Treble Cone Backcountry Invitational 2025
Wānaka, New Zealand
Ski Men 1st place - Finn Bilous
Two-time Olympian. Freeride World Tour top-4 finisher. And Wānaka local. Finn has spent his career blurring the line between freestyle and freeride — and on home snow at Treble Cone, he made it look effortless. Creative, precise, and completely in his element.
Ski Women 1st place - Lulu Laird
Lulu is one of the most consistent and fearless riders on the scene right now. The Mount Hotham local brought everything to Treble Cone — speed, commitment, and a run that left no doubt. A performance that says the next level is already within reach.
Treble Cone Backcountry Invitational 2025. Photo: Neil Kerr
The Quest Reaches New Zealand
Two weeks after Ushuaïa, we were still chasing winter south. From the bottom of South America to the bottom of the South Pacific — the Southern Alps of New Zealand, and a mountain that needs no introduction to anyone who rides down here.
Treble Cone. Perched above Lake Wānaka, with the peaks of Mount Aspiring National Park stretching to the horizon. New Zealand's freeride home. And the second of our two southern hemisphere test events — the final piece in answering whether this thing could really work anywhere the mountain delivers.
Rafferty Burrowes at Treble Cone Backcountry Invitational 2025. Photo: Neil Kerr
A home crowd, a stacked roster
This one was special because it came with home-field advantage for some of the best in the world. Our invite-only roster brought together Kiwi legends and international riders — and the locals came to play.
The course had it all: a flat rail and a booter up top, natural gullies and cliff drops through the guts, and a massive 30-metre jump built into the middle of the face. The athletes had nothing but a visual inspection before dropping — no practice runs, just commitment. They didn't hold back.
Fin Bilous at Treble Cone Backcountry Invitational 2025. Photo: Takaya Sage
A Kiwi sweep and a breakout win
When the dust settled, the men's podium was a full Kiwi sweep. Wānaka's own Finn Bilous — Winter Olympian and former Freeride World Tour podium athlete — took the win on a line he'd been dreaming about putting together for years, on his home mountain, in front of his home crowd. X Games gold medallist Luca Harrington slotted into second, and Fynn Powell — gearing up for his 2026 Freeride World Tour debut — locked in third.
On the women's side, 18-year-old Aussie Lulu Laird stole the show, taking her first Backcountry Invitational win ahead of Harriet Lucas and Kiwi freeride legend Jess Hotter.
What stuck with us most wasn't the podium, though. It was what Lulu said after: that she'd never been part of something athlete-voted before, and that it completely changed how she sees competition — less about beating each other, more about a community pushing each other. That's the whole point. That's the Backcountry Invitational.
Lach Powell at Treble Cone Backcountry Invitational 2025. Photo: Neil Kerr
Two for two
Ushuaïa proved the magic travels. Treble Cone proved it wasn't a fluke. Two events, two hemispheres, two completely different mountains — and the same feeling both times.
We came home from the southern winter knowing something we'd only hoped before: this isn't a Swiss event anymore. It's a way of riding, and it works wherever the mountain says yes.
🏔️ The quest continues.
Next stop:
Shaping the perfect day with us
