By Tim Mutrie

The qualifying round for the combined Freeskiing and Freeride World Tour event in Revelstoke, B.C., is going off today, with the main events slated for Friday and Sunday. (A live feed will carry the action, starting Friday). While the two world tours (Freeskiing World Tour and Freeride World Tour) have combined for an event before (last winter at Kirkwood), this weekend marks the first combo contest since the two FWTs announced plans to begin merging operations.

Julien Lopez, the La Plagne, France-based freeskier known for large cliffs and backflips, was in a Revelstoke hotel room this morning, and he said there is a different feel in the air. He skied the resort yesterday, soaked in the pool last night, and was getting ready to hit the slopes today with fellow countrymen and competitor Guerlain Chicherit. Powder.com chatted Lopez up about the competition, goals, snow conditions here, there and in France, and his continuing webisode series, POWdcast–the first installment of season two just dropped.

How’s the snow up there? “Almost the same as France; early December we ddin’t have any snow at all, then we got a huge storm, two or three meters at once, like boom. I got here two days ago, and yesterday was my first day of skiing. … It’s not that bad on top, but different compared to last year, and it’s kind of spring skiing at the bottom.”

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