Behind the Cover - FREESKIER Volume 28 Issue 2

Featured Image: Rick Sorensen | Skier: Kaz Sosnkowski

The latest edition of FREESKIER Magazine, Volume 28 Issue 2, is here. If you didn't get a copy delivered to your mailbox, you can find it at ski shops, retailers, Barnes and Noble and more. On the cover, we're honored to feature Kaz Sosnkowski, one of freeride's most promising up-and-comers, photographed by Rick Sorensen during Blizzard Tecnica's team summit at Kitzsteinhorn, Austria. How did he get on top of the lift terminal? Did he stomp it? Was the schnitzel good? Read on to find out in this installment of Behind the Cover.

Sorensen: We shot this on the last full day at the Blizzard-Tecnica Freeride Team Summit in Mittersill, Austria. The conditions on the Kitzsteinhorn glacier up until this point had been pretty subpar, but a little overnight storm and just the right amount of wind had dropped a pretty good pow stash on this shoulder at the summit by the t-bar. After a few days skiing in a ping-pong ball, Kaz and crew were fired up to have some visibility and set their sights on more creative ventures.

They began to stomp out a takeoff from the top of the lift terminal. Kaz led off with this banger and blew the minds of the Euro-frontsider crowd that had gathered to watch the spectacle. The rest of the team then proceeded to tee off and put on quite the show. When we finally retreated to Mittersill, everyone was still buzzing at the hotel bar with the stoke from this session. Not a Stiegl was spared.

This is one of my favorite moments from last winter, and maybe any winter. To me, it embodies the kind of spontaneous, creative energy that skiing is all about. It reminds me of being a little kid and saying, 'what if we jumped off that!?’ I’m so grateful for the opportunity to work with such an incredibly talented group of skiers. There’s never a dull moment when this crew gets together.

Side note — it just cracks me up to think about trying to pull something like this off in the States. Could you imagine how quickly we would have been kicked out of some places here if we tried a stunt like this? Meanwhile, in Austria, we had patrol and lifties in the crowd cheering.

Sosnkowski: This was my first time skiing in Europe and also really opened my eyes to how much of a family the Blizz team is. I wanted to make the most of the trip by helping the development of the Canvas Collection, skiing well and soaking up as much of the unique experience as I am able to.

I was enjoying in the sun and taking in the views at Kitzsteinhorn when I saw Zeb, Noah and Connery starting to step off a flat drop off of the top terminal of the t-bar. Obviously I was pretty intrigued, so I made my way over and helped to finish stepping it out. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do and settled on a hand drag 3. I remember looking to Rick after my first hit and he said something along the lines of “I think that was the one”. I was pumped to say the least. Noah dialed in a textbook backie and Zeb stomped a huge flatspin to cap the session off in perfect style.

Now looking back, it feels surreal. When I was just starting down this path, Freeskier helped out a ton. I attended two ski tests in Jackson where I made connections with a ton of photographers and people within the industry. This gave me professional photographs to try and get on a team. Funny enough that's where Rick and I first met and he eventually signed me to the Blizzard/Tecnica Freeride team.

I remember the fall after my first ski test waiting for the magazine to release. Seeing myself in a magazine that I grew up reading was so damn cool. Fast forward three years, I just landed my first cover with Freeskier from a trip that I probably wouldn’t have attended if I didn’t go to Freeskier's ski test two and a half years ago. I still can't believe it as I'm writing this. I cannot thank Freeskier and Blizzard/Tecnica enough for everything. It feels very poetic and I don’t think 10-year-old me could have written it any better.