Stian Hagen

Hometown: Oslo, Norway | Active: 1994-present | Known for: steep skiing on the Matterhorn with Chris Davenport, Claim, the Jotunheimen Haute Route | Disciplines: freeride, steep skiing, ski mountaineering

Late-spring snow had been plastered onto the east face of the Matterhorn when Stian Hagen, Chris Davenport and photographer Christian Pondella left the Hörnlihütte at 5:30 a.m. in May 2008. Crampons and ice axes carried them upward while the white face shone above Zermatt. By 9 a.m. they had reached the Solvay Hut at 4,000 metres, and a growing layer of cloud was beginning to build around the mountain. Rather than continue into deteriorating visibility, Hagen and Davenport changed the plan and prepared to ski from below the top of the snowfield.

Chamonix 1994: a tent near Argentière

Hagen grew up in Oslo with a broad Nordic skiing background that included ski jumping in his youth. In 1994 he moved to Chamonix and spent part of his first years living in a tent in the woods near Argentière. High-mountain access became the centre of his skiing. The period preceded phones and social media in his day-to-day ski life; meetings happened at lift stations, while repeated days in the Mont Blanc massif built experience on couloirs, exposed faces and terrain far removed from prepared pistes.

Matterhorn 2008: skiing below Solvay Hut

The east face looked like a huge ramp of roughly 45 degrees from the Hörnlihütte. Hagen and Davenport stopped about 150 metres below the top of the snowfield, then linked large turns down the face after three and a half hours of climbing. Their descent took about five minutes. Christian Pondella followed later after photographing them. The Matterhorn sequence became part of Claim, Matchstick Productions' 2008 ski film, where Hagen shared a dedicated segment with Davenport.

Eiger 2008: timing the west face

The same Alpine project took Hagen and Davenport to the Eiger. They climbed on hard snow beneath a serac and regrouped before crossing the exposed section below it. On the west-facing descent, the upper snow had not yet softened when cloud began forming close to midday. Hagen entered first from the northwest ridge, making turns with the north face dropping away beside him. Around thirty turns lower, the pair regrouped at the entrance to a couloir where softer snow continued toward the bottom.

Alaska 2012: The Red Line

In 2012, Hagen and Davenport returned to steep terrain together in Ultimate Rush: The Red Line. The episode placed them in remote Alaskan mountains and also brought them into conversation with steep-skiing pioneer Sylvain Saudan. The production centred on the decision-making boundary between committing to a large line and backing away from it. For Hagen, the project connected the big-mountain skiing of his professional film career with the risk analysis that later became central to his work as an IFMGA mountain guide.

Jotunheimen 2013: linking Norway's Haute Route

Hagen and photographer Johan Wildhagen turned their attention toward Norway after a ski trip to Toubkal in North Africa. In spring 2013, Hagen and friends travelled the line that developed into Høgruta i Jotunheimen. The established traverse now runs for five days across roughly 77 kilometres, eight glaciers and seven summits above 2,000 metres, including Glittertind and Galdhøpiggen. Daily stages are about 15 kilometres with 1,000 to 1,500 metres of ascent, linking staffed mountain lodges through the Jotunheimen massif.

Völkl and Marker: equipment from Chamonix

Equipment development became another long-running part of Hagen's career. By 2017 he had worked with Völkl for close to fifteen years and had contributed substantial input to earlier rockered ski designs. He also worked on the Marker Duke binding project and later pin-tech concepts, focusing on release behaviour, power transfer and the balance between uphill weight and downhill performance. The work reflected the same compromise found in ski mountaineering: carrying less matters on the climb, but the equipment still has to transmit force when the descent begins.

Arc'teryx 2024: The Hagens in Chamonix

The Hagens was released by Arc'teryx in March 2024, directed and filmed by Jake Holland. The documentary follows Stian, his wife Andrea Hagen and their children Aksel and Camila around their mountain life in Chamonix. Backcountry skiing is shown alongside the family's approach to avalanche terrain and snowpack stability, with Hagen describing a more conservative relationship with consequence after becoming a parent. By then he was working as an IFMGA mountain guide while remaining active in skiing.

In March 2024, the release of The Hagens added a family documentary to a film career that had already included the Matterhorn in Claim and Alaska in The Red Line. The film kept Hagen on skis in Chamonix while shifting the central subject from a single exposed face to four members of the same skiing family.

Selected filmography

• 2024 — The Hagens — Arc'teryx — Full segment
• 2012 — Ultimate Rush: The Red Line — Matchstick Productions — Full segment
• 2008 — Claim — Matchstick Productions — Full segment

Selection of his main film projects. Not a complete filmography.