Above: Clemens Millauer. Photo: Photo: Sam Strauss / Red Bull Content Pool.
When we think we’ve seen it all, Austrian Clemens Millauer decides to bend the laws of physics and give snowboarding up the hill a try. But, not only does he go full speed ahead up an empty slope, the Olympian decided to hit the kickers and rails in reverse too at a speed of 80kp/h.
Read the full press release below.
“Thursday, December 9th, 2021 – Clemens Millauer is proud to present his latest project Snowboarding Reverse and we’re sure you’ve never seen Snowboarding like this before. In an idea that his compatriot and snowboard sensation Anna Gasser described as ‘crazy’, instead of taking the traditional ski lift to the mountain station, he found a new unique way. Using a combination of winches, a skidoo and a helicopter Millauer turned his year-long dream into a reality and had the ride of his life.
“Even going 80kp/h downhill feels fast but doing it the other way around is so unnatural, it feels so much faster”
The 26-year-old Olympian, who celebrated a second-place finish in the Big Air World Cup last week, said: “The feeling of going over 80kp/h uphill was really crazy. Even going 80kp/h downhill feels fast but doing it the other way around is so unnatural, it feels so much faster. The biggest challenge for me was to rethink. You are looking up to the landing and you know that you have to jump the kicker in a few seconds, the one you jumped so many times the other way around.”
Anna Gasser adds: “Clemens really has the craziest ideas. The biggest difficulty for our trick together was the right timing to hit the rail together. Additionally, it’s really distracting when someone comes your way with a lot of speed, that’s nothing you are used to in our sport.”
ADDITIONAL FACTS
• The planning for the 7-day-shooting took a full year
• The project was filmed at Shuttleberg in Flachauwinkl, Austria
• There are cameo appearances by Anna Gasser, Adrian Krainer and Nina Gigele
• The crew and the Flying Bulls discussed and prepared every detail to make sure Clemens has enough speed to ride the mountain uphill
• As you can’t simulate riding a slope uphill, the snowboarding was a real challenge and not everything worked first time
