In the early hours of Monday 17th May 2010 (Finnish time), Team Halti member Carina Räihä completed a successful ascent of Mount Everest.

Carina Räihä has made Finnish mountaineering history by being the first Finnish woman to reach the peak of the world renowned Mount Everest.

The weather conditions at Everest this spring have tested the patience of the climbers and the strong winds at the top have prevented or delayed the schedules of many expeditions. Carina Räihä’s Tango Expedition 2010 to Everest started in April. Before reaching the top, Carina and her team prepared the route to the summit and spent more than a month’s time on acclimatisation.

When the extremely narrow weather window opened in the middle of May (the professionals speak of the Everest weather window: when it opens, the winds abate and the freezing temperatures moderate), Carina, her guide and her expedition partner succeeded in their attempt, which in practice can be done only once, while other climbers were still waiting for their turn at the bottom of the mountain.

“The feeling is just amazing! Every one of us wants to realize our dreams and I have now definitely realized one of mine. I’m sure I will understand this better after a little time has past” commented Carina directly from the top of the world via satellite phone.

Halti would like to extend its congratulations to Carina and the team on this fantastic achievement.

Halti, the Finnish market's leading outdoor clothing company, has appointed Andreas Jauslin as the new International Sales Director starting from 15.8.2010. The aim is to strengthen Halti`s international market growth. The 37-year-old Swiss will be a member of the executive management team, reporting directly to the CEO, Martti Uusitalo. Jauslin has been working with Helly Hansen for the last five years. He ran and restructured the Swiss subsidiary before he soon became head of sales for central Europe, where he played an important role in the repositioning of the Helly brand.

“We are very happy to have Andreas Jauslin in our team. He will strengthen our international approach and knowledge of what will be needed in our core market areas in Central Europe. I am sure that with Mr. Jauslin and the existing team we are in the right track to support Halti’s international distribution and brand building”, stated CEO Uusitalo.

For further information:
Halti Oy, CEO Martti Uusitalo: tel. +358 40 510 1380, martti.uusitalo@halti.fi

Download press release as pdf>>

After a really good stretch of skiing it's time for laundry, the clouds are back and it feels good to rest a little bit. We have been really lucky with the heli situation and were able to fly as much as we wanted. My body is definitely sore, but there are still a lot of lines to be skied and the snow is just incredible. There is still a few things that I want to get here before I go back in Europe, so I have to stay focused, find the right spot and execute.

I'm standing here at the laundry mat daydreaming about the mountains, your mind is never really at rest here. Those helicopters can bring you really quick on the most hostile terrain you have ever been. It's good and bad, things happen so fast and often when you are up there you wish you had more time. It's what makes heliskiing so hard and so exiting. I'm going to grab my clothes, go back home and get my stuff ready for the next blue day.

The Finnish Everest-Lhotse Expedition consists of three experienced climbers Tomi Myllys, Mikko Vermas and Joni Kirtola. Mikko is aiming to climb Mt.Everest together with a local sherpa, while Tomi, who has already summited Mt.Everest last year with the Airborne Ranger Club of Finland, aim to climb Lhotse together with Joni. All three climbers will use additional oxygen an aim to the summits in mid May. More information in www.mountaineering.fi

The shelters and tents will be delivered to Haiti by the Finnish Red Cross. If you also want to help, you can participate in http://lahjoita.fi/

It got to Haines sooner than we had expected and blew our last hopes into the fog. I had stayed for the expected window of blue sky, but since it seemed to be over that soon, I took the ferry for Juneau with JP. Julien stayed in Haines and hopefully gets sunny days. Sort of disappointed, sad and nostalgic, I left Haines, watching the harbor disappear as we slipped into the blizzard that closed us in a gray, white, opaque tunnel of fast falling snow. I'm off for other adventures, but hopefully after them, can go back to Haines.

So, this morning we got up at 5.30 and it was still sort of clear. Driving up the road, we could see, through the foggy windows of the rotten rental van, all the mountains getting out of the darkness and that got us a little more excited. We were at the heli base at 7 o'clock sharp and were the first group to fly out at 7.30.

Excited, but a little nervous about the terrifying snow stability reports we had got, we decided to follow our initial plan to go and ski something we had seen the first day, more than a week ago. But that area was already in the clouds and we had to go look elsewhere. We then fly over another zone, but as we got closer, everything looked windblown and scary. I think we all shared some sort of a bad feeling about the snow and decided finally to be dropped on a flat area somewhere we had never been.

Skiing down those flat sloped, we found out that almost everything had been beaten by the wind. Hard waves of snow covered the mountain and our chances of finding something seemed to get slighter and slighter. The clouds also kept getting closer and the wind blew hard on the mountain tops. As we then stopped to look at some features, we saw a huge cloud of snow coming out of the other side of the mountain. There had been a big avalanche that had passed by a norwegian film crew trying, just like us, to find something small to do.

After that, we kept looking for things for some time, but ended up going back to the base around 11 and having breakfast that we had skipped earlier. The norwegian film crew joined us a little later and told us all about the avalanche they had witnessed. We all agreed that the snow was amazingly unstable and that sometimes it is good to have that bad feeling that makes you tiptoe.

After the breakfast, it was already cloudy. Now it's snowing sideways again and people are driving around the town on snowmobiles. What a trip...

It was obvious to all of us that we would not be skiing. So, we had french toast for breakfast and stared outside hoping for the impossible. Once we were done eating, it had started to snow harder, sideways, it was a real blizzard. So, we drove back to town and dove into the hot tub.

It has been snowing and raining since then, continuously, endlessly, it feels. Most of our hopes are about to be poured down the drain with this ridiculous quantity of water that the winter storm is throwing down on us. But I guess deep down in our dreams, we still believe it will get sunny. Anyway, we all know those are the rules of the waiting game, either you get lucky or you don't, but it feels a little frustrating to think that we are running out of luck here. There is not much we can do about it, so, we just wait and let the days crawl by, And at night, we dream of a perfect day in that deep powder that has just fallen on the mountains around us.

We have been in Haines for a little more than a week now. The first two days were sunny and we could get started with skiing, shooting and all that. It was sort of a slow start and we only found good snow the second day.

Julien, Chris and JP did a few warm up runs and hit wind lips the first day, but as the snow looked a little unpredictable and hard at times, it was a slow start. The next day, we found a lot better snow and gained confidence in the conditions. It was actually a great day even though the clouds finally arrived a little after midday.

Since then, it has been raining and snowing almost non-stop. We had one almost-a-go day two days ago, but the fog and clouds just kept us on the ground. And one must say, we are good at waiting. We can stare at the rain and feel great! After all, it means more snow. And so, we wake up at six every morning hoping that the forecast has failed and it is sunny after all. Then, we sleep a little more and get up for the breakfast at seven or eight. Then we work, sort photos, send emails, do other sort of computer stuff and basically wait for the clouds to disappear. But the rain has turned into snow and back into rain again these past few days so many times, that it feels that the clouds are endless.

Or it did, until tonight, the sky finally got bluer. We could even see the mountain tops further and it has almost got us thrilled. Hopefully it stays blue for tomorrow, we are now filled with excitement.

We just arrived to Haines today. It was foggy and rainy on the way from Juneau. The pilot had to turn around to find a less foggy way so that he could land that little plane. Julien told me I was a little pale. But we made it. With us, there is JP, Chris and Tyler, the cameraman. We were all in that same little plane with a lady singing loud some song she had in her earphones.

It was raining in Haines, but that stopped in the evening. Tomorrow is expected to be nice weather and so we are preparing our gear and the rest. I think we are almost ready to do this. Ready and excited, nervous too.

Halti News was published during 2000-2005 and is now being revitalized. Halti News is an online customer newsletter aimed at retailers and other Halti partners. Halti News' topics range from new Halti product announcements to general information about the company, the athletes and organizations that it is involved with.

Halti News Feb/2010 can be found here.

The focus of winter 2010/11 range is on Halti's "All Mountain Collection", which provides a large variety of sports clothing designed for mountaineering and exploration. The collection includes small signature lines for both Tanja Poutiainen and Kalle Palander as well as outfits for volunteers at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Alpine Ski World Championships. The collection also contains a range of equipment for ski clubs and ski schools.

Press Release 7th February 2010 (pdf) >>

Halti setzt die Zusammenarbeit als Hauptkooperationspartner bei den von Audi präsentierten Alpinen Ski Weltmeisterschaften 2011 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen fort

Medienmitteilung 07.02.(pdf) >>

Tim Durtchi, JP Auclair, Bene Mayr and Chris Booth stayed with Julien and I, and Tyler Hamlet, the Poor Boyz Productions cameraman, came to meet with us. The snow was perfect for backcountry kickers and off we went for a real kicker party. Bene and Tim had built the first one. It was huge. The next one was a little smaller and pretty, but it still took us two afternoons to build it. Meanwhile, I got sick and didn't get to participate to the construction at all. But sort of luckily, the weather got bad, and while I laid under multiple blankets, the boys did all the building.

We shot the second and the third jumps the day after. Everybody had fun, especially on the third one. The snow was still great and a small crowd would stop on the nearby slope and cheer every time someone was hitting the kickers. Julien and JP successfully did double back filps and some other stuff. We went home happy that day and ate, if I recall right, something with cheese, like everyone does on the French Alps.

As the snow near the sloped started to get tracked, we moved on and went to see, if there was any powder left on the Vars pass. We drove up and started hiking. Tim and Bene had seen a step down jump and after a half hour hike, we finally got to it and started building.

The next day, Tyler and I hiked even further to find a good angle for shooting the jump. Around ten, it was off for a whole day session. The light was nice, as it arrived sideways on the take off and the landing, revealing the structures the wind had built on the surface of the snow. I enjoyed looking at it through the viewfinder, but I wonder if it looks as good when you see the picture and don't feel the wind on your cheek. The riders kept hitting the jump and it definitely turned out that we weren't the ones who hiked the most.

After that was done, it was time for us to move back home in la Plagne. Bene left and we brought him to Turin to catch his plane. JP was leaving two days later from Geneva and Tyler had his flight two days after JP from Lyon. We tried to go and take more photos in la Plagne, but it turned out that the snow base was too thin for jumping. Julien hit a big rock that made a deep hole in his ski and we decided it was time to rest a little. Chris decided to go and visit Milan and Tyler left yesterday. Now there is only Tim left and he's leaving in two days. I guess it's the end of the trip.

We are kind of looking forward to going back to Vars and that area with Chris in February. But for the moment there is other things going on: it's Tim's birthday today and I guess we have to go make a cake...

I got to Quebec City in the evening of the 26th and JP picked me up at the bus station. He seemed a little nervous about all this rail stuff and so did I. That wasn't really what we had been up to the past few years. But JP had been talking about this rail / jibbing session for a while and I was sure everything would go well. I think he was too.

Couple days later, we got to work. The cold weather had just arrived and I put all my clothes on to go out. The night before I had fallen asleep in front of the fire while JP was supposed to go and check out the speed of this first feature. But he had ended up shoveling most of the jump and asleep on the sofa, I wasn't there to help and felt bad… However, there was enough to do the next day to make me feel that I was at least a little useful. After some minor problems, we got the wallride shoveled and sessioned by ten in the evening and unbelievingly, I still wasn't cold!

The next features revealed to be a little less easy. We would have to try various different ways of doing things to get everything go the way we wanted. It was either the speed, the shape or the timing that didn't seem to work. But amazingly (and most importantly), after almost abandoning lots of times, we finally got the things done. The cold weather had turned into snowfall that the next day turned into a warm weather that turned everything slushy. Quebec was grey and dark except for the few hours the sun came out beautifully coloring everything.

I stayed until January 5th and was kind of sad to leave. When JP dropped me at the bus station, I realized I hadn't even seen anything of Quebec expect for jibbing spots and hardware stores (to get the necessary tools for skiing in the city). So, I finished the book I had started at Charles de Gaule airport and then watched out the bus window for a little sightseeing of Montreal on my way to the airport.

Julien has been working on Red Bull Linecatcher since Christmas. He was asked last year if he would be interested in conceptualizing and organizing a new type of a backcountry ski competition. He said yes and the first edition took place in March 2009 in la Plagne. But even though everyone had lots of fun, the most crucial element in backcountry skiing, the weather, wasn't favorable.

This year, Julien got to the new competition site in Vars, in the Southern French Alps, end of December. Many great riders had already accepted his invitation to the contest and skiers like Sage Cattabriga-Alosa, JP Auclair, Sean Pettit and CR Johnson were expected to arrive on January 9th. Julien had put together a crew of shapers and they started working on the Eyssina face to prepare the course. The snow was still hard and old and the biggest question was if it was going to snow before the competition. If not, everything could be cancelled.

It started snowing in the beginning of January and it snowed good. The village got buried under tons of fresh powder and as people in Marseille and other usually warm places struggled with the snow, everyone in Vars was walking with a big smile on their face.

Julien and his crew of shapers had prepared a course of ten jumps scattered around the face, forming multiple different lines for the riders to choose from. On January 9th, everyone arrived, smiling, while discovering the village under almost a meter of fresh snow. It was amazing to see the biggest backcountry skiers get together in a little mountain village. Tanner Hall had come to judge the event and the biggest surprise was Candide Thovex showing up for the contest at the last minute.

After all the bad weather, the sun came out on January 11th and everyone could finally see what Julien had been up to for the past few weeks. Everybody was excited and after taking a look at the course from the bottom, the riders left for a one hour hike to discover what the course looked like from the top. Everything had preciously been kept untouched and the snow on the landings looked great. Sure enough, everyone was even more excited, when they got down.

The next day, the lifts started running around six. There was stars on the sky, the moon was extremely thin and he mountains beautiful, when we got on the top of the first lift, where the riders were preparing themselves for the hike. The contest kicked off around nine thirty and it was honestly an amazing show. After every run, the competitors would come back at the start happily smiling and three runs later, once we all were at the bottom of the course, everybody was repeating that they had had tons of fun. The results were announced before I even got down from my shooting angle: Candide won, Sean got second and CR was third. But in fact, I don't even think that was of great importance to the riders, it looked like they were just stoked to be out there wether they were on the podium or not.

Now that all this is done, we are spending the last days of our stay in Vars. It started snowing after the competition and it still is. Julien has finally put the shovel down for a couple days and is enjoying the snow. In Saturday, we will be off for new adventures somewhere in the Alps with JP, Tim and Bene.