Lena Stoffel, Niseko backcountry, January 2020. Photo: me.

“I like to push my filmmaking, because I’m really passionate about it. I want to be creative, and tell a story which is meaningful and inspiring to experience nature the way I love it”

It can be funny how these episodes come together sometimes. You can spend months trying to arrange a meeting. Or you can randomly bump into somebody at the top of a backcountry run off the back of Niseko Annapurri, as happened with me and Lena in this case.

It was the type of welcome coincidence that has characterised my friendship with Lena Stoffel over the last few months. So after our day in the backcountry, we arranged to sit down in Niseko the next day to record this episode.

Circle of the Sun quiver. Photo: Inigo Grasset

I was keen to speak to her about her life and career as a skier, snowboarder, surfer, photographer and film-maker. Like all pro athletes in this world, Lena is a traveller, and I admire the way she’s putting herself out there with her recent projects. It takes a certain of amount of creative courage to think beyond the usual trick porn and attempt to explore the cultural hinterlands of skiing, surfing and snowboarding, as Lena is.

Classic Japow scenes. Photo: Aaron Jamieson

Her approach is now winning renown beyond the narrow horizons of our own little world. As you’ll hear, Lena is extremely humble, but as is so often the case, there’s a drive and creative ambition at work that is leading her onwards to ever more intriguing projects.

I really enjoyed this one, recorded on a lovely, snowy, calm afternoon in Niseko. Hope you do too.