Chamonix

We've reached the autumn of the season, so to speak, and more and more of the films that we presented as trailers in the spring of the season are now appearing: The Hagens, Continuum, Sänkyøu. We reap what we have sown! We also offer you the best amateur vloggers - Marco Bassot and Gerhard Wiedemann - with a bit of FWT risk management and a good podcast with Maxime Chabloz at the end.

Their names are Nikolai, Jacob, Antti and also Trygg and Hedvig and they produce ski VLOGs. You can't get past them. And rightly so, because they have the best English "Lordy-Dordy!", the best safety management (Extended Column Test) and run everything on green electricity. They wouldn't need to be skiing, but even that they usually do pretty well. But of course, there are a few Alpine one-offs that stand up to their dominance.

The well-known YouTube greats - Wester, Autti, Schirmer, Wiedemann... - are slowly taking over the main part of the VdW again, but a few independent films still appear, of course. We round off the menu with a culinary and cultural trip to the mountaineering village of Villergraten and the Low Pressure podcast.

PLUM was founded in 2005 in the heart of the Chamonix Valley and has continued to develop ever since. The passionate family business has its roots in the mountains and combines the expertise of precision mechanics and wood tuners with a deep connection to skiing and snowboarding.

Tof Henry, freeride pro from Chamonix, and Chilean mountain guide Juan Señoret died on 11 October while climbing the Puntiagudo volcano in Chile. Henry was known for his spectacular ascents of the classic and less classic steep faces around Chamonix. He brought the "freeride style" to the ice walls and made big turns at high speed where others jumped over. Tof Henry was 38 years old and is survived by his son.

The EOFT is going on a major cinema tour through Europe, with more than 100 stops in German-speaking countries. The program offers 8 films, packed with speed flying, whitewater canoeing, mountain biking, climbing, ultrarunning and two ski films are also included. Treat yourself to the action on the big screen exclusively in the cinema and don't miss the chance to win 2 tickets here in the competition!

There are many famous ski tours around Chamonix, although the Brèche Puiseux is not necessarily one of the best known in this country. However, the scenery is extremely impressive and the skiing is also very rewarding.

A pearl is a solid, often round foreign body made of mother-of-pearl that grows in certain pearl-forming mussels, or more rarely snails. Powder is... hm... Snow, of considerable depth and little disturbed by external influences. Powder, you want to dive into it, glide through it and emerge again, and so on and so forth, for all eternity, Kaiserschmarrn. And powder pearls? They are moving bodies in mountains of powder.

Damn youtube: if even Nikolai Schirmer doesn't deliver anything new, then it's time to open up to other streams. Vimeo is always the brilliant alternative, but let's just switch to pure listening pleasure: podcasts! A neglected medium that should finally be given a regular hearing!

If you want to spice up your skiing with difficult to ultimate consequences, head for the steep walls! With a lot of technique and strong brains, the masters of the trade twirl their braids tightly towards the valley. There is a rich history behind it and many legends have immortalized themselves with their descents. For those who want to try out existential battles on skis on the mountain, a place called Chamonix or the steep "Canale" of the Dolomites is generally recommended.

The tour of the Trois Cols is a popular high-alpine skitour near Argentière and leads into a world far away from the infrastructure and ski hustle and bustle. Thanks to lift support in the Grands Montets resort, you can cover a considerable number of metres in just one day and cross several impressive glacier basins along the way. This very varied tour rewards you with magnificent views of the steep north faces of Argentière and the Mont Blanc massif.

There's still a bit left and in Chamonix anyway, but the search for powder is becoming increasingly difficult and it's clear that it's high time to start thinking about the approaching summer! So, our climbing projects for 2021: Big Island Assis or King Capella? Or maybe wrestling in Senegal? Or a highline on a ski tour? Or do you still have high alpine ambitions? Firn, powder or steep faces? Or roadgaps like Markus? In any case, summer will come and is somehow already here.