Build My Own FeedBD athletes Martin Webrant, Reine Barkered and Rebecka Eriksson ski at Madesimo, Italy
Black Diamond athletes Martin Webrant, Reine Barkered and Rebecka Eriksson team up with photographer Martin Söderqvist and BD Europe’s ski team manager Dan Caruso for a quick ski mission to Madesimo, Italy. Below is Söderqvist report from the trip as well as some great photos of the crew.
This area of the Italian Alps used to belong to the Swiss Graubünden kanton, and maybe that’s why I feel so at home here. Graubünden is where I’ve spent most of my skiing time in the last seven years, shooting with Reine Barkered and Martin Webrant. With spots like Davos, Disentis and Andermatt offering some of the best skiing in the Swiss Alps, and less people going off-piste than in Engelberg and Verbier, Graubünden is a good place to go for powder. So is Madesimo, which has the complete Swiss-looking backdrop, Italian slow food cuisine, locally produced wine and some of the best coffee in the world.
Our group consisted of one photographer (me), one World Tour shredder (Reine Barkered), one poster-boy ripper (Martin Webrant), one Norwegian freeride cup champion (Rebecka Eriksson) and BD Europe’s ski team manager (Dan Caruso). 
Though, during our week in Madesimo we didn’t see much of the magnificent view. We had just escaped the warm southern winds, trashing the snow on the northern side of the Alps, to intentionally end up in the middle of the storm. For four straight days we didn’t see the sun as we were skiing the larch tree forests at mid-mountain. After the January drought that had struck the northern Alps, it sure was a lot of fun to finally get powder snow again.
The old cable car leading to the peak of Groppera at 2950 meters remained closed during those four days. This due to a severe “whiteout” in which the Italian lifties had troubles even finding their Pisten Bully to be able to get the snow off the path leading to the slopes on the top. The coffee and good food kept us going strong in the fog, and we were all looking forward to the day that it would finally clear. Or, should I say, hoping that it would clear up before we had to leave for our next assignment.
On the last night of the storm our contact at the Valchiavenna/Madesimo tourism took us out for a genuine Italian mountain food dinner at the restaurant Dogana Vegia. The atmosphere in this timber lodge, originally built in the 1540’s is something you have to experience while in Madesimo. The dark timber, strange interior and mellow music, combined with the well-prepared food creates an almost mystic vibe to the place.
To round it all off we had Grolla, homemade liqueur containing 27 spices, served in a clay pot.
When we left the restaurant later that same evening we could feel that the wind had turned around. The air was now crisp and clear, and the stars were glowing above our heads as we headed back towards our hotel.
Our expectations came to an anti-climax the morning after when we got up on the mountain. There was a strong north wind blowing, and most of the snow had either been blown away to a better place, or turned into unskiable windslab. Everywhere we tried to go outside the groomed slopes, the snow broke up in slab avalanches that made it impossible to ski anything but the trees. The peak lift was still closed, now due to the strong wind.
We managed to find some good snow where we had skied in the fog the previous days. Although having coffee and stone-oven baked pizza at the Larici Mountain restaurant was a much more appealing alternative during these conditions. Rebecka and Reine were getting bummed out since they were leaving for the La Clusaz freeride comp the day after. This was their last skiing day on the trip. Dan had already left for another important commitment the day before. That just goes to show how difficult it can be when working with the forces of nature. If the conditions aren’t on your side, sometimes you have to be able to wait it out, or just simply leave and come back when it’s good.
Fortunately, myself and Martin Webrant were both committed to the first alternative, which eventually paid off two days later. We woke up to a bluebird sky and a text message from Federico at the tourism office saying that the cable car to the top was opening first thing in the morning.
The snow on the peak had settled since the last storm, and on the first run we found some great powder.
Val di Lei, which is the lift-served area on backside of the peak, had partly been protected against the wind. We kept skiing laps in the good snow until lunch and then moved over to our next target being the north facing couloirs of Canalone, Camosci and Cavalina. They all lead back to the rest of the ski area, about 1000 vertical meters further down the mountain.
The snow in the couloirs had been strongly wind-affected but was still skiable. As the last rays of sun were disappearing behind the opposite peaks and a new northern front of clouds, we knew that we had done the right thing to wait for this day. It was only a short window of time that the sky had been clear and the snow had been good, but it was all we needed to keep us pursuing our chase for the rest of the season.
—Martin Söderqvist
United States / English 
