Jess Hotter on top of Freeride World Tour heading into final event

Ohakune's Jess Hotter (middle) sits on top of the Freeride World Tour with one more event left in the season. Photo / freerideworldtour/J Bernard

Ohakune free skier Jess Hotter sits in prime position in the Freeride World Tour after securing victory this week in Austria.

The 28-year-old claimed the win on her first run at the Wildseeloder course in Fieberbrunn this Tuesday.

The win sees her move to the top of the leaderboard heading into the final event of the tour in Switzerland at the end of the month.

The Freeride World Tour features the best free skiers and snowboard free riders, who compete on "backcountry", "big mountain" or "extreme" terrain - essentially ungroomed powder snow on dangerously steep, mountainous slopes.

Hotter said conditions on the tour had been tough all year, and this week was no different.

"I took a really heavy crash on my second run, but luckily my first run was good enough to win the event," said Hotter.

"The first run, it was around 8 in the morning and it was quite icey and hadn't softened yet.

"A lot of it was just hanging on for dear life. I made it to the bottom without crashing which was pretty lucky due to the conditions."

Her score of 88.67 put her in the top spot and she would hold onto that for the rest of the competition.

The conditions proved difficult, with a number of athletes crashing on the steep and rocky Austrian course.

"By the second run, things had softened quite a lot. It had gotten more chopped up as more riders had ridden the face.

"I got a little bit bucked off the takeoff of my first air and landed in some bomb holes and couldn't keep it together and ended up tomahawking and crashing down the mountain."

Hotter, who secured her spot on the Freeride World Tour in 2020 after topping the Freeride World Qualifier Tour in 2019, has secured three podium finishes out of four competition races this season.

Heading into the final event at Verbier in Switzerland at the end of March, Hotter isn't thinking too much about points and is just focusing on having her best run.

"I've tried to not look at the points tally at the moment as far as playing the points game. Anything can happen on the day.

"I would prefer to treat every competition as a new competition and ski the hardest I can. I'm out there to ski hard and do myself, my family and my friends who have helped me proud."

The final event for the Freeride World Tour in Switzerland is planned from March 26 to April 3.