Snowboarding the Himalayas? Red Bull to Premier New Movie Sept. 19

(PRESS RELEASE)

On September 19, Red Bull Snow presents the 24-hour LIVE world premiere of the snowboard feature film Perceptions – the latest production of the infamous Pirates crew. In anticipation of the film premiere, here’s how the movie came to be.

Last February, a group of snowboarders got on a plane to an unfamiliar location – Kashmir in the Himalayas. Kashmir is one of the world’s most dangerous places, according to former US president Bill Clinton, because of an ongoing territory war. We are naïve snowboarders, so we weren’t going to let this ongoing war stop us from snowboarding in the western Himalayas.

The crew was Elias Elhardt, Marc Swoboda and me, Knut Eliassen. Marc and I were filming for the upcoming Nitro movie, while Elias was filming for both The Bad Seeds and Pirates’ new film, Perceptions. There are not many people who can film for two different movies on the same trip – let alone do it while in some of the highest mountains in the world, but Elias Elhardt is not your average snowboarder. After watching him destroy line after line and completing first descent after first descent, I can honestly say Elias is way above average.

When we first got to our base camp of Gulmarg, Kashmir, we met up with the local guide to hear about snow conditions. We were blown away with what he told us: earlier that week there had been over 15 avalanches and three people buried. Needless to say, the conditions were unstable and very sketchy, but what more would you expect from being in a war zone in the highest mountains in the world?

At first, Elias was very cautious of the snow conditions, but very soon you could tell this was a man on a mission. He wanted to ride every line we flew over, and he did. Elias got some of the most amazing shots up in those mountains. The line I remember best was a Bomb Drop off a peak into a line full of spines, cliffs and rocks. He did it first try, and had so much fun that he went back up and did it three more times, while Marc and I stood at the bottom loving it! He’s a maniac.

During one of the no-fly bad weather days, we saw this old abandoned building right next to the heli pad. It often takes the government decades to finish buildings in Kashmir, so it might not have been abandoned but a work in progress. Either way, we climbed our way to the top of this building, which had perfect man-made pillow lines between each level, with the intention of all of us getting shots on it.

Elias dropped first because, let’s be honest, Marc and I were a little intimidated. He dropped in, hit the first two pillows and gapped the last one, doing a perfect frontside 360 into the shortest landing ever. It was beautiful. Marc and I were blown away – we thought we would just straight-line them. So we both yelled down to Elias and told him to get back up here, because whatever we would have done after that would just look amateur in comparison. Elias ended up riding this building for two hours without falling once, and doing different tricks each time – I think he got eight different shots.

Our stay and adventure in Kashmir was all time, I have never been to a place so remote and beautiful in such military distress. But the biggest impression from the whole trip was how insane a snowboarder Elias Elhardt is. Look out for his shots in the upcoming Perceptions and The Bad Seeds. I promise, you will be just as blown away as I was.

And join us on Friday, September 19, here on Red Bull Snow for the full free Perceptions World Premiere!