Since Natural Selection Tour (NST) launched as a snowboard-only competition series in 2021, skiers have watched with envy as their single-board counterparts compete on the world’s premier big-mountain terrain, from Jackson, Wyoming, to British Columbia to Alaska.

In 2025, finally, it was skiers’ turn to get a firsthand taste of what NST is all about.

Starting this year, NST has expanded not only to skiing but also to surfing and mountain biking, aiming to crown the world’s best male and female athletes in all four disciplines.

“When I first saw the NST snowboard events, I thought that it was so cool, and I was jealous that we didn’t have something like that in freeskiing,” said French freeskier Manon Loschi, who took the win for the women in the inaugural NST Ski.

New Zealand’s Craig Murray earned the title of first-ever men’s champion.

At the heart of NST is the idea that athletes aren’t competing against one another so much as they’re competing against themselves, challenged by Mother Nature in some of the most awe-inspiring, inhospitable terrain on the planet.

That was certainly the case at Alaska’s Priority 1, a legendary big-mountain venue that has figured prominently in snowsports, including in NST founder Travis Rice’s The Fourth Phase (2016).

NST Ski 2025 was broadcast as live on Red Bull TV on April 17, showing off the venue’s massive spines and steep pitch, with riders’ lines spanning nearly 1,700 vertical feet.

“This is the ultimate venue,” said NST Ski event director Mike Douglas. “It forces riders to bring their full knowledge of skiing—freestyle, freeride, and the ability to adapt under pressure.”

Loschi, who had never been to Alaska or skied this terrain previously, didn’t mince words when asked to describe the experience of seeing the face for the first time.

“It’s definitely a crazy place,” the 23-year-old said. “It’s the most extreme terrain for skiing and snowboarding. Everything is big, steep and scary.”

Though Murray has skied Alaska, he had never dropped in on Priority 1.

“It was a wild feeling seeing it for the first time,” the 26-year-old said. “The experience was completed by flying into the extensive camp on a ski plane and landing on the glacier, then walking through the small city of tents and snow structures.”

After nearly a week of camping out on the glacier waiting for optimal weather conditions, 12 of the world’s best skiers (ranging from slopestyle Olympians to big-mountain freeriders, and everything in between) competed bracket-style in a contest that many said felt more like filming a segment.

The judges of the inaugural NST Ski competition—Sean Pettit, Dion Newport and Kristi Leskinen—evaluated riders using NST’s signature CREDO rubric (creativity, risk, execution, difficulty and overall flow), scoring runs in real time.

In the men’s final, Murray was up against close friend Sam Kuch. Murray’s run saw him link stylish 360s and flips, perfectly blending freeride and freestyle.

But Kuch put up a proper rebuttal, getting massive amplitude over a gap that spanned more than 100 feet.

“Dropping into the final with one of my best friends was beyond comprehension and the cherry on top,” Murray said.

The men’s field was rounded out by Markus Eder, Kai Jones, Kye Petersen, Colby Stevenson, Parker White and Max Palm (SWE).

Meanwhile, first-timer Loschi earned the women’s title despite her lack of experience in Alaska—and she did it against one of the most established veterans in women’s freeski, Michelle Parker.

Maggie Voisin and Hedvig Wessel completed the women’s field.

“This is why Natural Selection matters,” said Parker, who also serves on the NST Ski athlete advisory committee. “It allows us to bring out the best in each other—watching Manon and the other skiers step up and progress skiing in real time like that was a moment I’ll never forget. Can’t wait to see how skiing evolves from here.”

The skiers felt like they were part of something special. “I was with so many people I look up to,” Loschi said. “It was crazy to be part of this; it was a dream.”

Murray said that NST adding a ski competition was an “amazing opportunity” for the athletes and “great for the sport.”

Indeed, it’s an exciting time for freeride. The Freeride World Tour just announced that next season, it will have a U.S. event for the first time since 2017. And this summer, the International Olympic Committee will issue a decision on whether or not freeride will make its debut at the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps, after being recognized by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation as an official discipline in 2024.

These days, there are as many career paths open to freeride athletes as there are runs on a big-mountain face.

But athletes agree that there’s something special about NST, with its fusion of freestyle and freeride and its head-to-head format designed to root out the world’s best men and women in their respective disciplines.

“This is the kind of event that freeskiing was missing right now,” Loschi said. “The NST aligns so well with my vision of the sport and the creativity in the mountains.”

“Natural Selection organizes some of the best events that the outdoor sports industry has seen,” Murray said. “To be involved is a huge privilege.”