Japan

I've often heard about this dreamy country with its "champagne powder", the endless amounts of snow and the hot springs where the Japanese macaques have a good time, but I've only heard about it from stories. But I was lucky enough to meet the right people, got carried away and am now sitting in my flat in Innsbruck with a working visa for Japan in my passport, eagerly awaiting winter.

High winter in early winter, as proclaimed in PowderAlert #3, is standard for ski film producers. We are confronted with an avalanche of new films and movies, and try to keep ourselves above powder as best we can, and finally gain a clear view and new inspiration. We start with Antti Ollila, end with a podcast by Hugo Harrisson and in between you'll find a competition.

Today with a lot of Schwiizerdütsch in the avalanche expert interview at the SLF, a bit of French in the VLOG of a young freerider and the Far Eastern-Japanese flair of a Hokkaido commercial with extra JaPow. After all that, of course, we'll just share the replay of the FWT in Fieberbrunn, without spoilers.

The VdW are trying to win your favor today with the finest exoticism: an FWT-4**** event is taking place in Japan and Europe's highest volcano, Mount Etna, is located in Sicily. If there's no snow in the Italian Alps, you can fly south and take advantage of the current excellent snow conditions. Una figata!

Once again, the fine artistic alternative for video material is highlighted: vimeo. Not everything is free here, but certainly none of it is for nothing. Well, I still can't get around youtube completely. You can expect a nice mix of amateur recordings and philosophical works, and yes, you see right, we have Japow on offer!

Vimeo is given far too little attention here. The artistic quality of the publications is generally higher there. This may also be due to the fact that they attract less attention and therefore generate less advertising revenue. True video artists seem to enjoy the freedom from commerce and there are plenty of small and large gems to be found! The VdW then reflect on their YouTube consumption and dependency.

With the new edition of Endless Winter, Michael Neumann is once again bringing an illustrated book onto the market that will make a powder fan's eyes light up as they read it. And the best thing about it: we're giving away five of the popular copies, so watch out!

Today in our Videos of the Week: The imaginary battle between EAST & WEST: Relatively interesting films from Japan and Georgia fight for your favor with two films from the USA. Have fun!

Hedvig Wessel (NOR), Marion Haerty (FRA), Drew Tabke (USA) and Victor De Le Rue (FRA) are the winners of the first tour stop of the Freeride World Tour 2020 in Hakuba, Japan. Elias Elhardt from Oberstaufen took third place in the snowboarder category, while Tao Kreibich (AUT) and Konstantin Ottner (GER) were unfortunately unable to score points on their debut.

In recent years, I have occasionally wondered whether the ski movie format still exists at all, whether it was just that its fascination had waned due to familiarization, or whether it was just the absence of Videos of the Week? The trailers for the new season at least give us hope for longer, imperial entertainment. And here, too, we are once again granting larger productions more space and finally having our free world saved by already familiar lone fighters!

A somewhat decimated field of riders enjoys the first FWT tour stop in Japan in excellent snow and weather conditions. Wildcard holder Travis Rice not only outdoes his snowboard colleagues on this face, Markus Eder wins the skiers' race ahead of Tanner Hall. Ari Tricomi picks up where she left off last season and Anna Orlova comes out on top in the snowboarding category.

Only three days to go until the start of the FWT in Hakuba, Japan. The organizers hope to hold the contest on Friday, 18.01.2019. Injuries and wildcards are causing further changes to the rider field, which is gradually arriving in the Hakuba Valley on the Japanese main island. Everything you need to know before the first tour stop of the 2019 season can be found here: