Backdrop Journal's FFS Backcountry Podcast

Episode #29 with Ryland Bell - The short doc 'Dig' is so worth taking a moment out of your busy day to watch. Savage and beautiful the Alaskan terrain requires Ryland and his team to be on their game, and after we watched it we just had to chat. This 28-minute film from Patagonia follows Alaskan ripper Ryland Bell as he drops into a full-scale monster: a 3,200-foot spine line that’s almost...

Episode #28 - with Krister Kopala Don’t be fooled by the babyface smile, Krister Kopola is an assassin! Ok so no he’s not an actual assassin, like shooting people and stuff, but Krister is reshaping the boundaries of what’s possible on a splitboard. He’s constantly pushing himself (both physically and mentally), and his equipment, yet he’s doing it all with a smile on his face, wider than most of...

Episode #27 - Jure and Marcus created Moonchild Snowboards, to offer bespoke designed and beautifully crafted stock boards. But it hasn't stopped there! Jure now heads up Moonchild Skunkworx, with groundbreaking designs, based on everyday life items, such as a kitchen spatula and ice cream cone. Jure talks about starting a snowboard brand, including the good, the bad, and the ugly. His love of...

Episode #26 - Trent Bush was literally there at the beginning, riding boards straight out of the kryptonics factory. His business life is full on Fear(less), Failure and Success. He’s worked on and created some of the founding snowboard apparel brands; Wave Rave, Twist, Burton, Analog… to the present where he’s set up Artilect , out of Boulder, Colorado. Trent had so much to tell that we’ve split...

Episode #25 - Trent Bush was literally there at the beginning, riding boards straight out of the kryptonics factory. His business life is full on Fear(less), Failure and Success. He’s worked on and created some of the founding snowboard apparel brands; Wave Rave, Twist, Burton, Analog… to the present where he’s set up Artilect , out of Boulder, Colorado. Trent had so much to tell that we’ve split...

Episode #24, the 2nd of our podcasts from Swedish Lapland, here Andy from the Backdrop crew talks with Upguides ’ lead guide, Fred Buttard, and with Stranda Snowboards founder and shaper, Mats Drougge. The chat was recorded in the Kebnekaiser mountain station, in the far north, above the actic circle during the Stranda backcountry hut trip, in March 2022. Expedition food is discussed, the landscap...

Episode 24 - Runar Hjorleifsson, is probably best known for his film Fjord Lines, made with Vioir Bjornsson. During the summer months Runar is a cod fisherman in the Arctic Ocean, but come winter he loves nothing better than to explore his local mountains of East Iceland, searching for new lines and first descents. We talk; life, asperations, fishing, and all things Iceland. Watch Fjord Lines on t...

Episode 23 - Ilia Berulava is a man on a mission, not only has he set up the Georgia Guide Office from scratch, he was also instrumental in gaining IFMGA recognition for the mountain guide training in Georgia. We chat life, culture, the mountains of his homeland, and what’s on offer in this special part of the world.  After training as a guide in Chamonix Ilia returned home to set up his own...

Episode 22 - During a week Backdrop spent in the arctic region of Swedish Lapland, around Kebnekaiser, in March of 2022, we stayed in some remote huts belonging to the Swedish Tourist Association. Mats was the hut host at one of them - Tarfala - while we were there, making sure we were going to follow the rules, and crucially, how to operate the sauna. Have a listen as Mats describes how the very...

Episode 21 - Grabbing a solid stick from the quiver, the Backdrop Crew spent a week in the cat with Lynx Freeride . Based in the Gjeravica mountains of Kosovo, an undiscovered freeride paradise, and a place of bears, wolves, lynx, music, guns, and most importantly powder. The Lynx Freeride lodge is far off-grid, and was far better than our expectations. We chat with Sebastian Fleiss, and his all s...

Episode 20 - Recorded in early January, on a Backdrop Crew visit to the Verbier valley to check out a couple mountain huts, we took the opportunity to interviewed Daniel Coquoz - Verbier’s Head Mountain Guide. The Verbier valley is renowned for its extreme terrain, especially as it hosts the Freeride World Tour final each season. This recognition has seen a huge rise in backcountry skiers and boar...

Episode 19 - Xavier De Le Rue three times Freeride World Tour winner; four times World Boardercross Champion; backcountry legend; Olympian; splitboard enthusiast… the list goes on. Yet when we chatted with Xavier De Le Rue, in his Verbier home, we found an honest and grounded individual who wears his heart on his sleeve: passionate about backcountry safety, family values and the sport we all love....

Episode 18 - Mats Drougge, from Stranda snowboards, has a fascinating take on life and snowboard design. Riding sideways has always been part of Mats life, and after time in a punk band, a life of surf and snowboard travels, and an inspirational kick up the arse by his wife, he started his Stranda Snowboards journey. Inspired by 60’s longboard surfers and the directional riding of Japan and time i...

Episode 16 - Christine Feleki is Canada’s first woman to be certified as an  ACMG snowboard guide. Told she’d be better on skis, Christine simply knuckled down and proved that she could pass all the necessary assessments on her split. She started off working in various BC restaurants and cafes, to gain slope time, before beginning her 10 year journey from kitchen porter to guide. We chat guid...

Episode 15 - Hampus Cerderholm is always pushing boundaries, be it splitboard or hard-boot (or not so hard-boot) design. We catch up with Hampus, who springs from Southern Sweden, and now lives in California, via an education in Innsbruck. Hampus is the brainchild behind the design and development of the   Furberg Snowboards Floorboard Technology,  a tongue and grove system that they cla...

Episode - 14 Nicholas Wolken is a bit of a trend setter, a thoughtful snowboarder who doesn’t stand still, and doesn’t let the sport he loves stand still either. Finding himself somewhat disillusioned with snowboarding, and by what his personal perception of what a snowboarder should be, he moved the goal posts. Nicholas shares his time between working as a psychotherapist and designing some of th...

Episode 13 - John Keffler has been splitboarding since day one. He’s not only the founder of Phantom Snow Industries, but also a co-founder of the Silverton Splitboard Festival. He started by offering wanna-be splitboarders a cutting service to turn their solid boards into splits, before then turning his NASA engineering knowledge into the development of hard-boot splitboard bindings. Phantom has...

Episode 12 - Talking Tignes with Simon Perry, author of the complete off piste guide to the French resort of Tignes.  Simon tells us how breaking a leg led to him writing a program to converted his GPS files. Years of keeping a digital record whilst exploring the valley, was almost instantaneously turned into a very useable guidebook. For those not familiar with Tignes, it covers a huge area...

Episode 11 - The bear base camp reunion pod, see us start off talking Iceland and BC with heli guide Owen Day, founder of Summit Ski Tours , before we have a reunion with Romi Nella and Andy Beal, who were all chased uphill by a bear while touring from a base camp with Owen. Owen has worked as a guide with Arctic Heliskiing since its inspection and gives us an insightful lowdown on riding and tour...

Episode 10 - We have the absolute privilege of chatting with Stephan Harvey, the brain behind White Risk, the Swiss run avalanche knowledge hub. Stephan has been a mountain guide and researcher at the SLF (Swiss Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research) for over twenty years. Still as passionate about avalanche safety and science now as he was twenty years ago, Stephan shares his immeasurable Kno...

Episode 9 - Our latest podcast sees us chat tech, European Space Agency funding and startup app development with FATMAP co-founder Misha Gopaul. Misha started off as a tech geek in London, before selling his business and moving back home to Switzerland to train as a mountain guide, eventually settling down in Chamonix and starting FATMAP, a 3D mapping tool on your smartphone. With aspirations on e...

Episode 8 - Pallas Snowboards is one of too few female only splitboarding brands, designing boards by women for women.  We get the low-down from co-founder Steph Nitsch on why she felt there was such a need for a female specific brand, offering dialed in performance splits for women that ride hard in hairy terrain, and why the Pallas brand talks to women that want to access the hinterland tha...

Episode 7 – We catch up with Lauren MacCallum, from the UK branch of Protect Our Winter, to see what POW UK are doing to unite the outdoor industry and help halt climate change. With COP 26 (the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference) coming to Glasgow in November, POW UK are trying to shore up the Paris Accord and hold global politicians and  change makers to account. WE get great advice o...

Episode 6 - Often overlooked, Montana has a wide and wild expanse of splitboarding areas to hit. We get the lowdown on Montana’s splitboarding scene from Zach Bailey, Co-Founder of the Bozeman Splitfest. We learn how a backcountry weekend rolls Montana style, get a heads up on the best spots to hit, including Yellow Stone National Park and a new yurt camp, and learn of Zach’s inspirations on how t...

Episode 5 - Trailblazer Tammy is the only female snowboard school director in Europe, she was the first female snowboard instructor to get her Carte Professional, and she now runs multiple female board camps. Tammy moved to Morzine,  France, in 2006 and founded MINT Snowboarding, one of the first specialist snowboard schools in France. She’s been splitboarding for over 20 years and Mint offer...