“THERE IS A FEELING that is shared with skiers all over the world. It’s nothing you can teach, learn or explain. It’s something you feel. Something you know. It stops you from sleeping during a snowstorm – knowing that fresh powder awaits you. It gives you the urge to continue hiking up the mountain when everyone else is stopping at the top of the ski lift. It hits you when looking back at your line at the bottom of a run, wanting to go back up and do it again. It’s a different way of looking at the world and something only A Skier Knows.”
Now I am no where being a big mountain skier: I am a snowboarder to start off with, and fairly new to the game, having spent many years on a windsurf board first. But I know this feeling, it is actually comparable to a windsurfer looking up and seeing trees move ever so slightly in the promise of amazing winds to come. The sense of expectation, the thrill. Or as a mountain biker, looking up at a mountain, seeing the little hint of an mazing trail snaking down the slope. So without wanting to disrespect the feeling described (or perhaps I really don’t get it because I am not a skier) I am happy to know this feeling, and to feel it in the many things i love to do. It is amazing, and his video brings that feeling home.
“Spirit of Alaska” is the first Episode in the film series A Skier Knows, where Henrik Windstedt and Matilda Rapaport takes on the mighty mountain faces of Alaska. It will take you on an enchanting journey deep into the mind of a freeskier. “Alaska is a mental game with few comparable situations. You sit down for days and just look at the mountains and when the weather clears, you know you have to perform on your highest level and be super aware of your own but also the mountain limits. They seem to be a little more extreme up there.” Henrik Windstedt
