Skiing Under The Midnight Sun With Tao Kreibich
26-year-old Austrian Tao Kreibich has accomplished more than most in the short five years since becoming a professional skier, but one destination remained on his bucket list until April of 2023- the Arctic Circle.
Watch below as Kreibich charges hard under the midnight sun on the remote archipelago of Svalbard, less than 650 miles from the North Pole:
The team here at POWDER, myself included, were blown away by the sheer number of jaw-dropping lines Kreibich managed to jam into this edit.
His trip to the remote islands of Svalbard certainly proved fruitful, but how did this expedition come to be? We found ourselves scratching our heads and wanting to know more about the former Freeride World Tour skier's venture into these lands less-traveled.
Like any overly-stoked skier, we slid into Kreibich's DMs for a quick Q&A to get to the bottom of the video.
Read below:
Tell us a bit about yourself (where you're from, how long you've been a professional skier, other hobbies, etc.).
"I am Tao Kreibich, 26 years old from Austria. I‘ve been a professional skier since 5-6 years now. I was a ski racer when I was a kid and started freeriding with 16. I qualified for the Freeride World Tour in 2019 and skied on the World tour for two years.
After that I found out that another big passion of mine is producing videos and movies, so I started a Youtube channel which takes a lot of time at the moment but I am really enjoying the progress.
Other hobbies are surfing & kitesurfing, mountain biking, trekking. I would say traveling is my biggest hobby right now. I just wanna see as many new places as possible no matter if on skis or not."
What was it like skiing under the midnight sun?
"Skiing under the midnight sun was one life goal of mine and I loved it so much. We were camping out on a glacier when we decided to go for another line at 11pm.
The sun was shining it was a beautiful light and I skied two runs, first a mellow one with Sebastien Varlet, and after that I went for a pretty wild straight-line which gave me way too much adrenaline to go to bed afterwards.
I couldn’t sleep for hours and was thinking about polar bears coming to attack us all the time."
What challenges does skiing in the Arctic Circle present?
"The challenges are totally different from your normal ski day. One really big thing is there is no emergency helicopter or doctor or something like that.
You are out there, a few hours away from civilization with your skidoos (sleds). If something happens you have to make it back yourself nobody is gonna help you except your team.
At least one of the team always has to carry a rifle because of polar bears. We did night shifts watching out for polar bears and also every moment you are hiking on a mountain there could be a polar bear over the next ridge, you never know.
It doesn‘t get dark, 24 hours of daylight are pretty cool sometimes but it‘s also weird going to bed when the sun is shining. We carried a ton of stuff with us we had to bring 300l of fuel, food for 7 days for camping outside in -20 degrees, tents and warm stuff. And of course all our ski equipment which is the heaviest.
All in all I would say it‘s a massive effort and big risk for the whole team to make such a trip, but if it works out it is the greatest thing ever. We made really good friends and skied some first descents on some of the most beautiful mountains I have ever seen.
Fun fact: We had to poop in dog poop bags and take it back with us as nothing degrades in the arctic cold."
What can POWDER readers expect to see from you in the future?
"My future plans are more missions like this. I want to travel, explore new places and ski where nobody, or at least not many people have been before me. For example we also went to Lebanon last year to film some lines which was crazy.
I just want to find aesthetic freeride lines with big drops and special features that haven‘t been done before. I also love to capture all of that, to make some entertaining videos about my adventures. After competing all my life, this is what gets me excited and what makes skiing special to me, over and over again.
It’s not about showing how good I am, it’s more about doing something cool that I am proud of and making a cool video about it for everybody to enjoy."
You can subscribe to Tao's YouTube page here, or follow him @tao_kreibich.
Related: Sammy Carlson Talks His Mind-Blowing New Film
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