Introducing Jesper Rogö

I’m a 25 year old free skier from Jönköping, Sweden. After spending a few years in the Austrian Alps I’m currently living and skiing in Engelberg,Switzerland.

We are a bunch of swedish skiers here in Engelberg, many who’ve been coming back for several winters and creating a really good atmosphere. This winter has been amazing so far with loads of snow, great skiing and a few trips to other places where I’ve never skied before.

I started skiing quite late. Since I’m from southern Sweden the opportunities for alpine skiing are limited, to say the least. When I was 15 years old I skied for real for the first time, up north in Sweden. I loved it immediately and since then I’ve skied as much as possible. Right now I’m living in the Alps for the fifth winter in a row. Things has gotten better and better, I’ve improved my skiing and gained a few sponsors that support me. And I haven’t gotten tired of it yet! Skiing on Whitedot skis (Redeemer and Preacher) this winter has really given me an extra boost.

I’ve always focused a lot on photographing. My father is a photographer and that interest is something that me and my younger brother Martin have also got. We’ve been skiing together in the Alps for three winters, shooting a lot. Since I’m the crazier one and he is the wiser one it has always been me in front of the camera and Martin behind. There have been many crazy jumps and great pictures since we started! This winter he decided to travel in Asia instead of skiing, but I’m continuing with my blog, skiing and shooting a lot with my good friend Björn Arnemo.

(www.foxinsnow.com)

Stefano Bigio talks about his first descent of the SW Face of Mont Rochefort

1.  Last season Davide Capozzi and yourself secured a first descent down the South West face of Mont Rochefort; was this something you had wanted to do for a long time?  How did you know the time was right to tackle the route?

The idea to ski this particular descent came about through Rhemy Lescluses around 2008 when he mentioned it to Davide Capozzi who then proposed it to me. We subsequently talked about it but however never found the right moment to set off. I personally didn’t feel I was ready which was most probably why we left it. 2012 was revealing for me as I felt I had reached satisfactory levels of physical, mental, technical and off piste experience sufficient to feel confident on the various terrains – off piste in the woods and the steeper slopes. We decided to ski it in winter snow conditions because had we waited for possible better spring conditions, in all likelihood the temperatures might have been too warm, the snow to scarse, exposing rocks etc.

2. Stefano, can you describe the feeling of the descent; what were the snow conditions like, did you find a higher avalanche risk than you were expecting once you were at the summit, was there a strong wind, and what time of day did you summit and then manage to start the descent?

We started from Helbronner at 9am, climbing to Colle dei Marbrees and from there we dropped to the beginning of a long slope that took us up again connecting to the foot of the slope that goes to Mont Rochefort. I knew that the most difficult part would be the climb on mixed ground to reach the snowy slope. As often happens to me however, I misjudged and underestimated the difficulty and I was hard pressed to navigate the most technical bits and stay physically protected/safe. Davide tracked all the snow slope – dividing it up between us. When we arrived at the top it was 14.30. The descent was much easier than first thought even though the snow was difficult in parts – we crossed winter snow that had been blown into crisp/crusty with some completely hard icy tracts. The inclines were in the region of 45-50 with some steeper/faster tracts – but the difficulty of this slope is due to the climb with the skis and the continual exposure to rock falls. To exit the slope we had to drop down with double ropes. We then did the ski down the last part of the Marbrees in the dark without head torches and we arrived back at the cars at around 18.00.

3. You claimed the South West face of Mont Rochefort on your Whitedot Redeemers (180cm); How did you find climbing with them and then how did the Rockered profile help on the descent?

I chose this skiing (ski run) because I had imagined that the snow conditions would be winter type and that the slope would be wide and not too fast and in fact it suited me very well. The Rockered profile is perfect for soft snow but becomes very hard going once you hit the hard stuff. During the climb the weight and encumbrance of the skis was revealing but, for me, the decent is the real objective and so I am happy to struggle a bit with the right skis.

4. You’ve recently received a  pair of Limited Edition, Whitedot Redeemer CarbonLite skis; what elements of the ski do you feel will aid your style of skiing and ski mountaineering the most, what has struck you most when comparing the skis?

I find that at my level of skiing, the Whitedot Redeemer CarbonLite (180cm) is perfect for 30 to 50 grade in soft snow conditions and their structure permits me to slide fast without needing to hook the external metal, to curve/corner nimbly working tip and tail to gain the best from the centre of the skis to maintain good speed, thanks to the strength of the structure of the skis which is superior to the ones I normally use for hard snow. When I descend below 35 and pick up speed, I prefer to have skis without Rockered profile – longer, stronger with a flat tail and less point. But the majority of the time I ski down steep, technical, winter slopes and the Redeemer are perfect and give me a lot of satisfaction.

5. Lastly, we know you are continually looking for the next summit, the next adventure; what is it about ski mountaineering that drives you to continually push yourself and the limits?  What have you got in the pipeline for this season?

I have lots of projects in mind because Monte Blanc offers many possibilities. There are lots of things that have to come together for a descent to work and so I study the mountain and how the winter evolves – improve my techniques, my physical and mental condition, learn from my mistakes and listen to the alpine experts and skiers around me. My ambition comes from the discovery that there is much ahead for me to learn and try. I know there is much still to enjoy and enrich my skiing experience, lots still for me to better my style and this motivates me and keeps me from quitting. The descents that I do/manage are a big way of making me reflect on the biggest and wider values and depths of our existence!

[ Stefano Bigio - Vimeo ]

Christoffer Soderstrom

Christoffer Söderström is new to the Whitedot team this season, he is a park and urban skier from Finland.

This year the season started pretty early in Finland, in late October his home resort had already opened. They where only open for a week before they had to close again though luckily some weeks later the winter started for real and Christoffer was back on track.

In December he entered his first competition for the season, it was called “make it happen” and it was held in Kläppen, Sweden. The park was the most fun and creative Christoffer had ever skied.

Since he came home from Sweden he has been mostly filming urban sections in Helsinki with Twentytwo Productions for our second full length ski movie. It hasn’t really been going as well as he had been hoping. The first day filming he fell in to some stairs and hit his hip really hard. The next few days filming it was too cold for the banshee bungee to work, so he didn’t get the speed he needed and they called it a day. The last weekend he had been building the spot for a couple of hours before he was ready to start skiing, until he realised one of the lamps was broken! However they decided to just continue with one less light and carry on.

When he finally thought they where ready, the generator broke down … luckily it’s not always like this skiing urbans. Even though it is really frustrating when things like this happen, Christoffer stays positive as it is all worth it in the end when you get the shots.

Check out Christoffer’s first full length film here..

$WEDELICIOU$ from Anton Tevajärvi on Vimeo.

Battle in the Arena Rail Jam

Whitedot Skis’s Mani Eder, beat off the competition that included Marc Swoboda, Dominik Wagner and Martin Hauck to take the top step of the podium at Blue Tomato’s “Battle in the Arena” rail jam, at the Olympiapark in Munich.

Congratulations to Mani who linked together a technical run over the stair set rails and wall ride to take home the win, and a wildcard entry to the Sick Trick Tour!

Sunny Days in Southwest Colorado

Sunny days seem to be a theme over in Colorado, Whitedot’s Nolan Stowers and Parker Norvell have been out filming again, check out their second Webisode instalment.

A Whitedot Weekend 1.2 from Parker Norvell on Vimeo.

Our idea to create a Webisode came to life over the past weekend, we had the perfect conditions and park to be able to make our first collaborative edit under the warm sun of the Southwest.  The park had been built the best it has ever been by the outstanding park crew of Purgatory, and everything lined up for three good days of shooting with warm weather, sandwiches, and good friends.

We were feeling excellent and with the prime conditions at hand, decided it was time to start throwing down.  With cameras rolling, we reached into our bag of tricks and pulled out old and new, pushing not only our own limitations, but pushing the park-rat culture of our home mountain.  Parker Norvell, being the beast that he is, rolled up his 4XL sleeves and excelled under the glaring camera lenses, not only nailing tricks with style, but astonishing everyone by attempting his first double flip and taking to his feet time after time.  As for Nolan Stowers, he decided to whip out his fancy backflips, adding the superman to his arsenal of variations of his backflips.

The Webisode is our little testament to the great skiing in the wonderful place we live, as well as the incredible skis we shred on, and our plan is to try and pump out episodes every other week.  These episodes will not only contain our shots but what our plans are as far as the competition and film scene go.  Hopefully this wonderful thing you Europeans call “snow” will hit our corner of the world and we can show off the extraordinary backcountry and urban scene that our region so eloquently provides us. 

A Whitedot Weekend from Parker Norvell on Vimeo.

The competition season has officially begun for us, bringing with it not only the fun of competing, but the opportunity to travel and spread the word of Whitedot.  For both of us, the competition season has gotten off to a fantastic start.  Parker kicked off the season in Vail with a 3rd place finish, and more recently claimed the top spot on the podium at a slopestyle in Crested Butte within the confines of his respective age group. Nolan also traveled to Crested Butte, competing in the Open, or Pro class, taking home the silver.  Our next competition will be hosted at our quaint little mountain this weekend, which attributes to our performance, seeing as how we have been training on it nonstop recently.  Ecstatic and motivated, we plan on filming for these webisodes as often as possible.  Hopefully we can claim some urban spots, there’s a massive  wallride we have been eyeing out for some time now, as well as a few gnarly rails.

With the coming of storms, Nolan plans on busting out the Directors and getting out into the Backcountry.  There are some lines he’s been scoping for a couple of years now and would like to stake his claim on them.  Parker is hoping at some point to extend his knowledge within the field of backcountry. We plan on getting both of us out of the park and off of the lifts into the great unexplored backcounty for some photo and film shoots with our resident camera men and Videographers, Taran Egner and Rees Gibbons.  We are determined to have a long, great season on our Whitedot’s.

We would like to thank the park crew at Purgatory for putting the time and effort into creating the best park our little corner of Colorado has ever witnessed and also like to send a quick shout out to all of our friends who slaved over cameras, ensuring that we could show this pilot episode to all of our peers. Thanks to Whitedot Skis for allowing us to represent such a unique and innovative company.  With a combined 4 years of experience skiing for Whitedot, we are both grateful for the opportunity to be associated with such an awesome lineup of fellow team members.  Stay tuned for more episodes of “A Whitedot Weekend” next episode dropping as soon as we finish our multiple documentaries regarding our epic conquest to find and obtain the loch ness monster. Or get more legit footage.

Cheers, Nolan

‘Big Mountain January’ Promotion