Off home!

My name is Marek, I'm 39 years old and my dad was Polish. I say "was" because he died of cancer a few years ago. I'm grateful to my dad for a lot of things and, yes, I miss him. He taught me a lot and gave me a lot - the thing I'm most grateful for is that he passed on his passion for freeriding to me. He was a Nordic combined athlete and ski jumper in the Polish national team until he fled Poland for Germany in the early 1970s. Because of him, skiing and snowboarding are part of my life, you could even say: more constant than anything else.

And he gave me a mission. Because he wanted to go heliskiing in Canada his whole life, but never made it due to his illness. But my dad was always convinced that children make their parents' dreams come true.

So I had to go to Canada. Without question.

I worked towards it for a long time. And during the 2017/2018 Christmas break, I packed my then girlfriend Janna and her brother, who had just spent a year at school on Vancouver Island and is just as accomplished a freerider as she is, into a HeavyDuty Womo and we set off after snow and snout. We reached Revelstoke via Whistler and Sun Peaks. Because Revelstoke exceeded all our expectations in terms of snow and surroundings, we decided to cross Kicking Horse off our list and simply celebrate New Year's Eve in Revelstoke.

The two founded the Freeride Academy because they wanted to share their passion for freeriding, touring and the mountains with others, but also to pass on their knowledge and experience.

As nice as the summer visit with the boys was, we were all already thinking about winter. Because in October, the Freeride Academy organized a nice gathering of 24 freeriders in Pitztal for the start of the season, and of course I was there too. Let me tell you: I was and still am completely blown away by the professionalism and passion with which the guys convey their enthusiasm for touring and freeriding and then also manage to keep the whole group in a good mood at all times.

After this first taste of the mountains with Szymon and Misiek, it was clear to me: I wanted to go to the High Tatras and go touring with them. A year later, I was to celebrate New Year's Eve with Szymon not in Revelstoke but in the High Tatras, at the "Freetour Camp" in the High Tatras.

I traveled by car from Berlin via Krakow. The highway to Krakow is very well developed (although there is a charge), then you take the main road towards Zakopane. Alternatively, you can travel by plane or train via Krakow.

We were all accommodated in the very luxurious apartments of the Villa Szymoszkowa in Kościelisko. The groups were divided according to ability level and the tours were prepared accordingly. Each group had approx. 4-6 participants plus a professional mountain guide.

On the morning of 28.01.18, all groups met at 8:30 in front of the Wolf Trail Alpine Center at the John Paul II traffic circle in Zakopane. After grouping and organizing the rental equipment, we took the bus to Kużnice (1000m), where we put on our skins. After a short ascent of around 200m, we arrived at the Hotel Górski Kalatówki (1195m), where we all had to carry out an avalanche beacon search at the avalanche training area and were put through our paces to see if we would react correctly in an emergency. We then headed up to the hut on the "Hali Kondratowej" (1333m), down into the "Kondratowa" valley, up to the "Suchy Wierch Kondracki" (1890m) and back down again over beautiful deep snow slopes back to Kużnice, where we all stopped for après-ski in the "Bufet Harnas" bar.

On the second day, we had to take crampons and ice axes with us and this time we met directly at the gondola to the summit of Kasprowy Wierch (1959m). The weather was challenging on this day, very foggy and repeatedly sprinkled with light snowfall. But that didn't dampen our spirits in the slightest. After a beautiful first descent (approx. 35° degree slopes!), we climbed up towards "Świnica" (2301m). However, we only went as far as the ridge "Świnicka Przełęcz" (2051m) because Szymon decided that the avalanche risk would be too high and we already had beautiful slopes to ski down from here. The snow was a delight!

Infos

At the FREERIDE ACADEMY, Misiek and Szymon offer camps for all freeride enthusiasts of all levels, e.g. "From the piste to deep snow", "Steep and Deep", "The 1x1 of ski touring" and more. They not only teach a passion for freeriding, but also theoretical content on snow, avalanche and meteorology. They also offer various ski expeditions to Georgia, France and Austria. Believe me, you'll find what you're looking for! In the 2019/2020 season, there will also be extra camps for splitboarders. There are no language barriers to worry about, Szymon and Misiek both speak very good English and also give some odd instructions in German.

On the Website of the Freeride Academy and the social media accounts of the guides Michał Ślusarczyk and Szymon Styrczula-Maśniak you can find everything else.