Tobias Kurzeder

The 4th, expanded and revised edition of the "PowderGuide. Avalanches: Risk check for freeriders" is now available hot off the press. The claim remains the same: learning must be fun! Compared to the third edition from 2010, the 4th edition has been completely revised again and the avalanche awareness and avalanche rescue chapters have been expanded: On 16 additional pages, the two Tyrolean avalanche experts Rudi Mair and Patrick Nairz provide an introduction to their avalanche hazard patterns, which were presented for the first time in winter 2010/11. The avalanche rescue chapter by Manuel Genswein has also been expanded.

Over the last 10 years, PowderGuide co-founder Holger Feist and his snowboard crew have undertaken a number of exciting trips to winter destinations that were often completely unknown at the time and are still very exotic today. In the process, he has taken countless very special photos?

Find out more about PowderMania and what's behind it here...

Freeskier Patrick Fux comes from the Valais ski resort of Grächen and lives in Zurich, where he sometimes works and from where he has been traveling the (snow) world on skis for nine years now. Over the past few years, he has not only logged around 600 days of skiing, but has also taken countless impressive photos from all corners of the winter sports world.

The BigLePowSki Freeride Happening becomes the BigLePowSki Tour

The freeride company Black Diamond is expanding its successful BigLePowSki Freeride Happening into the BigLePowSki Tour: In addition to the already traditional event in Davos-Pischa, there will be further events in La Grave (France) and in St. Anton in Austria, as well as in Brighton in the USA.

We set out to check Hong Kong for its mountain bike suitability. You can read here whether it was worth it.
It's warm and humid. A light breeze blows in through the open windows of the apartment on the 42nd floor and provides some cooling. Down below, the streets and alleyways of the former British crown colony of Hong Kong open up like canyons between the modern glass and steel skyscrapers.

Hong Kong is a city of contrasts. In hardly any other city in the world do old traditions meet modernity so directly, Far East meets West, poor meets rich, mega city meets nature. If you roll through the street canyons between the world-famous skyscrapers of the Bank of China, Two International Finance Center and Co, you will come across small, traditional markets and food stalls everywhere, where many Hong Kong Chinese earn their living.

Finally, we descend the European GR 74 long-distance hiking trail. First grassy, then rocky, slightly downhill, then flat again. The path winds its way through southern, semi-high vegetation of stunted pines and various types of broom in rich yellow bloom. The path becomes a rocky path with hairpin bends on white-grey limestone. An impressive view of a huge valley opens up over a saddle. Scrubby vegetation on the slopes is interspersed with white limestone rock faces. The hiking trail winds along as far as the eye can see. At the top, it winds steeply downhill in serpentines with challenging bends, and further down, gently along the slope.

Our next destination is Mont Aigoual. After a few kilometers, the landscape changes completely. The plateaus and steep canyons are replaced by dense chestnut forests. As chestnuts only grow on so-called primary rock, i.e. gneiss and granite, the reason for the change in the landscape is clear. And this is true, as the Cevennes consist partly of limestone and partly of the ancient silicate rocks. That doesn't matter to us now, it looks great for biking here too. However, we made a mistake when choosing the route. A large part of the famous path of 4000 steps still runs through the national park, where biking off the wide paths is prohibited. Now that we're here, we at least want to take a look at the 1565 m high Mont Aigoual and pedal up with courage. There must be a lot going on here in summer, but in late spring there is no traffic at all. We pass a semi-deserted ski station – so you can ski 60 km from the Mediterranean in the low mountains! – we reach the first remnants of snow and it gets very chilly.

"You're going to kill everything with those fat tires!", the accusation remains heavy with lead: Fortunately, we are able to reassure the other guests at Conny and Christian's guesthouse L'Aire de la Séranne that there is little to kill on the Cévennes trails, but plenty to discover. After a few glasses of red country wine, the differences between conservationists and bikers are resolved – and together we rave about the magnificent landscape – and the golden eagles are equally impressive.

Heliskiing in the Alps is prohibited or severely restricted almost everywhere – except in Switzerland, where there are 42 landing sites for helicopters where heliskiing tourists land over 20,000 times a year. The European Alps are among the most sensitive landscapes and habitats. At the same time, however, the Alps are densely populated and have been used by humans in many different ways for thousands of years, and that is a good thing.

The inventor and manufacturer of the avalanche ball has already caused great displeasure among experts on several occasions. Herbert Fournier and his team have misused the legitimate desire to promote their product to attack the manufacturer of the avalanche airbag. Yet everyone is working towards a common goal: to reduce the number, or at least the percentage, of avalanche victims.