Freeride World Tour puts athlete safety front and center with Riders Safety Workshop

Performance and risk management are inseparable on the Freeride World Tour (FWT), with rider welfare preparatory work carried out long before the first athletes drop into a competition face.

At the 2025/26 Riders Safety Workshop in Baqueira Beret (Catalonia), the FWT by Peak Performance brought together riders, mountain professionals and specialist partners Mammut and RECCO to sharpen avalanche awareness, rescue readiness, and participants’ decision-making under pressure.

In a sport where remote terrain, variable snowpack and fast-changing mountain conditions are part of competitive reality, prevention and response skills are not optional extras - they must be part of a medical and safety ecosystem that both reduces risk and improves outcomes when incidents occur. This annual workshop, always held during the first FWT stop of the season, is designed to reinforce that culture, giving riders practical exposure to rescue scenarios and the tools that support emergency response.

“At every Freeride World Tour event, we secure the venue with a professional mountain team, mountain guides and patrollers, but the mountain risk is never zero,” said Quentin Radiguet, FWT Commissioner and Technical Delegate. “That’s why, with Mammut and RECCO, every season we organize a safety workshop to improve the riders’ skills and awareness about avalanches.”

The FWT puts expert mountain teams and robust procedures in place at every stop on the circuit, but the unpredictable nature of the mountain environment means athlete education remains essential. By working with Mammut and RECCO, the Tour is reinforcing a layered approach to safety: venue security, professional rescue capacity, athlete training, and familiarity with the equipment and techniques that may be used in a real-life emergency.

Realism to the fore

For riders, the value of that hands-on training lies in realism. “They buried a couple of transceivers for us where we didn’t know where they were, to go run a circuit, and then we ran a whole rescue scenario,” said FWT rider Shayne Blue Sandblom. “Then afterwards we also got to learn about RECCO rescue techniques. It’s like a secondary technique for search and rescue and ski patrol teams to use.”

That kind of scenario-based learning has an obvious medical and safety benefit. In high-stress situations, speed, clarity and familiarity can make a major difference. Training helps riders recognize mistakes, improve their response under pressure and better understand how professional rescue systems work alongside personal avalanche equipment.

Just as importantly, the workshop sends a message about shared responsibility. Participant safety is not only the job of patrol teams, guides or organizers. It also depends on riders taking ownership of their knowledge, preparation and awareness.

What is more, on every stop on the Tour, the FWT - together with Mammut - organises free safety workshops for members of the public too. By investing in regular training, practical rescue education and close collaboration with specialist partners, the FWT is making a clear statement: participant safety is a priority, and protecting athletes begins well before competition day.