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Castles made of snow: doing it big and doing it right, across the pond

Castles made of snow: doing it big and doing it right, across the pond

Blessed with fresh snow, a skier can explore terrain that varies from steep trees to wide-open bowls spread over two resorts, Livigno and Mottolino. If the sun is out, as it has been almost every day I’ve been there, it’s a great time to hit the terrain parks that both areas have. Mottolino, in particular, focuses on park skiing, with perhaps the best tag ever for a ski resort added to its name: Fun Mountain. David Wise echoes the tagline, “It’s a fun resort with typical Euro-style lift access and all different kinds of terrain. It also has some amazing on-hill, après-ski dance parties.”

Wise hits on the core of the European mountain experience: comprehensive culture. “Everyone [in Europe] appreciates skiing,” he explains. “They literally freak out for skiing. When they host an event, it is not like the resort alone hosts it. The entire community hosts it, and everyone turns out to watch.”

A public night session on the castle this year was a perfect manifestation of that point. After a relaxing dinner at a midmountain restaurant, skiers and media loaded into snowcats and headed up another few hundred vertical feet to the castle. We passed a seemingly endless line of locals who were hiking up to watch. Most had made a stop at the restaurant to taste bubbly wine or cocktails or sip local beer from the 1816 Birra brewery, which featured a Nine Knights branded brew. It tasted great and was less filling… than the pizza.

When the skiers began to ride the countless lines available on and around (and over) the castle, the sun was well below the northwestern ridge beyond the town of Livigno. From my viewpoint, it had dropped into Switzerland. A vocal mass of spectators supported the skiers and showed no sign of concern for the dropping temperature. Maybe they were, like me, being warmed by thoughts of the next meal waiting in town, a few thousand feet below.

Still, if the Italians can excuse my analogy, the meat and potatoes of the event came during daily sessions. Norwegian Øystein Bråten destroyed every feature with his own filmer in tow, including throwing a switch double cork 1440 on the kicker. Nicky Keefer capped his blunts and never looked like he was trying to be the most stylish skier on the hill (which instantly made him just that). Oscar Wester dropped huge tricks on every piece of the castle. David Wise, although he was only around for a couple of days, hit the jumps and transfers like he was an Olympic gold medalist in badassery, not halfpipe. Kevin Rolland pulled big, smooth tricks on the jumps, boosted out of the quarterpipe, went huge on the kicker-to-wall transfer and spoke a ton of French. Benoit Valentin, a late addition to the roster, went enormous on the transfer and hung out his grabs on the jump.

It’s easy to lose track of how each individual impressed the gathered masses. As skiers flew every which way, they dodged filmers and photographers and tried to focus on their tricks. “The key is communication,” explains Keefer, “which is usually the heart of most problems in humanity right? So I guess you could say the disorganization can be difficult. But, really, that’s how we like it. It’s freeskiing, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.”

In the end, the line of the week was obvious, but it wasn’t planned or built for anyone to hit. The mega-transfer only lived in our imagination until the final day when Tjäder stepped up. “It was by far one of the scariest things I have ever done,” he says of the massive double backflip. “The feeling you get after you land stuff like that… indescribable.”

Even that insane moment didn’t overshadow what went down during the rest of the week. Every athlete had a unique line or showed different style. “Everybody sees it differently and everybody is going to ride it a different way,” says Kittler. “If you have all your friends at a park feature or Nine Knights, somebody is discovering a transfer. You take that line and maybe you do a different trick. Use your mind and make anything possible that you have in your head. Bring your own flow into it, and that’s what makes skiing so creative.”

Resorts in Europe dwarf what we have in North America. In many spots, you can ski from one resort to the next. Every lift has its own micro- culture. If you cross a ridgeline, there is always a chance you’ll end up in another country altogether. “Everybody always says, ‘Wish we had more time.’ Like a week of hot laps on one big feature isn’t enough?” says Keefer of Nine Knights. And that feels true for European ski culture in general, too. The light changes, the après rages or fades out, over each hill is a new spot to ski. “To be honest,” he adds, “a week on that [feature] really isn’t enough.” And a week, with the Nine Knights castle or a new resort in Europe, is only going to make you want more.

That’s why skiing park works. No matter your skill level, the weather or the number of laps you spin, you can find another line that’s uniquely yours. Flying to Europe to ski is just like Nine Knights—a world of creativity is at your fingertips (or under your edges). A trip could include five days in Zurich or two days in Milan. It could be a whole week skiing different parks throughout Italy, Austria and Switzerland. Ski steeps one day, park the next and powder if (when) it snows. Go to museums, if that’s your thing, or maybe shop for the next fashion trend in Milan and spend a sweaty night in a dance club trying to bridge the language gap with a mysterious partner. At the end, you might wake up and never leave. I’m just sayin’, Europe is a land of opportunities, especially for a freeskier.

Note: This article appears in FREESKIER magazine Volume 17.3. The issue is now available via iTunes Newsstand. Subscribe to FREESKIER magazine.

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