Julia Mancuso, double Olympic silver medalist in Alpine skiing, loves a challenge, so when a window came up in her schdule to compete at the Nissan Xtreme - Verbier, a leg of the Freeride World Tour, she jumped at the chance. Here, she tells Natives how it felt to compete in such a different event...

N: How does the Nissan Xtreme in Verbier compare to the Olympics?
JM: Well it's definitely different! There's a lot more accountability in a freeride competition. You pick your line, there's no one telling you where to go and you're more involved from the start to the finish. Everyone's so helpful and people share knowledge – there's not so much of that with racing, plus you don't have any coaches out here, you rely on your friends instead, kinda like a family.

N: Do you have your usual team and support with you?
JM: No, that's why I'm on my three year old skis! I just picked the best ones out of what I had in my garage.

N: Do you think your result would have been different if you'd had the right stuff with you?
JM: I would have felt more comfortable, for sure. I didn't feel super comfortable as I was having a hard time getting my rhythm because my skis were catching the snow, so I would have liked to have been on something different and for next time I’ll know. I'm just happy to be down and I had a solid run, which was all I wanted to do today.

N: Talking about your choice of line, did you have safety in mind?
JM: Yeah definitely, I didn't want to take a line with a lot of risk. A lot of those girls went off some pretty big cliffs, over an exposed area, and you have to slow down before the cliff to get the landing right. I was looking for speed, so I didn't choose my line so I could slow down to hit a section, I chose my line so I could let it to flow. I wanted to hit a couple more rocks on the bottom section but it was more important to make it down the face so after I made it down the technical section I just had fun.

N: Is this something you'd like to come back to next year?
JM: It just depends on my schedule – this year there was the opportunity to do it. I skied the Bec from the top in April last, year which gave me the confidence to come back and do this. I was relieved the women’s course was on the shoulder as it takes less preparation and less memorizing where you're going. I was following someone last time I did it from the top so when you're responsible for your own line it's a whole other story, which is why I picked the line that was a little bit technical but mainly safe, because it was more of a chute than the main cliff area.

N: Do you like to go freeskiing in your free time?
JM: Yes. I don't necessarily like to go off more technical stuff but I'll go and ski fast, the only difference here is putting a whole section together. Normally for me I'm not trying to do anything too scary, especially in the middle of the ski season when I've a lot going on.

N: What's next?
JM: I have a US national comp on Tuesday so I have to go back to the States for that, then some ski testing and a holiday.

N: So is this something you'd like to do permanently?
JM: No, I think I’ll just do an event here or there to challenge myself, but being in a competition is always just stress and pressure, and I’ve been doing it for 10 years and I don't want to go on tour. I’ll do a few competitions now and then and I want to increase my level of skiing. I think I can learn a lot from the girls here.

N: Does this benefit your alpine skiing at all?
JM: It's definitely a challenge and for me as I always want to go out and ski well, knowing that I can ski with the best, and not just on a race course. Coming here, I can learn from the others and I know I can get even better, and things like cliff jumping certainly help my skiing.

N: Does the competitive nature in you mean you'd like to have done better than third today?
JM: Looking back at my run, I didn’t ski the top well at all, I was having a hard time with my equipment. Then I did a really good job off the cliff, and from the cliff I hit to down I skied really well but I could have hit another component – it wasn't creative enough.
That's another part of the sport – being creative – and for me I needed to go out today to just ski and have fun and be safe. I didn't want to go and try to win as going in with that extra adrenalin and stress to push it in my first competition could end up really good but it could also end up bad.
My main goal was to go and have fun with everybody, to ski it and to make it safe and I wasn't even looking to be on the podium. I just wanted to finish the race as, with the girls pushing it so hard, it was stressful when any of them fell.

N: Do you think we could see something like a 360 from you one day?
JM: I'll front flip, I like a front flip! I'll flip off a jump any time, but maybe not in competition.

N: What are you going to spend the prize money ($1200) on?
JM: First I'll have to buy all the girls beers when we party tonight!