USA

It was that time again a week ago. The last working day for the next three months. The most beautiful time of the year has begun and with it another snow adventure in Japan. I will be traveling in Japan until the beginning of March, mainly in Hakuba but also in regions such as Myoko, Nagano and the northern island of Niseko. The weather and especially the annual rain will determine when and where we will be.

The atmosphere in the Sitzmark Club, the bar at Alta Lodge, is unique: the guests I chatted to could talk for days about the adventures they have had here over the course of their lives. Almost all of them have been here several times. The mixture of a simple 70s hostel paired with Michelin-starred cuisine and a communal atmosphere like in your own four walls makes this location in the furthest corner of Little Cottonwood Canyon truly unique and worth a visit.

We were really looking forward to our trip to Utah, the home of the legendary Champagne powder. We had to wait for months, but finally the time had come. A good year after leaving Silverton in southwest Colorado, we are back on a plane heading for the USA. Situated 1350 meters above sea level, the 2002 Olympic city is the ideal starting point for a road trip through the ski resorts around the Great Salt Lake.

Telluride and Silverton are just ten miles apart as the crow flies. By car, however, you have to drive around the entire mountain range on the San Juan Skyway.
Blue lights flashed behind us as we drove down the pass road towards the Ridgeway.

In artificially bad English, we explained to the sheriff that we were just following the other cars. But even that didn't help. He kindly insisted that we had been traveling around 5 miles per hour too fast. However, as a first-time offender in the state of Colorado, you are only due a warning, not a fine.

The drive in heavy snowfall from Aspen to Crested Butte is long and difficult. The route planner had indicated a good three hours in normal weather, but with 30 centimetres of fresh snow on completely uncleared mountain roads, it takes seven hours. Without four-wheel drive, this would probably have been a mission impossible. So once again it was midnight before we drove our jeep into the hotel garage.

Having already visited five ski resorts along the Powder Highway in British Columbia in the winter of 2009, this time we decided to tackle a road trip through the Wild West of Colorado. Fully equipped, we boarded the plane in Munich and landed a good 17 hours later in Grand Junction, in the west of the highest state in the USA.

An absolute Powderwhore classic! The powder whores have clearly remained true to their style. All lines are developed using climbing skins and manpower. Although there are a few aerial shots that were certainly not shot by birds, on the whole the guys stick to their motto "back to nature". Of course, the introduction of a hermit is not to be missed: Nic Devore and his teepee tent in the middle of nowhere: "But I?m not a hippie – I swear!" Yes, of course?

Filmed mainly in North America, the new film from Transworld covers the entire spectrum of snowboarding. Only the sequences in the halfpipe are a little short. Otherwise, the scenes involving Ikka Bäckström, Chris Greniers, Eero Niemela and the others are truly impressive.

"The invention of the national park was the best idea the Americans ever had..."