TAE Natural Selection At Baldface Debuts “As Live” March 16

Fourteen of the world’s best snowboarders are packing their boards and starting the trip to Nelson, BC for the second stop of the Natural Selection Tour, the TAE Natural Selection at Baldface. The three-and-a-half hour contest will run “as ​live” on NaturalSelectionTour.comon March 16, 2022 starting at noon ET / 9AM PT, with the winners revealed at the end of the broadcast.

This marks year two of pro snowboarder Travis Rice’s manifestation of a completely new big mountain freestyle tour. During the TAE Natural Selection at Baldface contest window, February 21-27, riders will also be competing in the new Selection Sessions head-to-head matchups during “down” days at Baldface Lodge. Stay tuned to Natural Selection Tour on Instagram and YouTube to see behind the scenes action from the lodge each evening and the action from the Selection Sessions following the contest window.

The top half of the pack, eight men and four women, coming out of the YETI Natural Selection at Jackson Hole will head north to ride the iconic terrain of every snowboarder’s dreams at Baldface Lodge, British Columbia during the last week of February. From diverse snowboarding backgrounds—ranging from halfpipe and slopestyle riders, to dedicated big mountain freeriders, to backcountry freestyle riders including on the women’s side Hana Beaman (USA) Elena Hight (USA) Marion Haerty (FRA) and Robin Van Gyn (CAN) and for the men Jared Elston (USA), Dustin Craven (CAN), Torstein Horgmo (NOR), Sage Kotsenburg (USA), Ben Ferguson (USA), Mikkel Bang (NOR), Blake Paul (USA) and Travis Rice (USA).

At Baldface Lodge, the top half of finishers from Jackson will be joined by 2021 YETI Natural Selection at Jackson Hole winners Mark McMorris (CAN) and Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (NZL), who have been invited to rejoin the tour following their Olympic bids.

“After the battles we saw go down in Jackson, I’m really excited to see what the riders will be able to throw down on the steep powder-filled slopes here at Baldface,” said Liam Griffin, COO of Natural Selection Tour. “The venue here in BC is more technical and requires a different set of skills, which will test the riders’ abilities to adjust to more challenging terrain.”

In 2022, the riders will be competing on Scary Cherry, which was home to the Red Bull Supernatural (2012) and Red Bull Ultra Natural (2013). It is a freerider’s dream with 80 massive natural and wooden drops, kickers and other features spread throughout the famously powder-coated, 40°-plus slope. Baldface Lodge, set in British Columbia’s Selkirk Mountains outside of Nelson, is a snowboarding mecca with 500+ inches of annual snowfall laid across 32,000 acres of open bowls, peaks and perfectly spaced trees. The winners at the Tour’s second stop will take home a brand new 2023 Ski-Doo snowmobile.

"More than ten years have passed since we originally designed this Scary Cherry venue at Baldface with a team of visionary snowboarders,” said Jeff Pensiero, co-owner of Baldface. “The sport has surely come a long way in the past decade and it's going to be exciting to continue the evolution of this format and the sport. I can't wait to see what goes down at Natural Selection next week."

From Baldface, the top eight men and top four women will head north to Alaska for the Natural Selection in the Tordrillo Mountains, the Tour’s third and final stop, where the tour champions—the best all-mountain male and female freestyle riders on the planet—will ultimately be crowned. In the Tordrillos they face off on arguably one of the best venues on the planet for riders to push the boundaries of big mountain, freestyle riding.

New this year, the Natural Selection Tour will be using a Triple Crown-style format to determine the overall Tour Champion. In this format, each stop of the Tour will have equal weighting and a stand-alone winner. The points will be tallied by finish at each stop: first place = 1 point; second place = 2 points; third place = 3 points. The rider with the lowest score at the conclusion of the three stops will be the overall Natural Selection Tour Champion. So hypothetically, if a competitor places third in Jackson, first in BC, and fifth in AK that rider’s final combined score would be nine (3+1+5). If a tie happens, the Championship tie-breaker is based on which rider had the better finish in the final event in Alaska.

TAE Technologies, the world’s leading developer of clean fusion, just signed a three-year partnership with theNatural Selection Tour (NST). Just as the Natural Selection Tour is on a mission to inspire a deeper relationship with Mother Nature, TAE is working to develop clean, carbon-free energy solutions that preserve the beauty of the outdoors for generations to come.

“NST and TAE are perfectly aligned in our mission to reduce carbon emissions and address the challenges of climate change,” said Jim McNiel, Chief Marketing Officer at TAE Technologies. “TAE is forging the path to perfect power by focusing first on improved energy efficiency, and ultimately on the development of carbon-free, non-radioactive fusion energy. We intend to support NST’s mission to celebrate the great outdoors and the achievements of their great athletes while reducing our carbon footprint. We are thrilled to be members of the rapidly expanding NST family.”
Like-minded partners are coming together to help develop and support the Natural Selection Tour. TAE Technologies is the title sponsor of the Baldface stop. YETI is both the title sponsor of the Jackson stop and the sustainability partner for the Tour. Backcountry returns as the Tour’s Official Outerwear and retail partner. Other tour partners include Red Bull, GoPro, Fuel Off-Road, Visit Jackson Hole, Thule, Burton, Fast, Conservation International, Pacifico, BetterHelp, DraftKings, Carnal, Ski-Doo, Oakley & Dakine, along with host venues Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and Baldface Lodge.

Through the Industry Alliance marketing platform, endemic brands are able to directly support the events and their team riders competing on the Natural Selection Tour. Alliance members including 20+ of the biggest names in snowboard, boot, binding, outerwear and eyewear will receive brand presence on streaming, broadcast and at the events, along with access to content and social assets from the Tour for marketing their team riders.

The brainchild of snowboarder Travis Rice and shared vision with the broader snowboarding community, the Natural Selection Tour showcases the world’s top riders from Olympians to big mountain film icons all competing on the planet’s most exciting natural(ly) enhanced terrain. Dream venues, a head-to-head format and no practice runs are part of the dynamic components that will keep viewers on the edge of their seats. With a mission to inspire people to forge a deeper relationship with Mother Nature, the Tour features three stops in Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, Wyoming; Baldface Lodge, British Columbia; and the Tordrillo Mountains, Alaska. The Natural Selection Tour culminates with the crowning of a men’s and women’s champion; the best all-mountain freestyle riders in the world.