The winner of our big PG photo competition, Leander Nardin, had the chance to compete in the King of Dolomites on February 20, 2014 with a wild card. His team came up with an unusual idea and almost managed to secure a place on the podium.
The time had come again this year. The small town in Trentino, San Martino di Castrozza, hosted the King of Dolomites for the second time. An international photocontest in which 16 pro teams and countless Wannabes and Wannababies competed over the course of a weekend in the hunt for the crown. By winning the PG photocontest, I got a wildcard and was able to take part in this year's spectacle.
On Thursday, February 20, 2014, I set off early in the morning from Salzburg to Innsbruck. The first stop was where I met up with my riders and loaded all the equipment into a car. From there we continued in the direction of South Tyrol. After countless hairpin bends and meters in altitude, we reached the Passo di Rolle in the afternoon. Not only did one of the oldest pass roads in the Dolomites await us there, but also three-metre-high walls of snow next to the road, which accompanied us all the way to our destination. They barely allowed us to keep our lower jaws level. Unfortunately, we couldn't see much of San Martino, as fog and clouds covered the entire valley. Nevertheless, we set off on foot in search of Filipo, an organizer of the KoD, to get our ski passes and accommodation. After checking in and filling our stomachs with pizza, we were treated to a briefing for the contest and a film by Arcteryx - "Rise".
On Friday morning, we were woken up by glorious weather. The entire mountain flank of the Dolomites presented itself from its most impressive side and the summit of Cima Rosetta flashed out in the early morning light. We took the first gondola up, where an indescribable panorama awaited us. And then the shoot began. We had planned something unconventional for this year and
wanted to score points with a story. A story that shows the development from the original skier in wooden slats (the fossil, so to speak - alluding to the Arc'teryx logo - an Archeopterix fossil) to today's modern skier. So we hauled the old wooden slats, costumes, bamboo poles and all the equipment up to the summit of Cima Rosetta. It was an impressive spot for shooting, which the others gradually noticed and followed us. After a few portraits and nostalgic turns, the afternoon arrived and so we concluded the old-school shoot and explored the other side of the area. The slopes around the Tognola. In addition to our nostalgic photos, we had also planned to take a few night shots on this side, but this time the weather threw a spanner in the works and we had to give up at around 7 p.m. and get off the mountain, as the fog moved in quite quickly and a complete whiteout was imminent.
We wanted to take it a little easier the next day, as we already had a few photos in the can and the weather forecast was rather less than intoxicating. On Saturday we no longer had imperial weather but rather cloudy conditions, but it cooled down well during the night and 15 cm of fresh snow was waiting to be ploughed through. This day was then dominated by riding, so to speak, and photography was
Placed in the background. This day also flew by and at around 4:30 p.m., just as we were about to set up the last run, the clouds suddenly cleared and the sun came out. We had actually already written off our night shoot, but suddenly there was hope again. As we didn't really know whether we would be able to hold out that long again today and whether the weather would hold, we drove to our spot and passed the time taking photos and building table football. And lo and behold, the weather held. Night finally fell and the stars danced above the breathtaking panorama of San Martino. After what felt like minus 50 degrees and almost five hours of waiting, we finally captured the photos on the memory card. With slightly frostbitten toes and knees rattling from the cold, we drove down into the valley in the dark and made our way to the guesthouse. Immediately into the hot shower and then off to edit the photos. We managed to upload our final photos to the KoD server 15 minutes before the deadline. After putting a repair half in the figure, we fell into bed completely exhausted.
The last day in the Valley rewarded us once again with sunshine. We spent the rest of the day on the snow-covered slopes of the Primiero Valley until the award ceremony in the afternoon.
And then it arrived. The moment of truth. Arriving at the award ceremony in the center of San Martino, our "Lorenzo von Matterhorn" old-school photo was already enthroned on the screen.
The excitement grew and the organizer began to read out the winners. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough for us to make it onto the podium. But at least we were in the final ranking with our photos and were able to earn a place just behind the podium. Pietro Celesia and Massimo Chicco were this year's absolutely deserving winners in the pro category.
Victory or not. The event was definitely an experience in itself and the ski area around San Martino...well, what more can I say. If you've never been there before, you should pack up right away and come and see the Dolomites live. Absolute madness!
You can find some pictures of our team in the gallery
On that note...thanks again to PowderGuide, Arcteryx and King of Dolomites for this opportunity. And I hope to see you again next year in the hunt for the crown!
