Hey StokedAF crew!
This week we’re chasing powder from Patagonia to Japan, witnessing freeride carnage and watching world-class climbers get humbled by concrete cracks.
We’ve also got Himalayan first descents, an epic bikepacking adventure across Kyrgyzstan, and a journey into Algeria’s otherworldly Sahara.
As always, there’s a ridiculous amount of great stuff happening out there. We’ve sifted through the noise to bring you the best of it.
Stay stoked and remember follow the path to very end! The ABYSS!!
🏂 Surfing in bottomless powder
📍 Hokkaido, Japan | ⏱️ 5 min
Hands down, the best film of the week!
This is what happens when you bring the soul of a surf film to the mountains? Snowboarder Nicholas Wolken and filmmaker Matt Foley spent two weeks chasing powder across Hokkaido, searching for the connection between carving a wave and floating through bottomless snow. The result is Clouds: States of Submersion, a beautiful five-minute visual trip filled with long, flowing turns, untouched powder, and the kind of riding that makes you forget everything else. Less snowboard documentary, more psychedelic video. Pure powder poetry.
🚵 The people’s rampage!
📍 Green River, Utah | ⏱️ 3 min
The Green River Classic is freeride mountain biking at its rawest: massive desert sends, spectacular carnage, and a crew of riders pushing each other to go bigger while cheering on every attempt (and every spectacular wipeout). It’s all about camaraderie, creativity, and having a damn good time on bikes. Tyler McCaul’s edit captures the madness perfectly. Think Red Bull Rampage, but with more friends, fewer rules, and a whole lot of desert dust. The People’s Rampage!
🎿 A wild couloir at the end of the world
📍 Ushuaia, Argentina | ⏱️ 2 min
At the southern tip of South America, skier Miles Clark puts Ushuaia’s new Martial Glacier chairlift to good use, heading into the rugged mountains above the Beagle Channel to ski the Godoy Central Couloir. A little lift-assisted access, a lot of spectacular Patagonian terrain, and a reminder that some of the world’s most exciting ski lines are hiding at the very end of the road.
🏔️ Everest ski film on the big screen
📍 Himalaya, Nepal & Tibet | ⏱️ 2 min
The Jimmy Chin film, many have been waiting for is landing in theaters this week! Check out the trailer for this new mountaineering film, bringing the world’s highest mountain and the extraordinary challenges of climbing and skiing the north face to cinema audiences.
🧗 Australia’s hardest trad climb
📍 Tasmania, Australia | ⏱️ 9 min
In August, Aussie climber Oliver Schmidt made the first ascent of The Wikiman (grade 33), establishing what is being called Australia’s hardest trad route. Months of work, runouts, and protection consisting largely of questionable ball nuts and tiny RPs make this a seriously committing piece of climbing.
Oliver Schmidt may be one of the best climbers on Earth, but you’d never know it from his social media presence. If you have time, check out this profile, exploring the training, mindset, and quiet obsession behind one of climbing’s most underrated talents.
🔗 https://verticallifemag.com/articles/getting-to-know-oliver-schmidt/
🧗 What if concrete spits out cams?
📍 Innsbruck, Austria | ⏱️ 15 min
Who needs Yosemite when you’ve got a football stadium? Adam Ondra teams up with crack-climbing specialist Pete Whittaker to explore a couple concrete cracks around Innsbruck, including a stadium route pioneered nearly 20 years ago by the late David Lama and Jorg Verhoeven. It’s all fun and games until they discover that slick concrete has a nasty habit of spitting out cams! The duo eventually moves on to a highway bridge, where they put up a new first ascent. Urban climbing at its weirdest and most wonderful.
🗞️ Bonus News
🎿 French ski mountaineers get first ski descent of 6,310m Meru Central, skiing the entire line without rappels, including a 50-degree crux. Meanwhile, an American team pulled off a first descent of the South Face of Nepal’s 6,966m Dorje Lhakpa. Not a bad week in the Himalayas!
⛷️ Arapahoe Basin kicked off the ski season on October 28, firing up the Black Mountain Express for some early-season turns on High Noon. Just one run open, but plenty of stoke as A-Basin celebrates its 80th season. Winter is coming!
🤖 A 16-year-old hiker asked the AI chatbot Claude to help navigate a mountain route near Vancouver. Instead, he ended up stranded beneath a technical climbing headwall on Widowmaker Arete, requiring a helicopter rescue.
🏔️ Iranian mountaineer executed amid political crackdown — Iranian authorities executed 38-year-old mountaineer and musician Ali-Sina Mostafavi following accusations of armed attacks and ties to opposition groups. Human rights organizations raised concerns about a forced confession and the fairness of the proceedings.
🧠 Long Reads & Watches
….take your time with these ones
🛶 Waterwalker: A love letter to the wilderness
📍 Lake Superior, Ontario, Canada
Bill Mason knew he was destined to be a canoeist. And thank goodness for that. This 1984 classic follows the legendary Canadian paddler through the lakes and rivers of the Lake Superior wilderness, serving up spectacular scenery, some pretty dope whitewater canoeing, and plenty of philosophical musings on humanity’s relationship with nature. Complete with a Bruce Cockburn soundtrack, it’s a throwback to a different era, when the words of wilderness thinkers like Mason and Edward Abbey carried almost sacred weight. No GoPros, no influencers, no world records. Just a man, his canoe, and the wilderness. Definitely worth your time.
🚵 2,000 Kilometers, 150 Sheep, and Zero Flat Tires
📍 Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia | 🎬 Silk Road Mountain Race
Nearly 2,000 kilometers, 28,000 meters of climbing, and 14 days of questionable decision-making in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan. With no ambitions of winning the legendary Silk Road Mountain Race, this rider brought along half a campsite, a camera, and a drone, determined to enjoy the adventure. What followed was an epic journey of river crossings, nights with shepherds, a camera drowned in a river, tears at sunset, and even helping herd 150 sheep on horseback! Of the 239 riders who started, only 132 finished. Somehow, our hero came in around 74th, without a single flat tire. Adventure racing at its finest.
🛹 Pearl Jam, skateparks, and the power of community
📍 Flathead Indian Reservation, Montana
What do Pearl Jam, five new skateparks, and a Native American reservation have in common? This Pearl Jam-produced film follows a young skateboarder, seamstress, and artist on Montana’s Flathead Indian Reservation, where skateboarding is becoming a powerful force for creativity, confidence, and community. With the help of Montana Pool Service, world-class skateparks are bringing new opportunities to rural communities, proving that sometimes all it takes to change a young person’s world is a board, a few friends, and a place to skate. Good stuff!
🌍 Destination Unknown: The Stone Forests of the Sahara
📍 Tassili n’Ajjer, Algeria
Imagine wandering through a vast labyrinth of sandstone towers, arches, and narrow canyons rising out of the Sahara. Welcome to Tassili n’Ajjer, one of the most otherworldly landscapes on Earth. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is home to more than 15,000 prehistoric paintings and engravings, some dating back thousands of years to when this desert was a greener place populated by hippos, cattle, and humans who left their stories on the rocks. Today, its spectacular stone forests and endless desert wilderness make it look like a lost planet waiting to be explored. An absolute dream for desert lovers.
📍 Explore Tassili n’Ajjer on Google Maps
If your Halloween costume is an astronaut, tune into this short film by Andrew Studer shot in Algeria! MINDBENDING
❤️🔥 Your StokedAF fam 🤘
Owwwwooooowhheeeee
Austrian freerider Clemens Kaudela at the Green River Classic!
