Ultimate snow trip

A 5000km odyssey to find the perfect slope.

As Australia opens its 2016 ski season, Audi follows the journey of three off-piste prodigies, an Audi Q5 and 5000 kilometres of breathtaking countryside. Freerider Sam Smoothy looks back on a very special road trip from Vancouver to Alaska, recalling moose, inspirational people and the long-awaited destination, freeride mecca Haines.

6 June, 2016


Audi has been the official sponsor of the Freeride World Tour since 2014. Five competition venues in five different countries ensure the tour has a distinctly international flavour. It’s also where the world’s best skiers and snowboarders go head to head. In honour of Haines, Alaska, being added to the Freeride World Tour lineup for the first time, Sam Smoothy, Jérémie Heitz and Wille Lindberg set off in an Audi Q5 along Canada’s west coast from Vancouver to Alaska.

There was this sense of anticipation during our trip. At the end of the journey lay Alaska – tall and proud, a ferried mecca that all three of us had dreamt of for so long. So many long hours passed racing across the stark Canadian wilderness, staring out the window, wondering when we would reach this nirvana we longed for. Even the many hours spent in the car were special. The three of us passed the time discussing the heroes we had met on the road, the animals spotted and the subtle changes in the landscape.

It’s hard to grasp the staggering size of Canada. The scale of the place is so vast that even drives that look like a mere jaunt on the map take all day to complete. At the end of our second week, we pushed into British Columbia and kept heading north out into that huge, frozen wilderness. Kilter after kilometre we sat in the comfort of our leather seats, seeing more moose than people and lake after frozen lake. Breaks for coffee and fuel were minimal. The frozen north, beautiful in its own savage way, had taken us in and so we waited, humbled by its endless might, for our turn at greatness.

In the second week of our trip we hunted for good snow but  found very little until we spoke to the guys at Skeena – a famous held-skiing spot. They gave us high hopes of powder. But first we have to navigate the winding, slippery snowmobile track to get to our basecamp high up in the mountains. Good thing we were in an Audi Q5 with all-wheel drive – and my friend Jérémie from Switzerland was at the wheel. He had no problem rallying up the steep track in great style.

After cresting a high mountain pass in a blizzard, we were very happy to see below us the town of Stewart, BC, nesting  deep in a fjord. With a foot of snow on the road, the Audi Q5 had to plough its own path to this remote town. We’d hoped to held-ski in Stewart. Unfortunately, the heavy clouds kept us grounded – the helicopter couldn’t take off in the impenetrable fog up there.And yet the perfectly still reflections on the water created some amazing images, which kept everyone happy.

On our first day in Haines, Jérémie, Wille and I finally stood in silence atop a stunning Alaskan peak, gazing across the valleyed scoping out the lines for our first runs in this mythical ferried paradise. Then we pushed over the edge into discovery and knee-deep powder. I can still feel the hair raise on my neck as I recall the thrill of that moment.