Greeny Ynvitational: For the love of the culture

From the 25th to the 28th of January 2023 the first-ever Greeny Ynvitational video contest went down in Laax, Switzerland. 

After a lot of planning and organizing in the months and weeks before, on the 25th of January, we finally welcomed 24 invited riders in Laax. After a quick check-in at the Riders Hotel, everyone got their ticket and we headed up on the Crap Sogn Gion, where we had our last meeting covering the event guidelines. At around noon, the teams were free to start. With the conditions being difficult, we decided to add the possibility to film up to a third of the final video in the park. Otherwise, every team was free to create whatever they wanted in and around the total Flims-Laax-Falera ski area. This rule was intended to boost creativity on the one hand and also prevent the teams from creating yet another park edit from Laax. Those are sick, of course, but we’ve all seen them already.

After a successful first afternoon, all the riders met up for dinner in the evening. It was a nice chance for everyone to get to know each other. These daily dinners were the only fixed point throughout the event. The crews could decide on their own how to spend their days as far as skiing and time planning were concerned. While most crews decided to film during the day and edit in the evening, some others skied from Wednesday till Friday and edited the final video on Saturday. As could be seen in the edits, some teams were even filming at night.

The deadline to hand in edits was Saturday evening, followed by a last dinner together. Afterwards, all the participants gathered to get a first glimpse of what had happened the last days, and the riders’ vote was held. It was an opportunity to appreciate what the other teams have done and their effort, as well as have a vote that reflected the knowledge of the people on the ground. Every rider got three votes that had to be used for different teams.

In the end Team 6—Marc Welschinger, Silvana Casutt and Armando Guetg won the first Greeny Ynvitational. While Team 1—Sämi Ortlieb, Jennica Folkesson and Dominik Rhyner—took second place. Third place went to Team 4, Marco Tribelhorn, Laura Pöbl and Sven Rauber, securing the Innsbruck-based crew a prize of 6 kilos of Swiss cheese.

At 22:30 we proceeded to the Riders Hotel where the edits were screened for the first time to the public. The screening was so packed that the teams, who should have said something about their approach, didn’t even have enough room to get to the stage. This really showed the appreciation for what these crews accomplished, and also underlined the need for different event formats in freeskiing. These kinds of gatherings make up our culture. The party continued at the club till late in the morning, with all the riders connecting one last time before they had to leave again on Sunday morning. 

While there are some improvements to be made, the whole event was a success. I guess it really showed that freeskiing is not only about what we see on television today. It’s about being with like-minded people and creating something. I loved to see how much effort was put in by the crews. The minimum timespan of the videos was one minute, but every team video was around two minutes long. Also, the option of using park features was barely used at all, with the exception of some pipe skiing. 

This is exactly what I wanted to show: Fun on the mountain while cruising around. I know that some people bought themselves a camera or are now on filming trips together, and even some got sponsor offers as a result of participating in the Greeny Ynvitational. Hearing these kinds of stories, I know that I reached everything and even more than I could imagine by hosting this event. Thanks for following along, see you soon.