Fresh and new, this website is giving you all the news you need when you reside or want to travel to the Tarentaise Valley, home of the most impressive resorts in France. Snow, after snow, shopping, events, it’s all in there!

From Courchevel to Val d’Isère via Val Thorens, La Plagne, Les Arcs-Bourg St Maurice, Tignes… Find in one click of a mouse the most trendy and typical places, the cultural, sports and night out events agenda, the free-ride and freestyle novelties… but also some shopping ideas, reports, and many other surprises!…

An avalanche of good deals bursts in on your screens right now, since 1st December.

*web-magazine available on computers, smart phones and tablets.

And it’s happening here.

TEXT: ULI KÖHLER

Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

Behavioural change theories are fairly big these days. They aim to explain the reasons behind change in behavioural patterns and are quite popular in areas of health, education and criminology. One of the decicive factors in changing Stephan “Heisä” Markhauser and Basti Rittig’s snowboarding behaviour was a storm in 2004 that brought down the apple tree behind Heisä’s family’s farm. We were not there at the time, but in our imagination Heisä and Basti were staring at the dead tree and scratching their heads when they suddenly had a fl ash of inspiration: they would turn it into an obstacle!

Tobi Strauss Ollie to Fakie, Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

“Basti and I asked ourselves how we could ride the tree. So we decided to build a drop-in from the barn roof. That same year we added a small straight rail and a rainbow,” a smiling Heisä recalls of those early days, speaking in his soft Bavarian drawl. The two of them started what became the best and worst kept secret of German snowboarding: the so-called Heisä-Park, a wooden jib park of gigantic dimensions, located on an isolated farm hidden in the rural country south of Munich. Since those early days many bigger crews have stopped by to shred the many features and catapulted this private park project into international stardom: the Nike 6.0 crew, Isenseven, the S-Cut crew and La Famiglia all have joined the local crew for long shred sessions. Walking around the farm and checking out the obstacles, we can understand why. Despite the fact that they built everything themselves and without a big budget, there are impressive straight boxes, double kinks, a wallride, a stair set and an elevated jib line including a large propane tank. Everything looks professional and tantalisingly inviting for some shred action.

Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

Even though the drop-in ramps alone are more than double overhead, everyone stresses that setting up the park was not too hard. Heisä explains: “All we needed was wood for the boxes, and we cut the trees ourselves in the forest. We built whatever came to our minds. The main goal was to have long features, because at the time most obstacles in resorts were pretty small. And since we were supported by Ingo from IOU Ramps, the surfaces weren’t an issue from the start.” It sounds fairly simple indeed, but trees aside the other materials must have cost a fortune. “We spent 2,000, maybe 3,000 euros max.” Luckily, Nike 6.0 started supporting them two years ago, and this helped keeping the personal fifi nancial outlay within budget. And how did they make sure the ramps didn’t collapse in the next storm? “We used enough screws! No one is a trained carpenter, we did everything gipsy-style.”

Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

The first time we went there, we had the German Strauss twins with us as well as Marco Smolla and local grom Max Horn, the latter being integral in building the park (and giving us directions to fi nd the covert spot). Everyone is stoked on the place; take Fips Strauss’ testimony: “The guys built everything themselves just because they thought it was cool. The sponsors they have now gave them the opportunity to improve the park and make it bigger.” Did this affect the spirit of the place? Fips does not think so: “The spirit and the idea is the guys behind it and their love for the sport. You can feel how they live the park. That’s just sick!”

Heisa, Max Horn, Basti Rittig, Moritz Neuhausler, Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

This passion is contagious. We wanted to know from Heisä what it takes to build such a park yourself: “Make sure your terrain has on an incline, this
works better than a level area. Then all you need is a small ramp, put some jib features in front of it, whatever you can find, and that’s it.” We noticed most obstacles in this Upper Bavarian shredorado have a strange wood-like surface mounted on top of the wooden structures. “That’s Skatesmart, a professional skate surface.” Once again it was Ingo who suggested using it. “We did most things farmer-style. But without him [Ingo], it would have been very diffi cult.” While you can turn most things into a jib obstactle, creating a slick surface for boardslides is a different story. “You should try to do things professionally. I wouldn’t just take some old ice hockey boards or rusty metal. You should love to ride your own features. That’s what it’s all about.” According to Heisä, the easiest way to create something yourself is checking out your favourite obstacles in a resort, rebuild them according to your own requirements, and make sure to use the best possible surface, or whatever suits your planned usage. According to our little research plastics like Lexan or PE are supposed to work magic – or you happen to be friends with a rail builder like Ingo.

Basti Rittig Front 180 to Cab 270 Boardslide Combo, Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

“It was funny to execute this project with a bunch of guys who aren’t exactly dab hands at constructing things,” Ingo recalls working on the park. “It was also an interesting challenge to build a shred park with drop-ins from the roofs of houses onto a flfl at piece of lawn. And Heisä – he really deserved it, and I enjoyed helping out.”

Max Horn 50-50, Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

Apart from the joys of manual labour a self-made park is quite different from your average resort funpark: “It is not a resort at all as we built it ourselves,” Basti Rittig explains. “Everything has been constructed exactly the way we wanted it. It is not as sketchy as a normal park. Well, come to think of it, maybe sometimes it is…” To Heisä, it is the creativity that is most intriguing: “It doesn’t have to be that big. A friend of mine always got some snow from the local skating rink and rode an old plastic tube. Be creative! You can build whatever you want, however you want it!”

Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

Heisä’s perfect jib garden has already lured many world-class riders to his backyard. Is there anyone left he would like to tick off his list? Being one of the most humble people you are likely to meet, he cringes at the question: “Every rider who is motivated is welcome at my place.” Then, after some thinking, he adds: “Maybe the sickest would be JP Walker… yeah, I’d like to have the Walker at my home! But I’ve already had so many sick riders come over: Jed Anderson was here, and so was Louif Paradis. That’s really Ok for me. I am not one to complain.”

Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

When it gets dark Heisä goes inside the old cowshed next to the park and switches on the floodlight he and his buddies installed in the park. His mother briefly appears to collect some money for the power bill (after all, they use dozens of halogen spots, and the nightly costs easily climb beyond the costs of a crate of beer). Then the shredding continues, often well into the night. One wonders why there aren’t many more of these private parks. Basti has his own answer: “People are just too lazy. They don’t want to build something from scratch and go shred in a resort instead. And this despite the fact it is not even that hard to build something like that!”

Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

Heisä, however, plays things down and points out another, similar park only a ten minute drive away from his own. And right now his focus is on a new project anyhow: “Maybe we start building something new on a hill, because riding in the flat has reached its limits.” They already have the right spot, and all they need now is an old T-bar lift. But apparently you can get used ones quite cheap, sometimes even on eBay. On leaving the park we are convinced: If you have an idea, there’s always a way to turn it into reality. Next time maybe think about this before you moan about expensive lift tickets…

Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

HOW TO BUILD YOUR OWN STRAIGHT BOX

AFTER WETTING YOUR APPETITE WITH PICTURES AND STORIES OF ONE OF THE SICKEST SELF-MADE PARKS IN THE WORLD WE DEEMED IT ONLY FAIR TO GIVE YOU SOME MORE PRECISE ADVISE ON HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN LITTLE JIB WORLD. INGO FROM IOU RAMPS SENT US AN EASY-TO-FOLLOW TUTORIAL ON HOW TO BUILD A STRAIGHT BOX.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

Wood panel, ideally sealed plywood, at least 21mm thick and dimensions according to the planned size of the obstacle
Chipboard screws – at least 4×60
Right-angled metal coping with rounded edge
Plastic panel for the surface
Chipboard screws – 6×30

TOOLS:

Saw, ideally a circular saw
Cordless screwdriver (or grandpa’s drill)
Countersink bits
Angle grinder

PROCEDURE:

• Let’s say we want to build a box with dimensions of 50cm high, 25cm width, 3m in length.
• Take a wooden panel measuring 150cm x 300cm that is 21mm thick. Cut two 50cm slats off for the sides, one 25cm slat for the lid, and another 25cm slat as reinforcements in the box, cut into at least four even pieces.
• Align the two big slats parallel to each other and mount the reinforcement slats in between using the 4×60 screws.
• Screw the lid on top of it.
• Cut the metal coping to length, countersink holes and screw them onto the corners of the box using the 6×30 screws.
• Finally mount the plastic panel flush with the coping. Countersink the holes and use 6×30 screws.
• Enjoy your new straight box!

More information about IOU Ramps on their website.

TEXT: TOM COPSEY & DANNY BURROWS

Photo: OLAV STUBBERUD

Iceland is a most unlikely incubator of snowboarding talent. This spiked protuberance of igneous rock mushrooming above the Mid-Atlantic ridge is famous for many things – it’s unique geological combination of glaciers and volcanism that famously inspired Jules Verne; spectacular scenery; the Cod Wars; and the eruption of one of its unpronounceable volcanoes that subsequently brought the aviation industry to its knees, to name a few – but the fact that it’s slap bang in the middle of the ocean, 200 miles from the nearest landmass (and that’s Greenland), and home to a mere  318,000 inhabitants means despite mountains, glaciers, regular snowfall and a few modest ski resorts, snowboarders from Iceland flew well under the radar. Until recently.

Then came Nikita, the Iceland Park Project and now the Helgason brothers and compatriot Gulli Gudmundsson. When we received shots of these three getting radical back home, we decided it was time we took a closer lookat Iceland, its scene and how a few rapscallions from the land of fire & ice came to hold it down in the ultracompetitive global shred scene.

THE INCUBATOR

“I think the first people that brought snowboarding to Iceland picked it up from what they saw abroad. It was 2 or 3 local guys around 1985-86,” says Asgeir ‘Geiri’ Hoskuldsson, marketing manager of Icelandic brand Nikita and a geyser of knowledge when it comes to his country’s shred heritage. But it wasn’t until Rúnar Ómarsson (who would later co-found Geiri’s current employer) started importing snowboard equipment with a buddy in 1989 that more than folks became tuned in to the shred. He then went on to open the fi rst snowboard shop, Missing Link, in 1992. When the store opened Icelandic snowboarders could be counted in the low hundreds, but Missing Link went on to organise sessions, contests and trips to foster the newborn shred community, and between 1992 and 98 there was a real buzz around snowboarding. “It was a tight family in the beginning, everybody knew everybody,” Geiri recalls, but quickly it exploded. “I reckon there were around 5000-6000 people snowboarding (or that owned a snowboard) by 98,” he adds. No small fry, but when you consider there’s not much more than 300,000 people on the whole island it’s a huge chunk of the population sliding sideways.

Eiki Helgason, Frontside Bluntslide to Hardway 270 Out, Photo: OLAV STUBBERUD

As happened in so many regions where snowboarding began to mushroom it inevitably encountered a resistance from the traditional snowusing community so it was left to the riders themselves to blaze their own trails: “Snowboarders in Iceland have always had to be creative as 99%
of the stuff that has been done is done by the snowboarders themselves,” states Geiri. “The Helgasons did not grow up riding perfect parks. They had to build their own rails, drag them to a spot and then session them.” Today, things have improved somewhat with the Northern resort of Hlidarfjall – a short drive from the Helgasons’ home town of Akureyri – putting effort in to set up hits, but there’s still nothing like your average European park for local riders. Not anymore, at least.

Halldor Helgason, Frontside Boardslide, Photo: OLAV STUBBERUD

IPP

In 2000, Bjarni Valdimarsson, Rob Wyke and Graham MacVoy were shaping for the SPC Camps on the Hintertux glacier. They’d been mulling over the idea of setting up their own summer camp in central Europe, but with most of the glaciers already taken they started looking further afi eld. “Bjarni, being Icelandic, knew of this glacier (in Iceland). He had some distant family connection with it or something,” recalls Graham. After a scouting mission, the prospect of stunning backdrops, midnight sun and nearby surf spots had the three amigos convinced it could work. The Iceland Park Project was born. For the next fi ve summers the camp was operated on the Snæfellsjökull glacier (the setting for Verne’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth) offering the possibility to ride a park with panororamics of the Atlantic.

Gulli Gudmundsson, Pole Jam Stalefish to Wall, Photo: OLAV STUBBERUD

With a couple of kickers, a hip, rails and a wallride it was no mega park but the unique set-up attracted mag crews and riders from the UK, US and Europe. You might have thought that such international exposure would have injected drive into the development of the Icelandic shred facilities, encouraging resorts to see the potential of such freestyle setups, but according to Geiri this wasn’t the case. “IPP was the best summer, snowboarding, drinking, meeting awesome people project ever! It gave Iceland a lot of exposure and helped the Helgasons and Gulli establish themselves. But to be honest not that many Icelanders took part in it. The 50 to 100 hardcore snowboarders turned out for it (not all at once), but most of the people running the resorts and general public still had no clue what IPP was or is. Rob, Graham and Bjarni deserve a lot of praise for making it happen. So IPP gave Iceland a lot of exposure in the snowboard media but the fi ght still goes on to improve facilities for snowboarding in Iceland.”

Halldor Helgason, The Miller bird, Photo: OLAV STUBBERUD

As Geiri hints, although it may not have impacted the wider Icelandic conscience one of the upshots was that the übercore kids turned up and were exposed to not only pro riders, but the shooters and scribblers who hold sway in the industry. Amongst these locals where ‘Team Devine’ from Akureyri, which included a fl edgling Eiki, Halldor and Gulli. “Eiki had a broken leg so he wasn’t there but Gulli and Halldor were riding sick (they were only 11 and 14),” remembers a stoked Graham, “but they kept saying we should see Eiki ride. They hadn’t really done big kickers by then but they slayed the rails. I’ve got a great clip of Halldor trying a double backfl ip on a tiny punter kicker when he was 12…”

THE MALUNG FACTOR

Team Devine had grown up riding street rails, pissed off and uninspired by the lack of commitment by their local resorts towards snowboarding. They were self made riders who were “mad stoked” on JP Walker, in particular his part in The Resistance. In fact they were so mad for JP that all their hotmail address started with ‘jpwalker’. They were already ripping when the IPP came to town but the camp exposed them to kickers as well as international pros and media and for two seasons they all worked as shapers on the camp.

The real turning point in their development, though, came not in Iceland but Sweden – or at the Malung Snowboard School specifi cally. The story goes that three older Icelandics returned from the school, ripping and extolling the delights of this centre of snowboard higher learning. “There was no doubt that that was the school we had to go to” Eiki Helgason told us.

Eiki was the first of the two Helgasons to wing their way to Sweden in the company of fellow rippers Gulli Gudmundsson and Viktor ‘Helgi’ Hjartarson and when Eiki came home at the end of term with a bag full of new tricks Halldor’s mind was made up to follow in his brothers footsteps.

Malung is divided into two schools, Locals and Riks, with the former taking on the majority of foreign students. According to the Helgasons the regime at Locals was far more lax, which suited the brothers and their gang. They rode the school’s perfect park nonstop, or as Eiki put it they “were the fi rst ones up and the last ones down,” pushing their riding to new levels. These dudes who had been riding homemade stuff and street rails now had a real park in which to hone their skills. They also took full advantage of the opportunity to learn Swedish, as well as the business of  snowboarding beyond the hill.

Gulli Gudmundsson, Front 180 to 50-50 Swtich Back 3 Out, Photo: OLAV STUBBERUD

THE NEXT ERUPTION

Geiri remembers getting to know Team Devine back in 2001 after attempting to become some sort of business grad but failing. He once asked Eiki on the hill what he wanted to become, with Eiki shooting back that he wanted to be pro. Leaving Malung he and his crew were well on their way; or in the words of Geiri “they all fell into a pot of magic elf potion at the same time” and came out ripping. It must have been this potion that bagged them a host of A-list sponsors and some killer parts in the Rome movie, Factor Films and Actionhorse on graduation from Malung.

Eiki Halldor, Backside Tailslide, Photo: OLAV STUBBERUD

Although Gulli and the Helgasons are stars in the wider world of snowboard, with outstanding parts in Standard and the Pirates in the past season, according to Geiri they are still pretty unknown back home. Here the scene remains mainstream and although the Icelandic Snowboard Association are organising events and trips he believes that what is needed to kickstart the local scene is another IPP or Ak Extreme event, and apparently the latter may well be on the cards.

But the question is: who are the next Team Devine? Whose email addresses might perhaps bear the name of these homegrown heroes?

Words: John Cavan

Lucas Debari Front 180, Photo: Matt Georges

14 Days Chasing Snow and Filming the European Dream A long Way From Home

I could hear Lucas puking in the bathroom above me. As I lay half on the bed and half out of it, trying with all my might to keep aim with the bowl below me, I began to think there was no possible way anything more could come out. I wanted nothing more than to just go home, or better yet, curl up on the floor and die… but wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start from the beginning.

Lucas Debari, Photo: Matt Georges

AMERICANS IN EU-ROPE

These days, trying to fi lm a snowboard movie is no easy task. In a sport that seems to be changing daily it’s hard to differentiate one’s self from the multitude of video releases each fall. Every kid with a camera now has become a production company and the web is flooded each week with “teasers” for the next “big” video. When Rome decided to make the third installment to our team video series, we decided that we wanted to take our time. We let our riders continue fi lming for whatever video they were working on at the time, but asked every one to devote a couple weeks each to go on one or two trips over the course of last winter to stock some footage for their video parts for Rome’s new fi lm release in 2011: “The Shred Remains”.

Will Lavigne Bluntslide to Fakie, Photo: Matt Georges

Will Lavigne, Photo: Matt Georges

Looking for new timeless spots to fi lm high level snowboarding is not easy either, the second anyone catches wind of a new spot you can bet there will be several film crews on their way to check it out. We wanted to get out of North America and film somewhere scenic and new to the crew, so after putting the call out to several friends we decided to hop a plane and head to France to film in the land of legend Nico Droz: Avoriaz.

I flew into Lyon, France almost directly from another fi lm trip to Japan. I wandered through Customs and walked almost directly into Lucas Debari who was asleep on the floor in a pile of North Face bags, having just flown straight from an Absinthe film mission in Canada. Shortly there after we found Bjorn Leines along with marketing director Ryan Runke and fi lmer Leland Macnamara. Bjorn and Leland were missing bags, a very bad thing seeing as we were getting ready to drive a few hours north into the mountains. Thankfully after some frantic calls to the Rome European distributors, our French rep dropped off new gear for the crew. We asked him how to get to Avoriaz and he kind of pointed to our map and said, “You just follow ze highway A-42, then exit and just follow the road to ze Alps and oilla, Avoriaz.” He laughed and then was gone and we were on our own, Americans lost in France.

Photos: Matt Georges

After some funny late night navigating, backtracking, aggressive swearing, and map orienteering we found ourselves in the narrow roads of Morzine nestled at the bottom of the resort of Avoriaz. When we’d checked into our mountain home we met up with Matt Georges who although stoked to meet us seemed a little stressed. “The mountain is not good right now, there is very little snow,” he said in a troubled way. These are words that fi lmers, photographers, and pro riders on a trip to fi lm and create magazine content dread hearing more than anything else. The next morning we discovered just how “very little snow” there was.

Lucas Debari, photo: Matt Georges

We rose up to the heavens in a colossal tram that headed straight up from the valley floor and poked through the clouds into a mountain top village of restaurants, condos and hotels. There is nothing like this in North America and nothing can prepare you for the sheer size of everything once you step out of the gondola. After getting hooked up with tickets from the park staff, Matt led us on a frightening traverse to look for terrain to shoot on. I am from the east coast of the US and we pride ourselves on being able to ride ice, but that fi rst run we took may have been one of the worst I have ever taken in my life. I was gripped the entire way. It was outrageously loud and no one seemed to be quite in control, when we got to the bottom I was stoked it was over and then heard Bjorn say: “That was one of my top 5 harshest runs I have ever taken.” Not a good sign, but I’m not gonna lie: it made me feel a little better about myself.

THE KEYS TO AVORIAZ

We regrouped that night with Nico and made plans to explore some different zones the next day. After getting off to a rough start I must say we explored some amazing terrain. After taking the lifts as high as we could go we hiked over the top of the peak and then made our way down through the backcountry poking our way through wind lips, quarterpipes, and an impressive booter zone that was just a little to low tide to properly make it work for the fi lm, but all an all we had a great time and made our way back tired to the village on a long bus ride. After Will fi nally arrived on the third day, Nico took us out on the town to explore the fi ne dinning and clubs of Morzine. Nico has the place dialed: at the dinner spot we wanted to eat at, a massive waiting line greeted us. Nico simply spoke to the owner and with in minutes we had our own private table up front by the bar where we enjoyed an epic French feast. Over dinner we were treated to a veritable history lesson in snowboarding as Nico and Bjorn swapped stories of old. It’s pretty insane the power of snowboarding to have brought these two together a couple decades ago shredding as teenagers in some of what would become snowboarding’s most classic movies and contests, and now years later have them riding around together in Nico’s home mountain. Needless to say the night was a long one, but one that no one on the trip will soon forget.

Bjorn Leines, Photo: Matt Georges

The next day we spent up on the hill slashing around with Matt trying to fi nd some pockets of snow to work. At some point we had a pretty epic lunch out on a big old porch overlooking the entire valley and at that moment it seemed we were all living the European Après dream and things couldn’t get any better… boy how wrong we were because after a fun afternoon shred sesh a mere four hours later Lucas started puking and puking, and puking some more. Somewhere about the second time of hearing him run for the bathroom I started to not feel so well myself and then, bang, I was struck with the worst food poisoning of my life. I’m not sure what caused it but all I’ll say is that Lucas and I spent a solid 24 hours in Morzine doing nothing but vomiting. At some point during the experience the crew decided to head for the Arlberg region of Austria to chase some better snow so now not only were we sick, we were sick and traveling straight across Europe.

PITCHING UP IN ARLBERG

Knowing when to pull the rip chord on a trip or a spot is probably one of the hardest skills to learn as a rider/fi lmer, it’s always a gamble as to just what is going to happen with the weather. Throw in the insane terrain in Avoriaz (and the fact that half the group was ill) and it made leaving really hard, but we had gotten word that it was snowing in Arlberg and in the interest of fi lming we felt it was time to make the trek across Europe and
head to Montafon, where we were lucky enough to link up with O.G. Rome rider and park shaper Sveti to guide us, get us lift tickets and put us up in a great chalet just outside the resort.

Maybe not as well known as St. Anton or Lech, Montafon holds a tremendous amount of terrain. A massive system of lifts brings riders to all sides of a giant mountain range with seemingly skate park-like natural features around every corner. Our crew shredded the rollers, cat tracks and wind lips in-bounds on the fi rst day and hiked a few relatively easy chutes and drops. The second day we worked an area just out of bounds with a slightly longer hike that had a cool boulder fi eld of poppy jumps and trannies that Bjorn, Lucas, and Will popped off with countless methods and tweaked spins. It was great to have the cameras rolling and the mood in the group had instantly changed.

The next day we hiked just out of bounds again and built a pretty good step down. It was cool to see the guys work this jump that was just around the corner from the lift that no doubt crews in North America would sled all day to hit. We got a few decent things and then hiked up a little further where Lucas and Bjorn worked a small spine and a poppy cliff drop. It was around this time that we stumbled upon an amazing sight: there at the bottom of the most remote lift on the mountain was an outrageous Après bar that was literally going off with people of all ages partying their faces off to crazy techno music. How these people made it back up the mountain through the lift system alone was beyond me but then to have to ride all the way back down the mountain again was amazing. We made our way chasing each other through the rolling terrain of highway groomers, open pow fi elds, and even a tunnel that all lead into a crazy maze of switchback cat tracks that weaved in and out of the forest, burning your legs and finally spitting you out right in the middle of another crazy Après ski scene. Europeans get it. They know how to enjoy themselves and they certainly know how to party.

IT’S A WRAP

That night Lucas turned the house into a European version of his family’s famous Italian restaurant, treating the crew to an insane dinner.  Onboard’s fearless leader Danny Burrows arrived with Silvia Mittermüller and more new snow. The crew lost their money to photographer Matt Georges playing poker and took turns telling classic shred stories until the wee hours of the morning. It was a great way to close the trip out

Will Lavigne Back 7, Photo: Matt Georges

Our last day in Montafon was spent with our guide Sveti taking us to some local jib spots as it snowed. We ended up sessioning a fun A-frame tow in roof jib, which ended up working out quite well with Will Lavigne grabbing a sick shot for the new movie. Sveti was one of the fi rst people to get a Rome board back when the company started so it was kind of extra special to have him involved with guiding us around, and even driving the tow in truck for Will. It’s nice to see how much of a family Rome truly is.

And then it was over. Lucas and Bjorn were on their way back to their Absinthe crews in North America, Will headed for a few days in Munich and then jetted back to the states to do the TWS Team Shoot Out and I cruised backed to Lyon with Matt Georges. The drive across Switzerland and into France gave me time to think about just how awesome Europe is – why more Americans don’t travel here to fi lm is beyond me. Although the weather hadn’t worked out entirely for us, we had been exposed to some of the best terrain I’ve seen and most of it within very short hikes from lappable lift runs. It’s no wonder riders like Nicolas and Gigi have such playful styles; the terrain just lends itself to that type of riding. Another striking difference in fi lming as a foreigner in Europe to fi lming in the States is the amount of time you spend on your board lapping around exploring as opposed to snowmobiling straight to spots. Just riding to the fi lm zones in Europe is a blast and after all the bullshit of waiting for light, worrying about landings and weather in Europe THE SHRED REMAINS and that’s the most important part. I can’t wait to go back!

Our search for the best shred spots in Europe continued as we visited the Rome Park in Zell am see. And despite the fact that the park is quite young (less than two years old) the dedicated crew have managed to create a little shredorado just a few hundred meters above the world-famous resort town.

Stefan Trenkwalder on the Jib Line, Photo: Danny Burrows

QUICK FACTS

The park’s focus is defi nitely on its many jib features, most of which can be linked into one long park lap. The kickers and the corner are small to medium-sized but always shaped to perfection. This allows for countless hours of fun and a smooth progression of your riding.

ROME PARK SCHMITTENHÖHE

The park was only established in early 2009, but it already has a crew of devoted locals. The dedicated on-hill team and their great shaping abilities aside, this is also due to its affi liation with and support from the infamous La Resistance snowboard shop in town. The park itself consists mainly of jib obstacles and a few small to medium sized kickers. It stretches over the entire length of the Hahnkopf T-bar lift, which is great for doing quick park laps. The small corner is good fun, too.

When we visited the Schmittenhöhe resort it had dumped a good 30 cm overnight, and the crew kept ogling the face of the Maurerkogel above the park, which apparently boasts top backcountry lines. Equally tempting is the Kettingalm chalet at the foot of the park, which offers great food and some reasonably priced accommodation.

RESORT

Schmittenhöhe (939-1,949m)
26 lifts, 77km slopes
1 snowpark (Rome Park Schmittenhöhe)

PARK SET-UP

KICKER

Kicker (5m table)
2 x funbox (6m table)
2 x funbox (4m table)
Corner (20m)
Kicker (10m table)
Kicker (14m table)

RAILS/BOXES

Stair setup
12m down-fl at-down rail
6m handrail
8m kink box
Down box
5m rainbow box
8m A-frame
C-box
6m butter box
Picnic tables
Jib barrel

Simon Pircher, Robert Ahm, Photo: Danny Burrows

GETTING THERE

CAR

From Vienna: Vienna B 227 – A1 – St. Pölten – Salzburg A 1/E 55 – Reichenhall A 8 – Steinpass B 312 – Unken – Zell am See B 311

From Munich: Munich A8 – Interchange Inntal A8 – Traunstein B 306 – Exit Siegsdorf – Steinpass B 312 – Unken – Zell am See B 311

TRAIN

From Vienna: Vienna – Linz – Salzburg – Bischofshofen – Zell am See

From Munich: Rosenheim – Wörgl – Kitzbühel – Zell am See

PLANE

Closest airports are Salzburg, Munich, Innsbruck

WEBSITES

www.schmitten.at
www.kettingalm.at
www.la-resistance.at

Words: Matt Georges

Onboard Senior shooter Matt Georges took a trip to the land of the Nipple-Deep Pow with yes boys Romain de Marchi, JP Solberg and tadashi fuse, with tadashi promising to lead them to some top-secret areas of hokkaido, and in the process became a snow nerd…

No two snow crystals are exactly the same; each one is slightly different. Ok, so you’ve heard that before. Yet one snowflake couldn’t look more like another, and their shapes usually fall in several basic forms. the World Weather Organisation classifi es snowflakes into seven different categories: plates, starshaped, columns, needles, dentrites, rimed and irregular, the last of which encompasses three other forms of precipitation: graupel,
snow pellets and hail. among these categories, the forms, weights and volumes vary widely. You get the idea: it’s pretty complicated stuff.

Romain de Marchi Frontside 3, Photo: Matt Georges

The shape of the snowflake is determined broadly by atmospheric pressure, electric fi elds, wind, humidity and the temperature at which it is formed. It is this last factor that is crucial to the form and shape of the snow crystal. All other things being equal, temperatures between – 5°C to – 10°C will lead to the development of needle or hollow column type crystals. Between – 10°C to – 12°C, you tend to get plates, and from – 12°C to – 18°C, crystals form into stars with six branches. These branches can often form into further complex growth patterns with dendritic features. Oh, and fi nally between 5°C and 20°C it rains, which means it’s all over!

JP Solberg, Photo: Matt Georges

But why exactly am I going on about all this? Simply because I did a bit of research on the internet to fi nd out why the snow in Japan is apparently
lighter than anywhere else. Ever since I started snowboarding people have kept going on about the quality of the powder in Japan, and I thought is was about tim

Romain De Marchi, Photo: Matt Geroges

e I went to check it out for myself. Snow analysis aside, let us focus on the main players in this story. Our crew was made up of Swiss-Canadian karaoke diva Romain de Marchi, Norwegian fi sherman JP Solberg and Japanese snowboard legend, guide, organiser, businessman, fi lm-maker Tadashi Fuse. Oh, and there was also meant to be French Canadian kicker killer David Carrier- Porcheron but unfortunately he wasn’t able to make it in the end. Tadashi was born in the Land of the Rising Sun a little over 27 years ago, in the province of Yamagata, located on the main island of Honshu, north of Tokyo. He learnt to snowboard in the surrounding mountains and various other different islands that make up the archipelago before moving to Whistler, Canada, a few years later, where he now lives with his wife and two little girls. For this trip, he wanted to unveil a few well-kept secrets on Hokkaido, the most northern island where most of the winter resorts are found, along with erupting volcanoes, huge forests and that worldrenowned fl uffy white stuff.

JP Solberg, Photo: Matt Georges

Hokkaido weathers constant heavy snowstorms brought in by winds from Siberia. The island is flanked by the Pacifi c Ocean (to the east) and the Sea of Japan (to the west) and Okhotsk Sea (to the north). It’s separated from Honshu by the strait of Tsugaru. What would we do without Wikipedia and the Internet! Technology is quite something. You know absolutely nothing about something and with a few clicks of a mouse you can have it all there in front of you! Hokkaido is the equivalent to Mecca for powder riding: the best you can get.

When it comes to writing a text like this, where you have to ramble on about super light powder, it’s often tempting to try to put your readers at ease with little jokes that often aren’t very funny. You could nearly take all this as just being filler. But a trip to Japan is worthy magazine content
whatever the angle.

Romain De Marchi Switch Back 5s, Photo: Matt Georges

After landing in Sapporo, the island’s capital city, Tadashi put together a little programme for us. I could give you the name of the idyllic place we stayed at for a couple of days but out of respect for the calmness of the place I will refrain from sharing any information. To tell the truth, my goldfi sh memory can’t remember the long and complicated name of the place anyway. We slept on traditional tatamis in beautiful silk dressing gowns, ate on the fl oor (on patterned tatami) enjoying the succulent local food while struggling to use our chopsticks correctly. When we weren’t eating, we
went and rode incredible spots just outside our front door, a Bed & Breakfast stranded in the middle of the mountains, at the end of a road to a closed pass, allowing us to access a number of sick spots by foot. In the evening, after our crazy sessions, we’d all go and drink beers at the Onsen thermal baths. The Japanese absolutely love a thermal bath and can spend hours bathing in these places. This reminds me of quite a funny story. I’m not sure she’ll be happy that I told it but last year we went on a trip to Japan with Anne-Flore Marxer and happened to test the famous Onsen baths. I didn’t actually get to witness the scene, seeing as the baths aren’t mixed, but from what I heard all the local Japanese women took her for a total weirdo at the sight of her blond hair, blue eyes and western bodyhair removal…

JP Solberg Frontside 3, Photo: Matt Georges

After a few days spent living in the strictest Japanese tradition, we moved onto Asahikawa. Located at a junction of two main roads, by getting up super early it was quite easy for us to organise day trips to wherever the powder happened to be, then return at nightfall for a big bowl of noodles and some good old karaoke before getting some sleep. Unfortunately Tadashi injured himself on the fi rst day by banging his knee against an ice block hidden under the snow. He spent the rest of the trip sipping green tea while Jean-Pierre and Romain unleashed turns in the bottomless powder runs.

Romain De Marchi Front 3 Handplant High Five, Photo: Matt Georges

The days were long and busy and at the end of every day we’d stop off at the first supermarket to fuel up on hot coffee (served in a can), noodles and
sushi: nothing quite beats it after a long day of riding. As all good things come to an end, our two weeks were quickly over and we had to return home. We made the quick trip to Tokyo where we spent a night in one of those peculiar capsule hotels (check them out on Google – it’s an interesting experience, that is if you’re not claustrophobic!) before flying home.

Bye bye Japan…

Romain De Marchi, Photo: Matt Georges

JP Solberg, Photo: Matt Georges

Romain De Marchi Hokkaido, Photo: Matt Georges

Tadashi Fuse Stalefish, Photo: Matt Georges

In our constant search for the premier shred spots in europe we went to visit the dC area 43 in Kitzbühel. Since we were told the park catered for all riding abilities we talked ethan Morgan and Marco Smolla into coming along for the ride. None of us regretted going there. read on for the lowdown on this great park…

One hell of a setup. Photo: Roland Haschka

QUICK FACTS
A great park for stepping up your jib and kicker game. Countless features in a long park allow for hammering down your perfect line. Mellow booters and hip for your pro friends.

DC AREA 43 KITZBÜHEL
Let’s do away with some confusion straight off the bat. There are actually two DC Area 43s in Kitzbühel, one each on the Northern and Southern side of the resort. While the small but fun Northern park is catered towards intermediate riders, the Southern park – actually closer to Mittersill than Kitzbühel – is where you should really focus your freestyle mojo. It boasts a huge variety of small kickers and jib features, a massive down rail, some boxes and picnic tables, and a pro line including a decent tabletop booter and a great hip feature. An all new park section is in the pipes as well, but the QParks crew told us to keep this information ‘top secret.’ To get to this shredorado just take the gondola from Mittersill, traverse to the Hanglalm lift and you’re there! For the sake of completeness we should add that on powder days the resort offers a wealth of backcountry runs – ranging from easy tree lines to some gnarlatronic cliff drops.

Captain Morgan consults the charts. Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

RESORT
Kitzbühel (800-2,000m)
53 lifts, 170km slopes
2 snowparks (DC Area 43 North + South)
DC Area 43 South

Backside Rodeo 7 with some proper tail poke from Ethan Morgan. Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

KICKERS:
Beginner line: 3 kickers (2m – 4m)
Intermediate line: 3 kickers (5m – 7m)
Pro line: 3 kickers (8m – 11m)
2 additional kickers (2m and 3m)

Morgan presses one out on the down bar. Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

Rail:
11m downrail
Miscellaneous:
- Up-tree
- Up-down tree
- picnic tree
- tree jib
- curved tree
- 2 picnic tables
- chill area

EVENTS
DC Rookie Contest
Sick Trick Tour

GETTING THERE

Car
From Vienna: Westautobahn
towards Salzburg – Zell am See –
Mittersill (430 km)
From Munich: Autobahn towards
Kufstein – St. Johann/Tirol –
Kitzbühel – Pass Thurn – Mittersill
(170 km)

Train
From Vienna: Westbahnstrecke
Wien – Linz – Salzburg – Bischofshofen
- Zell am See; Local train
to Mittersill
From Munich: Rosenheim – Wörgl
- Kitzbühel – Take the bus for
Mittersill over Thurn pass
Plane
Closest airports are Salzburg,
München, Innsbruck

WEBSITES
www.dc-area-43-kitzbuehel.com

Smolla sends an air to fakie on the hip. Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

BOXES:
- Rainbow box 6m
- Straight box 6 m
- Up-down box 6m
- 2 Butter boxes small
- 2 butter boxes large
- Kinked Box 11m

Words: Danny Burrows

Sani Alibabic, Peetu Piiroinen, Fredi Kalbermatten, Stephan Maurer and JP Solberg join Terje Kaakonsen to rip the snowcapped volcanoes of Kamchatka…

Peetu Piiroinen discovers that outside of icy parks there’s this soft stuff called ‘powder’. Woop!

Kamchatka hangs from russia’s east facing head into the Pacific like a great elephant’s trunk, its hide pockered by living volcanoes. Our outpost of Snow valley, comprising five newly built wooden lodges, is two hours by truck from the nearest conurbation and 20-minutes fl y time to the lines of the peninsula’s suppurating cones. Beyond the camp an expanse of snow and skeletal trees, black and bare, drapes down from the shrouded heights like bridal trails. as Sani put it, it’s the end of the world.

JP Solberg.

Absinthe’s Brusti negotiates sulphurous slop.

When the crew had scored enough face shots it was time to build. JP Solberg sends it long on a backside 7 at the end of the trip.

We are a big group by snowboard standards, with three still photographers, me, Adam Moran and Russian snapper Andrew Piromov; Brusti is here to film for Absinthe’s new movie NowHere and Burton filmer, Tim Manning, is also onboard. Maxim, a local of these parts and founder of the Kamchatka Snowboard Association, is our main fixer and guide and our murder of rippers reads like the guest list of a snowboard blockbuster: Terje Haakonsen, Sani Alibabic, Peetu Piiroinen, Fredi Kalbermatten, Stephan Maurer and JP Solberg. And last but not least there’s Svein, Terje’s friend and physio. This would be his sixth time on a board and he had been quite literally dropped in at the deep end; however you wouldn’t have known it. He was throwing down McTwists off a corner we built near the lodge and doing backfl ips off the big kicker in the backcountry, none of which he landed but the idea and guts to try were there – with a little time he would stick them. According to Terje, whatever sport he tries is mastered.

The sleds allowed access to some fun terrain down low. Fredi Kalbermatten boosts a Method.

We had flown eight hours from Moscow to Petropavlovsk, the Kamchatkan capital, leaving behind a city shattered by two explosions on the rush hour subway. Suicide bombers from the troubled provinces of the Caucasus had brought war to the city, killing 37 and wounding dozens more; another sad note in the diaries of a country with more scars than a failed bare-knuckle fi ghter and for us not the most reassuring introduction to Russia.

Sani and Maurer

Terje & JP get the Russian Heli 101

Terje Haakonsen makes good use of heli drop No. 3,796 on his ever-increasing list.

Our trip was the culmination of two years of brain storming between Terje and his friend Maxim and once rolling the rest of us jumped the cart to help pay the $5000 daily levy on the helis, and I guess for a bit of company on the hill. The vertical here, according to Sani, is like that of Japan with heaps of potential for getting your shred on and as well as lines there’s also spaced tree runs to cut. With strong winds, though, the snow on the
mountains proper was blown and it felt sketchy with no pits being dug, but our guides according to Maxim were the best in Russia. On the second drop of the fi rst day, on what was a mellow line by Sani’s standards, he asked the guide if it might slide. The answer was a little ambiguous: “Maybe, but not likely.” Sani’s line was safe but when Maurer dropped next, hitting a lip, there was that unmistakable deep ‘whoomp’ as an avalanche triggered. “I remember looking down seeing this big spider web appearing in front of me. My fi rst thought was “what the fuck is this?” ‘cause it took me a second to realize what was going on ‘cause I really didn’t think that something could slide there and then that was followed by “oh fuck, an avalanche, that’s what it is! Get the fuck out of here!” He kept his speed and momentum and cut left and out in time to watch the face slab and funnel into a narrow gully. For Sani it was the sketchiest part of the trip.

And there was us thinking cats had an aversion to water. The Sprocking one slashes the pool.

Fishy Method on the lower fl anks from Stephan Maurer.

What makes riding here unique is that we were riding volcanoes, cutting lines between vents, ceracs and fi ssures that have cooked through to cauldrons of yellow-stained rock and patches of hot, black lava. In the crater of Mutnovkiy sulphur spewed in rolling cotton blooms from these openings and burned the lungs as we hiked back to the heli. There’s even a valley at the base of the Kikhpinych volcano called the Valley of Death where on still days gases hang thick enough to kill and cat-like the valleys river regularly deposits its victims downstream. Thankfully, it wasn’t on the itinerary.

Bad-weather days are a no-go for helis, but a short sled ride meant Fredi found something to play on. Tree ride to backfl ip out.

The helis here, all MI8s, are like fl ying school buses. We sit 14 to a chopper facing each other on canvas seats, with our gear stacked at our feet. There are no seatbelts and the pilots seem intent on trying to scare the living shit out of us, setting the craft into steep dives that leave us weightless. We hang on the assurances of Maxim that our pilot, Dimitry Zaderey, is the best in Kamchatka; he’s been fl ying heli trips here for over 10 years but still amazes Maxim with his control of his bird. The funny thing is that with the high winds that we’ve had any other crafts would be grounded – not ours.

Sani Alibabic lays one out on his way to peer into the earth’s guts.

Great piloting and guiding aside there is nothing stronger than nature and on our last day in the country, while we were out sledding and hitting kickers, one of these helis with a full payload of riders was taken out by an avalanche 2.5 meters deep and 400 meters wide. The exact details of the crash were murky but according to Maxim it was just one of those freak accidents. He went to see the wreckage after and said that the remains of the
heli resembled waste paper. 10 people died in the accident.

While the other guys went to build a jump, Terje said to Sami “I’ve built enough kickers in my life, let’s do something different.” A quick bit of shaping and the classic Haakon Method was busted out.

Of the ten days that I’ve been in Kamchatka we’ve ridden nine: three drop days from the MI8s, six on sleds and one day at the beach where we braved  the Pacific to surf. Where the snow had been assimilated into the sea, black sand contrasted the whites of winter. The water was dark and cold and the waves a glassy 2- to 3-feet, but as Terje put it, “any drive to get surf is always worth it.” Out there, somewhere, subs from Russia’s main base in Petropavlovsk sleuth the depths, their periscopes trained on the shores of America where Sarah Palin, eyes bulging on the stalks of her binoculars, brushes up on world politics.

Solberg, Fredi and a guide enjoy some afternoon delight - beer and fi sh. ALLBOOK117-ENG.

In Kamchatkan mythology the volcanoes are inhabited by huge fl ying ogres. At dusk they lumber up on the thermals, swirling masses of black soot, and glide out to sea to skewer whales on their harpoon-like fi ngers. They return in the night to grill their prize in molten lava, lighting the sky with fl ickers of fi re. These beasts may not be real but what they represent – the power of nature – is the lasting image that will stay with us all of this wild outpost of Russia. We drew lines down volcanoes that overnight are whipped clean; swam in a pool heated by thermic energy from the earth, which at any moment might burst through winters veneer and roast us all.

There’s not many places on the planet that boast such a backdrop. Terje lets one rip by the Pacific.

Man soup.

Russia exists in its own sphere of reality, brutal and yet beautiful. Here none of us are bigger than nature.

Look closely and you can just make out the GoPro rig sticking out of Maurer’s pack. GoPros, so hot right now.

Maurer broke the trip down to simple stats for his blog.
Days on the road: 15
Days on the mountain: 9
Bad weather days: 1
Hiking days: 0
Sledding days: 6
Heli days: 3
Days fl own with a MI-8: 3
Days riding on an active volcano: 1
Runs taken that went all the way down to the ocean: 1
Lost credit cards: 1
Longest period without Internet: 168h
Days without real cell phone reception: 11
People that knocked themselves out while partying at the lodge: 1
People that fell asleep in a strip club: 1
People that took off their shirt while getting a lap dance: 1
Suicide bombings in the subway on the day of our arrival in Russia: 1
Tragic helicopter accidents in the Kamchatka region during our stay: 1
Descent size avalanches that were set off on the trip: 2
People almost sending it over a 30m cliff to total fl at: 1
People jumping head fi rst onto a huge ice block: 1
Bottles of vodka that were bought fi rst thing after landing: 11
Average time spent in the pool every day after riding: 2h
Amount of lifebuoys in that pool: 3
People that fell into the pool with their snowboard gear on: 1
Powder sprays done on the trip: 1348
Really cold water surf days: 1
Ski poles on the trip: 1
New things learned about how to drink vodka the right way: 5
Average speed Dmitry drives through Moscow: 107km/h
Number photos taken on the trip: 22,394
Fun: A LOT!