Ski Stories, Volume 6: The 2025 yearbook of freeski culture

Telling stories never gets old. There’s a reason, why we chose Ski Stories as title when we released our first hardcover book six years ago—and why we’ve kept that title ever since. We at Downdays believe that stories live at the heart of what fuels our passion. Isn’t it an integral part of the experience to share our stories, be it with a click on social media right there when it happens or at night with a couple of friends in a bar and a cold beer in your hand?

The best stories are timeless. These are the ones we look out for throughout the winter and collect for our yearly book. It’s not always easy to identify the right stories, but we think we’ve had a pretty good track record over the years. In 2025, we are more than happy with our selection. However, our books are more than a simple collection of stories, they are also about the presentation. We like to keep things fresh with a slightly new approach each time. This year for Volume 6, we are reminiscent of a few things that used to be highlights in the golden age of magazines—stickers and posters—while we also aim at an immersive reading experience.

“Seeking Simplicity”—that’s the headline of one of our book stories, but also the concept of German-Austrian photographer Christoph Johann and the scheme for this year’s cover. A classic freeride shot by Christoph, capturing Canadian skier Simon Hillis in Cordova, AK. The production matches the classic approach with a shiny, high-end finish and the design is reduced to the max, letting the photo speak. Hint: You can add to the design yourself by applying one of the included stickers, making for an even cleaner appearance. Still, the full book jacket is not just simple: the photo wraps around the whole book and gives you a glimpse of the wild terrain where the photo was taken.

If you like the cover, you will probably like Christoph Johann’s story about his first trip to Alaska, the proverbial “dream come true.” By the way, the cover is not what Christoph considers his best shot from the trip—that one was reserved for the poster. And for all powder aficionados, there is even more content from AK with a deep dive into the first Natural Selection event for skiers last spring. In case you prefer a hard surfaces for your skiing, fear not; we have plenty of freestyle content, too, including a profile of Finnish street magician Ailo Riponiemi, photographed by Arttu Heikkinen. One of their best photos is on the backside of said included poster: 56 x 84 cm of double-sided viewing pleasure. We bet you will flip it multiple times on your wall.

We already mentioned the stickers. Harking back to the good ol’ tradition of sticker sheets in ski magazines—and sneaking in some marketing with a sheet of classic Downdays logo stickers—we try to give you an interactive experience with Ski Stories, Volume 6, bridging the gap between analog and digital media. Two sticker sheets are filled with icons and pull quotes from the stories. There are indications throughout the book, where we had envisioned those elements during layout—but of course feel free to apply these stickers wherever you see fit.

But let’s quickly dive into what our book is all about: stories from, about and with skiers. Telling those stories—and how different people have a different perspective on it—is a focus point for our sixth edition. The book is loosely structured in three chapters and the opening story for each chapter deals with a skier’s specific approach to story telling. In their cases, they all tell stories in a different form—they were pursuing  personal movie projects—but what’s interesting is their individual approaches. Manon Loschi has an introspective, rather artistic view on her skiing in “Endorphin,” Victor Lourdel focuses on the mountain experience and sharing his adventure with friends in “The Vertical” while Jérôme Caroli brings different passions together in “Combine.” Everyone’s telling a story, yet the results are hugely different albeit all fascinating. From personal experience: It’s fulfilling to read the stories and it’s fulfilling to see the movies. To experience both in conjunction further enhances each sensation.

Of course, there’s much more to find in Ski Stories, Volume 6. We have a long profile about Magma, one of the most prolific crews in today’s freeskiing landscape, very distinct in their own approach to story-telling and movie production. We have in-depth interviews with Nick Goepper, who is about to enter his fourth Olympic winter season with the realistic objective of a fourth medal; with Lily Bradley, who keeps rocking the freeride scene but cares about so much more than snow depths and weather forecasts; and with WeiTien Ho, who took the Xtreme Verbier by storm last year, but lived between tire choices and spring rates when we spoke to him during his mountainbike season. Plus there is a look behind the scenes of two unique events last winter: the El Tony Crew Clash, which brought together skiers and snowboarders, and the TBL Sessions, which put marginalized groups in skiing on the main stage. Finally, all is sprinkled with a dozen spreads of breathtaking ski photography—a classic gallery.

Ski Stories, Volume 6 is available in our online shop. We ship all books out of our basement and try to cater to all freeski fans around the world as much as possible. The current trade situation has complicated things a bit over the last months, but we do ship to the US again. That’s right, our books are available in the United States and they should remain free of tariff due to the exempt on “information material.” Unfortunately, single book shippings have become slightly more expensive with our new logistics solution; however, we are now able to offer a shipping flat rate again for shippings worldwide. So if you order more than one book, shipping has become cheaper! Go and do your Christmas shopping!

Enjoy the book!