natural Selection Selkirk Tangiers now on Red Bull TV: Win.gs/NST2024
The riders who came out of the YETI Natural Selection Revelstoke on top, eight men and four women, flew into Mosquito, a Northeast facing alpine bowl that stretches 1,600 vertical feet and across 128 acres in Selkirk Tangiers Heli Skiing’s tenure.
The morning started early with Torstein Horgmo (NOR) dropping first against gold medalist Sage Kotsenburg (USA) and Austen Sweetin (USA) matched with Mikey Ciccarelli (CAN). Navigating the convex rollers and setting lines through untracked powder with big spins and an unusually high percentage of clean lines, Horgmo and Ciccarelli moved on. Former darkhorse turned NST mainstay, Jared Elston (USA) met Nils Mindnich (USA) in Mindnich’s first ever appearance in an NST later stage event. Mindnich proved to be ready for the big stage landing three huge airs with spins in his first run. Torgeir Bergrem (NOR) put up a huge fight, punctuated with the day’s first 720, which in the end was no match for Rice. Rice took home the day’s high score of 93 points in his very first, quarterfinal run cleanly landing both a cab 540 and a massive double backflip.
In the semis, Horgmo and Ciccarelli saved their best for the second run. In a squeaker, Ciccarelli bested Horgmo, who he has been filming with all winter. Then it was an upset for the ages with NST rookie Mindnich taking down two-time Tour Champion, snowboarding icon and NST founder Rice in the finals. Taking advantage of prime conditions in the morning, Rice gave his best effort in the quarters with his double backflip. But Mindnich was ready in his second run of the semis riding a huge portion of the venue, including a technical pillow drop, switch and moving on over the goat.
For the women, Hailey Langland (USA), who put up the high score at Revelstoke rode cleanly through the top and went for a 540 in her semifinal with Marion Haerty (FRA), who is returning to the Tour after deferring last season for an injury. Risk did not end in reward for Langland, as Haerty’s experience as a four-time Freeride World Tour Champion showed in navigating clean landings on her 360 and a method. One of snowboarding’s most decorated riders of all time, Jamie Anderson (USA) met Natural Selection rookie Mary Rand (USA), with the casual vibe of a two-time Olympic gold medalist. But in run two Mary edged Jamie by a slim two points to move on.
The Finals
This set up Haerty and Rand at the top with the 2024 Championship on the line. Rand came into NST as a rookie out of the YETI Natural Selection Duels and less than two months later found herself in the finals vying for the championship. Approaching the course with flow and confidence then punctuating her winning run with a buttery 360, Haerty added her first NST crown to her major wins. She finished just behind Sadowski-Synnott in 2022 and was forced to take the next year off to recover from an injury.
“I wasn’t thinking about competition, I was thinking about what would be beautiful snowboarding,” said Haerty. “This season I was finding the right balance between engaging and respecting my body after two arm operations last year, I didn’t necessarily have a lot of training like other years but rather a letting go of my vision of performance, to have fun above all and find a beautiful serenity on my board. Natural Selection Tour is for me the ‘cherry on the cake.”
A Ciccarelli and Mindnich match-up in the finals was called only by those who have been really paying attention. Both riders have exhibited laser focus and training this year with their eyes set on the NST prize. Run one put Mindnich on top, by a big margin riding nearly the entire venue switch with what announcer Todd Richards credited to his “eye as an engineer.” But, in his final run of the Tour season, Ciccarelli went as big as he could with a cab 540 on the first feature, then held it solidly together to lock down the 2024 Championship.
“Natural Selection Tour is the coolest event in snowboarding; the terrain and the riders are unmatched. We are riding the terrain for the first time when we do our runs, which makes for such exciting riding for us and the audience,” said Ciccarelli. “My winning run was a bit of a hail mary. I just put it all on the line and tried to go as big as I could. This is by far the biggest accomplishment of my career. I have been a huge fan of NST since the first event and had the dream to one day make it onto the tour. So the fact that I was able to win the Tour is truly surreal.”
Men’s Podium:
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Mikey Ciccarelli
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Nils Mindnich
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Travis Rice
Women’s Podium:
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Marion Haerty
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Mary Rand
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Jamie Anderson
SENDY Sends of the Day:
Jared Elston – Chicane, a frontside nose roll 360
Mary Rand – Big, fast 360 with a steep landing