Craig Murray is known to go off the beaten track. After all, he is a former skier on the freeride world tour but this winter is looking very different for the 25-year-old — he's out to push the limits of freestyle skiing.
"This year I'm taking a step out of traditional competition but I've still been working really hard to progress in the sport," Murray said.
"I'm trying to level up my own performance on my own terms and in terrain that allows me to show the type of skiing I'm trying to do."
Murray's showcased his new level of skiing at the Nendaz Invitational, mixing freeride and freestyle skiing in the Swiss backcountry.
"It was definitely some of the most challenging skiing I've ever done and it's just so high risk," he said.
"Trying to land a whole run of tricks into deep snow is like rolling a dice every single hit."
There's no practice, every rider has to nail it on the first try. When Murray did just that it sent backcountry skiing into hysteria — his first of three runs so good that he ended up taking out the event.
"Piecing a run to the bottom is really unlikely and to land hit after hit when you're doing the most technical tricks, it's just wild!"
The competition has a format where there is no judges, instead your competitors score your performance through a transparent voting system.
Murray said these kinds of events add to the 'send it' nature which helps the progression of the sport, something he believes the Freeride World Tour should be adapting to.
"The world tour venues are not catering to my skiing style — high level of freeride skiing, incorporating tricks that I'm trying to do, so I've decided to take a year off, do it in front of cameras and we'll see if we can bring that back into competition."
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