World's best riders headed downunder for The Mile High by Carlton Dry

110 international slopestyle snowboarders will be joined by 10 of Australia’s best riders, all drawn to the world-class slopestyle course constructed in front of the Perisher Centre. Master shaper, Charles Beckinsale, and the Perisher Park crew are world-renowned for building inventive and creative features, and the 2016 Mile High slopestyle course promises to provide an epic blank canvas for the best in the world to display their art.

80 men and 40 female professional slopestyle snowboarders will compete over three days to crown The Mile High by Carlton Dry champions. Current WST-ranked world number two, Canadian Darcy Sharp, returns to defend his 2015 Mile High title and will be joined by 30 out of the top 50-ranked men. WST-ranked world number five, Tyler Nicholson, will be doing his best to steal the winner’s points from his Canadian compatriot. Another big gun to keep an eye on is 2010 Winter Olympic silver medallist, four-time-TTR World Tour Champion, and current World Big Air Champion Peetu Piiroinen from Finland.

The local field of Australians will have to do amazingly well to get to the podium this year with such a large international field but that won’t stop them from giving it their best shot. With that said though having riders like Markus Kleveland (NOR) and Billy Morgan (UK), two out of only three men in the world who have ever landed a quadruple-cork, entered in the Mile High, it’s going to be the hardest-ever year to secure a place on the podium.

In the women’s, 25 of the top 50-ranked riders will duke it out, led by world number three, 2013 World Champion and X Games gold medallist, Spencer O’Brien, who also hails from Canada, and World number 4 Karly Shorr who seems to podium at every event she enters. The women’s field is riddled with the top progressive riders coming up in the sport, many who have double corks and double flips in their bag of tricks.

The 2016 Mile High by Carlton Dry sees competitors entered from every snowboarding nation in the world and reflects the importance that this WST International Level competition plays in the long lead-up to the 2018 Winter Olympics. This year there is an increased presence of Asian freestyle competitors, including teams from all over Asia, who will compete against the USA, Canadian, Norwegian, Swedish, Kiwi, Swiss, Austrian, Dutch, German, Finnish, Italian, British, Latvian, Irish, Slovakian and Australian slopestyle teams.

With such a high-quality list of competitors, The Mile High by Carlton Dry has a stronger field than almost any other competition on the tour. For a small budget event in the tiny snowboarding industry of Australia this ‘Perfect Storm’ of nations heading downunder makes it all the more amazing. With no webcast or live TV you will have to check the World Snowboard Tour facebook page for updates.

Updates about conditions, schedules and results can be found at The Mile High Facebook page.

The Mile High by Carlton Dry will make rights-free high-resolution photos after each day of competition, as well as a dropbox folder for every rider to access raw footage for downloading and social distribution - all can be found either here or here. 

And find out more about World Snowboard Tour (WST) here. 

The Mile High 2015 — Full Recap Video (by Boardworld)

Photo gallery