Falling in the no fall zone, an Olympic gold winner, and a first descent || SKAMTINDEN 

Hi Peter, and thanks for a thoughtful comment. I'll get back to you point by point, but generally my feedback is that it is really hard to get a full picture from a video because of two factors: 1 - This is 15 minutes of a multiple hour day. 2 - It's in the director's interest to portray this day as challenging as possible, focusing on the perspectives that found it more so. In response to your well reasoned critique: 1: The reason we were 30 min late was that it was colder than anticipated, so we made the collective decision to not rush and film those car approach shots. As we go through in the section about an isothermic snowpack at 2:49, we're well aware of wet slides. Remember the lines faced multiple aspects, so it was a tricky game of balancing the colder parts with the warmer ones. 2: Krister knew about everyone but Merrick, who joined last minute. Merrick is a mountain guide with tons of experience, so I judged her addition to the group to be more a bonus than a negative. The comment you're referring to "speed is safety", is from my interview, not Krister's. 3: This is true, Merrick didn't know Øystein. Krister, Merrick and I have all been in the mountains together before, and know well how we react when shit hits the fan, and also have had long discussions about all the mountain brings after our experience that's depicted in the Wavy film. As a group, our trio was solid in my mind. Øystein was the wildcard, and that was the reason I brought him out the day before to have a good look at the lines, and make sure he had a good understanding of what we were doing. Also just to spend a day in the mountains with him. If the line off the peak was the only way down I wouldn't have brought him. I knew there was a safer option off the side that the media crew were doing, which he also ended up choosing. Wisely, as he's new to this type of riding. 4+5: The only danger on the ascent was the subjective one of falling. No risk of cornice falls, avalanches or similar. A fall which might, if you were extremely unlucky, lead to you tumbling off the edge hundreds of meters further down. But you would have to be very very unfortunate for that to happen, I'd say a 1/1000 chance or less. You can tell how flat it is from some of the shots. Most likely you're looking at bruises. This is a trail my 60 year old mom hikes in the summer, with some ice in there that made it a little trickier. Øystein and Krister still experienced it as very scary, as it does feel airy, and so I chose to focus on that in the edit, to bring out the mental challenges they overcame on their way up. Krister only started using hard boots a few seasons ago and Øystein comes from a park background. Merrick and I have spent half a lifetime in ski boots in that sort of terrain. Had there been any real risk of death from a fall we would of course have been roped up in a tight group with proper protection. The reason we say we're being "assholes" is because we weren't considerate of Øystein's mental struggle, not because we weren't considerate of his safety. As you can tell from the video, both Øystein and Krister having a hard time up there came as a surprise to Merrick and I, and behind the scenes also to Joonas. Bendik thought we were going a more sketchy route for the final bit and told Øystein it was only going to get harder, which played a big role in him getting psyched out too. 6: Øystein descended after Joonas, followed by Bendik. He was not alone. 7: There was a misunderstanding by the car, where Merrick left her radio because she thought I had two in my backpack. I do acknowledge that I make mistakes in the mountain. There will be two more videos with people falling down the mountain the next Mondays, and I question how much of a paternal role I should take on for future objectives. Should I vet the 10 year older mountain guide as to how rested she is? Should I not only tell my little brother to go slow on the descent, but also make sure he'll follow my advice? I find those questions hard, because I know that I'd hate it if someone acted that way towards me. And still I find it very difficult to watch my friends tumble towards possible harm down serious mountains. After discussing the possible hazards and letting the group know how you'd approach them, at what point does one leave another person to make their own decisions regarding the risk they're comfortable with? I'm not sure. Hope that clarifies a few things for you, and glad you stopped by to check out the video! Have a good winter :-)

@@Nikolai_Schirmer nikolai - thanks so much for taking the time to respond. i watch your vids, and i think you and your extremely talented gang are consistently doing next level stuff. thanks for the clarification, which gives me some understanding of your mind set about the assorted decisions. those questions you ask at the end are hard ones, and your answer -- "i'm not sure" -- is legit. My own take is !) i'm in it for the long game, and right now that means 55 years on snow, and i still can't get a good night's sleep before a powder day and 2) in small group situations, we all have to agree and be in sync at all times, which sometimes isn't easy, but that's the mindset and the goal. enjoy your winter as well, and thanks again. i have a lot of respect for what you do. cheers -

@@petercogan3396 Just send

@@Nikolai_SchirmerLOOSE!

Amazing @Nikolai and crew! A well planned day in general - indeed no need to be defensive. But big thanks also to the discussion @Peter Cogan as a lot of people watch these vids and take example. So talking through critical moments and things is important beyond the "entertainment and thrill" of it. Always good when we can learn together and not everyone needs to live through close calls first hand. Keep it up! Keep it safe!

lol, its like saying 100m sprinter struggles during cross country running. Its obvious, totally different sport..

I would for sure say Øystein is the better athlete. Lines like these are mostly about mental game, which comes with experience

@@Nikolai_Schirmer true but he rides a snowmobile to the top of the jumps.

He's a trick skier, not a downhill skier so he was clearly out of his element, as he noted he doesn't usually like to ski steeps.

calibre

For a season from February til April? 🤣

Count me in

@@Vctr more like till late June or longer

@@Vctr november til june

@@jonassjveianhalvorsen146 how do you skitour during the winter months without sunlight? you guys go anyway with a strong headlamp on terrain you know or on nights with full moon?

Agreed.

I'm interested. What's the pay scale for these comments?

@@geoffreyeble32 Lol got 'em

@@geoffreyeble32 I've been riding for about 20 years now, taught for 5 of those, and while I've never ridden at this level, I've spent a fair share of time on the steep and narrow (minus this level of consequences, but also generally minus loose snow to dig into). Much respect to Krister for tackling this gnarly line, but, at the risk of sounding like a dick on the internet, what I saw in this video was more a very competent rider getting down a tough line safely and less an example of the best riding in the world. No hate, I would have ridden steep, heavy snow with a giant cliff at the bottom the same way. But if you're gonna throw out titles like the best in the world, I don't think 20 seconds of fully closed turns, side slips, and a quick edge change is sufficient evidence. Dude's ballsy and a dope rider (I'd like to see him in a situation where he doesn't need to throttle himself for fear of injury/death), I just don't think there's nobody else in the world who couldn't have made it look better. Get those hips over those toes (straight line from shoulders to knees delivers the most force through the boot to the toeside with the least effort, but admittedly that's not always desirable on softer snow because its harder to correct than ankle pressure), climb out of the backseat on toeside (it's not nearly deep/soft enough to warrant it, at least for the clip from the bottom of the run), and show me a sweet, flowy S in place where the bottom 99.9% would say "Oh hell naw". Then maybe we'll talk.

@@andrewgorrell2176 I actually felt the same but human nature when boardin on unknown terrain that steep wit very little room for error can sike anyone out

Thanks, and likewise!

@@Nikolai_Schirmer I’m actually really excited, did my first tour of the season today! Went to Rundfjellet at the other side of the Kroken valley. Very little snow up until the very top, but I managed some quality turns hahah

They showed the whole run for each person. That couloir is the run.

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-aLcbriGhO5I.html&ab_channel=PicaHerry

Not terrifying enough! They had no 1st person camera footage of the exposed traverse section above the cliffs. They had GoPros, too. And the drone footage was from too far away. Plus slopes look much steeper than they really are when viewed facing them from a distance. But the footage from the high couloir showed how steep and narrow that part was. It was a really good effort, to be sure, in a beautiful setting, but the film of the descent could have been better.

Me to…though it looked as she was still a way above the true no fall zone. Thinks she need to practice those pole arrest some more….I do it most outings!

Mid March🙌😄 and thanks, I’ll add a date to the next videos