Natural Selection Snow has officially wrapped for 2026. And a whole slope of the world’s greatest snowboarders just made big mountain terrain and deep steep pow their playground. The competition brought enormous features, creative lines, old-school riding, and a whole lot of heart. The way it’s meant to be.
If you’re new to the tour, NST Snow is one of the most exciting competitions in modern snowboarding. The event makes nature the main character: it’s all about natural lines, natural terrain, and naturally blending freestyle creativity with big-mountain technicality. It’s a competition that challenges the world’s best and rewards riders who think differently, who take creative risks, who do it for themselves and who say it with their chest.
Here at Mons Royale, that makes NST a natural fit. As proud partners of NST and long-time supporters of freeride culture, we’re also backing one of the sport’s most iconic riders: Gigi Rüf. With decades of influence in freeride snowboarding, Gigi arrived at this year’s NST Snow event layered in Merino and ready to show that style, creativity and experience still hold their own on the world stage. And spoiler alert, did he ever.
How the competition works
NST Snow goes down at Revelstoke Mountain Resort in BC, Canada. Aka, one of the most legendary freeride hotspots in the world. The competition face in Montana Bowl is packed with natural terrain, big cliffs, gnarly spines, pow pillows and wind lips, making it a choose-your-own-adventure for riders.
Day One begins with 24 riders: 8 women, 16 men. These 24 riders are split into three sessions, 8 riders each, and each session follows a three-round cutdown format. In the first round, the top two riders advance immediately, while the remaining six riders drop in again for round two. One rider advances from that second round, leaving the final five riders to battle for the final advancing spot in round three. Still with us? This means four riders advance from each of the three sessions, reducing the field from 24 to 12 riders who move on to the Day Two finals.
On Day Two, the competition format switches to a head-to-head format. The 12 qualified riders have two runs through a new face at Revvy, competing in knockout matches in a best-of-two format where the highest score advances to the next round.
Day One: Results
Day One conditions delivered exactly what Natural Selection is known for: deep powder, endless terrain options, unlimited potential. Storm cycles in the days leading up to the event stacked fresh snow across the hill, filling cliffs, spines and pillow lines just the way we like it.
Just seconds into his run, Gigi set the tone with an enormous chicane off the first feature. Fearless style, right from the start. From there, he dropped into a flawless, high-speed back-3 nose butter off the Eagle’s Nest before flowing through trees and off lips with all the style, joy and energy he’s known for. A stylish grab off a natural lip showed his playfulness before navigating his way to the finish line with buttery turns and signature style.
“I kind of have a go-in-and-ride mentality. I’m really riding on the vibe of a session. That’s what snowboarding is to me,” says Gigi.
Gigi’s epic run was enough to secure him second place in the first round, making him one of the first two riders to secure a spot in the finals while the remaining six athletes battled it out for spots three and four. You go, Gigi Rüf.
Day Two: Results
Day two of finals was a tight competition, with Gigi Rüf paired against Blake Moller in the men’s quarter finals. Both had two runs, with the highest score across both runs advancing to the semi-finals.
Blake was up first, his big mountain experience kicking us off with a solid first run where a few mishaps at the top meant a final score of 64.3. Gigi was next, with a playful line that was all creative personality. Gigi landed on 84.3 points, putting him in the lead for the first round.
Round two, Blake Moller made an epic comeback, finding his flow and taking some big mountain risks to land him a high score of 88.6. Gigi’s second run was equally playful, riding lines and spines and spinning his way down the hill in effortless Gigi style. His second lap landed a 74.6, meaning Blake Moller advanced to the semi-finals with the highest score.
We were stoked to see Gigi smashing his runs with smart line choice, playfulness, and technical performance, just like the world has come to expect from the Austrian snowboard legend. He stayed true to his style, kept it ever playful, and showed off the skill and experience that’s earned him legend status on the world stage.
