Nikolas Burger

We at PowderGuide had the pleasure of interviewing the two rising freeride stars with Innsbruck as their home base in Val Thorens.

Val Thorens welcomed the PowderGuide press team on Saturday morning, 24th of January 2025, with bright sunshine and an impressive backdrop at an altitude of 2,300 metres. The largest interconnected ski resort in the world, the "Trois Vallées", beckoned with countless possibilities, but it was already clear when exploring the highest mountain stations: this FWT stop was going to be a challenge! The wind tugged at the peaks, drifting snow piled up in hidden hollows, while bare rocks peaked out of the snow cover. The weather forecast? Uncertain - a first indication that flexibility and patience would be required.

"Nordstau! North jams regularly provide the Nordkette, Innsbruck's local mountain, with massive amounts of fresh snowfall. [...] We designed this board for just such days!" writes the manufacturer Stompede about the split version of the Nordstau snowboard released last year. We tested what it feels like to draw the first lines in the fresh powder, but also how the board behaves in other snow conditions, on around 20 days.

The CLEW founders describe their motivation to develop a new type of step-in binding as follows: "Buckle on and out 40 times a day? Two times should be enough [...] We wanted to save ourselves the trouble of buckling and unbuckling after every lift ride, while still not giving up the unsurpassed riding experience of a buckle bindings. Until then, there was no snowboard step-in binding on the market that satisfied us". We have tested for you how close they've reached to their goal.