High Life in Verbier

Photographer Anders Ödman was still eager for some more photos. So when the powder was tracked out in Engelberg, me and Patrik "Pastorn" Lund decided to pay Anders a visit in Verbier. The ski bum life is usually not very glamorous, but when you visit Anders it is. Anders rents the bottom floor of a newly built chalet. So me and Pastorn got our own room and bathroom in the luxurious chalet. Sometimes karma works.

Verbier did not recieve as much snow as Engelberg the last snowfall. But Verbier has big advantage over Engelberg. If you do a bit of hiking in Verbier you always find untracked and well protected snow. I will let the photos speak for themselves.

A few gentle turns before it gets steep.

It took us less than 10 minutes to hike to this coulouir. And it was still untracked several days after the last snowfall. What are the ski bums in Verbier doing?


Posing for the photographer.

Yes it is true. Pastorn is actually hiking.

There are a lot of hidden rocks in Verbier. So sometimes you need to fix your clothes a bit.

This ice fall is artificial, made for ice climbing courses. But we thought it looked good anyway.

Pastorn is going fast as always.

The last minutes of sun of the day.

We are enjoying the nice view after a hard day of work.

Powder vs Crust

I missed out on the Freeride World Tour Qualifiers in Fieberbrunn and Chamonix because of my foot injury. Now my foot was good and ready for the Qualifier in Monte Rosa 19-22 February. But a heavy northern storm just brought in 70 cm of fresh powder over Engelberg. Monte Rosa did not recieve any snow, which meant it was still crust snow over there. The decision was quite easy.

I think I made the right choice.

Photoshoot in Grimentz

After Les Arcs I drove home to Engelberg for a quick visit. Since the foot still hurt I decided to go back to my doctor who told me I would be ok in a week. And now I got a better explanation of my injury. I had a loose piece of bone in my foot from a 7 year old injury which was causing my pain. To reduce the inflammation and the pain he gave me a cortison injection. And after two days I could almost ride as normal again.

Me and Peter "Junior" Nilsson went to Grimentz and met up with photographer Anders Ödman and skier Jana Lindquist. When we arrived in Grimentz it was dumping, and it kept snowing the following days. With the fantastic tree riding there was to find, we didn't mind the snowing at all. Everywhere we looked there were pillows and other fun features. I must admit it was a bit tempting to leave the photographer behind and just go riding...

The snow was quite deep.

The snow was actually too deep sometimes.

You can tell from the snow in my beard that I'm a goofy rider (right foot in front)

We found some nice little cliffs in the trees.

Grimentz was a super cosy little village.

We had a few minutes of sun the last day of our visit.

Visit www.peantphoto.com to see more of Anders photos.

Photoshoot in Les Arcs

The foot still hurts, but I really wanted to check out Les Arcs, so I decided to go anyway. In Les Arcs I met up with photographer Anders Ödman and skier Viktor Hägglund, who arrived in LA a few days earlier. A friend of mine, Thibauld Duchosal (who just took third place at the first world tour stop in Sochi, Russia) , was going to show us around. Thibaud grew up in Les Arcs and know the place like the back of his hand, so the setup couldn't get much better. But unfortunately heavy clouds were covering LA the whole weekend, so we couldn't do any of the long famous runs above the treeline. And my foot was still hurting pretty bad. But we got some descent photos which probably will be published in an article about Les Arcs in Åka Skidor this coming winter.

There were some nice pillows in the trees.

Can you tell who's french. A tip is to look at our heads... Thibaud showed us around his home resort.

Anders is shooting from the lift.

Time to pack up. Next stop will be Grimentz.

ISPO

I was supposed to leave for a photoshoot in Les Arcs last Sunday, but the foot still hurt, so I decided to go to ISPO in Munich instead. For those who doesn't know ISPO is a winter sports fair, where you can see next years winter sports equipment. For me it was the first time there, and the place was bigger than I could ever imagine. There were 16 halls filled with equipment, and each hall was about the size of a soccer field. It was a lot of fun to check out all the new stuff and to meet my sponsors.

POC's new Jon Olsson edition helmet. Cool in a retro way.

POC's new back protector is soft and forms around your back, but stiffens when it gets a hit. Pretty revolutionizing! Looking forward to trying it out!


Norrønas new colour is chess.

My newest sponsor, Flux bindings, had a monter where I could check out all their new stuff. The bindings looked really solid. Will receive my first bindings in about a week and can't wait to try them out!

Next years Rad Air Tanker is black and has a rocker shape. Can't wait to rock this board!

CRAFT had a flashy monter where you could check out their new collection.