'How are you feeling' Ski Movie
It was the spring of 2021- a great time in skiing for our crew. We were finishing filming “Peep the game.” Every- one was healthy. We had had a lot of time to film and be together- the nicest benefit. During these times, Ferdi started talking a lot with Joss about K2- mainly about how we could influence the direction of the brand, long term. Almost immediately, it seemed like the best idea was to start with a film project.
With the help of the K2 bosses Tom, Matt, and Khai, we came up with an idea to do a street trip to a foreign location. Kazakhstan? Quebec? Japan? We settled on Tromso, Norway.
The main reason for choosing Tromso, is that our long-time friend Oystein Braten now lives there.
Our plan was to go to Austria first. We’d ski a bunch of pow, check out some backcountry areas and resorts, find a few street spots, and build some jumps. Then we’d fly north, and stay with Oystein and his girlfriend Siri.
For some reason I envisioned Oystein and Siri living in some small, euro apartment. I don’t know why, but this was just the picture that I came up with in my head. When we talked on the phone in the months prior, he never talked about his house or where he lived. I just knew he lived in Tromso.
When you look at Tromso on a world map, it brings immediate joy. My first thought was fuck yes, that place is up there. It’s way up in the arctic circle. And even better, as it turns out, there are also a lot of spots in Tromso. It is a street skiing paradise. To top things off, there are also big mountains in Tromso. These mountains go directly into the ocean. It is the only place in the world I’ve seen snowy slopes going directly into the ocean. It is a sight to behold.
Being so close to the coast, the snow can go bad quickly. The weather is also difficult in the winter- maybe you get 1 good day to film every week or two. But when it’s good, the spots are out of this world.
A highlight for me personally was seeing the northern lights. This was perhaps the greatest event I have wit- nessed in my life. It is a rare sight, requiring solar winds and a clear night. This is a rarity in the winter, as there needs to be total darkness and no clouds. For 16 days, I went out every night and waited. On the cloudy nights, I’d only wait for a bit, then go back in. On the clear nights, I waited for hours. Often, there was just a faint glow... or nothing happened.
On two occasions, we were treated to the show of a lifetime. Light beams coming from all directions. I remember one specific one- it came up quickly from behind the mountains. Within seconds, it flew across the entire sky, swiveling like a snake. It looked like a firework at half speed. One time, a perfect monster M appeared in the sky. Nothing else, just a toxic green M above the ocean. It is impossible to describe this experience accurately through text, photos, or video.
After a month and a half of filming, everyone was beat. Luckily nothing too bad... besides Vinny’s broken collar- bone/scapula. The trip was a big success, one of the best we’ve ever had.
Austria showed us not all resorts in the world are blown out on a pow day. Norway gave us a bunch of snow and a bunch of clips. These are two destinations that I’m sure we will be seeing more action out of in the years to come.