All photos provided by Red Bull Media House

The season is winding down in most of North America but that only means one thing in Sweden. The nights are getting longer, the weather is getting warmer and a plethora of invitational events and spring joy are making their way out of hibernation.

Red Bull Sweden were generous enough to host me in Åre for Jesper Tjäder’s Unrailistic for a long weekend of insanity on the slopes with not much more sanity at the après and bars either. Unrailistic is an invitational competition with rail features pulled straight out of SSX. Actually, they come from Jesper’s imagination/notebook but I’m confident he’s played the game.

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The rider list needs little introduction, but returning winner Andreas Håtviet was in attendance to defend his title, Jesper (obviously) and Red Bull athletes Matej Svancer and Max Moffatt were joined by a host of steezy ladies including Joanne Killi and Jennie Lee Burmasson as well as rail wizards from across skiing. This created a melting pot of legends, Olympic medalists, and steeze machines ready to tackle some of the craziest features anyone has ever seen.

To set the scene on this trip, it started as I made my way from Revelstoke to Calgary, from there I flew to London to do some parental visitation, before flying to Stockholm and stopping briefly to enjoy a Max Burger (thanks Twig & Hanne for the recommendation). The 7.5-hour train to Åre from there awaited, on which I neglected all work-related tasks, watched TV, and “vibed out” (drank). I pulled into Åre tired but ready to enjoy this legendary town and take in both a country I’ve never visited and the most northerly point I’ve ever been to. After a quick dinner and a couple of beers with the legend TJ Schiller - one of the announcers for the event - I promptly passed the fuck out.

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I arrived on Tuesday evening, having missed two full days of practice but with enough time to ski the course and catch the final day of practice before best trick and the live-streamed slopestyle finals on Thursday and Friday respectively. This event takes place during the final weekend of skiing at Åre resort and Åre Sessions - closing weekend on steroids. So it’s fair to say I found myself consuming a few halves of shandy, discovering new music, and making some Swedish pals along the way… Max Burger featured heavily (for Canadians, think A&W but better, for Americans, think… I don’t know, breakfast, lunch, and dinner?) as did hangovers and parties in all sorts of hidden gems of bars that come alive for one weekend of the season.

The highlight of the musical events was Viagra Boys, a Swedish punk rock band that sing in English and the other non-skiing-related highlight was the people of Sweden and everyone I met whether they were involved in the event or not. The MVP was obviously Red Bull, I’d never eaten Reindeer (Rudolph steak?) before and the Swedes know how to make a cinnamon bun. Just be careful if they offer you a snus… I am eternally grateful to all involved and hope you’ll have me back next year. Emile, I’ll be at Åre sessions one way or another. See you there ;)

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So, skiing, apparently that’s why I was there although my camera roll would suggest otherwise. This event is insane. I had a founded preconception that this was not very core or pretty uncool - sorry Red Bull. But that couldn’t be further from the truth, yes the setup was gnarly and even getting to the end of 80% of the features was a trick in itself but that didn’t stop the riders throwing down some hammers. There’s something very surreal about watching Andreas, Henrik, and The Pretzel Man hiking the double S rail of death, giving each other an equal amount of pointers and shit, and just hanging out. There’s a reason these three have GOAT status, as everyone else had made their way to food, beer, or soul laps at this point.

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Land holding!

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The best trick was a combined format, across 4 features, starting on the back-to-back double S rails, dubbed the Tjäder Twist - which had so much potential for death I didn’t even think about hitting it - a 40-minute hike session on this opened proceedings. The riders then moved to sled laps where they would hit the mega flat down, the monstrous rainbow rail, and the shootout/trampoline combo.

Many hammers went down, Jesper 7 swapped continuing 2’d the rainbow, Emil Granbom couldn’t quite lace the rodeo 4 backslide cont. 2 he put down perfectly in practice and Andreas couldn’t quite get his 2 on nose grab (land holding) on the rainbow in Best Trick - although he laced it in slope - so in the end Matej took home the men’s Best Trick with a switch 2 continuing 2 on the Tjader Twist. Other notable tricks that went down in this first session were Colby Stevenson’s switch lip Britney and Andreas Håtveit’s super fed… something it seems he can do in his sleep.

Women’s best trick went to Jennie Lee Burmasson who greased the 120-something foot flat down rail - the only one to grease it during best trick - with her signature steeze. Joanna Killi put Tom Wallisch to shame with the most beautiful 2p2 of the weekend,

Slope was nuts, you can see Twig’s full recap here to get a more play-by-play analysis. 5 swaps, pretzels and flips out were par for the course, consistency, trick selection and style were mind-boggling. While every event I’ve ever attended has made me say, “fuck, pros are quite good at this skiing thing,” this one might have taken the cake. The level of skiing on features like this is insane.

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This was all overshadowed by the one and only, 37-year-old, impervious to aging, stylish and ever smiling Andreas Håtveit. Retired from competition skiing 10 years ago but back in the bib for this event and this event only he took the W for a second year in a row. On the women’s side, Joanna Killi, also recently retired from the imprisonment of FIS and ‘bib-life’ took the win… causation or correlation?

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And your winners are...

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Aside from the skiing (FULL REPLAY HERE) and Red Bull’s endless hospitality, all I have are words of love for Åre, the people of Sweden and skiers. I'm a firm believer that you’re never far from home in a ski town and this proved it. I don’t think I’ve gazed at as many incredible sunsets, laughed with so many new friends, and picked my jaw up off the floor from skiing-related shenanigans as much as I did during that week in Åre.

The culture is insane, huge crowds gathered like a flash mob, kids got everything from helmets to ski boots signed by legends and the stoke was tangible during the live events. Steep Steep, TJ and Ed crushed the live coverage and Red Bull are damn cool even if they film in 69K. Don’t worry I got some clips on a crusty cam and a blown-out, overly warm, shaky edit will drop soon!

Insane crowds at an even more insane event!

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There’s not much more to say about this trip/to Sweden other than, get the halloumi burger from Max Burger, tack Sweden, tack Redbull and SKÅL FÖR FAN!