Many of us have been there. Taking shelter from the freezing cold in a warm cosy cabin surrounded by snow. Us humans are built to withstand low temperatures and go into "survival mode" to avoid that frostbite. However, is your gear and every day carry built to withstand this too?
Throughout the consumer market, new tech is popping up everywhere to improve efficiency and security. Most people don't stop to think about whether the gear they buy will actually keep up with their lifestyle. At Ekster we design our products specifically to keep up with your busy active lifestyle. In this blog post, we'll take you on a journey through the Alps with Olympic Freeskiing medalist Alex Ferreira and his entourage to test the limits of our products.
MEET THE CREW
Alex Ferreira
Alex is an American Freestyle Skier born and raised on the slopes of luxury ski-haven Aspen, Colorado. After making his debut to the world stage via the Winter X Games XIX, he went on to winning silver at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Followed by first place at the 2018 Dew Tour, 2018 World Cup and the 2019 X Games. Alex has a great balance between a very serious professional skier and just another guy having a lot of fun and making people laugh. He always makes sure he's fully geared up when heading onto the slopes. He doesn't settle for less than the best materials when it comes to skiing, which explains his impressive sponsors; Columbia Sportswear, Poc Sportswear, Aspen Snowmass, Rockstar Energy and Level Gloves. This also counts for his EDC. Alex carries a Parliament Wallet + Tracker Card with him on a daily basis. His dedication at the Ekster shoot blew our minds.
Dennis Ranalter
Dennis is a true Austrian skier. His life revolves around the mountains… literally, as he lives in Innsbruck, nestled between mountains and glaciers. He rose to fame when he created a web-series called Black & White together with his friend. Dennis knows what people and brands want to see and he uses his impact on the ski industry to continue skiing at the highest of levels. Due to his social media fame, he no longer needs to compete frequently and instead focuses on creating the best and coolest content for his followers and sponsors. Dennis regularly makes appearances in Freeski movies and has refined his skiing to a combination of "powerhouse trickery and silky smooth move." He masters the sport both in the park and on urban technical features, which were part of the reason he landed up in one of Ed Sheeran's music videos. He too was stoked to join the team and has been a true Ekster ambassador from the get-go.
Thomas Trifonitchev
Originally from Russia and Germany, he now lives and studies in Innsbruck. He is close friends with Dennis and goes skiing around all of Europe hitting the slopes every chance he gets. With several awards to his name of which his favourites are the “Film of The Year” awards and “Best Cinematography” in the AM Category of the iF3 Film Festival with his Crew "Freeski-Crew.com." Thomas’ passion lies in creating quality content. He aims to portray his own personal style through crisp edits and HD shoots which take the web by storm every season. His main goal in his skiing career? “Content Production where I can pursue my own taste and goals within my frames.” He is known as a rising talent in the ski-scene, and someone people should definitely keep a close eye on. The tricks he pulled this trip with his Ekster wallet by his side are something to be admired.
THE JOURNEY
We got together with some of the worlds best freestyle skiers to hit the slopes of French ski-haven, Avoriaz and gave them the opportunity to test the limits of our smart travel wallets. Just like skiing, we wanted to show you how our products combine elegance, precision and human innovation.
The team headed to Avoriaz, France with bags packed full of cameras and recording equipment to survive the wintery conditions. Avoriaz’ ski station is located in the heart of a mountain range the French call, “the doors of sunshine” because it gets more hours of sunshine a year than almost any other winter sports destination in the world. While clear skies provide the best condition for filming, it also proved to be useful in a way the team didn’t expect.
“Since you can’t guarantee electricity in harsh conditions a lot of our outdoor equipment is solar charged; not only our wallet but even camera batteries too. If there hadn’t have been such consistent sunshine, the whole shoot might have been doomed!”
They had a lot to film and a small amount of time to film it, so every day was packed to the rim, with the filming starting at sun-up and ending at sundown. This was the routine for three days straight, resulting in some golden shots. However, the skit that they came out there to shoot hadn't been completed yet. With a large group of skiers and a crew to coordinate at high altitudes, not everything went according to plan. Shooting videos in these conditions required an extensive team, ranging from scapers to filmers to directors and to get that perfect shot the slopes needed to be shaped to perfection.
Not all the equipment they carried managed to keep up with the shoot due to the low temperatures and the high altitudes. Out of the three cameras they carried, the Drone, Gimbal and the GoPro, the only one that managed to endure these conditions was the GoPro! This resulted in many follow-cam shots and fish-eye content, but also slowed the entire process down.
Realizing they were running out of time and the lifts would soon close on the last day, the team came up with an idea. After some calling and bribing they managed to secure a snowmobile to buy a little extra time. Racing around the mountain with the sun setting in the background, they got the shoot they couldn’t even have dreamed of – maybe it was liquid courage, or maybe it was the sunset shining off the untouched powder, but the vibes were simply amazing, and it showed on the camera.
To get a better idea of what we're talking about, check out the edits below and let us know what you think! More of this stuff? Leave a comment or hit us up at nest@ekster.com Also, check out Alex testing the reflexes of the Drone at the bottom ;)
