ice a trail
Your best. Only better.
Raise your game with the world’s greatest on snow and ice.
Learning from the best
Join us as we talk to the most successful winter sports athletes on the planet, the legends and the newcomers, and discover what it takes to make it.
Olympic Reflections: Zoe Atkin
Zoe Atkin interview: “This is crazy – in these two days people all over the world are going to watch me.”
GB Olympian and World Championship bronze medallist Zoe Atkin talks about her Beijing 2022 experience.
Just when you thought it was safe to get back on the snow
Paul McGee talks to double Olympic champion Pierre Vaultier, World Championships bronze medallist Zoe Atkin, and Team GB’s first ever Nordic Combined athlete Mani Cooper about snowboard and ski fitness, and how you can prepare for a winter season that’s been a long time coming.
Zoe Atkin: “After two years off your legs will likely be very sore!”
Elena Hight: making the transition
Elena Hight interview: “You know, in 2018 I did my last halfpipe contest. And I didn’t know it was going to be my last halfpipe contest.”
Blank Canvas is the latest big mountain film from acclaimed creator Jeremy Jones and goes on general release tomorrow. We talk to the film’s protagonist Elena Hight about life beyond the halfpipe.
Mani Cooper
Mani Cooper interview: “You learn to listen to yourself and train what you need to train.”
Team GB’s first female Nordic combined Olympic athlete, Mani Cooper, talks about the unique identity of her sport – and training during lockdown.
Jessie Diggins: Brave Enough
A review of the new autobiography by Jessie Diggins, Brave Enough: “I thought I was going to die. My vision got blurry. The world suddenly had a pink tint to it.”
Cross country skiing Olympic Champion Jessie Diggins joins us as we explore her new book.
Beyond Skiing Everest: the Mike Marolt Story
Mike Marolt interview: “They thought we were going to go out there and get ourselves killed.”
Ski Hall of Famer, film director and author Mike Marolt talks to us about the very unique perils associated with skiing at extreme altitiudes – and the steps he has taken to minimise them.
Athletes in lockdown: Ashleigh Pittaway
Ashleigh Pittaway interview: “It isn’t the same training at home vs. in a high performance gym.”
Team GB skeleton racer and former Youth Olympic Champion Ashleigh Pittaway gives us an insight into quarantine life as an elite athlete.
Stepping Out of Bounds with Torah Bright
Torah Bright interview: “We have taken and taken for too long and now the earth is hurting.”
Olympic and X Games legend Torah Bright talks about her latest venture from Antarctica to Alaska, the wonders of our natural world and the fragility of the life system upon which we all depend.
Jessie Diggins
Jessie Diggins interview: “The worst things we as humans can do is nothing at all.”
USA’s first ever Cross Country Skiing Olympic champion Jessie Diggins talks to us about climate change, her first-hand experience of a warming planet, and what we can do about it.
Ester Ledecká
Ester Ledecká interview: “I tried and gave it everything I have. Even though everybody kept telling me it was not possible.”
Czech winter sports legend Ester Ledecká is the only person in history to have won Olympic gold medals on two different pieces of equipment. We look at the Ester Ledecká Snowboard and Ski story and try to crack the code of her unprecedented success.
Julia Pereira
Julia Pereira interview: “Simply believe in your dreams and never doubt, whatever happens – even if it is hard every day.”
At 16 Julia Pereira won Olympic silver at Pyeongchang 2018. Now she talks to us about coping with life as a professional snowboard cross athlete and balancing personal and professional objectives.
Tina Maze
Tina Maze interview: “Nobody with easy lifestyles can know what success tastes like.”
Possibly the most successful alpine skier of all time, Tina Maze talks about her very unique trail to victory and tells us what it takes to be a record breaker.
ice a trail goes to the French Alps
A review of one of the best hidden gems in the French Alps, the expansive and breathtaking resort of Vars (oh, and it’s home to the fastest skiing anywhere on the planet).
Ski Vars: resort guide
A guide to the Vars ski resort in the French Alps: “The kind of views that make you reflect on life.”
This year I returned to Vars, a clasically French ski resort in La Forêt Blanche, for the third time in a row. I’m familiar with this corner of the French Alps, but this is the first time I’ve pointed my skis down its famous speed ski track – the fastest in the world.
SBX: racing on the razor’s edge
Understanding what it takes to race shoulder to shoulder at 90km/h with the top Snowboard Cross athletes in the world, and how they get back on their feet after some seriously heavy knockdowns.
Michela Moioli
Michela Moioli interview: “I just thought that I really wanted to come back stronger and win again.”
Olympic SBX Champion Michela Moioli on winning gold at Pyeongchang after rupturing her ACL in the big final at Sochi – and her future aspirations in SBX.
Pierre Vaultier
Pierre Vaultier interview: “There is nothing I regret in my career, everything happened for a reason, good or bad there was always something to learn.”
Two-time Olympic SBX Champion Pierre Vaultier talks about the attitude and equipment needed to stay on top of the game.
Season update: speed skating
We’re dropping in on the current speed skating season, starting with one of the year’s early success stories – Austrian Vanessa Herzog.
Vanessa Herzog
Vanessa Herzog interview: “It seems we made something right in preparation for the season.”
Long track speed skater Vanessa Herzog talks about her current form, and what’s led her to three ISU World Cup podiums in a season that’s barely got started.
Getting technical.
It’s back: talking to the world’s top snowboarders about the technicalities of their boards and the relationship between athlete and sponsor
Mercedes Nicoll and Northwave Drake
Mercedes Nicoll interview: “It holds an amazing edge, has the right amount of pop for not only the halfpipe but riding anywhere and having fun all over the mountain.”
Four-time Olympian Mercedes Nicoll on her Drake DFL snowboard, the Northwave Drake Devine boot and the Northwave Drake Jade binding.
Torah Bright
Torah Bright interview: “You are buying a handmade piece of art when you buy a Roxy snowboard!”
Olympic gold and silver medal winner Torah Bright talks about the snowboard that carries her name and her enduring relationship with the Roxy team.
Winter sport under the social spotlight.
Discussing the ups and downs of social media and its impact on training, competing and life beyond sport
Anna Fernstädt
Anna Fernstädt interview: “It’s good for you as an athlete, but also for your sport, and that’s even more important I think.”
2018 Junior World Skeleton Champion Anna Fernstädt rounds off our social media series and explains that what’s good for the athlete can be good for the sport.
Elise Christie
Elise Christie interview: “I probably use Instagram the most just because it’s a lot friendlier than Twitter – you tend to get a lot less abuse on there!”
2017 Short Track World Champion and 500m World Record holder Elise Christie talks about the ups and downs of social media in sport, and her plans leading up to Beijing 2022.
Julia Mancuso
Julia Mancuso interview: “It definitely motivated me though my injuries because I would get a lot of messages from fans that I inspired them.”
Former Olympic Giant Slalom champion Julia Mancuso on the impact of social media for the modern athlete.
Getting technical.
The top pro snowboarders on the characteristics of their boards and what it means to get a sponsorship deal
Kimmy Fasani
Kimmy Fasani interview: “This board is great for a more experienced rider who loves all types of conditions because it’s responsive with camber under foot and a little bit of rocker in the nose.”
Two-time Women’s Rider of the Year Kimmy Fasani talks about the Burton Story Board that she helped design and her life as a professional snowboarder.
Roope Tonteri
Roope Tonteri interview: “The Deep Thinker I use for backcountry, that’s why I have it a little bit longer than the Custom.”
Team Burton snowboarder and former Slopestyle and two-time Big Air World Champion Roope Tonteri talks about getting sponsored, and the technicalities of his Burton rides.
School’s out for summer.
The world’s elite winter sport athletes on the summer recess and how no snow doesn’t equal no work
Arielle Gold
Arielle Gold interview: “Even after the last competition, we are already scheduling for summer snowboarding camps in Mount Hood, Oregon, and Mammoth Lakes, CA.”
Winter Olympics halfpipe bronze medallist Arielle Gold talks about balancing sport and studies during the summer, and the relief of winning a medal at Pyeongchang following her Sochi injury.
Lindsey Jacobellis
Lindsey Jacobellis interview: “My time off and the summer months are the most hectic for me really.”
Lindsey Jacobellis, five-times World Champion and ten-times X Games gold medallist, talks about the sport/life balance and how she’s stayed at the top of snowboard cross for so long.
Hanna Öberg
Hanna Öberg interview: “During the summer we have no real holidays. There is a lot of training, consisting mainly of rollerskiing, biking, running, strength training and of course shooting.”
Hanna Öberg, gold and silver medallist at this year’s Winter Olympics, on the arduous summer training regime of an Olympic biathlon champion, and how it felt to win not just one but two Olympic medals at the first time of asking.
Chris Mazdzer
Chris Mazdzer interview: “Put it this way, from June 2015 to June 2018 – so for the last 3 years – there were only three times where I spent more than two weeks in a single location.”
Chris Mazdzer, the first non-European to win a medal in men’s luge singles at the Winter Olympics, talks about the relentless cycle of training and competing, and how the summer break isn’t really a break at all..
Speed. Pure, unadulterated speed.
following the conclusion of this season’s Speed Skiing World Cup, the fastest people on the planet stop by for a chat
Bastien Montès
Bastien Montès interview: “Skiers regularly refuse the start of races at high speeds, paralyzed by the stake, by the risks.”
The fastest man in the world this year talks about the psychological edge needed to hurl yourself down a mountain at twice the national speed limit, and explains what’s so special about the Chabrieres speed ski track in Vars.
Valentina Greggio
Valentina Greggio interview: “I’m never really happy. I always want to get better and better.”
Understanding the relationship between perfection and pure speed with the fastest lady on earth – ever.
Winter Olympics cool down:
Pyeongchang 2018’s participants reflect on the tournament
Olympic Reflections: Mica Moore
Mica Moore interview: “Every time I go to the shops and I’m trying to buy some sneaky cakes I always get caught by someone with well wishes for me from the Olympics!”
Team GB brakewoman Mica Moore talks about the return to normality and reflects on her national best performance at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
Olympic Reflections: Laura Deas
Laura Deas interview: “For our programme it’s all about winning Olympic medals so I was happy to prove that the investment in us was well spent”
Skeleton bronze medallist Laura Deas discusses her Pyeongchang Winter Olympics experience and the importance of getting on the medal podium.
Olympic Reflections: Mercedes Nicoll
Mercedes Nicoll interview: “It hit me, if my body would let me snowboard again, I would work towards competing again.”
Mercedes Nicoll, Canada’s most decorated female snowboarder, talks about her Winter Olympics qualification after a career-threatening crash at Sochi 2014.
Eyes on Pyeongchang:
Talking to Pyeongchang 2018’s qualifiers as they look forward to the biggest event in the winter sport calendar
Eyes on Pyeongchang: Lloyd Wallace
Lloyd Wallace interview: “I think that in any sport where you are made to wear a helmet there are certain risks involved that you have to be willing to take.”
Following the head injury that saw him put into a coma, aerial skier Lloyd Wallace talks about qualifying against the odds for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
Eyes on Pyeongchang: Julia Dujmovits
Julia Dujmovits interview: “At that moment I didn’t only lose my friends but also my entire faith and trust in the world.”
Austrian snowboarder Julia Dujmovits talks about the teenage tragedy that nearly ended her winter sports career before it had begun, and the subsequent journey to Olympic gold.
Eyes on Pyeongchang: Mica Moore
Mica Moore interview: “Honestly, to reach the Olympics feels like a dream!”
Team GB bobsleigh brakewoman Mica Moore discusses her journey to the upcoming Winter Olympics and the financial obstacles she and pilot Mica McNeill had to overcome to get there.
Eyes on Pyeongchang: Mica McNeill
Mica McNeill interview: “Remind yourself every day why you are working so hard.”
The Team GB Olympic bobsleigh pilot talks about the motivation needed to qualify for the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics and overcoming last minute financial hurdles.