Straight out of the gates (careful this time, Anna Gasser…) it’s into the rails, which has long been standard practice in slopestyle.

It makes sense really – for one thing, riders don’t need too much speed, so it’s an effective use of space. In the case of this event in particular, it’s also an early opportunity to showcase the “inspiring” slogan that the Olympic hosts have dreamed up.

This time they’ve gone for “Passion: Connected.” which is only marginally less terrible than Sochi’s “Hot. Cool. Yours.“…

As for the layout, there’s plenty of scope for transfers and massive gaps on, so expect the techier rail riders to nose out in front here.

At this point we’re really starting to feel sorry for the judges. This second section offers up heaps of lines, all of them wildly different.

If creativity is to be rewarded, hopefully it’s here that we’ll start to see the medal winning runs really coming together.

Next up, it’s a fucking skate bowl made of snow.

If there’s been anything like this in a slopestyle course in recent years, we’ve not seen it. It’ll be interesting to see who thrives here.

Every rider whose idea of snowboarding is lapping the kicker line in-between gym sessions will most likely chicken out and hit the left-hand rail, whilst the more instinctive in the pack will show us something special.

Peace and harmony, and all that.

Here’s a chance for the rider to find their centre, harness their chi, and hopefully do something small-yet-rad as they concentrate on building speed for what’s to come.

On to the booters. We’ve already had a glimpse of this setup at the test event, and it’s good to see it make the final edition too.

The skewed take-offs on either side will open up a few opportunities for unconventional spins. A rider who’s been working on their backside-off-the-heels game, for example, may be able to use one of these to get a bit more ooomph at take-off and land something truly jaw-dropping.

You’d have to imagine that anyone taking the centre line will get an immediate thumbs down from the judges, but the option’s there.

Ready for lift-off? The riders had certainly better be. The halfpipe-style ramps on either side of this cluster will allow them to fully send it to the moon. The US Open has used this kind of thing for a few years now, so you’ve got to assume that most of the top names will have something in mind for this.

There are plenty of other options too, to the point where it’s almost asking for more than one rider at a time to be on course. Hopefully a few of those that don’t qualify for the final can be convinced to do a group poach.

It all finishes with a classic big-booter little-booter combo. Again, anyone opting for the latter isn’t likely to walk away with any bling, but it’ll at least give those with speed issues a chance to chuck a method for the crowd.

That’s your lot. Obviously they still need to build the thing (and it’ll most likely require a LOT of man-made snow), but after seeing last year’s test event there’s every chance the finished article will be pretty close to this.

Whatever happens, it’ll be quite a show, filled with banger tricks, crazy lines, and (almost certainly) controversial scoring. February can’t come soon enough.

—

Suffering from a real bad case of Olympic fever? You’ll be pleased to hear that we’ve joined forces with Ubisoft, the folks behind ‘Steep: Road To The Olympics’, to provide you with the very best coverage of the PyeongChang action.

While many of us will never even get close to attempting a switch triple cork 1440 Octo grab in real life, thanks to the magic of video games, and in particular ‘Steep: Road To The Olympics’, that possibility is much closer than you think.

Get STEEP & the Road To The Olympics add-on in the STEEP: Winter Games Edition. Available now

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