Relentless Freeze 2011 – Highlights and results

Unless you were out of the country and waist deep in pow it would have been impossible to miss the hype surrounding this year's Relentless Freeze Festival, being held next to Battersea Power Station in London.

It's the third consecutive year that London has hosted the event and this year the organisers had opted for a tighter festival schedule, reigning back the festivities to just Friday and Saturday, leaving Sunday free for riders to nurse their bruises and onlookers their hangovers.

The London Freeze typically signals the start of winter and it is the last major industry event of the busy autumn period. Seasonnaires will be heading off to Whistler already and shreds heading to Europe will be off soon.
 

Music

The majestic thing about Freeze, and what sets it apart from any events previously held in the UK is the music. For sure the event would not exist without the mega attraction of two major international ski and snowboard competitions and two comps that see the very best riders in the UK competiing on the towering jump. But the fact that the music plays until late into the evening offers fans something to really get involved in, aside from watch the best winter sports athletes in the world. This year Groove Armada, Everything Everything, The Streets, Does it offend you Yeah? were the key acts not to miss at the main arena but a host of other acts kept the vibe buzzing through out the weekend.
 

The Battle of Britain

In a prelude to the FIS World Cup event on Saturday, Friday saw the annual Battle of Britain competition taking place on the kicker. Typically this event sees Britain's best skiers and snowboarders riding on a less than perfect surface but this year the ramp was in fine condition. Billy Morgan took first place with a back 10 double, and he was joined on the podium by Lewis Courtier-Jones and Dom Harington.
 

Snowboard results

1. Billy Morgan
2. Dom Harrington
3. Lewis Courtier Jones
4. Cody Heirons
5. David Grahams
6. Mike Austin
7. Scott Penman
8. Ian Ashmore
9. Andy Nudds
10. Sam Turnbull

Ski results

1. James Woods
2. Andy Matthew
3. James Machon
4. Nathan Connolly
5. Andy Bennett
6. George Walton
7. Julian Bell
8. Peter Speight
9. Andy Collins
10. James Webb

International Ski Competition

Friday afternoon and evening saw some of the world's best skiers competing as the sun went down. It was Kiwi Jossi Wells who took first place.

1. Jossi Wells
2. Oscar Scherlin
3. PK Hunder
4. Ole Mustad
5. Gus Kenworthy
6. Elias Ambuhl
7. Fridtjof Fredericsson
8. Jon Olsson
9. Klaus Finne
10. Joss Christensen

LG FIS Snowboard World Cup

The LG FIS World Cup is always the mainstay of the Relentless Freeze and this year the Brits had more reason to cheer than normal! Out of a line up of over 80 riders both the UK's Jamie Nicholls and Ben Kilner made it through to the final 10 and looked super strong as they did it.

Jamie put down a back ten double and a cab 10 in the finals and was only just knocked of the podium by Janne Korpi's ridiculous switch back 12. Belgium rider Seppe Smitts breezed into second place and he was followed by Joris Ouwerkerk.

Pretty amazing testament to the flatlands of Europe that second, third and fourth place in the event went to a Belgium (Smitts), Dutch (Ouwerkerk) and British rider!

1. Janna Korpi (FIN)
2. Seppe Smits (BEL)
3. Joris Ouwerkerk (NED)
4. Jamie Nicholls (UK)
5. Staale Sandbech (NOR)
6. Torgeir Bergrem (NOR)
7. Petja Piiroinen (FIN)
8. Marko Grilc (SLO)
9. Dimi De Jong (NED)Ben Kilner (UK)  

Watch it on Channel 4

Check out all the action from this year's Relentless Freeze and re-live the experience by tuning in The Festival Show on T4 on 19th November at 1.25pm.