"We're a Little Out of Our Element Here" | Skiing the Tordrillo Mountains (2025 Extended Cut)

Wānaka, New Zealand | Active: 2019-present freeride career | Discipline: Freeride, Big-Mountain Freestyle and Backcountry Skiing | Known for: 2026 FWT title, FIS Freeride World Championship, Xtreme Verbier win, Treble Cone roots Bec Des Rosses With The Title Still Open The Bec des Rosses held fifty centimeters of fresh snow, bright March light, and the kind of exposure that makes every traverse sound hollow. Ben Richards dropped into Xtreme Verbier 2026 with the Freeride World Tour title still alive, Toby Rafford and Ross Tester close enough to make one mistake decisive. Richards did not ski like a rider defending points.... Read more on the Athlete page

Wasatch Mountains, Utah | Active big-mountain skier and film athlete | Public markers: Alta roots, SCOTT Freeride Team, Matchstick Productions, The Stomping Grounds, Anywhere From Here, The Land of Giants, Calm Beneath Castles, Free Lesson | Main lane: steep lines, powder, Alaska spines, foot-powered backcountry Alta Snow Before The Traverse Broke The Alta traverse was wind-buffed and loud under sharp Wasatch light, with dry snow lifting off the shoulder of the ridge before Sam Cohen dropped into the face. He did not ski it like a contest run. He skied it like terrain he had known since childhood: one turn to test the surface, one drift to bleed speed, then a clean release into the fall line.... Read more on the Athlete page

Wānaka, New Zealand | Active: 2011-present | Focus: freeride, ski mountaineering, big-mountain films, first descents | Current: The North Face athlete and XXIV project skier Vallnord Arcalís When The Traverse Vanished Vallnord Arcalís looked thin and hostile in February 2015, with Pyrenean wind scraping snow off rock ribs and leaving only narrow white bridges between cliffs. Sam Smoothy pushed into a line no other skier had chosen, landing above exposure, cutting left through a three-tiered cliff band, and skiing as if the whole face had already been solved in his head. The Freeride World Tour stop in Andorra became more than a win.... Read more on the Athlete page

Truckee / Sugar Bowl, California, USA | Active: 2010s-present public freeride record | Discipline: Freeride, Big-Mountain Freestyle and Creative Skiing | Known for: FWT 2023, Unified, The Land of Giants, Silver Belt, FORM Sugar Bowl When Silver Belt Turned Back On The Silver Belt Gully drops from Mount Lincoln with rollers, cliff bands, blind entries, and enough Sierra snow texture to make every takeoff feel half-built by memory. Xander Guldman stood near the top of the Sugar Bowl line with the kind of trick choice that explains his skiing: cork 3 Japan, not because the face needed the largest possible spin, but because the shape fit the terrain. By 2024, the historic run had become more than a local proving ground again.... Read more on the Athlete page

S. big-mountain region from Girdwood to Haines and Valdez | Known for: Chugach spines, Alyeska lift access, Thompson Pass heli terrain, Natural Selection Ski, FWT Alaska returns | Season: December to April with heli windows strongest from February to April | Best for: advanced freeriders, film crews, heli guests, and backcountry skiers with avalanche discipline Chugach Faces Above Tidewater Snow The Chugach Mountains rise directly above sea-level communities such as Girdwood and Valdez, putting maritime snowfall against slopes that climb fast from the coast. Alyeska Resort lists 1,610 skiable acres, 76 named runs, 7 lifts, a 40-passenger aerial tram, 2,500 feet of vertical rise, and 650 inches of average annual summit snowfall.... Read more on the Location page

American ski film production studio | Active since 1992 and built around Steve Winter and Murray Wais | Known for: Ski Movie, Yearbook, Push, Claim, Days of My Youth, The Stomping Grounds, The Land of Giants, Calm Beneath Castles and After the Snowfall | Focus: cinematic ski storytelling where big mountain lines, athlete personalities, annual film tours and polished action cinematography keep ski culture visible every fall. 1992 Crested Butte energy and the Matchstick film machine Matchstick Productions, often shortened to MSP, is one of the defining film studios in modern skiing. It is not a ski brand, apparel label or crew in the narrow sense.... Read more on the Sponsor page