EOFT 22/23

Faster, higher, farther: Speedflyer Carl Weiseth and drone pilot Ian Rinefort bring adrenaline-pumping action to the EOFT 2022. Ian's drone is the only thing Carl cannot outpace as he flies at breakneck speeds down the valley.

When this duo takes off, the world turns upside down—along with our perspective.

Extreme kayaker Nouria Newman has gone from standing on the podium of international canoe slalom competitions to remote whitewater expeditions. Young as she is, she has embarked on a lifetime’s worth of raging rapids and thundering waterfalls. In Patagonia, the world-champion French paddler took on (and conquered) some of the world’s toughest and wildest rivers with two accomplished American expedition kayakers, Ben Stookesberry and Erik Boomer.

Nouria is also compelled to go out on her own, like to the mighty rivers in the lonely valleys of Ladakh (India), where it’s just her and her kayak. There, her extraordinary skills are her life insurance. It is on these solo trips to untamed rivers that Nouria is confronted by her greatest fears but also experiences her deepest moments of gratification.

Mountain biking: The tenacity of Zambia's Gift Puteho

Sometimes a single object can change an entire life. For Gift Puteho, it was his father’s bicycle. Even after his first wobbly laps on the bike, which was way too big for him, it was clear to him that there is no better sport! He rode one of his first races on a bike with broken brakes. Despite this — or perhaps because of it — he crossed the finish line with a ten-minute lead.

With his passion for cycling and his tenacious spirit, the teenager eventually made it onto one of the few professional mountain bike teams in Zambia, and he has been unstoppable ever since.

From the shores of Norway, two freeriders, Nikolai Schirmer and Celeste Pomerantz, set sail to the north. Their boat, Sofie, is to take them and their team to a true freeride paradise—Spitsbergen. But the Norwegian archipelago, long considered cold and snow-sure, is not as expected. When they reach the southern tip of Spitsbergen, it is far too warm for the time of year, with temps hovering around 13 degrees. This makes skiing difficult to impossible.

But Nikolai and Celeste do not give up hope. Along with Captain Mats, they continue to steer the boat northward undaunted, in search of the perfect ski runs they have dreamed of for so long.

Representation in climbing ideally involves inclusion and access for climbers of all abilities, and rock-climbing guide Sonya Wilson is facilitating that in a big way—first in the climbing gym and now outside. Everyday life in the hearing world is a challenge for Sonya and others in the Deaf community; she perceives the negative experiences she has had with people because of her deafness as the true barrier.

But out in nature, these social constraints fall away. With her climbing retreats in Joshua Tree, Sonya has created the community she herself was missing as a child, and in this way, she can share the feeling of freedom she experiences when climbing with other Deaf adults and children—and in the film “Elevated”, with us as well.

In the midst of the pandemic, Tom Randall and Pete Whittaker embark on one of the most bizarre projects of their careers. Lockdown and travel restrictions force the UK climbers to look for new challenges in their immediate surroundings, and although Tom and Pete have always had a penchant for unusual crack climbing ("Wide Boyz" EOFT 13/14), this route may eclipse all previous efforts.

There are cracks not only in rock, but also in concrete structures; the difference is that they are called expansion joints and can be 800 meters long under a motorway bridge. Maybe this COVID summer will turn out to be better for Tom and Pete than they imagined...