Helly Hansen

"Hey to everyone reading our posts from our roadtrip along the Andes and Patagonia. As promised on the previous update, here are some words about our looooong, but amazing trip to the hidden hut and hot springs of Cajun Grande, Argentina. To say the least, our trip over the border from Chile to Argentina some of the more surrealistic transfers I at least have ever experienced. As mentioned earlier, the driver taking us from Los Andes, across the border to Mendoza, was in a very bad mood after waiting two hours for us to come down from SkiArpa. During the transfer, we later found that the driver was only looking out for our group's best interest since the time-gap to pass the Chilean/Argentine border was getting narrower by the minute. But obvious cultural and communication barriers led to unfortunate misunderstandings resulting in the driver over-packing his van with heavy skibags shattering one of his windows. Arriving at a control post just before hitting the switchbacks on the way up to Portillo, a big "no passing" sign was set on the middle of the road - clearly stating that the road was closed. Damn! We're too late... What now? Our driver, now as calm as a bluebird-sky, stepped out of the van, lid a cigarette, and strolled over to the guards guarding the passage. We just sat still in the van swearing inside while the driver followed the guards inside their post. Not more than five minutes later he returns, still with a cigarette in his mouth. He steps into the van, and gives us the thumbs up - we're good to cross the border as the last car of the day - costing us only a bottle of scotch for the guards to take home. Just as a piece of advice - take account for that things do take a lot of time when crossing the border between Chile and Argentina. First you have to leave one country, get a stamp and your bags checked, and then the same procedure when entering the next country. And the crossings are just far enough away from each other that you have to pack and re-pack the car every time. Our first stop was in Mendoza - hometown of my good friend Sebastian "Yaya" Luna who I met last year in Las Lenas. Yaya's town is situated at the bottom of the east side of The Andes, approximately 3-4 from hours the Chilean/Argentine border. Mendoza is one of Argentina's cleanest, best well-kept and beautiful cities. The majority of votes went to Mendoza during a national poll in 2006 concluding its status. Here, we switched vans and drivers. Our complete journey would take us about 12-13 hours to complete. The first driver was tired and didn't want to go all the way to Malargue, so we had a new one ready as we arrived Mendoza. All of us fell a sleep, as the van was set and left Mendoza. None of us really remember much from that last stretch to Malargue. The only thing that is really good in mind, specially for me and Didrik, is that we at some point kept waking up with 30 minutes intervals with the feeling that the car was standing still and that our eyes met the same sign for several hours and not understanding anything. Suddenly, Mark wakes us all up mumbling something about the car's electricity generator had failed and that we had stopped because of the lack of driving lights. Another van had arrived, meaning we had to re-pack for the third time before we could get going again. This hick-up sat us back 4 hours, which signified we were going to be too late for our randez-vous with the guides leading the hike to Cajun Grande. Malargue is a drive-through town about 80km south Las Lenas and around 200km southwest from San Rafael Still, it's an up and coming town in constant development. New from last year was a cultural centre where they now had a pre-historic museum and cinema. Malargue also has a trout farm where you fish your own fish for lunch or dinner, but unfortunately we didn't get the time to experience that this year. After a quick pit stop at an apartment, where we got to shower, clean up and re pack (no need for 50kg per person when going on a long hike), we met Ricardo - the owner of Tierra Firma - a company that organizes trips to the volcanoes surrounding Malargue. His job that day was to take us as with his Defender as close as we could get Cajun Grande with four wheels. He got us to Las Loicas - 2 hours from Malargue. Las Loicas is a small village consisting only of dirt roads and a few buildings. They have a school, a health-care centre, a bar, a payphone, an enormous satellite dish and a grocery story with very flexible opening hours and an extremely limited selection of goods. It was here we were going to meet Serge - a Frenchman married with an Argentine girl called Erica who together run Cajun Grande. But where was he? The lady from the grocery store stated after a while that Serge had been there, but left again since we were so late and he needed to get back to Cajun Grande before dark. At this point, we got really uncertain about what to do. We couldn't stay in Las Loicas since there was no place to stay, and going beck to Malargue would just ruin the trip further. We were already 3 days late because of the storm that prevented us from crossing the border earlier. So it was either try and get to Cajun Grande by our selves or leave and do something else. We choose the first option and got Ricardo to drive us till the Defender wouldn't go anymore. Ricardo stopped about 20 minutes later where excess water resulting in a landslide had made a big and deep gap on the dirt road. From here we had to go by foot. Serge's pick-up was parked at the same spot. The engine was still warm - Serge had to be only 30 minutes ahead of us. With that in mind and that we were expecting to horseback ride with most of our equipment, we decided to leave most of our equipment and only bring what we would need for one night, leaving the rest in the pick-up expecting to return the next day to pick it up. That never happened. The road was pretty wide, muddy and with some occasional proof of previous rock slides. We were all pretty motivated and excited about arriving in Cajun Grande. Serge had earlier told Mark that the hike on skins would not be longer than one hour after we reached skinable snow. That was a little vague since we only saw snow from just below the peaks now surrounding us. After a couple of hours hiking Mark and Jordan found this old stone hut without a door, dirt floor and plastic-bag sealed roof. Apparently the hut was in use as a cattle refuge during high winds. We took a picture and kept walking thinking that the snow was a round the corner. As I remember, I think we had hiked for 3-4 hours when it started to get dark. But, still no snow in sight. We decided to leave our skis and boots on the dirt road, just in case some one would come and search for us, but also because we at this point decided to return to the animal refuge to spend the night, and didn't want to carry the skis back and forth. Back at the animal refuge, it was almost pitch black. We had all our sleeping bags with, but Didrik peeked into the shed next door and found some mattresses. Using his Leatherman he got the door opened and we used the mattresses on the dirt floor under the sleeping bags. We were short on food too. We only had a power bar each and we hadn't eaten since we left Malargue. The important thing was to keep up the good mood and get some sleep since we wanted to continue by sunrise. Our night was everything else than calm. It was cold and very windy. The roof just above where Jordan was sleeping got ripped letting sand and dust enter, and the cattle hair around got Even getting a light allergic reaction while the rest of us got swollen faces. Now it is a good and enriching memory for life. We got moving again pretty early. The weather was calm and the sun was shining. The animal refuge as left behind us we headed on towards the hot springs of Cajun Grande. We had managed to walk to the skinable snow the night before, but didn't proceed because it was darkening. At this point we were all excited again. The skis were finally under our feet and we had supposedly only one hour left to Cajun Grande. That would turn out to be a big understatement. We had been skinning for 4 hours and still no exotic cabin. But suddenly, in the horizon, we saw some people skiing towards us. They stopped and acted very relaxed. It turned out to be Mike Hamiliton from H2O, and our new friend Jose - an awesome argentine guide with base in Las Lenas. These guys were thinking about leaving Cajun Grande since we hadn't showed up. We assaulted their backpacks for food, fruit and water, and together walked skinned the last half hour to Cajun Grande. Our new guides, for the rest of the trip - Doug "Dooglas" Krause and Travis No-more-drinking-with-Norwegians Eliasen were already there. We made it! Erica had made some pasta ready for us, we got to relax, and everything was all good again. Cajun Grande was amazing. Situated only 6 km from the Chilean border at the end of a valley 2500 meters above sea level surrounded by an amazing view of skiable terrain. It is owned by Erica's father who built it about twenty years ago to primarily house people doing summer activities and to hang in the natural hot springs. Cajun Grande is today ran by Serge and Erica who have it opened during summer and only a couple to three weeks during winter. The site consisted of three or maybe four buildings. There was neither electricity nor isolation at Cajun Grande, and the water ran constantly in the kitchen so that the piping wouldn't freeze. The biggest one was the kitchen and the refuge itself where we ate, dried our clothes, played cards and drank Jack in the evenings. Right next to it was the building with the bedrooms. Serge had 6 bedrooms with space for between 4 and 6 people in each room. The toilets were situated about 150 meters away from the other buildings. Pretty funny system they had there, where you would have to do your stuff, go out, pick up a bucket of water from a well behind the toilets, get back in, and flush by throwing the water over your doings. During our first afternoon and evening here we got to skin and ski the ridge just above the refuge, hang out in the hot springs (one of them held nearly 40 degrees Celsius), eat Erica's food, meet Britain's coolest Ali-G impersonator - Peter, and drink wine from jugs before we went exhausted to bed. Next morning was started bright and early with breakfast and conversations about where to ski. Karine is in super good shape and wanted to climb 1500 vertical meters and reach the highest peak in the area - a bit over 4000 meters above sea level. She convinced Even to go with her. 6 or 7 hours later they got back, tired, but with wide smiles of satisfaction. I had stayed on the refuge-side of the valley, lapping the ridge. Jose was with me the first run to try and find some south faced sides with some good snow. But the winds had been rough two nights before leaving us with hard-packs and carton. Then Doug, Didrik, Jose and I made an avalanche scenario to practice our skills. We buried Jose, spread his equipment over an area, and then locating him with the beacons, confirming his location with the probe before digging him out. Morten built a hip-kicker and threw some nice airs and grabs. Back at the refuge, Erica was preparing an Asado - the South American equivalent to the good old barbecue. The meat is spiced with salt only, and grilled on a barbecue heated with wood and not coal. To that we had salad, bread, and of course, more jugs of wine. Life is gooooooood! Our time at Cajun Grande came to an end too soon. Everybody had to leave. It was an eventful trip to get there, and of course worth it. We only got those few days because of the storm preventing us to get there, the night in cattle hut, and that there was rumours about snowy conditions in Bariloche. It wouldn't snow around the Cajun and Malargue area for at least a week, and we were missing good skiing. In our next update, which unfortunately also will be the last, I will share with you our own private Asado in Malargue, the trip to Bariloche, and tree-skiing in the sickest forest ever. Stay tuned! Pics by us, Peter Wilson and Jordan Manley All the best, Pedro - Didrik - Karine"

"Jessica Sobolowski enjoyed testing her Lifa Frost Hoodie and HH Warm under fishing waders instead of ski pants for a change... "I had a quick trip to Cordova, Alaska last week. Fortunate for us, the silver salmon fun had just started in the Copper River Delta. I knew I had a big one on as the big ones don't fight as much in the beginning, giving you the crazy chase more toward the end. Luckily my knot was tied securely and I was able to reel him in (you can tell the males as they have a big pointy nose). There is nothing like fishing in Alaska, being out on a remote river with bears everywhere and chasing huge beautiful rainbows and salmon!"

The third Nissan Adventure Film Festival will be taking place between 15 and 23 September at Vue Cinemas around the country. Showcasing the very best short-form and feature-length films over five themed evenings, the festival will take arm-chair adventurers on a journey from the heights of Mount Everest to the shark-infested waters off the coast of South Africa. The festival - the largest adventure film festival in the world - will feature five themed evenings at Vue digital cinema sites nationwide as follows: * Monday, 15 September - Environmental Adventure * Tuesday, 16 September - Ocean Adventure * Wednesday, 17 September - Survival Adventure * Monday, 22 September - High Altitude Adventure * Tuesday, 23 September - Winter Adventure This year sees the introduction of a night dedicated to Environmental Adventure, demonstrating that adventurers can achieve the big thrill with a conscience. Featured films include 'Red Gold', a David and Goliath story of one man's battle against a mining corporation in Alaska^ 'Oil + Water', an epic 21,000 mile journey from Alaska to Argentina by a truck run on natural vegetable oil^ and 'Beyond the Horizon' documenting 2006 National Geographic Adventurer of the Year Colin Angus' record breaking round-the-world trip - the first ever made entirely under human power. Other highlights include the world premiere of an episode of Discovery Channel's 'Deadliest Catch' (Tuesday 16th, Ocean Adventure)^ 'Stranded - the Andes Plane Crash Survivors', a haunting movie telling the story of the 1972 plane crash through the words of the survivors themselves, as made famous by the film 'Alive' (Wednesday 17th, Survival Adventure) and 'Sharkman', following South African Mike Rutzen's quest to overcome the negative perception of great white sharks by putting them into a state of 'tonic immobility', or hypnotic trance (Tuesday 16th, Ocean Adventure). Films start at 6.30pm each evening and tickets can be purchased online via www.adventurefest.co.uk, where there is also the chance to win a Nissan Navara, a Canon freecorder, an adventure holiday to Alberta 'home of the Canadian Rockies', and Helly Hansen apparel. Tickets are available from 22nd August and can also be purchased by calling 08712 240 240, or at participating Vue Cinema box offices. Tickets are priced at standard cinema rates. Check out http://www.adventurefest.co.uk

WELCHES, Oregon (August 14, 2008) - It's hard to Hunt Yeti during the summer months, as the mythical beast migrates from the snow covered mountains, following the snow melt down river and out to the sea. Once there, the Yeti can sometimes be spotted swimming and barbequing on the beach. Therefore the Nimbus Crew set out to the beaches of Cabo, Mexico in search of the Yeti and traded in their skis for surfboards. Mr. Mahre unfortunately couldn't make the trip as his face had an accidental collision with a softball, but Pep, Eric, Chris, Erin, and some friends packed their flip-flops, surf trunks and headed out on an adventure. The fourth webisode takes you further into the lives of our Crew with a glimpse at interests outside of skiing. This feature is more than just surfing but includes rattlesnake encounters, feeding donkeys, rallying rental cars, huge spiders, Jenga, snorkeling and a mangled toe.

Shin here dropping a little update from South America. I just had a great week in Santiago Chile area filming and doing some heli days with some crazy Russian friends of mine. My friend Maxim who owns Heli Pro (Russian Heli ski tour company... http://www.helipro.ru) invited me to come and film for a couple projects he's got going. We had 3 days of fantastic weather and snow conditions. It snowed a meter and a half when I arrived in Chile and then cleared up right after. I got to explore and see some amazing mountain ranges quite nearby Santiago city. The mountains are quite different here with lots of sharp shark tooth style rocks which took some serious bites out of my base. In the end I rode some sick spines and chutes very similar to Alaska. Now I'm in the Patagonia area of Argentina about start this tour and production for my company Whistler Creek Productions. It'll be a posse of about 17 of us for the next 10 days in the areas of Cerro Bayo and Chapelco. We have a decent base here and a storm en route so lets pray it goes a bit colder then forecasted and we'll be in paradise. I've included a couple of shots from my days in Chile Heli'ing Hasta Luego Shin

The shot rang out over Farwell Canyon as Shandro fired a round and missed... again. "Just try and lead it a little more," I said. He shouldered the twelve gauge once more and blasted three more misses. We were skeet shooting from our camp overlooking the Chilcotin River. We were three days in on a Bike Mag trip. Our mission: to explore an unknown area of northern British Columbia. Mitchell Scott was our storyteller and entertainer. Sterling Lorence was the fishing guide and photographer. Andrew Shandro was there to make fun of me. I was there to provide the artillery and redneck knowledge. We were all there to ride. Along the way we hit up the proven meccas of Williams Lake and Farwell Canyon. In the words of Sterling Lorence, the riding was, "epical firing singletrack perfection." It was awesome. We didn't find hidden stashes of great trails in Bella Coola. We didn't uncover a secret hardcore freeride community. But, we did pull some massive northern Cohos and a stunning Steelhead from the Atnarko River. We saw grizzlies across the river competing for the same fish. We had a wicked time! Matt

World renowned kayaker, Helly Hansen athlete Steve Fisher, has just launched his new website! Here you can find videos, pictures, gear reviews from all of his adventures. Take a look at http://www.stevefisher.com

"Check out the new Nico Droz "fresh and tracked" on http://snowboardermag.com/features/fresh-and-tracked-with-nico-droz/"

Hello there again. A lot of things have happened since last time I had the time to sit down and share with you. Both good things and not so good things. First, our trip over to Argentina was postponed for almost five days due to a heavy snow storm in the northern part of the Andes, leaving between 50-70cm of fresh pow in Portillo, El Colorado and Ski Arpa. This meant that the border-pass closed. At a later point we found out that some of the cars and trucks wanting to pass the border had waited for nearly 4 days... So we made the smart decision to hang around Santiago and the surrounding resorts while the border remained closed. Our group has also increased by one person. A known Canadian photographer, Jordan Manley flew down from Whistler, BC, to hang out with us for the remainder of our trip. He has been accepted by everyone and has been a very positive addition. You can see some of his pictures on your right, but also check out his website: www.jordanmanley.com. During the storm, we had two days playing the waiting game in Santiago. The snow had to settle and the clouds had to disappear. Thank God our hotel had free movie rentals and malls and coffee-shops were close by. As soon as the weather cleared we wanted to make a move to get to the Argentine border. On the way, we hoped for another day of skiing. We packed all our bags, rented a big van with a cool driver, Patricio. He has been driving his van for almost 40 years all around Chile and knows a alot about all the places we visited and tought us about Chilliean culture and customs. Our first stop was the coastal town of Valparaiso, a two hour drive from Santiago. Valparaiso is a vital port and apparently one of South America's most distinctive cities. The city was named a Unesco World Heritage site in 2003 and has experienced increased tourism since then. Walking up and down the "Cerros" and through the labyrint-like roads we got a priceless impression of the "real" Chile. Leaving Valparaiso, heading for Los Andes where we would spend the night again, we drove along the coast for quite a while, stopping at a popular beach-town called Vina del Mar to witness the sunset from the rocky shoreline. In Los Andes, during dinner, Jordan ran into his older brother serendipitously. They hadn't seen each other for three months and suddenly they stood face to face in a random restaurant in South America. Funny! Ski Arpa is the resort without any lifts. After an hour and a half from Los Andes on a gnarly, nasty and winding dirty road with I don't know how many switchbacks, we thankfully got there in one piece. Waiting for us was Patrick - our guide for the day, and a snow cat. Ski Arpa is all about catching a ride with the cat and skiing no less than a thousand vertical meters every run with the famous Aconcagua (the highest mountain in the world outside the Himalayas reaching almost 7000 meters) in the background. Ski Arpa was established by the 70-something year old Austrian Toni Sponar, who's dream was to build his own ski resort after falling in love with Los Andes. The resort is only two stone huts - a kiosk and toilets. Initially Ski Arpa had a skilift, but after it was swept away by an avalanche, snow cats became the solution and the survival of Ski Arpa. After 30 years in the making, Ski Arpa is the only cat-ski based resort in South America. After such a beautiful and amazing day in Arpa, we had to rush back to Los Andes to reach our transfer through the Chilean/Argenitne border. The driver had waited for us for two hours, so no need to say in what mood he was, and the drive to the border was about 45 min, and the border closed an our after we reached Los Andes. Bags were thrown in the van and so were we - sweaty and still in our ski clothes. This story and our trip to Cajun Grande will be more detailed for you to read in my next update. Thank you to www.southamericaski.com for all the local assistance! Hope you all still enjoy summer! We're off to Bariloche! - Pedro Matos, Didrik and Karine Falck Pedersen, and their awesome trip-mates!

Check out Lisa Filzmoser slashing in Jackson on the home page of Method Mag - http://www.methodmag.com Don't forget to check out the interview.

"LANZAROTE, Canary Islands - The two crews of the Ericsson Racing Team last Friday completed their 3,000-nautical-mile voyage from Sweden to the training base in the Canary Islands. The voyage officially qualified Ericsson 3 and Ericsson 4 for the upcoming Volvo Ocean Race, of which a 2,000-nautical-mile voyage is required. The 37,000-nautical-mile circumnavigation race is scheduled to start Oct. 11 in Alicante, Spain. With the qualification complete, the team turns to the final preparation phase of its pre-race activities. It will spend the next six weeks at its training camp at the Puerto Calero Marina on Lanzarote tuning and working on its two Juan Kouyoumdjian designs. "It is great that we now have both boats qualified for the Volvo Ocean Race," said Richard Brisius, Ericsson Racing Team Managing Director. "Both crews were pretty happy with the performance of the boats, and the team will now spend the remaining weeks finalizing preparations within all areas of the team." The eight-day passage was the first sail for the new Ericsson 4, which was launched on June 26. Ericsson 3, launched in January, has been sailing at the base since March. The delivery to the Canary Islands proved to be a good shakedown for the race when both crews faced a strong front in the North Sea that produced big waves and strong winds. The crews also battled fog, strong tides and light winds in the passage, allowing them to test how the boats perform across a wide spectrum. "It was pretty good for us and we were in all types of conditions so we were able to push the boat for the first time," said Torben Grael, the Brazilian skipper of Ericsson's International crew. "Weather-wise we had a bit of everything, we were lucky to get through before the front in the North Sea and after that the Bay of Biscay was good, despite the strong winds." Anders Lewander, the Swedish skipper of Ericsson's Nordic crew, led his crew on a 6,000-mile passage. They delivered Ericsson 3 from Lanzarote to Sweden in late June as a means to strengthen their offshore experience as well as test Ericsson 3 in more offshore conditions. "It's been a superb reality check both day and night with a good mix of conditions," said Lewander. "This is the first and last time we'll be able to do a trip in this way, and we are very fortunate to be able to fit this into the program. It feels good to have qualified for the Volvo Ocean Race, and while we have some work to do I'm real happy with the boat's and crew's performance." Ericsson Racing Team is pleased to announce that Guy Salter of Great Britain will be the media crewmember for Grael's International crew. The media crewmember is a new feature of the Volvo Race, with each boat required to carry one crewmember whose time is devoted to chronicling life aboard a Volvo Open 70 and relaying all the information - text, pictures, audio and video - to the race office while at sea. "It's good to have filled the role, especially with such a good sailor as Guy, who also has great media skills," said Grael. "Guy has a good relationship with all of the crew and I think that this going to work very well - both for us as a team and the race as a whole." Salter, 36, is a previous Volvo Ocean Race participant and brother of Jules Salter, the navigator for Grael's crew. Due to his experience, Guy Salter, who has a degree in film and photography, understands the task ahead of him. "I think it going to be tough, but here I am doing it again," Guy Salter said. "The media job is going to be interesting, but it is not necessarily going to be easy."

Setting up a summer night shoot at Mt. Hood, Oregon is no easy task. Besides the usual requisites of insurance, snow cats, sleds, patrol, lighting, riders, etc., Hood separates the men from the boys with a hefty (think 3 zeros) access fee. Needless to say, firing strobes and capturing summer action during Mt. Hood's vibrant golden hour is usually left to the pros. Thanks to Trevor Graves, Tim Zimmerman and the HCSC staff, a group of lucky HCSC Photo Session campers got the opportunity to play with Pocket Wizards and blast off some 7B Profoto kits in front of the blazing sunset. Jake Knigge, the Helly Hansen rider pictured, rounded off his first summer on the glacier by playing the role of stunt monkey at the photo session night shoot. Jake is a Colorado native who is known as much for his friendly easy-going personality, fierce work ethic, and his ability to always have his head on his shoulders as his cat like snow sliding and spinny-flip abilities. Jake dropped countless hand plants and ollies onto sketchy transitions literally until the sun went down while the campers honed their light balancing and artful compositions. Thanks to photo camper Travis Petersen for these banger shots!