Interview Gemma Freeman |  Photography Lozza

White gold smothers Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Snow-pregnant skies are sliced open by the jagged peaks of the Grand Teton National Park as Rendezvous Mountain blows huge snowflakes onto the slopes, which lie smothered by the highest-ever recorded snowfall.

It’s mid-season and conditions are perfect for local pro Travis Rice’s Quiksilver Natural Selection: a new surf-inspired comp where the world’s finest snowboarders display their freestyle skills on natural terrain. The concept is genius and the line up immense. But I’m not here to record another set of results. Instead, I’m here to focus on one contestant: Nicolas Müller.

The personification of snowboard style and creativity, the Swiss German is a legend at the age of twenty-six. Born in the Alpine town of Aarau, just outside Zurich, he learnt to ski as a toddler, but, as a talented skater, turned to snowboarding in 1992. After honing his talent on the immaculate halfpipes of his home resort of Laax, he began to notch up podium places and was snapped up by Burton. Soon after, he started winning medals at prestigious events like the Air and Style, Burton European Open and Arctic Challenge, garnering much attention for his uniquely explosive style.

But, an artist at heart, it wasn’t long before Nicolas rejected the park for the backcountry. His first film part for Absinthe’s Tribal (2000), saw him take the skills he’d perfected on man-made features and apply them to the whole mountain, joining the ‘backcountry freestyle’ movement and redefining what is possible on a shred stick. Whether he’s boosting out of the pipe with a beautifully exaggerated Japan or buttering deep Alpine powder, Nicolas’ lines are liquid and spontaneous.

These days, Nicolas’ inimitable approach inspires far beyond snowboarding. Following in the footsteps of rider-campaigners such as David Rastovich and Elise Garrigue, Nicolas has created his own agenda, and uses his position to educate others on environmental issues. Working closely with Burton, he even helped develop The Green Mountain Project, a collection of environmentally friendlier snowboard products.

I meet Nicolas for dinner early one evening. We’re dining alone in an upmarket Teton village restaurant – Nicolas’ choice as it has the best vegetarian cuisine in this steak-loving, cowboy town. It’s strangely silent for peak season, but that’s because the Super Bowl is on, resulting in loud cheers from the neighbouring hotel bar. There’s also an over-zealous waiter to contend with, who seems intent on hovering around. Distractions aside, soon enough drink and food arrive – and conversation starts to flow.

HUCK: Most people would kill to snowboard for a living. But I’ve got to ask: does anything about pro snowboarding ever piss you off?
Nicolas Müller: Actual snowboarding, on a great day, will never get old or boring. But the daily routine is always the same. I don’t know, I’ve been doing this for a long time – a long, long time. I started snowboarding in 1992, I stopped school at sixteen and since then I have snowboarded for a living. I’ve been to all the contests, been motivated, a couple of them I won, and then you come back the next year and you’re like, ‘I could win again or…?’ After a while it gets kind of boring. So now, it’s powder trips that I enjoy the most. This contest is really cool though – you get to ride for a week with your friends.

Are you bummed out on it all?
I’m not bummed out, but what really gave me joy before, it changes you know; you grow up, times change… I snowboard all year, then snowboard all summer in New Zealand and then I go to all the premieres. Over the last two years, I do so many premieres and promotions in the fall, that when it gets to November, when the winter should start, I can’t even go snowboarding. I’m usually so over it. But then I have the Air and Style, where I’m expected to do good, show a new trick, spin… I just need a break from it. Just clear my head in general, you know?

Do you think you’re a bit battered and tired?
Yes, but then no… This is me right now. It’s like psychiatrist talk, but I don’t know… Sometimes I just have those moments, you know? I love snowboarding, and if it’s a great powder day I forget about everything. Even here, the day before the contest, I had one of the best days ever. But on the day of the contest I was like, [shrugs shoulders] ‘Whatever…’

You weren’t feeling it?
Yeah, I was just really not feeling it. I don’t know why. Here in the US, people are so friendly, everyone’s like, ‘Hey, how’s it going?’ but I’m like, ‘Dude, I don’t want to talk to you, I don’t want to go places, I just want to be alone’. Sometimes I take it, but sometimes I just don’t have the energy to make small talk. But maybe that’s because I don’t have a home? I look at it like everything happens for a reason, so it’s just something I have to learn to deal with.

Have you ever thought about going back to school or university?
I definitely want to learn but I don’t want to go to school, to learn crap based on somebody’s opinion. Okay, not everything is crap but – this could be a really long story – humans, right now, we’re in a time of change. A lot of people feel it. We’re coming into a new age, the golden age, starting 2012. It’s just a number which is calculated from the Maya culture of time, but I do believe that there is a new age coming up. People are going to be more conscious. What life is about right now in the world is having a good life. Everything is easy: you have a car, you have an elevator, you have TV, you can order things online. Where’s the meaning? It’s like nobody knows. We’re totally in the dark; tripping in the dark, if you know what I mean. That is definitely some people, but not me; that is not my life. House, wife, kids, car, everything; that is not what life is about. There is so much more, you know. A secret… I don’t know.

Have you ever been into Buddhism or Indian philosophy at all? I know there is the idea of world consciousness and us all being connected by energy there… Is that something you’ve looked into?
Yeah, not too much yet, but I definitely want to look into it. Maybe it’s because of where I am right now; today I waited all day for two runs and am like, ‘What am I doing?’ This contest is sick, the snow is amazing, and Travis is doing an awesome job but… [pauses]. I sent Jake [Burton] a book called Cradle to Cradle, which is about a total solution to how we make products – anything. Like this chair, the paint on the walls, our carpet, our clothes, it’s always made the same way, resulting in a dead end where they end up burnt or in landfill. Burton was a huge part of that; all those bindings, boots, boards, clothes, everything – there was nothing recyclable… That’s why we started the Green Mountain Project.

www.arcusclothing.com

To read the full feature, check out Huck #013.

… Snowboarding seems very focused on the next young kid, yet you won this award at 30 years old. What do you think about the age factor?
The bar is getting raised all the time, but snowboarding has so many different paths. There are so many ways to ride what the mountain offers to you. I guess I started snowboarding when I was 15 or 16 and started with kids who were 5 or 6 years younger than me. I just saw footage from Mark Schultz, this guy who is our guide for sledding. His kid is one-and-a-half and he has his first filmed run already. Look at Terje—he is breaking world records. How old is he? That air obviously woke people up. You have guys like Shin Campos in Whistler; maybe some guys get lost in the backcountry—you don’t see what they are doing, but it’s going on.

They don’t call that guy the Wizard for no reason. You have to put in a lot of time in a place as big as Whistler to know the terrain, like that. Look at surfing, guys like Mark Occhilupo, guys like Danny Way. These guys prove you can you can step it up after 30. No problem. But the creativity, the whole movement of snowboarding depends on the youth. Its so cool now to see kids like Kevin [Pearce] and Scotty [Lago] coming up to AK—its really sick to see them ride and see the flavor they bring into snowboarding. The best heat ever this year, was watching Danny [Davis] and Kevin at the Air & Style riding together. Such good friends, throwing down back-to-back frontside 10s and then chest-bumping in the landing. It’s rad, man.
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