Sebastian Müller

After the recent snowfall, the conditions for freeriding and especially ski touring are perfect across the Alps. It's chilly, at least north of the Alps, and half of Germany is also enjoying classic winter weather with frost and a hint of snow. It's like imperial weather!

Today we are focussing on the most original style of skiing, telemark. This means heels free and knees bent with every turn! We have collected classic teaching material and more recent productions. The aesthetics of telemark skiing remain irresistible!

Let's pause and just consciously block out everything that's going wrong in this world and how difficult it is to forecast the weather numerically. Kye droppin! Kye Petersen's life is full of tragedy, but his skiing is full of glamour. What's more, Michael Larcher comes back to earth every year to remind us of all avalanche-related things!

Ialakha is a remarkable ski adventure film that was recently released. It tells the story of a 60 km long and 4000 metre high traverse in the Caucasus in Georgia, on skis of course and with a few spine walls in mind. We are delighted to gain even deeper insights into the project in an interview with Heli Hoffmann, the author, and Sammy Theurer, the film maker. The two were accompanied by Eva Stribrna (photos), Yessica Kurock, Levi Seiferheld and local Zura Phaliani. They were also supported by other locals from Ghebi and their horses and were occasionally followed by dogs.

The well-known YouTube greats - Wester, Autti, Schirmer, Wiedemann... - are slowly taking over the main part of the VdW again, but a few independent films still appear, of course. We round off the menu with a culinary and cultural trip to the mountaineering village of Villergraten and the Low Pressure podcast.

Compared to the last few winters, the start of the season was reasonably good for the northern side of the Alps. Even Munich and even Lower Bavaria enjoyed and groaned under unprecedented amounts of snow. This was followed by a warm and wet period of precipitation, which caused considerable damage to the snow cover at lower altitudes. But now a cold front gives us hope for good fresh snow before we head towards sunny times. We are also noticing that the southern side of the Alps is still suffering from a considerable lack of snow.

High winter in early winter, as proclaimed in PowderAlert #3, is standard for ski film producers. We are confronted with an avalanche of new films and movies, and try to keep ourselves above powder as best we can, and finally gain a clear view and new inspiration. We start with Antti Ollila, end with a podcast by Hugo Harrisson and in between you'll find a competition.

The supreme discipline of PowderGuide articles is also awakening from its summer slumber: the videos of the week are back! With local productions of the finest quality, portraits and farewells, we want to keep you entertained when it's cold and dark outside.

We have put together 25 trailers of films about freeriding for you and have also skilfully commented on most of them! Just take a look! The anticipation is building, the stoke is real and the order is in favour of underdogs.

We visit the Val Saisera, a jewel of the Julian Alps, and here we present the tour to the Forcella Lavinal dell'Orso: one of the three classic gullies in the valley. Last season wasn't so great in terms of snow conditions, until April brought us two good snowfalls and some beautiful tours. On the 10th of April 2022, we found 30 cm of powder, without wind and in cold temperatures, and history could repeat itself.

For perhaps the last VdW episode of the season, we present new and old ski heroes: Valentin Rainer and Max Hitzig have opted for riding and Reine Barkered, one of the most successful contest freeriders ever, says goodbye to the competition stage. Antti, Nikolai, Krister, Gerhard and Fabio are also taking part again. We hope this will motivate you to try your luck again!

The dream comes true: Valentin Rainer wins the Freeride World Tour, together with Justine Dufour-Lapointe, Ludovic Guillot-Diat and Katie Anderson! After the crazy March weather had already caused a stir at the first part of the finals in Fieberbrunn, the Verbier Xtreme had to be canceled due to safety concerns. This is a bitter-sweet end to the FWT23. We sorely miss the showdown on the Bec des Rosses, and yet this is a strong sign: safety has top priority.