Mount St. Elias

Empty. Already the fifth can of Red Bull today. "I have already cut back; I was by up to twelve a day!" Axel Naglich is a real testimonial for his sponsor Red Bull. He likes the drink, seems almost to be a little bit addicted. But Axel is truly addicted to snow and his beloved sport on two boards. "Skiing is just awesome", he says with an incredible gleam in his eyes. The 43 years-old grew up in Kitzbuhel, in a house just across from the downhill "Streif", where now his architect's office is based. No doubt, Axel was standing on two boards at an early age. But nobody grew up as he did. For eleven years Axel was enlisted as a forerunner in the Hahnenkamm downhill race, yet he never stuck to the classical alpine racing sport.

His path led to more exotic challenges: the 24-hours race in Aspen, the ski cross, the X-Games and the "Red Bull Snow Thrills" in Chamonix. Last but not least it led to his own initiative as a free skier, to the precipitous white lines which ideally no one has found before him. No guidelines or regulations, pure freedom. However Axel always is a multisport athlete, who has competed in several Ironman events and loves climbing. His evolution from extreme free skier towards being one of the best ski alpinists makes perfect sense. His philosophy: Whenever possible, whatever he goes down, he first climbs on his own power.

"To climb on high mountains then ski down them is one of the last great adventures in an over-civilized, double and triple-secured world. The higher and wilder the mountains are, the more you sense yourself." He already has countless first descents and ascents in the Alps, New Zealand and the Caucasus. Flying by Mount St. Elias, while scouting a site for a speed skiing world record attempt, pilot Paul Claus told Axel the history of two Americans who tried in 2002 to find lines down the Yaas'eit'aa Shaa, as the mountain is called by the Tlingits. They were killed. Since then no one dared to approach to the second-highest mountain of the USA which is in one of the wildest ones, since it is located in one of the most archaic corners of our planet.

It rises 5,489 meters in 25 kilometers, with a unique profile and incredible steep flanks from the summit all the way down to the Gulf of Alaska. Relatively, Mount St. Elias can be seen the highest snowy mountain of the world, considering that only 3,500 meters of Mount Everest (8,848 meters) rise above the Tibetan highlands. Extreme, unpredictable changes of weather, freezing temperatures, large avalanches, rock fall: Mount St. Elias is an exceptional, and extremely dangerous mountain. "Wow, cool mountain, that would be something," Axel said during the flight. And the dream was born. Axel has always been a guy who lives his dreams. "I think that's very important. What do I get from my life if I don't do what I want?

Many have told me, the mountain cannot be conquered. But I have my own ideas of happiness and success. An image of what is fun and of what is possible. In this respect maybe I am a dreamer." Consequently, he shares his life only with people who see life the same way, or at least understand him. Such a friend was his first contact person Peter "Resl" Ressmann. When Axel showed him pictures of this beautiful mountain that is at once so attractive and so terrifying, "I knew exactly that Resl ticks as well as I do. Sport is not about records for us. The fact that this could be the longest downhill in the world was not a driving factor for us. There was more.

There was simply the feeling: What a crazy mountain in such an area, completely beyond civilization. My God, it would be great to go down it." But such a dream needs a lot of money to come true. "The scale of the project Mount St. Elias's would become not only with respect to sports but also organizationally (an entire other dimension) - was very quickly clear to me. It was also clear that this would only be financed if Gerald came along and produced an unusual film from there." For Gerald Salmina, director and producer, the project "Mount St. Elias" would become the most expensive and riskiest film project of his life thus far.

"Actually, we had planned to take Paul's plane, make a little cruise through Alaska, do some mountaineering and skiing, then crown the trip with the descent of Elias. But we quickly saw that we needed to peak without foreplay. The mountain is challenging enough. The only way to finance it was to get suitable film funding. Instead of TV filming, we needed to make a movie which would be more expensive and complex." Therefore, all the planning took almost four years. "And so we had a lot more people there than we really wanted." "Mount St. Elias" became an impressive and successful documentary. Nevertheless, it is "only" a movie which could not begin to show the whole reality, and which forced the partners on site to make many compromises.

What Axel and his team saw from 6 May to 12 August 2007, is indeed hard to imagine. His personal highlights at Mount St. Elias: "First, that we even arrived at the mountain." He had to defend his plan from the beginning, as Paul wanted them to actually fly up above the planned base camp. "The second highlight was that we survived the storm. We were quite close to the summit, at 5,150 meters when the weather suddenly turned. A hurricane, as I have never seen before, with temperatures of minus 30 degrees celsius and zero visibility. We endured all night shoveling into the ice cave. It was a pure fight for survival until we arrived at the Advanced base camp on Haydon Shoulder, and could be flown out, breaking off the expedition for the time being.

However, finally on August 11th, shortly after 12 o'clock noon Resl, Volker Holzner (guide), Günther Göberl (cameraman) and I reached the summit in victory. That was a very touching moment. I felt a very deep inner satisfaction. Standing on top of the summit, and being able to ski down, was the basic condition to make the project a success. Both of us had run the lower half to the ocean already before. The trip down the upper part was once again tricky. We knew each fall could kill us because of the steepness, avalanches or crevasses. The mountain does not forgive the slightest mistake. But I felt safe having my skis under me. Resl and I were totally focused and we made no mistakes. At the bottom saying goodbye to Mount St.

Elias we were able to ski comfortably, with fun and pleasure. My dream had become reality!" Has his life changed since then? "Not really. There was a short hype about the story. And it was without question the greatest sport event I've done so far. Challenging, protracted, frustrating, exhilarating - quite a new dimension in all respects. Above all for Gerald and me the responsibility and financing was an enormous burden. Already with that you're going to the mountain with a different tension than, for example, Resl, who could concentrate himself solely on the pure sport. The fear that the whole project might not work out was quite huge." Axel Naglich would not be himself if he did not already have new dreams.

Last year he was on Mount Everest, but without skis. With skis, K2 was in the process of being planned with Peter Ressmann and Fredrik Eriksson, whom he would have also liked having on Mount St. Elias. However, both had a fatal accident in the meantime. Therefore, and also for Axel's wife's sake, K2 is no longer in the cards. And Mount Cook in New Zealand, where he has previously failed four times? "It is certainly feasible, but it is just a gamble. You would need two, three years time to sit there, waiting for the right day. I have neither the time nor the financial resources. But I have a few other things in mind. Alaska among others," he says, but will not cough up any more details on that. Right now, the new focal point of his life is foremost his woman and his son Thaddäus born in September, 2011.