[Markus Keller, Valerian Ducourtil and Sami Luhtanen arrive in Neverland. Arlberg.]

All photos: Matt Georges

MAKING THE RIGHT CALL…

… not always an easy one when it comes to decisions about weather and snow forecasts, and the bewildering ‘so­­­cial media snow reports’ don’t exactly help nowadays either.

Last March we were confronted with this need to call the conditions right, as we knew we only had a few fixed days together as a crew and that it was imperative that we should use them in the most productive way. Despite the epic time we had in out little mountain cabin in the middle of the Southern French Alps we faced the reality and decided to call it. The wind just blew away the meter of fresh snow in 24h and so it was now time to leave and reconsider our route. Paying a visit to the legendary Arlberg area seemed one of the most promising options.

I’m fortunate enough to be able to call the area my second home resort, what with all the years spent I’ve spent there. Our Volcom team house has been in the Arlberg for around a decade, and friendly locals that become close friends over the years… This time it ended up being the right call we made. We used bad- and good weather days equally and spent a second short week of long, fun and fairly productive days.

You can call it luck, experience, local knowledge or whatever you want. Sometimes you win; sometimes not.”

– Markus Keller, St Anton, Arlberg, Austria.