PowderPeople | Max Kroneck - Part II

You were in Italy, Austria, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey on your train and ski trip. What was it like with the avalanche report outside the Alps?

There is no such thing as an avalanche report as we are fortunate enough to have everywhere in the Alps. For Bulgaria, we found a Facebook group about the avalanche situation. I didn't find anything else, at least not in English.

So you dug your own snow profiles?

Yes. We did a lot of digging, especially in Turkey. And we often decided against the planned tour based on our snow profiles, which was also a good thing: once we found out a day after we had broken off our tour that large avalanches had occurred in the area just one mountain away. If you don't have a good avalanche forecast like here in the Alps and have just arrived in an unknown area, you really have to feel your way carefully into unfamiliar mountains. And first see what the snow cover is like. That's always the case on ski trips like this: you arrive somewhere and really want to get going - but it's important to first shift down a gear and take a look at the snow cover.

So if you don't have this snow cover expertise yourself, you need a good mountain guide for a trip like this.

Absolutely. It's not as if you can quickly acquire this knowledge yourself. That's why the vast majority of people should only go on a ski tour in the mountains with a mountain guide, where you are ultimately responsible for the avalanche forecast.

The conditions in Romania also look very good in the movie.

The Carpathians would have been mega if we would had stayed there longer. And the weather would have been nice. Lots of chutes. Laughs. But somehow - conditions or not - it was cool everywhere.

How did you end up spending the night at this weather station on Vârful Țarcu in Romania?

There's someone who offers heli-tours there. We contacted him via three corners. He then put us in touch with this weather station, but we had never spoken to them directly until we arrived. And it wasn't really clear whether it would work out at all. But when we got there, the man from the weather station gave us a room and three mattresses and we were able to crash there. We could only talk with our hands and feet. He worked all night and listened to Rockposter Metal in his room full of flashing lights in between. A funny guy.

Great skiing terrain, the Carpathians.

Yes, really good. There's a good reason for heliskiing there. But like everywhere else, you have to be very careful. Shortly before we were there, there was an avalanche. Some of the areas there are huge open spaces that get a lot of wind. When it avalanches there, it rattles big time.

Bears?

We actually saw a bear track. Pretty massive paw tracks. We also put our luggage in a tree rather than on the ground because of the bears - although I don't know if that would have really helped.

How important were lockers for you?

We actually only used a locker once. We had minimized our luggage so much that we could always have it with us.

This means

Everyone had their sleeping bag and a sleeping mat. And we each only had a change of underwear. We also treated ourselves to a normal pair of pants. With crampons, ice axe, helmet and skins, the backpack filled up pretty quickly. I had a 30-liter backpack with me, which really isn't much for three weeks. The film equipment was one of the biggest items of luggage: each of us had a complete camera and photo equipment with us.

Why so much filming equipment?

Everyone had to be equally in front of and behind the camera. Everyone filmed, everyone photographed. We had two controllers for the drones. The plan was for the first one to go down and be filmed - and then take control of the drone to film the others. Unfortunately, this didn't work for me because my cell phone didn't allow the necessary app. In the end, we had an incredible amount of material: terrabytes of data that Loïc and Joi rummaged through before they edited the film so well.

Do you use lighter ski equipment than usual on such trips?

I was out and about as usual: with my freeride skis from Fischer, the Ranger 102. Plus a binding from Plum and the Transalp boot from Fischer, which I ride with a different, harder liner from Zipfit. Or with the wrap liner from Intuition.

You also think that the shell and liners should be sold separately?

That would be a real improvement.

Some manufacturers feed their customers with pretty cheap liners.

Also for weight reasons. But often with poor results. Then the boot is lighter - but only thanks to a junk liner, which reduces the skiing performance and is not particularly durable.

What kind of boots did you have with you apart from the ski boots?

Preferably lightweight approach boots.

In the film, you can see that you walked a lot. Right at the beginning, for example, in the Julian Alps.

We walked to Tarvisio-Boscoverde station after leaving the Luschari mountain - there would have been a bus later, but we would have missed our onward journey by exactly two minutes. So we walked. But that's just part of it.

What did you learn about your home mountains - the Alps - on this trip?

Anyone who has skied outside the Alps or outside Europe will understand how easy skiing is in the Alps, whether on piste or off-piste. There are no better connections to the mountains where you can ski anywhere else: mega roads and great train and bus connections, huts and lifts everywhere. Many freeriders always look a little enviously at those who go freeriding on snowmobiles in Canada. But once you've done it, you want to go back to the Alps straight away.

How do you manage to juggle family and such trips?

One important factor is, of course, that my three children have grown up with it. My first long trip was when Leo was not yet a year old and I was traveling with "ice cream and palm trees" for five weeks in the Mediterranean. When we met again, it felt like he was five heads taller. Of course, an expedition like that is tough on the family - especially for my wife. On the other hand, when I'm not guiding or on an expedition, I'm usually completely at home. I don't think the children would see me more often or for longer if I had a normal 9-to-5 job. At the end of July until October 2024, for example, I was with my family almost all the time. That's great for everyone.

How do you keep in touch during a trip like this?

Of course by cell phone - just like any other family. The children and I also have little coloring books in which we draw our experiences every day. We then take photos of them and send them to each other. The plan is actually for us to do this every day - but it doesn't always work.

One trip usually begets the next trip. Where would you like to go again for longer to discover mountains on skis?

Turkey, definitely. There, even further east to the higher mountains. The people in Turkey are very friendly and hospitable.

Part I of our Max Kroneck interview: In three weeks by train from Tarvisio in Italy to Turkey - and in between ski tours in the High Tatras, Bulgaria, the Romanian Carpathians and on Turkish volcanic mountains. The film "Going East" by and with Max Kroneck, Loïc Isliker (director), Silvia Moser and Joi Hoffmann tells the story. In the interview, Max Kroneck explains why he originally wanted to go to Corsica, how he uses the train as a mountain guide and why the bike is ultimately the freest means of transport: "A return flight would have destroyed the whole point of the trip"

On YouTube: Arc'teryx Presents: Going East