mitch blog

To the end of the last season we were driving up my dads campervan filled with snow and surf eqipement to the north of norway. After a weak season in the alps we wanted to hike and ride some lines, meet up with some local friends and than also meet up with the austrian skiers and friends Stefan Häusl and Björn Heregger to film for the third project of our hike series -  hike3.

My initial motivation for the hike series, HIKE, HIKE2ride and now the latest production hike3 was to find out  and also to proof to an audience what kind of freeriding would be possible in our home backcountry and also without the support of helicopters or snow machines.
After realizing the first two movies  in the austrian alps and because of a  ‘lowtide’ snowseason  in our  home mountains this time our search for snow brought us up to the northern part of norway.
The mountains up there are insane, some of them stick right out of the ocean and are about 2000m high. it can be quiet a mission to reach the lines you want to ride so beside some experience and knowledge it is good to bring everything you need for exploring. As days get longer and longer so far north until it doesn’t get dark at all anymore we once had our last run at 10pm before getting up at sunrise at 3am again to hike up for our next mission. The most difficult challenge for us was the weather which was always changing and made it impossible to plan action ahead.
I would say we got it all from bad weather frustration to powder in the woods to magic moments in an unreal beautiful mountain environment….

This year, for the first time, we did put our project in a producers hand, Stefan Tauber from illuminatifilm who than brought our longtime friend and cameraman harry putz along to join us in the norwegian mountains.Thanks to both of them for the great work!
Also thanks to Jarkko Henttonen and Aadne Olsrud for supporting us with their local konwledge and providing a base to stay up there in Tamok Dalen.

here a link to the whole hike series, all trailers plus the first two films on vimeo, not the hike3 movie yet of course:-) : http://vimeo.com/channels/hike

click here for all posts on the HIKE SERIES and scroll through the last 3 years of this freeride project…

On the Iliniza Sur:

After we already got shut down on our attempt to climb and ride Cayambe and Cotopaxi because of bad weather and scatchy snow conditions  we were getting a little frustrated. When our local friend and guide Gaspar told us that a  lonely Snowboarder made the summit and did ride down the 5300m high Iliniza Sur
we were all getting excited again and headed up to the Refuge of the Ilinizas.

On the 2 hour hike up to the refuge we met the mysterious Snowboarder,  Clark from Idaho who was probably the first ever to ride the steeps of the iliniza Sur. When he told us that he was having a great powder run our motivation level was rising  higher.

Wake up call at  2:15a.m.- light snowfall and fog – hiking to the base of the glacier – putting on the crampons and roping up – climbing higher.
With all the fog that night the temperature was not dropping as we were hoping and even  we were getting  higher we were still breaking through the mushy snow.

When the steep part  of our climb started we were checking the snow layers – 60 cm of wet snow on a bad layer and a quite big, steep face ahead of us. With our group of seven the risk was too big to keep on going for the summit in this conditions. That was it again!? Frustration!!!

Summary:

One day too late? or two days too early? No weather forecasts, fresh snow every day mixed with crazy temperature changes made it impossible for us to climb and ride the summits of Ecuadors high volcanos.

The local people say that it has way more snow than usually which i thought would be good for us. It felt  like we were always very  close to have an epic run of one of the high summits but it just didnt want to be. The line between good snow to ride and too scatchy snow conditions to get up there is get thinner as higher you climb. Also i must say that this trip did show me that riding on a performence level over 5000m is a very difficult mission! Even if you are well acclimatized  it seems that you never feel 100% fit for freeriding and charging the way you would like to.

Even we were defeated in all three attempts in the last 14 days it was a great experience for me to attend the summits4kids project on both sides: on the one hand  learning about the charity side of the project by visiting the Talita Kumi NGO here in Quito and on the other hand the Ski/Snowboard mountaineering attempts on the high volcanos of Ecuador.  Now it is time for me to go back to the northern hemisphere winter. Thanks to the summits4kids team, specially Giulia and Marja, for setting up this great project.

To find out more about summits4kids and how you could support the Talita Kumi place of refuge for teenage girls and young  mothers who are struggling in the difficult reality of Quito please visit: www.summits4kids.org

HIKE2Ride teaser, 1min30 from harry putz on Vimeo.