From the race course to the funpark

In the race team I got the fine-tuning for my carving – but realised style and aesthetics suit me more than gate-to-gate. With the first twin-tip (the Salomon 1080) and Fuzzy's method (gliding, sliding, steering) I moved into freeskiing: a camp participant at 16, a coach a year later. I was one of the first doing double flips and won contests early – including the Austrian Open (Nordkette), Spring in the Park (Zugspitze), the Chill & Grill Tour, Nature Ride, Nebelhorn Classics, Snow Fever Big Mountain, Unichamp. With Fuzzy my sports-model career also began – the first pro jobs were SportScheck catalogues, shot on the Zugspitze.

What a ski model delivers on camera

Real ski action means: the move lands reproducibly, in time with the camera, often under tough conditions. One example from the craft – the snow-spray trick: from sun bouncers (polystyrene boards with silver foil) you build a 1–2 cm thin, vertical wall of snow at the kicker take-off. Jump through it with speed and the snow sprays in every direction – in the photo it looks like a powder kicker, even though you're standing on a firn glacier in summer. Back then there was no AI to paint snow in – it had to be real.

Because I also work behind the camera (producing and editing my own ski movies and expedition films), I think through camera angle, light and sequence from the start.

Winter and glacier shoots: what matters

• Eye protection is mandatory: in sun a glacier acts like a parabolic mirror – without strong UV goggles you burn your eyes (snow blindness with days of headaches).

• Cold & off-season: shoots often happen in the off-season – yet it's cold, especially for the team. Warm down jackets and spare clothing are a must.

• Constant sweating while hiking: for a fresh look you seek untouched snow with no lifts in the background – you hike the same metres again and again and sweat constantly, but can't change (the clothing being advertised has to stay on). So high-quality base layers.

• Avalanches: a mountain-experienced team, a transceiver for everyone off secured pistes, a transceiver check before the shoot, the avalanche bulletin and proper location scouting. For more complex shoots a mountain guide joins. And walkie-talkies always come along on the mountain.

• Crevasses: dangerous especially in spring/autumn – local lift operators know the terrain.

So I do more than a pure sports model here – I advise, without taking sole alpine responsibility.