Sebastian Müller

I had a very pleasant encounter with conditions reporter Nino, a.k.a. schneerudi, at the final PG meeting. What's more, a few days later he surprised me with an email full of treasures I'd never heard of. Here are the collected highlights. Thank you very much! We're not saying goodbye to the summer break just yet. Perhaps there are more surprises in store for us!

We are delighted to announce our first winner of the "VdW Skier of the Year Award": Elisabeth Gerritzen! We will try to notify, congratulate and gift her immediately! The PG community chose her as the winner in a tough tournament mode in the final against "Our Roland". We also regret having lost sight of Antti Autti, but we will make up for it here. We close with Champion Aurelien and myself, Editorial Award Winner 2021.

3 Powderpeople who end in i, ie and y? We dedicate this issue to three influential figures in our freeride culture: Eric Hjorleifson, aka HojI, JeremIE Heitz and CodY Townsend. The last two are certainly also interesting interview candidates. Hm?

Vimeo is given far too little attention here. The artistic quality of the publications is generally higher there. This may also be due to the fact that they attract less attention and therefore generate less advertising revenue. True video artists seem to enjoy the freedom from commerce and there are plenty of small and large gems to be found! The VdW then reflect on their YouTube consumption and dependency.

Without anticipating the ContestHappening too much, the Verbier Xtreme must be briefly mentioned here. It is the annual highlight of our scene, and its date at the end of March also marks the peak of climatological snow depths. The search for powder is becoming increasingly difficult. But as you can see in the latest conditions reports, it's still well worth it!

The omniscient algorithm also keeps offering me Jan Böhmermann. In his latest piece of satirical investigative journalism, he exposes the ignorance and corruption of the Tyrolean cable car industry, elegantly drawing analogies of failure in the event of a disaster, from the gondola fire in Kaprun to the Corona Cluster (I & II) in Ischgl.

CHAMONIX: Mecca, place of longing and birthplace: of alpinism, steep face skiing and many other types of mountain sports. Following on from the article about a new first ascent, today we are looking at films about the ski culture from Chamonix, which is sometimes fraught with high consequences, always enchanted with great panoramic aesthetics and sometimes refined with fun and joy.

As far as I know, we haven't had any fatal accidents involving professional freeriders since last year's tribute edition. That's nice, but it doesn't matter, because unfortunately people without celebrity status also die in the mountains, without a fan community to mourn them. Nevertheless, we remember Andreas and JP once again. There's also a re-make of Mount Ushba and Jeremie's diaries. We are longing for a comeback of winter with lots of snow and new movie material.

Where at best only firn or steep gullies promise joyful activities in the given weather conditions, the VdW also go there on dry, wet or soaked terrain. We show Nikolai Schirmer and Xavier de le Rue, but otherwise I offer a selection of lengthy replays and more entertaining best-ofs from great contests. Unfortunately, in my opinion, they strive for a little too much HYPE/STOKE/SYKE. But let everyone find what they like!

The Black Forest has turned completely white with snow this winter. And so all the inhabitants took to their hilly homes and completely forgot where they were because of all the powder and pillows, and the pandemic was only half as wild. Great cinema from a small low mountain range!

Welcome to this year's review of the channels of our Alpine clubs! More online seminars are hardly what we need, but I would like to establish this sub-category. Of course, all channels have gained subscribers, but the balance of power has hardly shifted. In my opinion, the ÖAV stands out with its educational and humorous videos about safety on the mountain. Just like back then, we are growing from small to big. Language courses included!

Today we're bringing you the best of the best. Our protagonists have used their talent, stamina and style to become stars of the scene and won't let up! So: sit back and enjoy!