Sebastian Müller

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.

The changeable spring weather is still really cold in places and at times already thundery! The meandering jet stream continues to indicate stratospheric influence and it seems that we will still experience some fluffy precipitation in April. The weather in the Alps remains unsettled and summer is still a long way off.

The VdW need content and that's what vloggers and the contest scene aka the Freeride World Tour provide us with on a regular basis. Today we feature the comebacks of Sage Cattabriga-Alosa as a vlogger and Ariana Tricomi at the FWT. Have fun!

Today with a lot of Schwiizerdütsch in the avalanche expert interview at the SLF, a bit of French in the VLOG of a young freerider and the Far Eastern-Japanese flair of a Hokkaido commercial with extra JaPow. After all that, of course, we'll just share the replay of the FWT in Fieberbrunn, without spoilers.

March is turning into another wintery month and one PowderAlert follows another. So we're giving winter one last chance, hoping for more snowfall and keeping you motivated with some great footage!

The VdW are trying to win your favor today with the finest exoticism: an FWT-4**** event is taking place in Japan and Europe's highest volcano, Mount Etna, is located in Sicily. If there's no snow in the Italian Alps, you can fly south and take advantage of the current excellent snow conditions. Una figata!

We are celebrating the upcoming cold snap with the films of some of our best friends, first and foremost Max Hitzig and Valentin Rainer. We are also very happy to finally follow Max Kroneck and Jochen Mesle's bike-ski trip through the Balkans - a great adventure. Finally, Krister Kopala emancipates himself and releases his first major film of his own, with exciting steep face snowboarding.