Waiting for the weather to clear last month near Revelstoke, British Columbia, Bend’s Marissa Krawczak took full advantage of the opportunity to ride powder for about a week.

That’s just one of the perks of being on the Natural Selection Tour, which showcases the world’s top snowboarders — from Olympians to big mountain film icons — all competing on extreme terrain.

“It was really, really fun,” Krawczak said. “We had really, really good conditions. We had really good powder. We were kind of socked in for a week up in interior B.C., waiting for a good day to film the comp for light, so we were just riding pow for like a week before we actually filmed the duels. So it was really fun.”

Krawczak lost the duel to Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, but took away some amazing memories.

“I feel like I rode well and tried to be creative and was successful,” Krawczak said. “We just had a good time riding pow. I mostly free ride and ride backcountry. I don’t have a trick-based snowboarding history, so this was a cool opportunity.”

The first stage of Natural Selection (naturalselectiontour.com) was the judge-scored duels, which can be viewed on-demand on Red Bull TV.

The 12 riders who won their duels — including Bend’s Ben Ferguson and Jared Elston — advanced to the second stage in Revelstoke, Saturday through March 11. The final stage, Natural Selection Alaska, where the overall winner will be crowned, is set for March 25-April 1 near Valdez.

All 16 men and eight women invited to compete in the Tour’s third season started off at duels, which featured a dozen individual matchups between “defending” and “challenging” riders. The duels are designed to bring out each rider’s full creativity and highlight new zones and styles. Each duel showcased two matched riders competing head-to-head on one day, in one zone.

Krawczak was just one of three snowboarders from Bend competing in the Natural Selection Tour. Ferguson, who finished fourth in halfpipe in the 2018 Winter Olympics, defeated Nils Mindnich in their duel near Whistler, B.C. Elston, also of Bend, defeated Gigi Rüf in their duel near Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

“Duels is basically a contest in the backcountry where you are teamed up with an opponent, working together to scope a zone, and then ride together, but against each other. It felt like a day of filming with a big shot of adrenaline,” Ferguson said. “By adding the competition element, we both had to step it up and go for it on day one, trying things you wouldn’t usually dare to try on the first day in a new backcountry zone. Nils is an amazing snowboarder.”

Ferguson and Elston will now prepare for the Natural Selection Revelstoke, based out of Revelstoke Mountain Resort. Live-streamed globally within the contest window, Saturday through March 11, Mother Nature picks the day when riders will compete. The contest will run in a dynamic venue within the Selkirk Tangiers Heli Skiing tenure. Viewers can watch the event live on naturalselectiontour.com.

All 12 riders competing at Revelstoke will move on to Natural Selection Alaska in the super final outside of Valdez. From March 25 through April 1, riders will go head-to-head on the iconic steeps and spines of Alaska’s Chugach Mountain Range.

The Tour’s innovative format is designed to reveal riders’ full creative expression and requires a deep knowledge of all-mountain conditions.

Krawczak does not come from a halfpipe or slopestyle competition background, so the Natural Selection Tour was a good fit for her. Living in Bend the last five years and riding Mount Bachelor, Krawzcak has picked up the nickname “Big Mountain Marissa.”

“It’s a mountain you can be creative on,” Krawzcak said of Bachelor. “Riding fresh lines is my favorite thing, so (the Natural Selection Tour) was a perfect competition for me, for sure. We did four runs. Zoi made me go first. We just took turns taking laps, so it was fun. It was really good snow.”