Valdez, AK (Sunday, January 26, 2003) - After last year’s stunning and successful return of competitive big mountain skiing to Alaska’s Chugach Mountains, the 2003 World Free Skiing Championship (WFSC) will once again return to the scenic port town of Valdez on April 23-27, 2003.

The three-day competition will once again pit the world’s best big mountain freeskiers against the world’s steepest and deepest mountains, and a panel of judges, to ski for the title of World Champion.

Competitors qualify to participate in WFSC based upon their results in the season’s top 15 international freeskiing competitions, including stops on the World Tour and national championships of Russia, Bulgaria, France, Japan, New Zealand and Canada.

Last year's competition was the closest in world championship history, with less than one point separating the top three men finishers, and France’s Guerlain Chicherit taking the title.

Guerlain says he was overwhelmed by the good will and great organization he experienced during the week. "A World Championship event is a very big deal," he explains. "And the organizing committee of WFSC really understood that. The competitors were treated very well -- and included in most of the decision-making. I'm so glad I came to Valdez this year. It confirmed for me once again just how special this place is for me."

WFSC head judge, Michel Beaudry, agreed. “To hold a helicopter-accessed big-mountain skiing competition in Coastal Alaska is one of the most logistically complicated tasks you could ever dream of doing. To hold a four-run contest here in three days -- with no injuries and no controversies -- is a feat few people have ever accomplished,” he said.

"It was a great event," says Sun Valley's Brett Deuter, who finished a close fifth. "But more importantly -- it was a really fair event. With four runs to show our stuff to the judges, no one could complain that they were short-changed. I think everyone who competed here was glad they did..."

Jutting straight out of the Prince William Sound, the Chugach Mountains receive an average of more than 600 inches of snow annually - more snow than any other location in the world. Additionally, the unique content of the maritime snowpack allows the snow to adhere to mountain faces it would otherwise slide off of - as steep as 70 degrees and more. Thus, the Chugach Mountains provide unparalleled steep-and-deep terrain that a big-mountain World Championship demands.

Competitors will charge down steep, exposed faces inundated with cliffs, crevasses, snow sluffs and other hidden natural obstacles for more than 3,000 vertical feet. Their leg-burning, hair-raising runs are scored by a panel of celebrity judges based on five factors: aggressiveness, form/technique, fluidity, line choice and control.

To add to the challenge, exact locations of the three-day competition are kept secret until each morning of the event, when competitors are bussed from WFSC’s Valdez headquarters to a landing zone on Thompson Pass. Helicopters then ferry the competitors to the peak of the day’s anointed mountain.