EP: 2 // Magic Tunnel
The scene takes place on the 6th of February…
Because of the lack of snow since almost on month now, everybody was hungry of powder… So, we needed to find a solution… We got a call from Bab Pernet a photograph from Maurienne (a forgotten valley in the french Alps) who heard that there should be some powder in Italy… like 20 cm on Monday, so 4 days ago… The gamble was risky… the frejus tunnel is really expensive, and none of us knew the resort… except for Vincent Rambaud, our national rasta rider, who just came there few times but for the park… (which is pretty good actually…). So we decided to go there (Cyril and Flymat) , join Bab and Vince to check what’s going on in Italy…
Few minutes after getting out of the tunnel… everybody is perplexed, there’s not that many snow while we where dreaming of snow walls above the road like in Japanese movies… We didn’t even know where to park the car, so we just drove to the end, near the snowpark… The view of the famous Olympic pipe gave us some hope… one of the 2 wall was full of snow, it seems that they didn’t have the time to shape it after the last dump. Italy is funny… just after getting the skipass, at the bottom of the lift, which is also the bottom of the snowpark… we’ve been able to see more guys on alpine snowboard in few minutes than maybe in the last 10 years !! Good point for us… we are the only ones with fat powder skis… And later in the day, we even talked with park rats who where wondering what we were doing with such big skis… we just tought them that there was some powder in their home resort !! Over funny thing… which gonna suprise a lot of French… Italians don’t make that many noise in their own country, they may don’t have anybody to impress over there… or some other obscure explanation that I don’t have a clue…
So… stop bullshitting… let’s talk about what’s interesting us… SKI !!!
Like I’ve said… none of us knew the resort… so as good tourist, we asked for a map, and tried to look for north and steep faces. We decided that we were on the good part of the resort, but after going up, we saw that the two lift who interested us where still closed due the the avalanche risk… Those interesting runs, able to be seen from where we were… haven’t been touched yet… not really long and steep, but enough for our big appetit !! So we just decided to do few turns between the trees, to check the snow pack and get used again to ride on big ski… first runs where horrible for our legs, we forgot how exhausting it is to ride fast in trees with those pairs of snowboard hooked under our feet… But the snow was light, and so deep !!! And yeah, after 3 weeks of ice, 20 cm of powder is deeeeeeeeep !!!
The forest is interesting… quite opened, with some little rocks to jump from… which let us took some picture of ice falls !!! ice again !! but with some powder around, it’s better… after couple of runs in the trees, they just decided to open the two lift which were closed during all week because of avalanche risk !! haha, lucky frenchies !! But anyway, they were just two Italians to ride in the same place… the carving Italian style is a reality !!! So, the place wasn’t enormous, but enough to ride almost all day just the 4 of us, having a lot of fun, and enjoying again what ski is really made of…
We took a small break for lunch, going down trough the snow park, which is full of nice red rails, with at least two lines, and more than 15 things to do in a run… The afternoon was a research time, we tried to found some other stuff to do, what we did… but for the next time, because we were out of time to ride it… a bit far… We finally decided to go back on the more interesting part, where we’ve been skiing all day for a little hike, and finish the day with some untouched runs while the sun was going down…
Conclusion of the trip… we were the luckiest guy that week… going in a place you don’t know to find some powder, and be the first to ride the most interesting part of the resort, untouched, 4 days after the last dump… thanks Italy and carving Italians… we’ll come back to honour your powder !!!
picture from Alban Pernet and you can also take a look at his work on his own website : http://www.albanpernet.com/
Sarah en Norvège avec « Bon Apétit » article de Skipass !!
La petite histoire commence à l’ISPO où nous participions au championnat du monde de serrage de paluches. Là, entre visites de stands et descente de bières. Les discutions allaient bon train sur la lamentable saison à laquelle nous faisons face tant bien que mal. Et toi tu vas où, et lui il shoot là bas en ce moment ? Italie ? Grece ? Crete ? Hein ? Le vélo ?
Et là notre Jeremy petit rabougris Bernard national se pointe. Hey les gars ! Je viens de rencontrer un mec qui connait un amis… Il s’appel Jesse et dit qu’il y a de la neige en Norvège et que sa femme a un appartement là bas et qu’il faut aller chez eux !
Heu, oui… heu, non heu on a que six jours devant nous? Bon ok il faut y aller après demain.
Boum boum, la course commence ! Nous sommes à Munich. Il faut faire les sacs, se faire amener les skis à Genève, trouver des billets d’avions et surtout quelqu’un pour nous accompagner.
On avait parlé de Sarah Martinais peu de temps avant. Coup de fil, « tu veux venir en Norvège demain ? ».
Et voilà donc l’équipe de Bon App sur les terres des Vikings; Dans une ville du nom de Ålesund, chez des gens qui nous connaissaient depuis environ 15 minutes. Ceux là même qui allaient nous accueillir et nous aider 5 jours durant. Merci à vous Jesse et Anna.
À quelques 40 min de route à travers les magnifiques Fjord Norvégiens, la station s’appelle Stranda. Il y a neigé et le froid est bien présent ici. La poudre, j’avais oublié… La première journée là bas annonçait un joli trip, la neige était vraiment bonne et nous shootions tranquillement dans une petite foret.
Mais les chats noirs de Bon App ne se cachent jamais longtemps. Ce sera d’un coté le vent qui enlèvera pas mal de neige et de l’autre Victor qui tombera malade et restera cloué au lit une partie du séjour.
Heureusement Sarah évitera la coulée que Fab lui fera partir dessus, assurera le coté ski, et réussira l’exploit de nous supporter le trip durant.
Toutes ces aventures dans l’épisode.
Bonne séance !
Prochaine arrêt à Faraya, station Libanaise pour un peu de dépaysement mes amis.
Sarah Martinais and Loic Tonnot // road trip around Europe for FWQ…
Filmed by Yves Thollon. Edit by Loïc Tonnot. Dedicated to Charlie BOo…
Sarah Martinais and Loïc Tonnot moved the last two weeks on a road trip around Europe, for two steps of the World Qualifier Freeride Tour. And also to shred some pow… because it’s the only place in Europe which took some fresh snow at this time. So the first stop was Jasna, in Slovaquia 3 stars event… Sarah ripped it and finished first !! not two bad for her third event on the world tour !!! Loïc finished 6th, and it pretty good too !! Second stop was Mayrhofen, a popular resort in Austria… those lucky bastards made a stop there, not to compete, just for fun, and come back with some fresh snow and face shots footages in a fuckin 40 cm deep powder !!! Third and last stop of the trip, Engadin in Switzerland, for an other 3 star event of the FWQ… Sarah was 5th, and Loïc 11th… so once again, congratulation to both of them for those excellent results !! After those two event… Sarah took a lot of points and is 3rd on the Freeride World Tour ranking !!!
Stay tuned for next news !!!
and good luck for you guys on the world tour !!
Loïc ride for Amplid, Groovstar, VonZipper, Les 7 laux