“If there’s no risk, there’s no adventure“, says Bill Briggs who was the first to ski Grand Teton. Bill was later named as the father of backcountry skiing in United States.

“There’s nobody out there with signs, there’s no ropes, there’s no patrol men, there’s nobody taking care of you on the slopes. It’s not a ski area“, said Doug Coombs in ski movie Steep.

Extreme skiing is skiing performed on long, steep (typically from 45 to 60+ degrees, or grades of 100 to 170 percent) slopes in dangerous terrain, outside the ski area boundaries. The French coined the term ‘Le Ski Extreme’ in the 1970s. The first practitioners include Swiss skier Sylvain Saudan, who invented the “windshield wiper” turn in the mid-1960s and in 1967 made the first descents of slopes in the Swiss, French and Italian Alps that were previously considered impossible. Because of the extremely long, steep slopes, and dangerous terrain, single mistakes at the wrong moment by some extreme skiers have led to their deaths. [Wikipedia 2009]

Riding the legendary north face of l’Aiguille du Midi via Mallory-Porter

Homeboy team rider Jarkko Henttonen discovered Chamonix in the beginning of 1990s, and since those days he has ridden many of the classic extreme runs, such as the north face of l’Aiguille du Midi via Mallory-Porter couloir. Although Jarkko did Mallory some time ago already I wanted to hear more about preparing and riding probably one of the best known extreme route. Here’s my discussion with Jarkko.

Jarkko, how would you first of all define the term “classic extreme ski descent”?

Extreme descent is a ski route which is big, steep and hazardous. Extreme skiing is a game that was developed in Chamonix over the past century. Chamonix, as we all know, is the birth place of mountaineering and it was just natural that folks who were climbing all over mountains started to ski all over mountains as well. In 30s and 40s some of the pioneers of the sport skied in pretty funny places, especially considering the gear they had. The sport stared to develop faster after the WW II when modern ski gear came out, and modern extreme skiing started in the end of the 1960s when Sylvan Saudan started to explore steep faces and couloirs in the Aiguilles du Chamonix and other big peaks in the Massif du Mont Blanc. Or so the story goes, at least.

The definition of extreme skiing, or snowboarding, if that is your sport, is that if you fall, or even loose control, you can expect to die sometime very soon. This happens because the slope you are riding is so steep that you won´t be able to regain control and you´ll fall all the way down to the bottom of the slope, hitting rocks and falling over rock or ice cliffs or whatever may be on your way. Basically you are tumbling down for a long time like a rag doll, not being able to do a thing to save your sorry ass.

Classic descent, in turn, is a ski route that has usually been opened up sometime ago, say in 60s, 70s or in some cases in the 80s, and that has some qualities that make it desirable. What I mean is that the route must have somehow aesthetic, historical or other such  value that lures people to it.

How did you come up with the idea of riding the north face of l’Aiguille du Midi via Mallory-Porter?

Someone, likely my friend Marko Virtanen, showed it to me. Check it out, that´s Mallory there! And like most everybody at first I didn´t even see where it was. I was like, where? This was in the beginning of 90s, I think in 1992.

The first ski descent of the route was done in 1977, I think, and with snowboards, which was still pretty new then, in 89 0r 90. The route had bit of aura on it back then. If you had done it, you were elite, pure and simple. I´d say that despite some trends and changes in attitudes that is still true. It´s a test-piece.

Next year, in 93, I was getting into extreme riding a little bit, and kinda started looking at Mallory, too. That kinda stuff was solely domain of french extreme athletes back then, and I wondered if I´d ever be good enough. I mean, I come from Finland, and how much tradition we have in that kinda stuff? To start with we don´t even have that kinda stuff in Finland, nothing like it, our highest so called mountain is like, what, less than 1300 m and about as flat as the earth was during the middle age. Our country is like a pancake. Anyways, that year a late friend of mine, Jukka Sistonen, skied it with another late friend, Alain Moroni, a french mountain guide and a pioneer of extreme snowboarding, and another frenchie, David Ravanel, a skier and a mountain guide whom I´ve only met a couple of times. I realized that this kinda stuff is also possible for flatlanders,  and from then on I really wanted to do it.

By the way, during 93-95 or even bit later, there was some kind of a change going on in attitudes. I´d say that´s when freeride started to develop big time, and that had an effect on a lot of things that were happening up in the mountains. New school freestyle skiing started to develop then, and similar thing happened in freeride, too. It´s going to be interesting to see what happens now that the two are really starting to merge, with guys like Travis Rice and the likes really getting into back-country freeriding…

How and how long did you prepare for this endeavor?

Quite a while. From the day I realized it´s there and I can do it, it took me about 8 years to actually make the descent. Either it was in condition and I wasn´t or I wasn´t there, or if I was good to go, the route wasn´t. Gotta be patient. If I had been in Chamonix all the time, probably I would have made it much earlier. I almost did it in 95, but missed my chance by about an hour or two.

Could you tell us about that day? How were the snow conditions, how did you feel?

I rode it with Antti Kurola, the day before Verbier Xtreme in 2001, in the beginning of April. I don´t remember anymore who it was but anyways somebody told me that it had been skied and that it is in condition. I´d been in Verbier for about 10 days or something, waiting for the Xtreme to take place, it was delayed due to weather and snow conditions, and was planning to go back home to Finland right after the contest, and since I had nothing better to do, I decided to go have a look.

So, we woke up in Verbier around 4 o´clock in the morning, drove to Chamonix, bought the lift passes to Aiguille du Midi, took the tram up and had a good look at the face from the mid-station. It looked good enough and we went up with the second lift and had a good look at the route from the lift, as well as from the top station. Even from closer it look kinda ok, so we decided to ride it.

We did not drop in from the entrance of the icy tunnel, which would have been better. The top was icy, so we opted to traverse to the ridge from top of Eperon Frendo. It was pretty cool feeling to drop in, after such a long wait. I mean, eight years is quite a long wait.

I went first and Antti came after me. We were both pretty stoked. Antti likes his big lines, he is or at least was into skiing steeps.

The traverse was ok, but the snow on the ridge was sorta hardish. Antti made the first turn and we just laughed. Whoa, here we go! Nowadays Mallory is ridden constantly if the conditions are good, but back then it was still sort of a big deal to do it, and definitely it was a big deal for us, especially for me.

Some guys have done it in like 15 minutes or something, but we wanted to take it easy and enjoy the ambiance… So, we took our time, I think it took us about 2 hours or something to go from the top to the bottom of the face.

The kinda has five or six different sections. First it goes down this broad ridge, which is mostly snow up high, then lower down it has big rocks sticking out of the snow all over. The top part was in sorta bad condition, it was not icy but the snow was quite hard so we had to take it easy. Lower down on the ridge, in this kinda shallow bowl thing it was better and we could relax a bit. Then you drop into this quite steep couloir that is above some gnarly drops. The snow was good there, so it was pretty ok doing that bit. Then you enter this sorta big diagonal ramp with at least partial double fall line with pretty big exposure above cliffs. It was bigger than it looks, so you don´t really feel the exposure that bad if you don´t go to the edge. I of course went, especially at the bottom of it I had to go look over the edge. I reckon I made my most precise turn ever there. Then you traverse to this patch of snow that is pretty damn steep, and really exposed. It was hard making turns there, the snow was bit weird. Stable and solid, sure, but not too smooth, it felt kinda grippy. From there you traverse on this little ramp to a spot from where you make a I think about 25-30 meter rappel to this steepish ramp. Once you are there, you should be fine. The ramps leads into a couloir, which opens up underneath the face. The whole thing is about 1000 m high, I´d say most of the way it´s most definitely at least 40-45 degrees steep, with long sections of about 50 degree incline and the steepest parts are about 55 degrees. It´s a radical route to ride, for sure, and the guys who opened it up in 1977 must have been super fucking stoked to do it. I mean, it´s right there, underneath the lift, and because of this, it´s unique. No other place in the world like this.

What were the highlights of riding Mallory-Porter?

The whole thing. First waiting for years and then one day waking up in Verbier, driving to Chamonix, going up, riding down, driving back… The whole thing was just such a fun thing to do.

Maybe the funniest thing was when we were about to do the rappel, and decided to call to Arto Majava, our buddy, who for sure would have wanted to be with us, but was back home instead. It was sorta early in the morning so we woke him up. I asked him how he is, he said ok, then he asked what we are up to, and I told him, trying to be as casual as possible, that we are on Mallory, about to do the rap, and then there was just a very long silence on the other end of the line.

How difficult is it to ride this classic off-piste run? To what would you compare it?

I wouldn´t really call it an off-piste run. Off-piste run is something way easier. Anyways, it is quite difficult. Not out of this world, though. I mean, I´ve done it, so more or less anybody can do if they really want it enough. And as I said, guys have done it in like 15 minutes, and if it is on, people do it a lot, it´s a mogulfield on the best, or the worst days.

As I described, it has some rather steep sections, and it is exposed all the way. In some places I´d say it is very exposed: you are riding above huge cliffs, and it feels really airy. I´d say it falls into extreme descent category, and if you do fall you have a pretty big risk to die. Then again, I´m quite sure somebody has fallen, or at least slipped there and not died, but in some sections I´d say it´s guaranteed death if you loose control, start sliding and cannot stop.

I wouldn´t compare it to normal riding at all. In some respect this kind of riding is closer to free solo climbing than anything else. Mallory is not particularly difficult extreme descent, but still, scary and difficult enough.

Would you do it again?

I would, if it´s in good condition and I´m in good condition, too. Right now I´m not.

What would you like to say to those who are planning to ride Mallory-Porter?

For those who are actually really planning it: have a great time when you get to go, it´s an awesome route! For those are thinking about it: make 100% sure you are ready for it. It´s really not a place where you go find out whether or not you are able to do what needs to be done. Test yourself somewhere else.

Anyone can now borrow top special boards of Henttonen and Oksanen through Finnish community based site www.kuinoma.fi

The founder of the site , Markku Jussila, states: “Kuinoma.fi will help the culture of renting/borrowing equipment rather than buying it and tries to create a new type of community based and ecologically sustainable consumption culture. People still have lots of prejudices against renting/borrowing. The example of (role-model) guys like Jarkko Henttonen and Jussi Oksanen will probably make many people to evaluate their own consumption behavior and opinions about this kind of services. The members of the community are really grateful for their liberality and of course for the sharing of the top notch snowboards for anyone to use!”

“In the group of professional and active riders borrowing gear to another ones is pretty usual. It is great to spread this common habit to the more recreational riders too”, Jarkko Henttonen says.

“To borrow my boards sounded like a really good idea. We can this way give a little bit back of all that good snowboarding has brought to us. “I try to follow similar ecological principles on my other projects too”, Jussi Oksanen follows.

Jussi in Method TV’s profile clip

According to Henttonen – who is currently working for Freeride World Tour and Freeride World Qualifier events as a judge – one could even state that renting and borrowing gear has had a significant effect on his riding career: “When I was a beginner everyone rented his/her board. Snowboarding is a very important thing in my life – I kind of feel that my duty is to borrow my boards. So that other people can easily get into the great feeling snowboarding offers.”

Profit from the renting/borrowing of the boards will go to charity

All the profit gained from the renting will be given to the “Mano a Mano” association. Mano a Mano is a Finnish association founded in 2002 . The association donates mostly to Nepal, where it helps e.g. the life of 30 children living in an orphan home.

Artturi Kröger, the Chairman of Mano a Mano, tells: “Mano a Mano works as a link between the people who want to help and the actual charity target. From every one euro collected we can guarantee 0,9€ to be used on location for real help – and this is only possible with the help of local people in Nepal”.

Jarkko Henttonen – Pioneer of Finnish freeriding and extreme snowboarding

• Still active 38-old Henttonens has e.g. the following merits:
• 2nd in the highly ranked Verbier Xtreme competition
• Second snowboarder in the world to ride the Messner Couloir in Denali (Mount McKinley), Alaska
• First Finnish snowboarder to ride the extremely challenging north face of Aguille du Midi in Chamonix,
• Ranked second in the list of best Finnish freeriders in 1999 (evaluated by the Finnish ski magazine Skimbaaja) and only topped by the Olympic gold medal mogul skier, Janne Lahtela

Jussi Oksanen – one of the best Finnish freestyle/all-around snowboarders

• Only Finnish snowboarder to win both(!) X-Games and US Open
• Burton pro model eight years in a row
• Manages his own Mizu brand that has strong ecological principles (http://www.mizulife.com)

We wish the guys and kuinoma.com a lot of success!

What a day!

We woke up early, before six, for breakfast. At seven we headed to the lifts with a whole bunch of all kinds of gear necessary to build everything needed for the event. Soon all the riders and the crew were gathered together at the bottom station and the atmosphere was great. Everybody knew that it was going to be a very exciting day.
It took quite a bit of time to get all the way up, as the lift really is rather slow. It was great morning to enjoy the fresh mountain air, though, so the trip up was a pleasure, just like the rest of the day. Chatting away with people in good spirits made me feel even better still.

Once up, it did not take us that long to set up all the stuff, and we were ready to start the contest around 9.30 as planned.

Competition day one in Freeride World Tour Russian Adventure, Sochi

What followed was simply put an amazing show of sportive talent. Everybody ripped, some harder than others, and it was cool watching people giving their best.

Some of the personal highlights of the day were watching runs done by such guys like Seb Michaud, Xavier de la Rue and Cyril Neri, who really put the slope into good use. Unfortunately I did not see Aurelien Ducros´s run, as I had to write down my notes for one of the snowboarders that I was judging, but it must have been impressive, as he placed first.

Judging freeriding is not easy. There are so many things one has to think about when trying to figure out how well a rider did. A judge needs to look at line, technique, control and fluidity, among other things. It is also a must for a good judge to be able to remember how everybody did, so that it is possible to compare someone’s run to basically any other ´s run. And that most definitely is very hard, as in each run so many things happen. Thus, I’d say that judging is not fun – it is actually almost unpleasant. But still I think it is good to do it, as it’s also a way to learn about riding. Watching others intensively, trying to figure out everything from snow conditions of chosen line to the performance of the rider is a great lesson not to be missed.

Jarkko Henttonen scored some epic powder in the trees after judging the Freeride World Tour competition

As it’s hard staying still for many hours watching other people having a blast, I went for a couple of runs after the comp myself to burn some of the energy that I got from watching others. I hooked up with skier head judge Jon Örarback and another ski judge, Martin Winkler for the same run I did with the girls yesterday. We still found some nice snow there, even if the place was more tracked than yesterday, and had some really fun turns. After this run Jon had to leave to do other stuff, but me and Martin went for another one a little bit further away.

It wasn´t that far, though, as it took us less than 15 minutes to get to the top of the run. I had to hike some meters a few times, but mostly it was just a very easy traverse. To say that the run was worth the trouble would be a pretty damn huge understatement, as it would have been totally worth it even if it had taken hours. The run that Martin took me, which is called the magic forest, was totally nuts. As I previously wrote, one russian heliguide said to me that this place is the best place in the world for treeriding, and I must say that now I’m pretty convinced.

We rode down about 1000 vertical meters, in huge trees that were perfectly spaced for riding as fast as you wanted. The incline was just as perfect as the spacing of the trees, and the snow was good all the way down. The terrain in the forest is insane, it’s filled with fun features to make all kinds of turns and manouvers on, as well as rocks and what not to jump from. Pillows. I’ve had a few good treeruns in my life and this was definitely one of the best I ever had. I’m not much of a hippie, but I felt like hugging the trees a few times. Which I did not do, though, as hugging a tree riding 50+ km/h is not that bright an idea!

We finished our day at the bottom station where there was bit of event action going, namely announcements of the days results, and some partying of course. Except the day was not finished. We still had some things to take care of, like organization meeting et cetera, after which we headed over to Trikoni for a nice dinner and some more partying. As tomorrow is second competition day, partying was quite mellow, but nonetheless, or maybe because of that, the place was filled with very happy people.

Absolutely great day!

Wake up call is early tomorrow as well, just like today, so it’s bedtime. Most likely after tomorrows comp the partying won’t be as mellow as tonight, so it may well be that you won’t be hearing from me tomorrow night. Then again, who knows…

Looking out the window in the morning I saw that the forecast was right: it was perfectly clear sky, no clouds nor wind what so ever and I rushed to get ready for riding. I did not quite make it to the first chair, but there was not that many people going up when the lift opened, and only a few competitors made it up early. Aniina and Kaisa joined me and we rode couple of nice runs in the same trees I´d been riding earlier. Then we headed over to the same run that the girls did with Steve.

FWT Sochi contest slope is in good condition

What they had told about the run before, that it was super good, proved out to be true. The slope had nice steady 30 to 35 degree incline, perfect for going fast, and the snow was rippable. Even if the snow was somewhat more compact than yesterday it was still pure powder and even with a snowboard I was sinking into it a fair bit. At times it was plowing overhead, blocking visibility completely for seconds.

The descent was maybe about 400 meters high, and there was all kinds of fun features, like banks, lips and rocks that we could play on. As I´ve been held back by a pretty bad heel injury since 05 I haven´t had too many proper pow days, and it was great being back on the real stuff.

The bottom part of the route was a narrow river bottom with fairly steep wall above it, on the opposite side from our descent. The place is definitely a terrain trap of worst kind, and I´ve heard that there has been some serious avalanche accidents there. Luckily it seemed that most everything from above had slid during the night, as there was big piles of fairly fresh looking avalanche debris. The snow that had slid into the gully was still fairly soft, so I figured it must have slid only a couple of hours before. We only had to traverse the bottom for some minutes, so I felt pretty secure about the whole deal. Nonetheless, it was still a bit spooky, even if riding at the bottom was still a lot of fun, too.

Riding the FWT contest slope and hearing some bad news

Sometime around 2 pm Anni and Kaisa decided to go have a look at the contest slope. I hooked up with three other girls, Jamie Burge, Anne Enderud and Charlotte Hagen for one more run in the same place. For myself this last run was the best, as I did not fall once and managed to pick a nice way down through the trees with some fun jumps, I even managed to stick a nice little double jump line and made it to the bottom of the run through some really tight trees really fast. I was stoked.

I was beat too, and I had to call it a day. Which I would have had to do anyways as the lifts closed. It was rad to be able to do a whole day without any real rests and ride quite hard, and I felt really satisfied. What brought my feelings down a whole lot was the news that I got, about Ruth Leisibach. I learnt that Ruth had hurt her knee pretty badly. She´d been riding in the trees, of course, and had hit a branch hidden in the snow: her board went under it and she went over it, and the branch did not give in. Instead her knee did. Ruth had managed to ride, or rather slide down from the site of the accident without outside assistance, so it was not super bad, but it had been really, really painful. Ruth is a really strong girl and a rider, one of my favorite snowboarders for sure and it is all too bad that she got hurt, as she just had recovered from an injury. She was taken to a hospital in Sochi, and from there she will be flown back home to Switzerland where her knee will be operated. Let´s hope it is not really serious and that she´ll be back on her board soon.

From the mountain I, along with everybody, headed over to Hotel Vertikal, where we had judge´s meeting, PFB meeting and rider´s meeting. As the forecast for tomorrow is very good as well, and as all the security work on the contest face was done today by the guides, the organization committee had made a decision that tomorrow is game on! Meaning we have to wake up really early and head up to the mountain already 7.30 in the morning.

There still is a fair bit of all kinds of organizing work to be done in the morning, but the plan still is that the first rider drops in on the comp face 9.30. The weather forecast says the temperatures will rise quite a bit during afternoon, which has an negative effect on snow stability and so the contest must be over by 1 pm. This means that everything must run without a hitch, really smoothly, so we must be ready as early as possible. Hence, wake up call is around 5.30. Which in turn means that I gotta go to sleep more or less right now. Anyways, it is exciting to get to see and judge my first FWT event.

Unfortunately I forgot to charge the battery of my camera yesterday, so I could not take any pictures today. Luckily the organizers have hired Jancsi Hadik, one of the very best ski photographers in the world to shoot pictures for your viewing pleasure and they can be checked out at the Freeride Word Tour website.

Freeride World Tour starting in Krasnaya Poliana in Russia

I went up today. First, in the morning, I joined organizing crew for a venue check. The group, which included FWT managers Nicolas Hale-Woods and Regis Savioz, was lead by French mountain guide Jerome Ruby. Monsieur Ruby is super legendary extreme athlete who used to compete in the Verbier Xtreme in the 90s and beginning of this decade as well, so he really knows what he is doing, which of course is absolutely necessary in order to have people moving around safely in avalanche terrain. After we had scoped the spots, I didn’t need to work anymore, so I joined two Finnish girls, Kaisa Härkönen and Anniina Karvinen, and a Swiss girl Nathalie Zenklusen for some fun afternoon runs in the forests around the lift.

I must say Krasnaya Poliana ski resort is super good for treeriding, and that suits me well as I like riding in the trees better than anything. The lift is kind of slow, it is fairly old, but it offers access to some really cool terrain. Naturally it would be more fun to be here if the top 60 freeriders of the world were not here..

Anyways, the trees here are sick, and actually I thought it was tons of fun watching guys like Winsted, Zachrisson and Magnusson and girls like Anni, Kaisa and Nathalie as well as many others to rip it up just for the fun of it. One of the local heliski guides, who has skied all over the world, thinks this is the best place in the world to do treeruns, and he might be right. I did not see too much of it yet, but sure as hell Krasnaya Poliana rocks!

And the snow in here.. it’s awesome!

I noticed how the snow is really good here. On the top section I’d say there was about half a meter of it, and it was of good quality. Maybe it was a bit heavy. Compared to Utah, that is… I think there is a little bit of moisture in there, which actually is good because you don’t go through, but it was still really fluffy, it sprayed like mad, blocking visibility for seconds at times. The base is pretty thick, so it was bottomless all the way; it was super fun going straight down the fall line without having to do too many turns to control speed. All the runs I did were really, really good, even if there were already a few tracks there.

We worked the second last part of the lift. I am not sure how high it is, maybe about 300-400 meters vertical, but definitely it was high enough for some fast paced speed runs and get your legs burning a bit. It is not that steep, around 30-35 degrees for the most part with some funny short steeper sections and some fun rocks and other features to jump from. So, in my opinion, it is perfect terrain to have a really good time without having to worry about falling. Avalanche danger is naturally there, as it has dumped here during past few days, but in the trees it is not too risky, I did not feel scared once. In the open terrain it must be a different story and I am sure this will be bit of a headache for Jerome.

Top freeriders of the world fell in love with Krasnaya Poliana ski resort

Anyways, having done maybe 6 or 7 runs today, which is not that much considering the size of the area it is possible to reach from the lifts here, I think I am in love with this place a bit… I definitely recommend Krasnaya Poliana ski resort for anybody who likes riding trees. Most guys in the competitor crew seemed to be really stoked about the day and just like myself they think this place is awesome. Big smiles and high fives… 60 best freeriders of the world cannot be wrong.

After après ski there was a riders meeting where the organizers welcomed everybody officially and explained what is going on, and how everything will work et cetera. The riders were also informed that the competition would not be happening tomorrow, so there will be more riding for fun. There seems to be a small chance that the contest is on Wednesday, but that is not confirmed, the decision will be made tomorrow, and will be announced in the next riders meeting in the evening.

That was it for the moment, I will drop a note tomorrow as well. For more about the contest please check Nissan Russian Adventure and Freeride World Tour websites.

1. THE NORTH FACE MASTERS SNOWBIRD (USA), 30 January – 2 February, snowboard only, sister events of the Nissan Tram Face – Squaw Valley (USA)

2. SPYDER BIG MOUNTAIN FIEBERBRUNN (AUT), 5-15 February, sister event of the Nissan Freeride de Tignes (FRA)

3. THE NORTH FACE MASTERS CRESTED BUTTE (USA), 13-16 February, snowboard only, sister events of the Nissan Tram Face – Squaw Valley (USA)

4. WINTER MYSTICXPERIENCE (ITA), 19-22 February

5. THE NORTH FACE MASTERS KIRKWOOD (USA), 5-9 March, snowboard only

6. SALOMON EXTREME FREERIDE CHAMPIONSHIPS AT TAOS (USA), 4-7  March

7. NENDAZ FREERIDE (SUI), 13-18 March 2009, sister event of the Nissan Xtreme – Verbier 09 (SUI)

8. JASNA ADRENALIN (SK), 31 March-5 April

9. RÖLDAL FREERIDE CHALLENGE (NOR), 22-26 April, sister event of the Nissan Russian Adventure – Sochi 2010

Among these nine Freeride World Qualifiers is Nendaz Freeride, which is a new qualifier for the Freeride World Tour. Nendaz is the only stop in Switzerland to qualify for the world tour. Nendaz Freeride also becomes the sister event of Verbier Xtreme which means that the top riders of each category (ski & snowboard, men & women) will automatically qualify for this competition, which is considered the most prestigious in the world.

The reason why Nendaz was selected to represent Switzerland are probably the exceptional weather conditions, but also the professional organization of events. Another reason might be the very positive feedback provided by freeriders. The Nendaz resort has always been appreciated for the quality of its slopes and for its freeride domain, renowned amongst passionate riders. For more updates on Nendaz Freeride contact Nendaz Freeride Association’s Cyril Lanfranchi (+79 456 2222, cyril@nendazfreeride.ch).

Freeride World Tour winner will be named after four races

Who is going to be the best freerider of the world and the owner of $250,000 this year? Last year the best skiers were Elyse Saugstad (USA) and Henrik Windstedt (Sweden), while from snowboarders the winners were Ruth Leisibach (Switzerland) and Xavier de le Rue (France).

Freeride World Tour consists of four events from which the three first ones are Nissan Russian Adventure in Sochi (Russia), Nissan Tram Face Challenge in Squaw Valley (USA) and Nissan Freeride in Tignes (France). The winner of Freeride World Tour is going to be announced after the final race in Verbier in Switzerland. The legendary and challenging mountain of Bec de Rosses will once again be the final playground of this magnificent tour.

NISSAN RUSSIAN ADVENTURE – SOCHI, RUSSIA
Dates: 20-25 JAN 2009, Preliminary contest day: Wednesday 21 January
40 riders qualified + wild cards:

NISSAN TRAM FACE – SQUAW VALLEY USA
Dates: 27 FEB-05 MAR 2009, Preliminary contest day: Saturday 28 February
40 riders qualified + wild cards:

NISSAN FREERIDE DE TIGNES, FRANCE
Dates: 8-14 March 2009, Preliminary contest day: Monday 9 March
40 riders qualified + wild cards:

NISSAN XTREME – VERBIER 09, SWITZERLAND
Dates: 20-29 March 2009, Preliminary contest day: Saturday 21 March
22 riders qualified + wild cards:
- 8 best males on the FWR09 + wild cards
- 3 best females on the FWR09 + wild cards

Homeboys to report directly from Freeride World Qualifiers and Tour

Jarkko Juhani Henttonen, who is one of the Homeboy Ski ambassadeurs and experienced pro freerider, is going to join Freeride World Qualifiers and Tour as an organizer. Jarkko’s duties are related to event coordination and judging. His own best position in Freeride World Tour was the second place in Verbier Extreme 2001. Jarkko is going to report directly from the “battle field”, so you can expect fast news, cool pictures and breath-taking videos. Stay tuned, Freeride World Qualifiers are starting on January 2009!

Photographer Petri Kovalainen is da man

Petri Kovalainen is a professional photographer who specializes in shooting sports. He has also done some work with rock/pop artists. Petri is also a ripping tele-skier, which is always pretty cool in my book.

We are proud to co-operate with these guys and the companies Hpd Films and Cohkka. These guys are keepin’ it real!

Enjoy the pictures by Petri Kovalainen.

Dude! You there?

Jarkko has some serious surf influence in his riding style

Looks like it’s gonna be a good day…

Yeah dude!

Even more “yeah dudes!”

Jarkko was also among the first Finns that really got into Chamonix and its lifestyle – before the 1990s the main hangout for Finnish “ski bums” was St. Anton in Austria, a place with nice skiing, deep powder and endless parties, but not that much mountaineering culture in a Chamonix sense of the word.

Meet my man Jarkko Henttonen

I could go on with the riding achievements and lines of Jarkko Henttonen, but I’ll let him tell more about that himself. I just want to share my best riding memories with Jarkko here. Funny, but I wasn’t actually even involved. It was spring 2001 and I was on a road trip from LaGrave to Chamonix, visiting some friends. I went skiing with some of my skier friends while couple of relatively inexperienced snowboarder friends went riding with Jarkko Henttonen. One guy was having a birthday and Jarkko wanted to offer some “guiding” as a present. It was couple of days from the previous storm and there was some leftover pow to be ridden but probably nothing too exiting for a seasoner. Still, after the day when I asked about how the day was, Jarkko answered: “Clearly the best day of the season because the guys and girls were so stoked and having so much fun“. In my opinion that says it all. And yeah, this is the guy who has some nice competition results too, like 2nd place in the infamous Verbier Xtreme competition in 2001.

What up, Jarkko?

1. What’s up? What have you been up to lately? I heard you have climbed quite a lot, tell us a bit about your recent projects.

I´m doing well, thanks for asking. This summer was quite fun. In June I was in France, climbing a bit, and it was good to spend some time higher up. Due to a few injuries I´ve kinda been laying low past couple of years, but now I´m getting back into shape little by little. After that I´ve mostly stayed here in southern Finland, climbing and training and basically just hanging out. In August I joined my friend Johannes Kärkkäinen on his mission to open up a new aid-climbing route on the north face of Stora Blåmannen in northern Norway. It was a really good trip, even if a bit scary at times.

I´ve also been trying to get into skydiving, but haven´t really found too much time for it, so I´ve only managed to make two jumps this summer. Falling from the sky is a funny feeling, and I really hope I´ll get to do more of it, but we´ll see.

As for work I haven´t really done too much. I´ve instructed a few rock climbing courses, I helped out my friends who work for World Rally Championships event in Jyväskylä, I´ve been helping out in Camu, a climbing store here in Helsinki, I´ve been doing some work for Slammer, which is nro 1 Finnish snowboard mag and of course there´s been some work for HDP Films, a production company that me and my friends own,  and so forth, but I don´t have a regular job, which is exactly the way I want it.

This summer I did the alpine course, but even if I had trained a fair bit I was still not in good enough shape, and I also got ill during the course, I got some kind of infection to my windpipe, so I could not finish it. Anyways, I was quite stoked that I was able to do fairly long days without too bad pain in my foot. I mean two and a half years ago I was barely able to walk for a few hundred meters, a year ago I still had really hard times walking for more than 4 hours and 8 hour day rock climbing totally did me in for a few days. This summer I could already walk for quite a few hours, like 8 or even 10, and climbing has actually felt almost good, meaning not that much pain. So, now I´m doing my best, training as much as I can, trying to get into shape so I can continue the education after another two years.

Well, yes… I was a ski bum for quite a while, and still consider myself as such…

I first went to Chamonix in September 1991, I think, and kept going back and forth between Chamonix and Finland for 9 years. Usually I spent about 4 months there, from the beginning of the year till end of April or so. It depended a bit. Some years I went up north, northern Norway already in the beginning of April, though. After those years I sort of got over it in a way. I mean, I always loved Chamonix, but I did not like the way things went on the hill. With all this hype around freeriding there was a lot more people getting into riding off-piste and this had a certain effect on the behavior of people that I did not quite like. People started taking too many risks, I think, with snow. Actually, the first time I remember thinking that the place is getting crowded was already in 95. I was going to do an afternoon run on the Couloir des Cosmiques and when I got there, there was like 10 or 15 dudes in line, waiting for their turn to rap in. While I was walking past the line and dropping in and riding past the rappel rope I was thinking of finding another place with less people.

So, I ended up going to LaGrave for two winters. Now LaGrave has not exactly been a secret anymore for a very long time either, and it is fairly crowded too, especially considering the capacity of the lift, but at least people there followed certain safety rules that I have always respected as well. In 2002 I went back to Chamonix for a season again. After that I have not spent a full season anywhere, but I´ve done a lot of shorter trips. In 2005 I broke my heel and haven´t been able to do much, but now I´m getting back on my feet and hopefully this winter be some sort of comeback to snow for me.

I love snowboarding as much as anything, and it has been really hard not being able to do it. It was super bad, right after my accident, when I was told that it is highly likely that I cannot keep doing the stuff that I´ve done most of my adult life. I´ve definitely had a lot of good days up on the hill, as well as bad ones, but I sort of has this mentality that, well, good or bad, it´s all good. Ha ha!

Best things are all the good friends that I´ve made!

Jarkko competing in Verbier Extreme a few years ago – gnarly, huh?

Right on! There were so many super nice people in Chamonix back then (like probably today too, we just don’t happen to hang out there as much anymore…)

Jarkko Henttonen becomes a big mountain rider

4. You had also some longer expedition type of trips – any best memories type stories or such…single best moments etc.?

I´ve been to Denali, which is also known as Mount McKinley, the highest mountain in north America, twice, and want to go back and will go back. I would have wanted to do more big mountain expeditions but apart from these two, the trips that I planned did not work out for various reasons.

I´d say that the first Denali trip was something that stands out for me in a way, as one of the coolest things I´ve done. I managed to climb to the top and ride down, and back then it was a really big thing for me.

The line I did is called Messner Couloir, after Reinhold Messner, who is one of the greatest climbers of all time. It was first skied down by Sylvan Saudan, who is a super legendary extreme skier, the guy who more or less invented the whole sport. Actually the couloir was called Saudan couloir earlier, but it was re-named. So, the route has some history behind it in a way.

I don´t know how many times it has been skied after monsieur Saudan, but it has not been snowboarded that often. I´m not sure but I think the first person to snowboard it was Stephen Koch, an American big mountain rider. Then there was some japanese dude, who fell down it with his board strapped to his feet, and was hurt pretty bad, but I think he lived. Then it was my turn. It was in 1997. I went there with my buddy Jukka Räsänen, who is a skier, and three other guys, who were just climbing the mountain. Me and Jukka spend 11 days on the mountain and we rode three different runs, one of which was Messner. Jukka did not make it to the summit, but he had a good time laying first tracks on Messner in knee deep pow.

Messner is pretty impressive run, it is about a mile high and consistently about 40 degrees steep with short steeper pitches, I think it´s max about 48 or something, so it is not that steep but a pretty good incline anyways. The top part is this thing that is couple of hundred meters wide and maybe about 1000 meters high, then it narrows down to maybe about 20-30 meters. The narrow part is steepest. After the narrower bit it opens up to this wide open glacial snowfield, which is less steep, around 35 to 40 or so.

I took me something like 12 hours to walk from our camp at 14 000 ft to to the summit, which is about 6000 ft higher. It was quite hard work to get up there, as it was cold and as the air at that altitude is not that thick anymore. I was actually really really tired, and even if I didn´t really think of giving up more than maybe twice, the last couple of hundred yards to the top were super tough, and I was really hoping that it would end.

Ride down was easier of course. It took me like 20 minutes to get to from the summit into the couloir, I had to walk a bit over this flat part, but once I dropped in, it was just pure fun riding down. As the snow was quite good I rode quite fast, I think it took me less than ten minutes to do the whole thing. Higher up, before the narrow part I was taking it a bit easier, but once it opened up so did I, and I rode the bottom section, which is like 400-500 meters in vertical with 7 big turns, just screaming down, hundred k´s an hour.

I slept 18 hours straight after that, and then we went home.

The big thing about the whole deal for me that I was able to ride the line the way I like to ride, which is fast and fluid but in control. It is not that difficult to ride like that if you go up with a lift, but after 12 hours of hard hiking it is not easy anymore. Usually after hard hike it´s more like a turn and a rest, a turn and a rest, but I was able to really charge it hard, and was quite proud of it, as I don´t think too many people have done something like that.

As I said since three years ago I haven´t ridden too much. For a while I was actually contemplating the possibility that I may not be able to ride ever again. I can tell you it was not a fun thought. I´m not gonna go detailed about it, but it was depressing and I sort of had to fight it not to let it take over me.

Now, as of late I´ve been getting better little by little, and last winter I was already doing sort of ok, and think I´m going to be like maybe 75% this winter.

As you said, I am father also, I´ve got a 3,5 years old kid, who does limit my comings and goings a bit of course. But it´s the best limit there is. Having a kid is way better than an sport.

Most of the little riding that I´ve been able to do past couple of years I´ve done in northern Norway. There are super nice mountains there, it´s a lot like Alaska, but there is no people. Of course there´s no people in Alaska, either, but AK is much further. From here it´s quite easy to get to Lyngen or Tamok or any other area up there, all one needs to do is to drive a day and there you are, in the middle of nicest mountains anywhere. Everybody knows about Lyngen, a few about Tamok, and some people have even been in those places, but still there are no rap lines on tops of couloirs there. It´s still intact, empty, untouched, immaculate… And there is a lot, and I mean a whole lot, of room for everybody there. And Lyngen, which is the most famous and probably also the best part, is just a tiny part of the whole area, even if it already is way bigger than all of Mount Blanc massif. You know the whole thing is about as big as the Alps, and 99,99% of all the possible super beautiful extreme lines there are still waiting to be done, and the best thing is that they are in condition most of the time, every winter, and not just once in a decade.

An example of riding/skiing in Tamokdalen, Norway, see video below

Very interesting views. It surely is beautiful in the Northern Norway. And, yes, kids are the most important thing in our life too. Skiing is just a hobby, after all! But back to the actual topic.

So, how does the future look like?

6. Do you have any other plans for the upcoming 2008-2009 season?

This winter I plan on doing a fair bit of riding. I will work for Freeride World Tour. Nicolas Hale-Woods, the organizer of Verbier Xtreme and the whole tour, recruited me, and I´m super stoked on working for him. I get to work in quite a few cool freeride events, visit many resorts that I have not been to before, and hopefully I´ll manage to do a few runs while I´m there, too. Later in spring I plan on going to north again, I´ve got some lines I´d want to do there. And I plan on going back to Denali as well.

I actually started skiing in 1973 already, and only got into snowboarding in 1987, so I´ve skied longer than snowboarded. Of course snowboarding is the king of all snow sports, there is no doubt about that, but skiing is sometimes quite fun, too. When the fat skis first started to come to market I figured I´d give them a try. In 2000 I actually skied more than snowboarded. It took me like almost a half a day to learn how to do it. Too easy. Ha ha. After my accident I haven´t really skied at all, but this winter I intend on getting my skiing legs back, too.

I think it is good that there are all kinds of “new” things coming to market. All these rockers and reverse sidecuts are not really new ideas, they´ve been around for a quite a while, but anyways it´s good that there is now lot of options. Different things work in different conditions. I´d just like to try out a certain kind of super fat and quite short ski, which I think would be a nice toy for tight trees. I like riding in trees more than any other type of terrain, I think treeriding while it is snowing a lot is as good as it gets. Snowboarding in tight trees is challenging enough, but it is, at least for me, much easier than skiing, and I´d want to try to make a ski that would make treeskiing as easy as possible.