It is May and the ski season 2009-2010 is pretty much over for the HBS team.
There is still some good snow to be had in the northern part of Scandinavia and of course e.g. in Chamonix people are skiing big lines until the early summer. However, we are starting to take it a bit easier with the site and the post frequency will be slower during the summer months. We have also some totally new things coming on for the next season and those require some technical updates, which will be done during the summer months too.
Here is a compilation of some of the best HBS articles/posts in 2009-2010 in our opinion. There will be a second part – just because there was so much of good content! The second part is coming soon too…Enjoy!
Season overview
For the season 2009-2010 we didn’t actually get a “super hit” like the 2008-2009 article about Fred Syversen’s accidental world record cliff jump. Fred’s unbelievable flight and almost miraculous survive created a lot of buzz and we wanted to hear his personal opinion on all this too. So, Marko discussed with Fred in this interview:
http://homeboyski.com/2009/01/23/fred-syversen-interview-the-skier-who-survived-107-meters-drop/
Fred Syversen in Chamonix, photo by Petri Kovalainen
Talking about the traffic, while we did not get those super high traffic peaks this winter, the everyday visitor figures were on the steady rise. And today we are actually not that far from total one million page uploads. Yes, that’s a small number in the Internet but pretty good for an independent Finnish ski site, what do you think?
October 2009
The good news for the start of the season was that our writer/contributor Ville Eskonen got his picture published in Dutch White Freeride ski magazine.
The actual ski season got a pretty good start too. Lorenzo reported about six days of skiing powder in October, in Tyrol, Austria. Here at our “headquarters” in Helsinki, Finland we were really jealous, not knowing yet that the upcoming season would be exceptionally snowy for us flatlanders too (and I personally couldn’t figure out that the season would give the most ski days in about seven or eight years…)
Another October stand-outs were the following articles:
Petri Kovalainen – My Life Behind the Camera – check out the awesome work of photographer Petri Kovalainen.
Mountain guide Ode Siivonen, photo Petri Kovalainen
“It’s all about the feelings”
Our buddy and contributor Jarkko Henttonen told us about riding the North Face of l’Aiguille du Midi via Mallory-Porter couloir. Read the article if you are interested on serious big mountain lines and how to prepare yourself for them.
November 2009
In the beginning of the month Lorenzo wrote another great post – a Krippenstein resort review. Plenty of good pics and detailed information about the unique, small ski resort.
Another highlight from November is Marko’s excellent interview of Kimmo “Skipe” Oivo - Life Matters! (the second part of the Skipe interview was published in December but check it out too, really cool stuff). Skipe is one of the first “ski bums” in Finland, and at the age of 43 he is still going strong!
December 2009 – Seth Morrison Interview
In the early December we got a real jackpot! It is funny how small the world have become. Marko asked his Sethness himself for an online interview. Seth didn’t write us complicated long answers but you gotta respect the man’s work ethic – Seth replied to us in less than 24 hours, and offered some really well thought straight to the point answers – pretty much telling us nerds to shut up and go to ski and train more! “Go skiing every day, be in shape, and ski on rockered skis.”
Thank you Seth for the interview & story - http://homeboyski.com/2009/12/02/seth-morrison-interview/
Thanks also to Adam Clark, Black Diamond and Oakley for the photos.
Seth Morrison, front flip in Alaska, photo by Adam Clark
In December Juho also started his all season ski trip to the United States and Canada, and reported with a nice review from Lost Trail Powder Mountain in the border of Montana and Idaho. Gotta love those local, small scale resorts where the powder stays untouched for days…
January 2010
In January we managed to score a couple of more interesting interviews.
Marko translated an article from Slovakian site snowmagazin.sk (with the help of the Snowmagazin guys of course because we dont know much Slovakian!) – The Interview of the best slalom skier ever lived, Ingemar Stenmark. If you are old enough to remember the late seventies/early eightties you can’t forget Ingemar, still a classic icon of technique and elegant skiing style.
I did a long interview of Joonas Karhumaa, arguably one of the best telemark skiers of the world. Joonas has proved his skills again this season, placing e.g. second on the FWT Qualifications in Monte Rosa, among some 60 alpine guys!
Personally, I think Joonas interview is one of my best posts so far – pretty much because of the interesting and intelligent interviewee and superb photos by Tero Repo!
In January Juho also continued his trip in Canada:
Some more touring in Rogers Pass and Whitewater backcountry
- If you are into touring these reports should make you drool and dream about the next season (that is, if your season is already over…)
Ville also started his EPIC Japan trip and gave us something that could be labeled as true skiporn:
What you can say…? Another day at the office for Ville I guess?
To be continued with the best posts of February, March and April…
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