What’s your flavor? Freeride or freestyle? Beautiful photos or insightful stories? Backcountry missions or contest circuits? Blower powder or capped blunts? Or perhaps a little bit of everything? Whatever intrigues you as a skier, you’re bound to find some of it within Ski Stories, Volume 5, the new hardcover freeski annual available now exclusively in the Downdays webshop.
Stories
HighlightOur freeski annual
A book for skiers: Introducing Ski Stories, Volume 5
On the cover: The artwork of Sam Friedman
The first thing you’ll notice about Volume 5 is the cover. It’s a special collaboration with the American artist Sam Friedman, who first caught our attention through his collaboration with K2 Skis on the graphics for their 2023/24 Mindbender ski collection.
Sam’s art, an immersive, often large-format exploration of shapes and landscapes that are simultaneously abstract and discrete, seemed a perfect fit for our pages. We were honored when he not only volunteered to provide a cover for the book, but also to let us exhibit more of his works on the pages inside. Ski Stories, Volume 5 also features an interview with Sam about his process, his work with K2, and his background as a skier and as an artist.
With its vibrant colors and wraparound edge print, Sam’s art lends our cover a vibrant, eye-catching appearance that demands attention even from across the room.
Profiles: Unique skiers, unique trajectories
Ski Stories, Volume 5 includes in-depth profiles of exceptional skiers: Eileen Gu, Magnus Granér, Nadine Wallner and Dennis Ranalter.
Eileen Gu is arguably the world’s most famous skier, which makes her an obvious candidate for a profile in our ski book. But she’s famous as a lot of other things, too: Model. Cultural ambassador. Scholar. International icon. So getting a spot in Eileen’s busy schedule for an interview turned out to be more difficult than we expected. Undeterred, we tasked the the talented American writer Megan Michelson with penning a profile on Eileen, and she rose to the challenge with an insightful look into the House of Gu.
No one skis quite like Magnus Granér, who has crafted a style all his own. And few skiers have metamorphosed throughout the course of a ski career as much as this mild-mannered Swede. From his early days as a “gangster skier” in The Bunch, to his reinvention as Skiman and acolyte of “the now,” Ethan Stone traced Magnus’ uncommon course.
Chris O'Connell, Moritz Ablinger
Klaus Polzer, Daniel Schiessl
Markus Eder in Haines, Alaska on pages 128–129.
Christoph Thoresen
Places: Norwegian light lines, 100-year winters, New Zealand backcountry bums and mayhem in Innsbruck
Although people are always a major focus of Ski Stories, the places where skiing takes them play a pivotal role as well. Volume 5’s location-based stories span the globe from California’s High Sierras to the nocturnal wilds of Norway, and from the New Zealand backcountry to the heart of the Austrian Alps.
Our geographical survey begins in Innsbruck, the beating heart of Tyrol and Downdays’ home turf. It’s here that a rowdy dozen from the K2 Skis squad converged last spring for a weeklong team trip to shoot “Servus,” the launch edit for the new Omen park ski collection. As it turned out, the off-slope shenanigans were just as entertaining as the action in the park. K2’s Julia White tells the tale.
In 2022 and 2023 Norwegian photographer Vegard Aasen shot a stunning series of images called “Light Lines.” The concept of using a long-exposure photo to document a descent isn’t new, but Vegard and his supporting cast of riders brought this idea to new heights. What’s more, the project had a deeper goal than just great ski imagery. The real mission: to bring people’s attention to the beauty and fragility of wild spaces, and how easily we humans can disrupt them. Calum MacIntyre, who’s featured in many of the Light Lines images, set out to explain the meaning and method behind this remarkable project.
Theo Acworth, Vegard Aasen
During the 2023 New Zealand winter, Craig Murray set out with a bold goal to explore previously unskied terrain deep in the backcountry of the Southern Alps. As they battled tough weather, tougher snow conditions and even bucking broncos along the way, Craig and his crew discovered that the road less traveled, is less traveled for a reason. Terra Incognita is the result of their efforts—an entertaining and educational reminder that the journey is always the destination.
The winter of 2023/24 will be remembered by many skiers in California, Utah and other parts of the American West as one of the snowiest in memory. A seemingly endless series of so-called atmospheric rivers blasted the West Coast with record-breaking precipitation, wreaking havoc at lower elevations and dumping huge masses of snow higher up. We asked three well-known American ski photographers—Christian Pondella, Adam Clark and Grant Gunderson—to share some of their favorite images and recollections from the season when it just didn’t stop snowing.
Matt Cherubino, Christian Pondella
Interviews: Questions and answers with your favorite skier’s favorite skier, a freeride champion, a consummate Kiwi and a girl interrupted
Even the most pro of pro skiers are in awe when they see Jake Mageau ski, explains our guest writer Brady Perron. “Mr. Mango” has talent, vision and creativity unlike anyone else in skiing, a rare combination that have made him one of the most respected film skiers in the game. Veteran interviewer Matt Masson spoke with Jake about his unique background, his history as a halfpipe skier, and why he was disappointed by X Games Real Ski.
Hedvig Wessel competed in the Olympics for moguls before switching to freeriding, where she rapidly rose to the top ranks of the Freeride World Tour. Even so, the overall title kept slipping just out her grasp. After a break from competition, during which she exploded into the business of ski filmmaking, Hedvig made the choice to return to the FWT. Anna Smoothy caught up with Hedvig at the start of her comeback tour to explore the headspace of this remarkable athlete.
Erik Hoffmann, Emil Sollie
New Zealand produces a unique breed of skier, one that goes out with a smile in the worst possible conditions, shreds it to pieces, and comes back asking for more. Finn Bilous is one of those skiers. A consummate talent who’s right at home in any conceivable terrain, He’s made his mark everywhere from the freestyle circuit to the Freeride World Tour, and as Finn turns his attention to filming, it seems he’s just getting started. Klaus Polzer spoke with Finn about his ski-bum family, his approach to competition, and what it’s like to ski for 30 seasons back to back while migrating between the northern and southern hemispheres.
The first woman to land a double cork 1260, Lisa Zimmermann was a teen freeskiing phenom, seemingly destined for a dominant competitive career. But she was keeping a secret, an invisible and poorly understood injury that soon caused her to disappear from the sport without a trace. After years of struggle with post-concussion syndrome, Lisa is back on skis and ready to share her story.
Klaus Polzer
Jake Mageau doing his beautiful thing on pages 204–205.
Erik Hoffmann
Events: A tribute to the independents
It’s easy to fall into predictable patterns, and in ski journalism one of those patterns is paying patronage to the major events in the sport. While big happenings like the Olympics, the Freeride World Tour and the World Cup tend to grab our attention, there’s also been a resurgence of independent, athlete-organized in the scene. Volume 5’s event mega-section puts the spotlight on five of these scene favorites.
Founded in 2023 by James “Woodsy” Woods, Ferdinand Dahl and Øystein Bråten, Jib League gained an instant cult following. With a format that focuses on relatable snowpark settings and overall skiing ability, Jib League is a platform for the world’s best park skiers to showcase their talent while earning career-sustaining prize money. Now entering its third year, the event series is living up to its promise of providing an alternative contest stage for freeskiing.
For a minute there during the pandemic, it seemed like skiing’s favorite contest format had disappeared. Thankfully, SLVSH came roaring back in 2023 with a new edition of the SLVSH Cup at Sunset Park Peretol in Andorra, plus plenty of other great SLVSH games to keep your YouTube feed well-stocked. We spoke with SLVSH co-founder Joss Christensen about the format’s unique appeal and his plans for the future.
Hai Yen Nguyen Thi, Rachel Bock
The Backcountry Invitational in Nendaz, Switzerland is one of few events keeping the backcountry freestyle contest format alive. With a playful freeride face to work with, a dedicated crew of volunteers to build jumps and a long weather window maximizing the chances for the best possible conditions, Nendaz has become a standard-bearer of BC freestyle. Nendaz Freeride chief Cyril Lanfranchi told Downdays about the event’s unique appeal.
While other signature freeski mega-sessions like the Jon Olsson Super Sessions and the Candide Invitational have come and gone, the Nines (currently known as Swatch Nines) continues to reinvent itself each year with new concepts, locations and rider rosters. The brainchild of German freeskier Nico Zacek, this yearly spring session carries a weighty reputation for pioneering feature design and record-breaking stuntery. We spoke with Zacek about the origins of The Nines and its commitment to staying true to the roots of freestyle sports.
There are few, if any events in the freeski scene as cherished as Kimbo Sessions. Every spring around the beginning of May, some fifty or so skiers from across the spectrum of the sport make the pilgrimage to the ski resort of Kläppen, the home resort of OG Swedish freeskier Kim Boberg and the site of his eponymous event, which has been held here since 2015. It’s the simple things that make Kimbo Sessions stand out: a good park, a good crew, and a laid-back schedule free of any pressure.
Antoine Fournier, Ethan Stone, Daniel Rönnbäck
Kimbo Sessions mega sequence.
Ethan Stone
What is Ski Stories, Volume 5? More than the sum of its parts, we hope. It’s a snapshot of skiing in a particular moment in time. It’s a tribute to the people, places and happenings that make the sport special. It’s a delightful gift for any skier to receive or to own, and we hope you’ll cherish your copy for many years to come.
