Arc'teryx Presents: The Hagens
As pro skiers when we had kids we weren't sure what to expect. Would we be able to carry on doing all the things that we loved? Is it acceptable to introduce the kids to mountain sports? And if we do, how would we keep them safe? No! Did you get it? Stian, who are you? Really? Is that a question? Some washed up, older skier guy with a family. Living in Chamonix, trying to, keep the dream alive. What is my role? I don't know.
I'm the Mom. That’s my mom my Dad, Camila and me. Hello I am Aksel I live in Chamonix.
I'm 11 years old. I really like sports. Aksel look! I added all the stickers. Oh! did you add all of them.
Camila, that is actually super cool! What are you gonna ask me? What is your name? Camila My two favorite sports are definitely skiing and skating and climbing. My Mom's clothes is in here and my Dad's clothes is like this. This big pile. And they’ve got a really bouncy bed! And underneath the bed they've got storage. Do you know why I have a mess there? Why? If you guys cleaned up all your gear then I would have time to do this but I spent all my time cleaning up your guys's gear! I put up my I hang on my gear all the time! There’s constantly things going on! We wanted to become pro skiers, but a pro skier at that time, there wasn't many. I was starting to see the beginning of a movement into free skiing.
I think sometimes you’ve gotta be in the right place at the right time. and at the start I had a lot of that All this new energy started happening in the ski industry and we happen to be right in the middle of that. Discovering this like completely new things.
Meeting new people from all around the world. There was a lot of excitement at the time. My first season, I met Stian within maybe a month or two months of being here. I think we went to the ISPO or something together. And then kind of after that we kind of became a couple. I mean I was lucky enough to meet Stian.
I did a lot of skiing with him that winter and I wasn't single for very long. It was probably meant to be. Our daughter Camilla is competing today so the whole family's up, cheering her on. Camila was really excited this morning. She had a lot of positive energy. I think you're just gonna go and enjoy it aren't you? Yea! We're not aiming for high achievers here, you just want your kids to be able to handle these emotions you know they learn the feeling of disappointment from competitions and the extreme happiness if they do really, really well.
Nice Camila! You’re cold? I'll get your jacket okay? You did really good! She did good. I just always get really nervous I just want her to finish, thats all. There’s Aksel up at the scoreboard with her, He's got my phone because he's calculating the times. Can I borrow your phone so I can calculate the total times?! Your fifth right now Camila. Maybe we calculate my times wrong She did really well! I think she's happy she got a box of treats. Well done! You little champion.
I don't think having kids it wasn't something we really decided on. I was in my 30s and I guess there's something in the back of your mind, thinking well at some point it's kinda gotta happen at this period of your life. Trying wake your brother? Giving him a little hug. Something that I never even thought about but when it was happening I kind of just went with it. Thought it was super exciting. Very good Aksel! We did put in a lot of time when they were little and those days aren't easy either you know you're giving up good days you could be out there doing stuff for yourself and you're out there trying to get your kids to ski and do different things.
I think, opening the doors for the kids to try new sports and see what they like, is really important. I struggled. Particularly at the start.
I guess, just the realisation of, my life changing and not skiing in that same capacity it took me some time to, realise that and accept that my life was gonna change. But once, I did that, it was good! But that took some time. We’re gonna try and go ski touring, up our local hill the Grand Montets that's up here. Ok, lets go! it's 7:30 we need to leave in 30 minutes. Our family are always on front of the line on powder days. I've never been at the very back.
Camilla is like the expert of being in front she's so small she can crawl under the garage door and run in. With Camila being 9 and Aksel 12 we're finally out of a time where, one of us needs to stay at home and look after one of the kids. Alright, just stop here and put your skins on. Here, are we gonna just skin up? Or, are we gonna stop at that tree there? Maybe we'll have to boot pack the last little bit up to the summit.
I like ski touring. You're out in nature. And it's fun! So I’m gonna drop in here. Drop over on that side, do a small turn maybe there. I think you're only gonna have time for two turns. Boom, boom and then carve around.
Yep. Yea, Camila! You're ripping it! Yeah! Come on Papa! Go Moma! Oh, that was super fun! Just to be with the family is really nice. We built this kicker here with Aksel the other day.
And he did his first backflips and he's very excited. So he wants to try and land a good one! I, am gonna stand on the side and watch. I am playing the age card today. Oh my god! You alright? What? You alright? Yea! Didn't quite get around enough, hey? I wish I kind of, was 11 years old and had no fear anymore.
He doesn't really do stupid stuff when he doesn't know how to do it. And last time was the first time he tried a backflip and he was just like yeah, I think I got this and I'm like okay you got it. There's always a little bit of worry but in general he's pretty good. Some kids are loose cannons, he's not really one of them. Which is kind of weird considering that I'm the Dad! Because I was definitely a very loose cannon.
We’re gonna do morning training. They do so much different sports and stuff but I think some basic training like core and balance and stuff is important to do on top of it. Opposite elbow to opposite knee, no, no, yes! We bond alot when we are down here training, it's fun.
It's always bit of banter going on. Aksel is good at certain things and Camila is stronger than Aksel at other things. A bit of competition always going on, and yeah it's super fun. That was really bad! I think it's also good for the school actually because I think it's good for the kids to burn a bit of energy. It makes it easier for them to sit still.
Alright, we gotta go to school, are we walking? Hopefully we've given them lots of choices so the world will be open. Aksel is really diligent with his homework same with Camila. You know they're keen to learn and to study and they understand that school is an important part of life.
See ya Camila. Have a good day. Papa will pick you up after school.
There we go and she's gone. Tell me about your Dad. He’s just grow a beard at 47 years old. Took some time. He's small, very small! We want to go up and try and ski somewhere around the middle of the Vallee Blanche.
It’s a good way to show him what's happening to the glaciers and the mountains around here, because of the global warming. You ready Aksel? Yeah! Okay let's go. See here, the crevasse that goes all the way along here. The glaciers folding over and stretching and then it breaks off, right on the edge here. So now we're getting into the steeper pitch.
How does it make you feel, being in a place like this Aksel? Comfortable. You're supposed to say small! Small. Obviously I'm very aware of the risks in the mountains. But I feel like you can do a lot of stuff without taking a whole lot of risk. You’ve just gotta wait for the right days and do it in the right way.
Make your turn slightly to the right of my track. Maybe a lot of people look at what I do with Aksel as dangerous but I think you also got to take into the equation, my level, I'm a mountain guide and I spent the last 30 years in these mountains. We play by set the rules, that makes it fairly safe. This is why I wanted to ski all the way down here, to give you a good look at the Rectiligne which is a straight coulior. It is one of the best fun ski lines in Chamonix.
So in the old days, you can either come out, this one here. Or that one you see over there. And you can see both of them are just deadly! You can look at those enormous granite blocks that are laying there. You can only see rocks. So that's kind of why, I got into paragliding in the first place.
You should be able to take off, just kind of above what we see here and bypass all this danger, fly around the corner there. And land on the cross country track in front of our house. That is the plan.
Oh, this is when I was born, the glacier was all the way up to here. You're 11, so this is 11 years ago and look out. There’s a huge amount of ice that’s missing. It's hard to deny what's going on when you see this, isn’t it? Yea. Demain.
I didn't see many Mom’s that continued on as professional skiers. Okay. And I also understood that during my career, alot of There’d been you know, a lot of close calls. Stop, stop, stop, Hang on! Hang on! It's a terrifying experience! And there's a lesson to be learnt maybe we're pushing it too much.
I got her she's moving. Lucky enough I’d only hurt my knee. I’d only done my ACL and I was lucky. As much as I worked on, you know getting over something like that you still got that in the back of your mind. You've brought these little precious people into the world and you feel responsible for them. But yeah it's good.
I trust Stian. She's always worried for me. Which I understand, because she's had a big falls in the mountain. I gotta let him be that human he wants to be. That's it! Almost on the top.
But it didn't take that long. It's quite short. There's been, a real challenge in getting the right wind conditions for flying and the right snow conditions for skiing. And, on top of that not taking Aksel out of school. But today it seems like everything has aligned so far.
So it's fingers crossed. This is the day! I have never skiied it. You’re 11 years old and you’ve never skiied the Rectiligne? I know! Kids these days, never get to do anything fun! My favorite ski partner is my dad.
I've never really wanted to join a freeride club, because I wanted to really do, what I wanted to do with my Dad. Have fun, ski, do whatever we want. So here, there's a bit of a layer on top that's a little denser. So I'm gonna ski across those rocks there and try and push out a bit of snow. Okay I'm gonna go out there.
Go Papa! Ok, Aksel dropping! I really like the steepness and to see that you're insecure. It makes me feel that I know that the mountains are more powerful than me. And we have to respect them. Where do I ski too? To below that next cliff there.
Oh, where it has the sun on top. Yeah! Okay, I'm safe! Oh, that was incredible! Woo! Nice one! It's fantastic to show these areas to him. You can see the fire in his eyes. Yeah! Stop. Nice! Confident? Yea.
Fly home and have some waffles? Yea! All right. Let’s do it. Ready for the jump? It's definitely something, that's gonna be a memory for the two of us for the rest of our lives.
Hey Pappa! Hey! Oh it's funny! I've never seen it from above! Oh thats so fun! I cant feel gravity! It’s incredible! Incredible It was so nice. That was the best run of the season for me. Oh definitely, it was so good, the colouir, every bit of it. I don't think you can get better snow than that in the couloir, really.
Don't fall down. Most accidents happen in the home. Probably a little bit different in our parenting styles. Andre is definitely more organized, slightly more worried about things than I am. I'm probably a little bit looser in parenting than she is. I think we have a good balance.
Yeah we're different for sure. There’s no doubt about it. I couldn't have done this without Andre and I don't think she could have done it without me.
I feel like we kind of fill all the boxes, that the family needs. We first came over when the kids were tiny, Aksel was 5 and Camilla was 1 or something, because I remember we had a baby trolley. It’s....
Busted! As the kids are getting a little bit older and they're more and more into climbing. I think we'll come here quite a bit. The whole experience with the camping and everything too, it's really good For sure, that's pretty cute! There’s three little bouldering matts just wobbling along. You see here, is like this is the most beautiful part of the whole Fontainebleau. I definitely feel like I wanna maximize the time I spend with my kids.
Because I’d feel really sad if they moved out and I felt like I didn't spend enough time with them, when they were small. Because they're only going to be small once. Stand up, stand up, stand up, stand up. Yea! He did it! You can change and do different things through your life. You don't have to be doing that same thing your whole life. And I think that makes it exciting as well.
Our eyes are identical! That's what I'm telling you. We have the same eyes. I don't know. Kind of feels like I'm turning into a kid, myself again.
2024-03-12 21:05
