Four locations around the world have been selected for the second edition of the Freeride World Tour. On top of it, qualification events have joined as Freeride World Qualifier events making the Tour even more attractive, with more events and more riders. The planet's top freeride skiers and snowboarders will start in Sochi with the Nissan Russian Adventure 2009 and then travel to the USA, France and Switzerland to prove their skills on some of the world's most challenging faces. The Freeride World Tour has a prize purse of $250,000, the highest sum ever to be paid in ski or snowboard freeride contests.

Lookin' to spend the winter in Europe? Now there's a full Big Mountain Tour to check out. But you better 'bring it', because Europe breeds some burly skiers... here's the details.

This is a bit random for a Whistler based mag, but hey, you UK shredders need all the stoke you can get this time of year to convince you to quit whatever you're doing in the UK and head to the Alps or beyond. Here's some ski flicks to do just that...

Story by Ian 'One Armed Piece of Cheddar Cheese' Watson
Photos by Cheddar, Peter Charaf, Yves Garneau

When pigs can fly, will all the crazy statements people have made over the years come true? More importantly, if billy goats could fly, would they all migrate to Verbier, Switzerland for the winter to join the lucky ones already there?