The golden age of backcountry snowboarding is a contentious topic. You can ask ten different people and you'll get ten regionally-biased answers. But, in the context of European freestyle snowboarding, there's a mountain pass high in the Alps that surely influenced the snowboard world at large. Best part is, no one really knew about it until now.
To the public, it's known as "Le Col de Cou", but to David Vladyka and a handful of snowboarders, it was christened "The Zone"—an attempt to safeguard a pristine territory for the Absinthe crew. We get it, too...untouched zones have always been a rarity.
So, fast forward 20 years, and Absinthe Films is ready to show the world what we've been missing. Maybe they got tired of gatekeeping this little slice of heaven, or, more likely, they have too many clips to know what to do with. Either way, the coordinates are on the movie poster and the obscurity surrounding "La Zone" is a thing of the past. Soon enough, Mat Schaer and David Vladyka will unveil the history behind Europe's greatest freestyle years while simultaneously adding another page to the story of "La Zone". Get ready.
All Photos by: Michael Cordey
