You directed the film together, what was the idea behind making it?

MB: We were interested in showing dark riding, especially since I’ve lived in the arctic for so long, and it’s so beautiful. And then the concept of darkness kind of led us in a different direction because ‘darkness’ is such a complex word with so many meanings.

MM: In the beginning, it was more about the aesthetics of the polar night and the feeling of riding in the dark. I was super curious about it because I’d struggled to imagine it. But then the concept slowly transformed to what we kind of lived through [talking about their injuries] and how great it would be to use the polar night as a metaphor for what we’ve been through.

“When we rode the same line in daylight, I was actually terrified”

The project was done in partnership with Chasing the Stigma, whose mission is to remove the fear and stigma people may face when opening up about traumas.

Were you both familiar with “Chasing the Stigma” before the project?

MB: I actually only found out about it after the project. I reached out to them and they were really excited about our project, which was great since I was really excited about what they were doing.

MM: I think it is super important, if you go through difficult phases, to know how to deal with it, which is why it made sense to collaborate with Chasing Stigma.

How did you prepare for it?

MB: Well, obviously we had a lot of headlamps and a lot of batteries. We could spend 14h days on the mountain, so we had to have a lot more equipment than you would normally have. And then planning ahead, you need a lot more knowledge about where you’re going and about the avalanche risks. And also, the weather patterns, how they are going to change. Also making sure you have a good team with really good communication because it’s much easier to lose one in the dark so you kind of need to know where everyone is all the time.

“We keep a snow diary ourselves to keep track of the avalanche conditions up here because we don’t really have a good forecasting system”

MM: For me coming from the alps the avalanche patrol services give out a very precise avalanche forecast but up in Norway, there is not that much information. So, that combined with the factor of darkness makes it much more complex but also more exciting.

MB: We keep a snow diary ourselves to keep track of the avalanche conditions up here because we don’t really have a good forecasting system.

Were there some unexpected scenarios you didn’t really think about before heading out in the dark?

MM: I was super scared about the cold. In the alps we normally have good weather so for me Norway was super cold. Something that really surprised me was that as soon as there was a little snowfall, even with the headlamps on, you couldn’t see anything anymore. You got snowflakes coming at your face and into your view, and then there were all the reflections of the snowflakes. I didn’t expect that.

“You get very different ideas on how to ride because you see it all so differently”

I also didn’t expect how amazing it would be to see the mountain in a different way. With a headlamp you light up the mountain in a way that would naturally never happen – the sun always shines from above, whereas the headlamp is from below or the side, so you just suddenly see things differently. You get very different ideas on how to ride because you see it all so differently. This was all new for me. It was overwhelming and amazing.

Do you feel like you become more conscious about yourself when riding in the dark?

MB: Yeh you do, you hold back a bit. So, during the film shoot, I fell off a cliff. I was directed to do a turn and we didn’t know that there was a cliff just after, so I just fell off it. It wasn’t very big but sometimes you might just miss some features you would definitely see during the daytime. Where the shadow is, where the light is hitting… You have to be a bit more cautious.

Anything else you’d like to point out about riding in the dark?

MM: I think everybody should do it!

MB: Yeh definitely, it is very awesome – in a different way.

MM: Especially from the point of a micro adventure. Even in your backyard forest, which during the day time might be not that exciting, but in the dark, just riding down, it’s such an amazing feeling. You don’t have to do the big missions in the night, you can just go for other things.

MB: I think it is cool with headlamps and stuff that people can get outside during dark season and still ski and stuff. Also, if you’ve got the moonlight and the northern lights you don’t even need the headlamp sometimes, that’s really cool.

Directors: Melissa Brandner and Manuela Mandl.
Riders: Melissa Brandner, Manuela Mandl, Eirik Verlo, Krister Kopala and Hampus Cederholm.
Film and edit: Joonas Mattila.

The project was backed by Furberg snowboards, Spark R & D, Moonlight Mountain Gear, Julbo Eyewear, and Tromsø Kommune Norway.

Head over to the Winter Opener in Edinburgh to catch their UK premiere on November 23rd!