The Snow Report
The latest snow, ski, and winter sports stories from Outside.
It seems that you got all the blame for the incident on Cerro Torre. Was it your fault or are there others who should be held responsible as well?
I don’t talk like talking about Cerro Torre. I will say this: I was the production leader and organizer. I never climbed one pitch on the route. Rolando Garibotti has written that I drilled the bolts, but it was David Lama’s partner, Peter. I didn’t care about everything that was written on the Internet, but it showed me how cowardly these guys must be because they never contacted me to ask about the truth; they just wrote whatever they pleased. It was a new experience for me: People writing without asking for the truth and “friends” put their heads in the sand.
What’s the difference between Austrian and American skiers?
I realized that American skiers are different than Austrians when I was guiding my first season at Mike Wiegle’s heliskiing in the '90s. In Austria, we worked very hard to ski "right" and "perfect." If you fall, an Austrian starts cussing and grumbling, but an American will fall in the powder, and then just say, "Wow! What great snow."
Why do you believe the freeskiers in the '90s skied better than the athletes now?
Skiers now do some tricks. They ski slowly and if they find a good spot, they do some spins and backflips or whatever. In the '90s, there were way stronger skiers and they were more creative. It’s like a kindergarten now. All the strong skiers want to film now with Matchstick or TGR, so they’re not competing, and the competitor scene is not as strong as it once was.
