Who do you call when you're in need of big tricks and faultless style for a magazine feature? Calling Cartel team rider Philip Toplitsch would be a good start and it's what photographer Cyril Mueller did when he needed some shots for a Pleasure Mag feature on the Nike Montafon Park.
For the last month Amplid Cartel skier Alex Neurohr has been a busy guy. With a lack of fresh snow to play in, in his native Switzerland, Alex headed east to the Polish Freeski Open in the High Tatra Mountains in search of glory.
There are lots of good park riders. There are lots of good freeriders. There aren't so many skiers that blend these two disciplines seamlessly. Alex Neurohr is one such skier and people are starting to take notice... including his local newspaper!
If you're prepared to invest into touring equipment, be that touring skis or a splitboard, then your local resort can hold hundreds of unridden lines for days if not weeks after a storm. German Ambush rider Alex Proyer and a couple of his friends hit the Freeride mecca of Hochfuegen with their splits in search of track-less faces.
The Cartel's latest recruit, Philip Toplitsch, spends most of his time hunting for spots in the backcountry. Whilst filming with videographer Adam Graf in his native Vorarlberg, Philip stumbled across the motherload. Stanglechner Photography was there to capture the day in stills.
Cartel rider Kevin Salonius obvioulsy made a big impression on the Level 1 team when he was at the SuperUnknown XI Finals, because when filmer Jonny Durst and riders Shay Lee and Sandy Boville took a trip to Finland, they called Kevin. Fresh from dropping an insane part in last winter's Stept movie, Noah Albaladejo also joined the trip.
Finnish freeskier Daniel Antell was recently invited by the Finnish Ski Federation to compete at the World Championships in Kreischberg, Austria. As his first major international contest, although Daniel didn't make it through to the ten man final, he did stomp his run. And, completely by surprise we found him adorning the BBC's TV coverage thumbnail!
This spring, like the last, Les Arcs in France will become the epicenter of freeskiing for one week as the world's best skiers descend on the resort for the B&E Invitational. Cartel team rider Kevin Salonius would like to be one of the skiers jamming with BDog and Edollo, but he needs your votes to be selected as a Wildcard.
It was the second week of December and four weeks of warm, sunny weather had taken their toll on the many ski resorts of the Alps. In a desparate, last-ditch attempt to secure photos for the 15/16 catalogue, Amplid's team manager invited a handful of riders to Pitztal in Austria for a weekend photoshoot.
Everybody at Amplid is brimming with stoke, because we can announce that French freeskier Julien Lange has joined the Cartel team. Julien's video parts in the Gpsy Feelin movies have established him as one of the most exciting and versatile skiers on the planet. Welcome to the ARC Julien!
Downdays has taken it upon itself to address the serious lack of European ski talent in this year's "Skier of the Year" nominations by creating its own poll for the title of "European Skier of the Year". Amplid's Julien Lange and Noah Albaladejo have both been included in the list of nominees and need your votes!
The Ambush Team's latest signing Mr Mac Minikan and his partner in crime Patrick Pelikan, aka Brotherz Unbound, show you around their spring and fall playground, the Kitzsteinhorn Glacier Park. Style is most definitely on the agenda.
Amplid is stoked to announce that Kitzsteinhorn local, Mac Minikan, has joined Amplid's Austrian Ambush team. We're excited to add such a talented and style conscious skier to the team.
Last year the Aosta Valley, which is tucked behind Mt Blanc near to the Italian border, had a bumper snow season. This year the snowpack looks like it's off to a good start. Amplid friend Patrick Raspo has been making the most of the early season precipitation on his LAB Carbon Split.
While October in Europe might have been milder than usual, a good dump of fresh snow in the last week opened up all sorts of possibilities for motivated skiers and snowboarders. For the last two weeks, Austrian Cartel rider Philip Toplitsch has been making the most of any snow that has stuck around.
The mission was simple, visit as many of Amplid's UK retailers as possible, get a pub lunch and squeeze some snowboarding into a 48 hour visit. The reality was a lot of driving, very little sleep and a lot of fun.
On Wednesday and Thursday the Northern Alps were treated to a very early season dump of snow. In total more than 50cm of snow fell at Amplid's local resort Spitzingsee down to altitudes as low as the car park. Amplid's owner Peter Bauer made the most of it with an early morning splitboard tour.
One of the privileges of working at Amplid is seeing team riders join the brand and really flourish on Amplid products. 12 months ago Finnish freeskier Kevin Salonius joined Amplid. Kevin brought insane skiing and movie production skills, and a ton of enthusiasm to the brand and we're stoked to announce that he will be joining the Cartel Intl team.
Last week Luka Melloni and Noah Albaladejo hosted a premiere for the movies they feature in this Fall, Stept's "Ten and Two" and 4bi9's "Burn". A whole crew of riders from the movies including ABM, Cam Riley, Karl Fostvedt and the Martini Brothers turned up to enjoy the evening too.
Last winter Dash was in Utah for an extended stay. He told us he was working with the guys from SAGA outerwear on their product videos. We weren't sure what to expect, but were relieved that they were filming banger tricks instead of catwalk strutting.
The last few days have been colder, which means that winter is creeping up on us. While the majority of resorts won't open for another ten weeks, Europe's glacier resorts are already gearing-up for an early start. Austrian Cartel rider, Philip Toplitsch, took advantage of an early opening at Stubai to practice some handplants.
If like me you're looking at this photo and wondering how Ambush rider Jonel Fricke managed to air a stalefish over the top of Mt. Fuji, It's an optical illusion. Actually he's just taken a bucket-load of airtime on his Pillow Talk into a rock infested landing... so no biggie.
If you didn't know already, Iberia's finest, Luka Melloni and Noah Albaladejo, spent last winter filming with two of the most respected US film crews in the freeski world, 4bi9 and Stept. Since the boys can't get to the premieres of the movies in the US, they'll be running their own premiere for the movies in Barcelona... and you can join them.
Team rider Kevin Salonius was unstoppable last winter and he's continued that momentum into the summer. For the last four days Kevin has been awarded Newschoolers' "Photo of the Day". Here's a close-up of the shots, which were all taken by photographer Stephan Sutton.