New freeride event tests the mettle of Scotland’s best backcountry skiers and boarders

It usually takes something a bit special to win the Coe Cup, the annual freeride ski contest that’s been held at Glencoe Mountain resort since 2012, and this year Conall Strickland certainly went the extra mile, landing an enormous backflip to claim first place in the men’s ski category. After making a smaller drop at the top of the competition face – Glencoe’s notoriously steep Flypaper – Strickland bled off some speed with a couple of quick turns, pointed his skis towards a ten-foot high rock outcrop and then, as the ground disappeared from underneath him, launched into what looked like (but almost certainly didn’t feel like) a slow, graceful arc, allowing his skis to rotate all the way over his head before thumping back down onto the snow.