Lukas Zögernitz

After "Time for the Whiteroom" and "For a few Lines more", the Innsbruck-based film crew led by Johannes Hoffmann and Simon Platzer have now produced their third major film this year: "Trail and Error". As the name suggests, not everything always goes right at the first attempt in a ski film production, and sometimes things can go really wrong. But that's no reason not to try. And so last winter, the Whiteroom crew once again took to the mountains far away from the usual film locations to try their hand at perfect lines.

62 athletes from four continents, including all four reigning freeride champions in skiing and snowboarding, are taking part in the Freeride World Tour 2015. The interesting field of participants includes not only the qualifiers from the last FWT and the promoted athletes from the FWQ, but also some participants with wildcards. These were awarded, among others, to those top riders who were injured last season and are now making their comeback. Other wildcards go to the Olympic participants.

Difficult snow conditions and an interesting starting field characterized the bigmountain competition of The Northface New Zealand Freeski Open. With Janina Kuzma and Jossy Wells, two Olympians were at the start in both the freestyle and big mountain competitions. Jania managed to win both competitions with two top runs and Jossy impressively showed his skiing skills outside the park and pipe with a fifth place in the big mountain competition. From Europe, Birgit Ertl from Austria showed her qualities with a 2nd place.

The Bikepark Planai is home to one of the World Cup downhill routes in Austria. But the small Styrian town at the foot of the Dachstein also has plenty to offer bikers away from the 1000-metre downhill route. Together with the guys from the WS crew, we tried to find out whether the bike offer has the same potential as the World Ski Championship-proven winter sports offer.

Anyone traveling to a tourist region in Austria for biking can hardly avoid Saalbach-Hinterglemm. The valley in Salzburg has been a fixture on the Alpine bike scene for years. We took a look to see whether the Bike Circus Saalbach Hinterglemm still lives up to its good reputation.

The Serfaus, Fiss, Ladis bike park only opened in August 2013. But even in its first full season, the bike park is no longer an insider tip. Together with the guys from the WS crew, we went to see for ourselves and can tell you why.

Winter sports fans know Schladming and the Planai from the famous Alpine Ski Slalom. For the bikers among you, Schladming is also known for the Planai Bike Park. The season got off to a great start with the Gravity Games at the end of June. Many pros took advantage of this event and have already organized the first photo and film shoots in the park. On July 12th, you will have the chance to have your professional bike photos taken.

The Kalkkögel in Tyrol are located southwest of Innsbruck between the Axamer Lizum and Schlick 2000 ski resorts. It is precisely this location that could now be the protected area's undoing. The ski areas are to be connected by a lift that runs through the middle of the protected mountain area. The Austrian Alpine Association recently launched a petition in an attempt to counterbalance the ever-increasing political lobbying of the planners.

When people talk about single trails in touristy bike regions in Austria, one name always comes up: the "Hacklbergtrail" in Saalbach Hinterglemm. Now the almost legendary trail has been expanded and has a total length of 10 km since its opening last weekend.

With the Factor MX, Black Diamond has completely redesigned its established freeride ski boot. The combination of the Triax Pro shell with the MX Dircet Connect connection technology between the shell and interchangeable soles and the FMx Power Liner inner boot is intended to improve both the downhill characteristics and the ascent.

When the Whiteroom crew and Fabian Lentsch invite you to a cozy film evening, this invitation is accepted in Innsbruck, no matter how creative or inconvenient the date may seem.

The human factor receives surprisingly little attention in current avalanche research. So-called "soft facts", such as group dynamics during freeriding or touring, are hardly studied scientifically. Benjamin Zweifel from the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF is one of the few people working on this aspect of avalanche research. In this context, he is also supervising Nicholas Wolken's diploma thesis together with Dr. Reinhard Tschiesner from the University of Bolzano.