Lukas Season 2015/16

For me (Lukas) this season started pretty well: Pre season park days in Kaunertal and Damüls, a powder day in Kaunertal and some skitouring in Vorarlberg with Max when the first snow came in. I felt very confident this year and was looking forward to our planed trip to Georgia (Caucasus) mid January...but it all turned out to be different: 

In mid december I was skiing with Max in Flumserberg (Switzerland) and ruptured my ACL. After a surgery I am now starting to recover and had some time to put a short edit from my 8 skidays (1 day filming only) together...no exeptional skiing but keep in mind it was my first day on skis this season:

A friend of mine will join Max in Caucasus now and I hope they'll find some dope lines.

Meanwhile I'll do my rehab to be able to bike in summer again.

Cheers,

Lukas

Norway

Ups, this one is coming with a big delay. And I can´t even say that I´ve been to busy to write anything. But whatever... Lars was so kind to invite Francisco and me to his cabin in Norway. First and foremost a big thank you for that, truly a memorable trip! Skiing, beers, sauna, a cabin and everything else that makes a trip fun. Haha I´ll do my best to get invited again!

What a welcome! Beers, cigars and a beautiful sundawn.

Apparently the Madonna is a tourist attraction. One think of my bucket-list in Norway, I guess :D

Casual after-ski. Beer, guns, and no one around but us.

We had to try... Obviously only with beer cans! 

Lars showing some Telemark-skills

Thight woods. That´s how we like it!

A day isn´t over until you high-fived after the run!

Oh yeah, it gets better than just after-ski beers. Add a BBQ!

Biiiig thanks to Lars and his parents, epic trip!

Chartreuse Powder

So, while Lukas was cruising in Stubai I was (again) hunting powder in the Chartreuse. So nice (but the trees were really dense...)

Sunlaps

Here is the first footage from my (Lukas) new camera shot in Austria at the Sonnenkopf and in the Stubai valley last week. Great sunny days: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7-RuwahxRU

Sunny days in the austrian alps

After I visited Max in France I drove to Austria to ski in the central alps. On my way to the Stubai valley I stoped in the Vorarlberg and skied with some friends at the Sonnenkopf. We had to search for powder really hard but it was a beautiful day.

Can you find the fog in the valley?

Skiing a nice line with a good friend.

Also found some first lines.

Next day I skied at the Stubai glacier in the "Stubai Zoo". Unfortunately, due to problems with my back, I can not do any rotations at the moment. I also would love to ski in the Stubai with Max because I spotted some nice couloirs;)

Straight but high

Today I went on a skitour with my mum. On the top it was a bit icy and the last meters I had to climb without skis. But the view was worth it.

Climb to the top

View from the top

It was steep up there

Skiing down here.

At the weekend the weather will be worse. So let's see what's possible.

And the video...

Canada? - No, Chartreuse!

Thanks to the bad weather forecast we decided to go skitouring again. This time we went to the Chartreuse. And you can not believe how much snow we found on and below the trees.

Pillows in the trees

It was just another perfect powder day. 

So much snow.

Tree runs, tree runs, tree runs...

DEEP

Tomorrow even the sun might show up. Let's see what's possible in Les 7 Laux.

Reunion

Aaaaaand the first tour around Grenoble is in the books. Lukas came for a visit yesterday and will stay a couple of days. The forecast looked pretty bad so we decided to just try a short tour. And that turned out to be a good decision!

So much snow on the trees

Grenoble, below a lot of clouds

The mandatory summit picture

Clouds floating over the ridge

Lunch break

Pow...

... and more Pow

We´ll see what we can do tomorrow ;)

Powder

Finally! I already feared that there exists no such thing as powder in France. But this weekend delivered.

On Saturday I went to Les7Laux with Constant, Paola and Yana and Constant made a sweet edit:


Pow These Days 1080p from Constant Youp on Vimeo.

And Sunday Simon joined me and the sun came out. Just awesome!

Tomorrow it might be time for the first tour this year, we´ll see...

Cheers

Summer time is the time to think about something cold

It´s sweating hot here in Germany but I just finished the second part of our video from the trip to Norway and Sweden. Oh the views, I´m going to miss that in the Alps. At least watching it now makes me sweat a little less in the heat ;)

Around Riksgränsen - Video

So here are some of the shots that we filmed on our way from Kiruna to Narvik. I hope you enjoy it. And somebody please give me a better laptop, it´s ridiculously annoying to edit on an eight year old laptop :D

Back home

Being back home for some time now means that Lukas managed to put his hands on the photos. We thought it´s also the right time for a resumé on the trip. So we decided that each of us should give you some thoughts on the trip and pick his Top 5 photos. Here you go:

Max:

The trip of a lifetime! I have only had one day of real ski-touring in my life before we flew there and I really wasn´t sure what to expect. It turned out to be a great experience. Just a real adventure. Sleeping in cars and huts, meeting no other people for days, a stunning and wild nature, great skiing and great company ;) And one thing is clear for me: There was such much stuff that we weren´t able to ski due to a lack of time (haha, 20 days weren´t enough) that we have to get back there!

I had first planned on jumping the cliffs, but the snow turned out to be super unstable. So I just went for the open face. And Lukas got the perfect moment for the picture. It was the first day skiing of our trip, what a start!

Our second day. Boy was it deep...

Our first night at the sea. Something not to forget!

Harstad. I just love the contrast of the white snow and the deep blue sea in this picture.

The view from the top was just incredible. And so was the skiing. Steep and deep!

Lukas:

I have never been on skis so many times in such a short time interval surrounded by that kind of beautiful nature. It was awesome and unforgettable! Mountains, sea, sun, powder... what else do you pray for as a freeskier? :)

Just one of our dozen hikes to the top...

...and it was always worth goimg there!

We had some incredibly nice powder runs.

Skiing with such views...something you don´t find in the alps.

Day 11 - 15: Powder and great views

Day 11: Narvik

Not much to say, just a late evening tour after planning the next days in Narvik. Waiting for snow up in Riksgränsen. At least we met a nice guy on the parking lot and that turned out to be a great contact three days later.

Clouds rolling in

Day 12: Riksgränsen

No visibility. Great snow. That´s it I guess. Oh no, wait: Great fun to sleep in the car when it´s fucking cold. Not!

Day 13: Urdalen

Same procedure this day. Great snow, cold sleep in the car. Haha but worth it! After the skiing we drove to Narvik, rented a cabin and went out partying. Damn it was funny, but you´ll have to ask us in person for the details!

Lukas dropping a cliff

Day 14: Narvikfjellet

Boy did we wake up with a bad hangover. We managed to check out at three in the afternoon though and somehow got our shit together and turned up at Narvikfjellet at 4.30 pm. We had planned to skin up a little from the top of the ski area for a good run but visibility was not good. Luckily we met Torje there, the guy we had met on the parking lot some days ago, who showed us around. Big thank you as it was definitely the best run of the trip! After that we enjoyed yet another great sunset at the fjords.

Lukas with a pretty awesome view

Max dropping in. Thanks Torje for showing us how it´s done ;)

Max with probably the best backdrop of the trip

This is the original photo, no photoshop or whatever. Not kidding!

Day 15: Ruvssotcohkka

Well, you can´t always have sunshine. Another proof of the quick weather changes here. While it looked good for a tour in the morning it wasn´t even worth taking a photo anymore three hours later on top of the mountain. And yet another big thank you goes out to Torje who gave us a great deal at a hotel in Narvik where we are currently staying.

Checking the weather in the morning

At least the drive back to Narvik was fun

Who´s more creepy?

Now let´s see what the next days will bring. At least a big breakfast tomorrow morning!