Around the world on Elan skis

Lifestyle
Reading Time 8 Minutes
Samo Vidic, Lenart Megušar, Iiro Piipponen, Toni Konrad, Shanty Chipolli

Snow, mountains, cold, and ice. This is the natural habitat of Elan skis and where they feel most at home. It is where their healthy confidence comes out and where they show their capabilities. It is where they shine the brightest and let the skier take the reins. That is why Elan skis love to travel the world. They love unknown and remote crystals with plenty of deep, virgin snow. This year the skis took on the Triglav ski tour in Slovenia, traveled to Macedonia, admired the wild nature of Iceland, and explored new horizons in Kazakhstan.

On The Triglav ski tour with Maj Štirn

The Triglav ski tour is an exceptional mountain adventure and Slovenia’s only multi-day ski touring route. Those who do it to find peace, enjoy the views, meditate, and easily talk themselves into doing it in four days. Some extremists do it in a single day, but that is an entirely different discipline. It starts at the Vogel ski resort, passes over the Komna plateau towards the Triglav lakes valley, over the passes of Prehodavci and Hribarice, through the Velska valley to Kredarica, and then down to the Krma valley across the remnants of the Triglav glacier. A story of four friends brought together by a common passion is nothing new. There have been several such quartets throughout history. The Beatles and the Stones were perhaps the most famous groups of four to create wonders.

Maj Štirn, Mark Hafner, Aljaž Rupar, and Maša Grošelj are not the Beatles nor the Stones, but they are a gang of interesting young people who share a sincere love for the mountains, nature, and skiing. But mostly they share a different view of life and sports. “It’s about experiencing nature, experiencing these feelings with like minded people,” explains Maj Štirn, 26-year-old skier and athlete from Kranj who has been in love with the mountains and snow since he was a little boy. Maj is not a fan of crowds, he prefers the sound of the wind in the mountains, the cool touch of winter, and the unforgettable charm of sunrises and sunsets. Not that there is anything wrong with skiing groomed resorts, but when you take your skis off piste and into the wild you find out what peace and quiet really mean. Sometimes we all need to retreat far away into the remote world to be able to hear our inner voice. Sometimes we also need to move far away from civilization to realize just how beautiful, pristine, and wild Slovenia is.

This was the thought behind Maj, Mark, Aljaž, Maša and cinematographer Lenart Megušar’s attempt at the Triglav ski tour in April. They took advantage of a fantastic winter in which mother nature took her own time off from the strain of the coronavirus epidemic and years of hard work. Tons and meters of snow high in the mountains maintained a true winter atmosphere even when the valleys begun showing the first signs of spring. The team set a clear goal: to make a film about spending four days in pristine nature, far removed from the noise of life in the valley and skiing some interesting lines. The film title wrote itself: “Remote world.”

“The film intends to present the beauty of snowy mountains and the peace and quiet they offer. We also wanted to show the importance of teamwork in nature since the current way of the world focuses increasingly on the individual, and that simply does not work in projects like this. Massive increases in the popularity of ski touring in the past season also made us think about highlighting the importance of careful planning and knowledge to be able to safely move in the mountains where hazards are never far away,” says Maj Štirn, the creative mind behind the film, who is an experienced ski mountaineer despite his youth. Maj was a member of the Slovenian national freestyle ski team and the national champion in Big Air and Slopestyle. In recent years he focused on freeride skiing, but he is also a formidable climber, surfer, and mountain biker.

Macedonia with Kimberly and Glen Plake

Macedonia is a completely unknown destination to most skiers, an exotic destination far off the beaten track. But this an injustice. Macedonia has vast expanses of pure untracked snow. Not many people know that Popova Šapka was even a back-up venue in case there was not enough snow on Jahorina and Bjelašnica in 1984, when Sarajevo hosted the Olympic Games and Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and Macedonia were still in a common country called Yugoslavia.

This exotic appeal is exactly what distinguished ski connoisseurs are looking for. Even the legendary Glen Plake and his wife Kimberly, who have visited the most remote and unusual skiing spots on the planet on skis, managed only to utter that distinct American "Whoa!" on their first visit to Macedonia.

Popova Šapka is a groomed ski resort with a modern six-pack chairlift, but the best terrain can only be reached by snowcat. The team from the Šar Outdoors Experience agency specialize in "cat skiing". In practice this means that they take you to the top of the hill with a specially modified snowcat, allowing you to ski on terrain that is completely untouched and never seems to run out. The views of the endless whiteness are literally breathtaking. Macedonia also has some rather good guides who often attend training camps run by Elan's own Bine Žalohar and Rok Zalokar. 

The Šar Outdoors Experience Agency has six snow cats that can cater up to seventy skiers. "The Macedonian adventure was fantastic. It's the perfect combination of the best skiing and a superior overall experience. Can you even imagine what it's like to have a snow picnic at the top of the mountain, cook hamburgers and then ski down to the valley at sunset?" said Melanja Korošec, Global Brand Director of Elan. 

Glen Plake was also able to add a little more to his initial whoa moment: "I must admit, I wasn't expecting such an interesting adventure. I'll definitely be back to Macedonia because I'd like to ski some of the couloirs that caught my eye."

Iceland with Juho Karhu

Finn Juho Karhu is not an usual guy. He is a translator by profession and still makes a living by flipping words and sentences, but at his core he is an adventurer. He is an avid skier and sailor and as a northerner he is also a fan of anything labeled as Nordic. Above all, he has managed to put all his passions and joys on a common denominator. A few years ago, the purchase of an 11-metre sailing yacht changed his life: "At first, I only sailed in the Baltic Sea. But when I gained enough knowledge and confidence, I came up with the idea that it would be great if I could combine my love of sailing, skiing, and life on a boat. Why pay rent for an apartment when I can live on a sailing boat?"

In the following years, his boat visited Norway, the wild northern island of Svalbard, and Iceland. And there it was, love at first sight. Juho and his girlfriend Sohvi, a scientist specialising in arctic oil and gas, they decided to live on a sailboat, working remotely and enjoying an unusual lifestyle with breathtaking views, amazing descents, and countless incredible moments many people would never dream of. "We also volunteer for work on various Arctic projects. A while ago we studied contaminated snow samples in Svalbard. We visited parts of the island that are only accessible from the sea, using a drone to help us find our way around. We are not paid for this work at all, but we see it as spiritual nourishment that helps us better understand arctic nature and what it is all about." 

When asked about the benefits of the lifestyle, Juho’s eyes light up: "The best way to wake up is when we are anchored in a completely secluded bay. The morning starts with incredible views and vistas. Then we set off for shore, put on our skis and go ski touring. "With Iceland in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, most of its coastline is unprotected and the sea can get quite wild. "That's why we mostly stay around the western fjords and the north-western side of the island, where it's much easier to get to the coast and go skiing by boat," Juho explains. His boat houses virtually the entire Ripstick collection. "My favorite model is the Ripstick Tour 104, due to its stability and predictability. I also often ski the Ripstick Tour 94 with Raider 12 bindings, and I also lend them out to friends and acquaintances who have been impressed with them. I always say I probably have the only floating ski rental shop in the world."

Kazakhstan with Shanty Cipolli

Shanty Cipoli has skiing in his blood. Originally from the Aosta Valley, he has been skiing some of the best terrain on the old continent since he was a young boy and lives in the shadow of the south side of the Matterhorn, known in Italian as Monte Cervino. But Shanty is also a keen ski traveller. "I've always wanted to ski from Mount Belukha, which is the highest mountain in the Altai and Siberia at 4,506 metres. It is a beautiful mountain that no one has ever skied from it, and it is also a sacred peak for many religions. It is located on the border of Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and China in an extremely interesting geographical point, as it is almost equidistant from the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans," explained Shanty. 

Last winter, he finally got his wish. Together with his friends Francesco, a mountain guide, and Mattia, a cinematographer, they finally set off for far-away Asia, where an extraordinary skiing and cultural adventure awaited them. "I'm often asked how skiing in Kazakhstan differs from the skiing I know back home. My response is that it's completely different on the one hand, but similar on the other. The people, the culture, and the lifestyle are vastly different from ours. People there are still more in touch with nature and are therefore much more primal. And the snow is amazing. It reminds me most of Alaska or Japan."

After landing in Almaty, the team took an internal flight to Urs Kamenogorsk. There they hired a four-wheel drive car and set off on a twelve-hour drive along narrow, snowy, and unpredictable roads to the Belukha valley. “Risk of avalanches changed our plans slightly and we drove another ten hours to the Russian border where the avalanche situation was more stable. The journey was particularly challenging. Orientation is not simple and almost no one speaks any foreign languages, so we communicated with the locals mainly with our hands. We set up camp at a frozen lake where the temperature was around 35 degrees Celsius below freezing."

Nobody ever goes to Kazakhstan in the middle of winter, so the team was there completely alone. They were enjoying a kind of winter version of Shangri-la, with all the snow and the mountain all to themselves. "Even now I literally shudder when I think about that experience, but the next moment I feel warm because it was an unforgettable skiing experience and an even crazier adventure."