4 Nitro Snowboards

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Nitro Snowboards
Nitro Snowboards
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ELIAS ELHARDT
The most dangerous place on earth”
– Bill Clinton
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Nitro Snowboards
ELIAS ELHARDT
Nitro Snowboards
„Carry a Snowboard, instead of a gun.“
Snowboarding in the Himalayas is something
you always dream about, but never think you
will experience because of its remote location
from the general snowboard world. Last winter this dream became a reality for professional Nitro snowboarders, Elias Elhardt, Marc
Swoboda, and myself (Nitro Team Manager
“wanna-be professional” Knut Eliassen).
We were going heli-boarding above 5500 meters within the world’s highest mountain range.
The only catch to this opportunity of a lifetime
was that we had to snowboard in a part of the Himalayas - Gulmarg. Kashmir which was declared
by form US president Bill Clinton the most dangerous place in the world. Kashmir is a country
controlled by India´s military and it is landlocked between, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and
China.
After thinking over the situation and the consequences of going to Kashmir to snowboard
in the highest mountain range in the world the
boys decided it was well worth the risk of entering an active war zone. The dream trip was finally set in motion and after months of planning
we set off to the last place we ever thought we
would go snowboarding.
As most of you know, bringing snowboard and
filming/photography gear to a normal ski destination is hard enough with overweight luggage
restrictions, and just dealing with ignorant security people at the airport. Imagine bringing
all your snowboard gear, avalanche bags with
CO2 cartridges that resemble bombs, drones for
filming, and video cameras that look like high
impact machine guns into one of the most
active war zones in the world.
It is not easy and you sweat a lot.
The drone we used for filming was the worst,
because everyone thought it was a spy drone
from Pakistan and we were using it for recon.
Once we arrive at the one of two heli operations
in the mountain range, Kashmir Heliski, we all
thanked god we made it in one piece through
the countless military controls and crowds of
people who wanted everything and anything
from us.
As you can imagine the mountains and snow
were breathtaking and impossible to describe
with words. The state of Utah´s license plates
say “Utah – Best Snow on Earth”, well they are
going to have to change that because it’s in the
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KNUT ELIASSEN & MARC SWOBODA
KNUT ELIASSEN
Himalayas. Our first day out snowboarding we
stumbled upon the very first Himalayan Banked
Slalom contest and we had to sign up – this was a
once in a lifetime opportunity. Elias Elhardt was
the Victory, probably because he had just come
from the Legendary Banked Slalom straight to
the 1st Annual Himalayan Banked Slalom. We
spent the next 7 days snowboarding down everything we could fly or hike to before the sun set.
The combination of the undeveloped terrain,
culture, military presence, sky-high mountains, and snow monkeys created an environment that was surreal.
There were moments when we would be snowboarding when you could see a guy with an AK
47 with the safety off, monkeys playing in the
trees, and grown men riding 100-year-old homemade sleds all at once. I know for a fact that
this is something you can only experience in the
Kashmir Himalayas.
Kashmiris living up in the mountains are very
humble and outgoing people, even the military
guys with their “live” weapons would say hello
and crack a smile. They seemed to be very hap-
py that people were coming from all over the
world to experience the beauty of their home
country.
Despite being in an area 50 km away from where
they found Bin Laden, we felt extremely comfortable while snowboarding and walking around
the area – I never once felt in danger or uncomfortable up in the mountains – only in the larger
cities of Kashmir.
Maybe we were just being naive and trying to
focus only on the good parts so we could feel
good about enjoying our dream trip, and did not
appreciate the seriousness of the situation that
Bill Clinton called the most dangerous place on
earth. I would still recommend anyone looking
to have a snowboard and lifetime adventure to
go check out the Himalayas in Kashmir.
One quote that stuck with me from a Kashmiri
snowboarder we met at the start gate of the 1st
Nitro Snowboards
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Himalayan Banked Slalom is:
“Kashmir is becoming a better place one
snowboarder at a time, because my friends
and I choose to carry a snowboard instead of
gun”.
This guy gave us hope that Kashmir was changing for the better and will soon be one of the
safest places on earth.
ELIAS ELHARDT
ELIAS ELHARDT & KNUT ELIASSEN