Holger Feist

The Galenstock on the Furka Pass is a real classic. Known to many climbers in summer, it also offers great ski touring opportunities in magnificent surroundings during winter.

The former trend sport of snowboarding has fallen into a deep crisis. Anyone who is hip now goes skiing and more and more former snowboarders are switching back to skiing. Ski convert and occasional snowboarder Tobi Kurzeder discusses the snowboard crisis, its causes and the supposed lack of innovation in the snowboard industry with snowboard manager, PG co-founder and ex-snowboard pro Holger Feist.

By mountain bike from Kathmandu (Nepal) via the "Friendship"-Highway, over the main Himalayan ridge to Tibet and to Mount Everest Base Camp (5400 m above sea level).

However, before we are allowed to plunge into one of the gullies, we have to get accredited as freeriders at the lift. This means that we are familiar with alpine dangers, can assess the avalanche risk and are prepared to take the risk of an accident ourselves. Then everyone gets a neon-colored sticker stuck to their ski goggles and the guys from the piste control give the go-ahead.

Winter sports in Argentina begin for us with a wine tasting in a bodega in the "Valle de Uco" in the hinterland of Mendoza. It is mid-July, we have come from the European summer and are in search of South American powder snow. But here at 700 meters above sea level, it's not as cold as we expected and the sky is so clear and blue that it almost looks fake. Only the view of the snow-covered Andes towering high into the sky suggests a little winter.

As we work in the snowboard industry, we are involved in our favorite activity, snowboarding, more or less all year round. So much for the theory. Here's how it can actually be.

From Sapporo, we first went to Niseko/Hirafu, a very fine freeride area with pretty good powder runs. The amount of snow was enormous, in the valley there was already over 2 meters of snow - note the incredible altitude of 200m! So, come along on the trip...

...finally we are sitting in our "cheap plane" after all - because shortly before everything looked as if we would only just get near an airplane. We were at check-in on time, but Micha, who had the shortest journey, once again couldn't tear himself away from his desk and simply didn't show up. The charming lady at check-in finally gives us two more minutes - and as ordered (too late), Micha turns up (after exactly two! minutes). We can just about persuade her to check us in. Lucky us! Maybe next time we'll fly on a scheduled flight again - or just get to the airport earlier...

Winter sports are not particularly exotic in Japan, but a popular sport. The country offers ideal conditions for this. The country is criss-crossed by mountains and is so hilly and mountainous that only just under 30% of the land is flat enough to be built on. This is where the cities are concentrated, where people live in dense crowds.