IN DA BANKZ - Snowpark Grind

Profile and significance

Henrik “E-Dollo” Harlaut is one of freeskiing’s defining figures, a Swedish original whose blend of contest dominance, film culture, and scene-building has shaped how park and street skiing look and feel. A two-time Olympian for Sweden and a multi-time medalist at the X Games, he holds the all-time records for Ski golds and total Ski medals at that event. His 2013 Big Air breakthrough—landing the first nose-butter triple cork 1620 on the Aspen stage—reset expectations for what creative, controlled progression could be. Beyond podiums, Harlaut helped lead a rider-first movement through the B&E era with Phil Casabon, co-hosting the B&E Invitational in France and elevating film parts and tours that centered style as substance.

Harlaut’s brand ecosystem mirrors that identity. He rides for Armada Skis and headlines his own street-savvy label, Harlaut Apparel, while long-running support from Monster Energy has kept cameras on his projects from Scandi parks to city rails. The result is a rare dual footprint—elite competitor and cultural steward—whose skiing reads clearly at full speed and whose projects continue to influence how freeski stories are told.

Competitive arc and key venues

Harlaut’s contest résumé traces the modern ladder. He announced himself to a global audience at Aspen’s Buttermilk, where his Big Air gold and that historic nose-butter triple 16 became part of freeski lore. In the years that followed he stacked Big Air and Slopestyle medals across Aspen and Europe, and even added the newer Knuckle Huck title to underline his versatility. On the Olympic stage he represented Sweden at Sochi 2014—finishing sixth in slopestyle—and returned at PyeongChang 2018, a testament to endurance in a field where the trick list never stops evolving.

Venue context explains why his runs travel so well. Buttermilk rewards multi-feature flow and composure under heavy cameras. Oslo’s and Norway’s stadium builds prize amplitude on single hits. Spring blocks at Sweden’s Kläppen refine rhythm and variety across dense rail sections and medium-to-large booters. Olympic courses—from Sochi’s expansive build to the sculpted lines at Korea’s Phoenix Park—demand immaculate takeoffs and exact landings. Across those settings, Harlaut’s hallmark has been readability: tricks that make sense at normal speed because the inputs are functional and on time.

How they ski: what to watch for

Harlaut skis with deliberate economy and musical timing. On rails, approaches square up early, the body stays stacked, and lock-ins look decisive rather than dramatic. Surface swaps resolve cleanly; presses have visible shape; exits protect speed for what’s next. On jumps, he manages spin speed with deep, stabilizing grabs—safety, tail, blunt—arriving early enough to calm the axis and keep the hips centered over the feet. Directional variety—forward and switch, left and right—appears without breaking cadence because every move serves the line instead of a checklist.

Two cues help you “read” a Harlaut lap in real time. First, spacing: he leaves room between tricks so each one sets angle and speed for the next, a habit that makes full runs feel like sentences rather than word salad. Second, grab discipline: hands find the ski early and stay long enough to influence rotation, not just decorate the frame. That approach explains why even his biggest spins look unhurried—and why editors can present his shots at normal speed without slow-motion rescue.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Results alone would place Harlaut among the greats; his cultural work cements it. With Phil Casabon he hosted the B&E Invitational at Les Arcs, a rider-designed jam that treated slopestyle as an open canvas and set a template for today’s style-first showcases. On film, he’s produced projects that framed progression as story, from the two-year deep dive “Salute” to the wider canon built with Inspired-era collaborators. The common thread is clarity: honest speed, early commitments, centered landings. That’s why his parts age well—you can see the trick math at 1x speed—and why younger riders can copy the mechanics without needing a mega-budget build.

Harlaut’s influence also shows in how brands and events talk about skiing. He helped normalize the idea that style is not garnish but technique—grab choice that stabilizes an axis, spacing that preserves momentum, and rail decisions that protect cadence. As new disciplines and formats appear, the standard he champions remains the same: make difficulty legible, so viewers feel it the first time and still find details on the tenth watch.

Geography that built the toolkit

Place is the skeleton of Harlaut’s skiing. He moved to Åre as a kid, and the resort’s varied pistes and night laps forged edge honesty and repetition; if you want to understand the base layer, start with the discipline that Scandinavia’s firm snow demands. Spring sections at Kläppen layered in rhythm on dense features, teaching him to protect speed through quick in-runs and short outruns. The annual pilgrimage to Aspen’s Buttermilk sharpened broadcast composure, while European city builds and invitational courses rewarded creativity and line design. Stitch those environments together and you get a toolkit that travels: patient takeoffs, functional grabs, tidy exits, and runs that hold their shape from first rail to last landing.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Harlaut’s kit is built for repeatability and feel. With Armada he’s long ridden park-capable platforms tuned for pop and predictable swing weight, a setup that rewards nose-butter entries and early-grab spins. Apparel through Harlaut Apparel leans into rider-led durability and movement on long filming days, while backing from Monster Energy helps turn ambitious concepts into finished films and event moments. For skiers borrowing from his playbook, the hardware lesson is category fit over hype: choose a symmetrical or near-symmetrical park ski, mount it so butters and presses feel natural without sacrificing takeoff stability, keep bases fast so cadence doesn’t depend on perfect weather, and tune edges to hold on steel yet soften contact points to avoid surprise bites on swaps.

There’s a process lesson, too. Build lines around momentum. Use the grab as a control input rather than decoration. Finish tricks early enough to ride away with speed and time. Those habits are why Harlaut’s biggest moments—whether a stadium jump in Aspen or a creative rail garden at a spring session—read cleanly on camera and hold up on rewatch.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Henrik Harlaut matters because he turned elite difficulty into a language anyone can follow and then used his platform to grow the culture around it. He has the X Games medal record to satisfy the stats crowd and a film-and-event legacy that continues to pull the sport toward rider agency and style with substance. The skiing itself is readable at full speed, the choices are intentional, and the execution holds up under the brightest lights. For viewers, that means segments and finals worth replaying; for developing riders, it’s a checklist you can practice on the next lap. Protect momentum, commit early, let the spot decide the move—and make it look good because the mechanics are honest. That’s the Harlaut blueprint, and it’s why his influence runs from Åre to Aspen and across every park where skiers learn to turn hard things into clear, compelling lines.

Profile and significance

Noah Albaladejo is an Andorran freeski original whose style-first approach helped define what modern park and urban skiing looks like. He broke out in the mid-2010s with a blend of rail confidence and buttery jump control that translated as clearly in rider-judged jams as it did in polished film parts. In 2015 he won the B&E Invitational at Les Arcs and was voted European Skier of the Year by Downdays readers, a one-two that confirmed his influence beyond any single contest. Since then he has remained a reference for park flow and street precision while representing athlete-driven brands and destinations including Armada Skis, Monster Energy, Look Bindings, Harlaut Apparel, and his home resort, Grandvalira. Albaladejo’s significance lies in the way his skiing reads on camera and under lights: patient approaches, grabs that lock early, presses that hold long enough to be unmistakable, and exits that keep speed for whatever comes next.

Competitive arc and key venues

Albaladejo’s path favors rider-curated formats and film over traditional ranking sheets. His win at the B&E Invitational in 2015—taking both “Overall” and “Best Trick” on the skate-inspired setup at Les Arcs—cemented him as a peers’ pick. In 2020 he was invited to X Games Real Ski, the all-urban video contest that showcases street craft and spot choice on global broadcast. More recently, he headlined SLVSH Cup Andorra at Grandvalira, advancing to the 2024 final in front of a local crowd that knows his skiing best. Between those touchpoints he has kept a steady presence at culture-defining sessions like Kimbosessions, where the emphasis is on how well you read a park and invent lines in the moment.

The venues tied to his name explain his skiing as well as any result column. Sunset Park Peretol by Henrik Harlaut is the evening laboratory where he and friends link feature-dense laps under floodlights. The El Tarter Snowpark adds long, rhythmic lines that reward speed control and endurance. When events or shoots call, he exports the same movement vocabulary to bigger or different builds—from the sculpted parks of the Alps to the urban textures of Andorra and beyond.

How they ski: what to watch for

Albaladejo skis with economy and definition. On rails he favors locked positions—backslides and presses held just long enough to read—then exits with square shoulders so momentum carries cleanly into the next hit. Change-ups are quiet and centered, with minimal arm swing; the base stays flat through kinks because edge pressure is set early, not rescued late. On jumps and side hits, the trademark is patience into the lip and grabs established before 180 degrees, which lets tweaks breathe without throwing the body off axis. Even when the trick is complex, the approach looks calm and neutral—tall posture, hips over feet, ankles soft on impact—so the landing reads inevitable rather than survived.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Film seasons have always been part of Albaladejo’s story. He stacked memorable parts with crews and close collaborators, including projects with Henrik Harlaut—work that traveled widely and influenced how riders think about line choice, feature prep, and the value of style that ages well. The Real Ski invite in 2020 recognized that film pedigree on a broadcast stage; his SLVSH Cup runs showed the same precision translated to a live, call-and-respond format where peers set the tricks. Through it all he has remained a constant in Andorra’s scene, helping turn Grandvalira’s after-dark parks into a meeting point for European freeskiing and a proving ground for riders who want their skiing to stand up to slow-motion replays.

Geography that built the toolkit

Andorra’s terrain, weather windows, and night-skiing culture shaped Albaladejo’s habits. Peretol’s Sunset Park delivers laps on demand when the lights switch on—perfect for repetition, quick resets, and filming without the daytime rush. The long lines at El Tarter Snowpark enforce rhythm and speed control; a small mistake at the top can ripple through an entire run, which is why his clips look so composed. When travel calls, he brings that toolkit to places like Les Arcs, where the B&E park’s creative modules rewarded skiers who could hold presses and invent new approaches mid-line. Each location left a fingerprint: Andorra for evening repetition and rail craft; El Tarter for flow at speed; alpine builds for timing and wind reads.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Albaladejo’s gear choices reflect his priorities. With Armada he favors playful, press-friendly park platforms that still feel predictable at takeoff; with Look Bindings he pairs a confidence-inspiring release feel to long rail sessions; Harlaut Apparel signals the rider-run aesthetic that surrounds his projects; and Monster Energy has backed his film-first calendar for years. For skiers who want to borrow his feel, the setup lessons are straightforward: detune contact points to reduce rail bite, choose a mount close enough to center to keep landings neutral, and aim for a medium flex you can bend without folding. Equally important is the training loop his venues enable—film laps, review shoulder alignment and hip-to-ankle stack, then repeat under consistent lighting until the movements become automatic.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Noah Albaladejo because his skiing is both distinctive and teachable. The clips are replayable for the same reason coaches love showing them: tall, calm approaches; early grab definition; square-shoulder exits; and a flow that turns a park into a single, connected sentence. For developing riders, his blueprint proves you don’t need the biggest jumps to progress—you need deliberate reps, a clear plan for each feature, and the patience to let technique do the work. Whether the backdrop is a nighttime lap at Peretol, a long line through El Tarter, or a film trip to a classic alpine park, the read is the same: precise, stylish freeskiing that rewards attention to detail.