UK EDITION
DECEMBER 2020, £3.50
BEYOND THE ORDINARY
SUBSCRIBE: GETREDBULLETIN.COM
ROCK
GOD
How Nepalese
climber NIMS
PURJA smashed
a century of
mountaineering
tradition
NEW MOVES
WHY CLASSICAL
DANCERS ARE TAKING
TO THE STREETS
STEFFLON DON
THE UK RAP STAR ON
DRAKE, DUTCH AND
LYRICAL DOMINATION
Discover at
True Wireless Earbuds
Skullcandy.co.uk
Discover at
Sensory Bass Headphones with Personal Sound
Skullcandy.co.uk
Editor’s letter
LOOKING
AHEAD
“The best way to predict the future,” US computer scientist Alan
Kay once said, “is to create it.” And in uncertain times this may
be better advice than ever – no matter what your walk of life. It’s
an idea our cover star Nims Purja (page 32) embraced when he
set out to smash the record for summiting the world’s 14 highest
peaks. His success has changed the face of mountaineering and
stretched our understanding of what humans are capable of.
We caught up with the Nepalese climber in the French Alps and
discovered that even his downtime is high-octane.
Innovating in the face of serious setbacks are the classical
dancers (page 48) taking to the streets of London to perform. As
theatres and performance venues have been shut down during
the pandemic – with those able to open sporadically empty of
audiences – these performers are taking matters into their own
hands. Despite injury, police raids and plenty of uncertainty,
they have created a series of distanced shows that are bringing
their talents to unexpected places – and people.
Plus, Birmingham-born rap star Stefflon Don (page 56) tells us
why social media is
killing creativity, and
how we can fix it. And
we hear about the
thrills and spills that
went into Europe’s
most ambitious bike
film (page 62), from the
riders who star in it.
We hope you enjoy
the issue.
Dual focus: photographer Sandro Baebler keeps Nims Purja
in his sights during our shoot in the French Alps Page 32
CONTRIBUTORS
THIS ISSUE
SANDRO BAEBLER
The Swiss photographer may
spend a lot of time shooting
actors in LA, but thanks to his
mountain-village upbringing
he felt at home in the French
Alps with our cover star,
mountaineer Nims Purja.
“Nims was really focused on
the goal of the shoot,” he says.
“Even in the studio without
aircon, he kept on his Summit
suit, built for the extreme
cold, for two hours.” Page 32
ALEX KING
“Lockdown and its aftermath
has been tough for everyone,”
says the Athens-based writer,
who was pleased to be in
London to catch DistDancing,
a programme of outdoor
performances by some of the
world’s leading dancers. “It
was great to link up with Chi
and her team, who, despite
all the restrictions, are doing
everything they can to dance
and entertain in a unique and
inspiring way.” Page 48
SANDRO BAEBLER (COVER), OSSI PIISPANEN
04 THE RED BULLETIN
EDITION
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CONTENTS
December 2020
8 Gallery: vertiginous volleyball
in the islands of Norway; taking
the tube in Tahiti; and riding
rock faces in the Swiss Alps
14 Chop local: New York rapper
Benny The Butcher serves up
some home-reared prime cuts
16 Rising inflation: up, up and
away in my beautiful balloon…
to the edge of space
19 Rolling back the years: how
one skateboarding diehard is
preserving its legacy in print
20 Flight of fantasy: experience
all the fun (ahem) of air travel
without leaving terra firma
23 Urban growth: meet the
Vietnamese visionary sowing the
seeds of change in architecture
62
Inside line: the
stories behind
the stunts in
freewheeling
movie adventure
The Old World
JULIAN MITTELSTAEDT JMVOTOGRAPHY
24 Sophie Williams
The Black activist and writer
on race, momentum, and why
people are listening at last
26 Fantastic Negrito
Inspiring words from the
Grammy-winning guitarist
who has truly lived the blues
28 Jenny Schauerte
The downhill skateboarder who
found the path to enlightenment
in the mountains of Turkey
32 Nims Purja
Climbed a peak today? Catch
up! This unstoppable ex-Gurkha
has – and he’ll probably fit in
another two before teatime
48 DistDancing
When lockdown hit, the world
of dance didn’t rest its feet –
instead, it stepped up its game
56 Stefflon Don
The Birmingham-born star on US
attitudes to UK rap, and why
she’d rather spit bars than sip tea
62 The Old World
Behind the scenes of a genuinely
epic, globe-spanning bike movie
75 Hunting high and slow: the simple
pleasures of kayaking off the
coast of the Scottish Highlands
will reconnect you with nature
80 Cold looks: ski goggles that adapt
to changing weather on the slopes
82 One-track mind: how to find mental
solutions for physical challenges
84 On the button: tracing the
evolution of gaming technology
87 Sharp eye: Razer’s Min-Liang Tan
– gaming innovator and cult hero
88 The revolutionary Yoga Shred:
old downward dog, new tricks
90 Sound purchase: our pick of the
best small speakers and wireless
earbuds you can buy right now
92 Essential dates for your calendar
98 Board and dodging: skate highjinks
in a giant’s labyrinth game
THE RED BULLETIN 07
FRODE SANDBECH/RED BULL CONTENT POOL
LOFOTEN, NORWAY
Peaky
ballers
What sport instantly springs to mind on seeing
this image? That’s right: beach volleyball. World
Championship medal-winners Anders Mol and
Christian Søren – that’s them playing a rally
between the two peaks – decided there was no
better spot for some pre-match training last
month than Lofoten in their native Norway. The
150m-high granite pillar known as Svolværgeita
(or ‘The Goat’) and the surrounding archipelago,
which sits inside the Arctic Circle, provide a
dramatic setting for this shot, taken by their
countryman Petter Forshaug. But we can only
imagine the scenes when they had to ask,
“Please, mister, can we have our ball back?”
petterfoshaug.com
09
RUSSELL ORD
TEAHUPO’O, TAHITI,
FRENCH POLYNESIA
Blue steel
When one of the world’s top surf
photographers teams up with one of
Tahiti’s most exciting young board riders,
magic happens. It was at Russell Ord’s
photography workshop in Teahupo’o last
year that the Australian snapper took
this jaw-dropping shot of local surfer
Matahi Drollet riding the perfect tube.
Drollet, now 23, was only eight when
he first surfed Teahupo’o’s notoriously
gnarly wave. Thank goodness they
gave the kid a break…
russellordphoto.com
11
CRANS-MONTANA,
SWITZERLAND
Sheer nerve
Some kids have a muddy patch of grass or a yard
at home to kick about in; for others, a trudge
to the local park is necessary. Self-proclaimed
“professional frozen water shredder” Nicolas
Vuignier and his brother Anthony, on the other
hand, had the luxury of Crans-Montana, a twintown
ski resort in the Swiss Alps, on their
doorstep. Here, we see the freeskier on home
turf (or rather, rock) as an adult, caught on film
by Geneva-based photographer Dom Daher. On
Instagram, Nicolas modestly describes this
extraordinary image as a “rainy wallride shoot”.
Who knew defying gravity could become so
mundane? domdaher.com
DOM DAHER
13
BENNY THE BUTCHER
Flexing
his chops
The New York rapper and
member of hip-hop collective
Griselda shares four classic
tracks from the Big Apple
that shaped his career
New York hip hop is enjoying a
renaissance right now, and among
those leading the charge is 35-yearold
rapper Jeremie Pennick, better
known as Benny the Butcher. Benny
and his hip-hop collective Griselda
– formed in Buffalo, NY, in 2012 –
have taken up the mantle laid down
by the likes of Wu-Tang Clan and
Mobb Deep in the ’90s, delivering
their own take on the hardcore
East Coast sound. In 2017, Eminem
signed Griselda to his Shady
Records imprint, and last year
Benny inked a deal with Jay-Z’s
management agency, Roc Nation.
With more than 15 years in the
game, payback has been a long
time coming for Benny. Here, he
pays homage to some of the tracks
that helped get him there…
Benny The Butcher’s new album
Burden of Proof is out now on
Griselda Records; griseldafxr.com
Marley Marl feat
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool
G Rap & Big Daddy Kane
The Symphony (1988)
“My pops was one of the biggest
hip-hop fans alive. He listened
to everything, and I got to take
it all in from the back seat of the
car. That’s how I first heard The
Symphony. Those keys Marley
Marl took from Otis Redding
were stupid, and the way Kool
G Rap rhymed his syllables was
crazy. A monumental record.”
The Notorious BIG
Juicy (1994)
“Juicy was a huge moment for
New York. It came out at a time
when the West Coast had the
game in a headlock, so we
were happy to have a record
like this. I remember being a
kid and whenever it came on
the radio everyone would just
smile. It’s not just one of the
biggest New York anthems
ever, it’s one of the biggest
hip-hop anthems, period.”
Nas feat Lauryn Hill
If I Ruled The World (Imagine
That) (1996)
“Hearing Nas and Lauryn on
a record together was special;
there’s no way this would have
been the same without them.
It was so New York – the video
was shot in Times Square – yet
it had an undeniable universal
appeal. It ended up being a
blueprint for so many artists
who wanted to recreate that
same feeling for years to come.”
Puff Daddy & The Family
It’s All About The Benjamins
(1997)
“The first time I heard this, all
I could think about was how
crazy the beat was. Then this
verse from Sheek [from guests
The LOX] got me: ‘I’m strictly
tryin’ to cop those colossalsized
Picassos.’ I mean, c’mon.
Puff is so good at putting
people together; it’s like he’s
coaching an All-Star team. It
definitely influenced Griselda.”
WILL LAVIN
14 THE RED BULLETIN
Commemorating the very first aviators and explorers
sharing their heritage with Longines.
Howard Hughes,
a famous inventive
pioneer in the world
of aviation, circumnavigated
the globe
in record time, using
his trusted Longines
aviation chronometers
and chronographs
to guide him safely
over land and sea.
In 1935, Howard Hughes was
the fastest flyer in the world.
He set the airspeed record of
352mph (566 km/h). But
what makes Hughes’ story so
especially impressive, is that
the plane he flew in, was of
his own design. Hughes was no
ordinary record-breaking
pilot — he was also an aeronautical
engineer, business
magnate and successful
Hollywood movie producer.
Yet it was his fighting spirit
and courage in the face of
the unknown, that compelled
him to keep pushing forward.
Just a few years later, Hughes
circumnavigated the globe.
His journey took him only
3 days, 19 hours and
14 minutes… and of course,
he was the fastest man to
do so. Hughes always trusted
his Longines astronavigation
chronometer to determine
the exact position of his
airplane at night, in total
darkness and over the many
vast oceans he crossed.
How we face the fall is what
separates the pioneer spirit
from the rest. Falling with
elegance, when all the odds
are stacked against you.
Trying, failing, fighting and
triumphing with elegance.
This is what’s remembered,
what remains — when all
else has been stripped away.
The Longines Spirit Collection
was crafted to embody precisely
this. A careful blend of
elegance, tradition and performance
— with the same distinct
features that were tailored
to assist the very first aviators:
from the proofed accuracy to
the oversized winding crown,
to be adjusted easily while
wearing gloves; prominent
high-contrast numerals; and
hands with luminescent
coating, for nighttime flying.
A powerful reminder that
the pioneer spirit lives on.
Raising expectations: an artist’s impression of the balloon and capsule – think Major Tom rather than Phileas Fogg
SPACE PERSPECTIVE
View from
the top
This company plans to float its passengers to the edge
of our stratosphere using a space-age hot-air balloon
Sipping a cocktail aboard
a spaceship while admiring
the view of Earth might
sound like something plucked
from science fiction, but from
next year it could become
reality. Space Perspective is a
spaceflight startup co-founded
by married US couple Jane
Poynter and Taber MacCallum,
who plan to send passengers
into the stratosphere in style
in Spaceship Neptune, a
pressurised, eight-person
cabin attached to a 198m-tall,
hydrogen-filled balloon.
Launched from NASA’s
Kennedy Space Center in
Florida, the capsule will travel
to an altitude of up to 30km,
where passengers will have
a couple of hours to gaze
down on their home planet
through Neptune’s huge
windows before descending
back to Earth.
Space tourism first came
into being in 2001, when
American entrepreneur Dennis
Tito bought a flight to the
International Space Station
for a reported $20 million
(almost £16 million), and
subsequently prices have kept
such an experience exclusive to
the super-rich. But Spaceship
Neptune, while only taking
you close to the edge of space,
promises to be far cheaper.
“Our prices will start off at
$125,000 [£98,000], but
should come down pretty
quickly,” says MacCallum.
The Space Perspective
experience also feels more
attainable in other ways. This
is not an intense lesson in
space travel – the capsule has
a fully stocked bar on board,
as well as “the toilet with the
best view in the known
universe,” says MacCallum.
“[On Neptune] you can have
a glass of champagne with
your best friend and look out
at the curvature of Earth.
I think that will be a very
moving experience. We also
have Wi-Fi, so it will be the
ultimate social media post.”
Poynter and MacCallum
have worked in space
development for decades,
and were part of the original
crew that spent two years in
the early ’90s sealed inside
the closed ecological research
facility Biosphere 2 in the
Arizona desert, to better
understand the challenges
of intergalactic colonisation.
“The more people who think
about the world in the context
of space and the solar system,
the more we’ll see support for
the space programme and
science in general,” says
MacCallum. “Organisations like
Space For Humanity [a nonprofit
aimed at democratising
interstellar travel] are coming
to us to send teachers, poets
and artists, because they want
to break down that barrier.
Having those experiences and
conversations is important
because it makes you think
about our Earth and how we’re
all in it together.”
thespaceperspective.com
SPACE PERSPECTIVE LOU BOYD
16 THE RED BULLETIN
THE PIONEER
SPIRIT LIVES ON.
Why this watch? Well, there is a silicon balance-spring that means resistance to strong magnetic fields
and everyday shocks. Thanks to its improved accuracy and precision, it is a COSC-certified chronometer.
How much do we believe in these stunning members of our new Longines Spirit Collection? We are
delivering each one with a full five-year warranty.
W W W . R A D O N - B I K E S . C O M
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All rights reserved | Radon cannot be held responsible for misprints. Radon reserves the right to change prices.Offer valid while supplies last. Company headquarters: H&S Bike-Discount GmbH | Wernher-von-Braun-Str. 15 | 53501 Grafschaft
JEFFREY HALLERAN LOU BOYD
Inside San Diego resident
Kevin Marks’ home sits the
world’s largest collection of
skateboarding magazines.
His enormous library spans
multiple rooms, from floor to
ceiling, with issues fastidiously
filed by title, date and country
of publication, ranging from
the earliest independent zines
all the way to last month’s
Thrasher. It’s a passion project,
certainly, but this collection
is more than a mere hobby –
Marks is on a mission to find
and share with the world’s
board-riders every skate
magazine from history, to keep
the scene’s print legacy alive.
In 2020, skateboarding
lives online. With millions of
YouTube edits and dedicated
social media channels, anyone
looking to immerse themselves
in skate culture need only turn
to their phone. But back in the
’80s it was a different story.
“My love of skate magazines
originated from the fact that
I grew up skateboarding in the
middle of Kansas,” says Marks.
“I felt very far away from the
culture, but once I found [US
publications] Thrasher and
Transworld [SKATEboarding]
and got subscriptions, they
became my lifeline.”
He moved his growing
collection around the US for
30 years until 2015, when he
decided to put it to good use by
launching Look Back Library, a
public archive allowing access
to like-minded skate fans. “The
primary mission was not have
them sit in my home,” says
Marks, who previously worked
for a non-profit organisation
promoting skating in Colorado,
as well as singing and playing
guitar in local punk and metal
bands. “It was to build smaller
collections and get them out
to places where they can be
read, like skate shops, indoor
skateparks and skateboardrelated
non-profits.”
Look Back Library is no
longer a singular collection
but a sprawling community of
libraries and exhibits all over
LOOK BACK LIBRARY
Flick through the past
Skate enthusiast Kevin Marks owns the world’s biggest archive of
skateboarding magazines, and now he’s sharing it with all of us
Marks with his trove: “And this one’s about... skateboarding”
the US. On his travels by van
across the country, Marks has
collected thousands of unloved
and forgotten magazines from
homes, as well as set up many
exhibitions and repositories in
skateparks and skate shops,
both temporary and long-term.
“I left San Diego in April
2019, thinking that I was going
to build about four libraries,
but I ended up creating about
30 in six months,” he says.
“It has given me the chance
to work on something I love,
as well as the opportunity to
meet and work with other
skate nerds just like myself.”
lookbacklibrary.org
THE RED BULLETIN 19
Good news: there are cartoons. Bad news: here’s your meal. Worse news: you just dropped your stirrer
AIRPLANE MODE
Fasten your
seatbelts
Prepare for take-off in a new kind of flight simulator.
There are no tricky landings to execute or enemies
to shoot down, but your seat back might get kicked
Everyone has their own
relationship with flying. Some
find it exciting, some relaxing;
others consider the whole
process terrifying. It’s an
experience that has inspired
the world of gaming for
decades, with hundreds of
titles – most recently, the
2020 iteration of the popular
Microsoft Flight Simulator –
putting the player in the
cockpit to see how they
perform under pressure.
Of course, for most of us
flying is experienced as a
passenger, not as a pilot. And
that’s what games developer
Hosni Auji (below) has
replicated in Airplane Mode.
In the New Yorker’s unique
spin on the flying simulator,
you control none of the action
but instead play the passive
role of an everyday passenger
on a real-time long-haul flight.
Airplane Mode places the
player in an economy-class
seat on a six-hour flight from
New York’s JFK Airport to
Reykjavík, Iceland, or a
shorter two-and-a-half-hour
hop to Halifax, Canada. No
two flights are the same, and
the only certainty is that the
mundanity of the gameplay
will match the reality it’s
mimicking. Babies might cry,
turbulence may occur, and
the Wi-Fi will most likely
drop out; iPhones need to be
charged, movies played and
magazines read. In-flight
food and wine are served,
and the flight tracker on the
screen in front of you shows
how far you’ve flown.
“What I found interesting
early in the process is that
everyone seemed to have a
strong opinion about flying,
more so than any other form
of travel,” says Auji, originally
from Beirut, Lebanon. “At
some level, every part of
flying is unnatural. As a
species, our urge to fly broke
through our evolutionary
limitations. That we fly at all
is crazy; that we fly while
begrudgingly sipping wine on
reclining chairs is patently
absurd. By putting players
in the position where they’re
confronting flight – not how
they’re used to seeing it in
games but more how they see
it in life – we hope to capture
a bit of that absurdity.”
At a time of restricted
travel, it may have surprised
us how much we crave not
only the thrill of visiting
destinations but also the
process involved in getting
there. Auji’s game questions
why we yearn for what is a
tedious and often torturous
necessity. “Our intention
is to give players a unique
gaming experience, and
the flights are meant to be
nostalgic,” he says.
So that players are truly
immersed in the simulation,
there’s no option to pause it
and return later. “We decided
the player would need to
complete the flight in one
sitting – the game doesn’t
save your mid-flight progress.
You will get those air miles
once you land, though.”
playairplanemode.com
AMC GAMES LOU BOYD
20 THE RED BULLETIN
FORD
RANGER
RAPTOR
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STAND IN YOUR WAY.
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HIROYUKI OKI JOSHUA ZUKAS
As the booming commercial
hub of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh
City is a whirlwind of chaos.
But in the eye of the storm
sits a cluster of houses where
humans, trees and birds
coexist peacefully. People
occupy the lower levels, but
the roofs are giant plant pots,
each with trees sprouting from
a thick layer of soil. Chirping
birds nest in their branches,
quelling the noisy invasion
of traffic and construction.
House for Trees is an
experimental project by Vo
Trong Nghia (pictured below),
the Vietnamese visionary
whose commitment to the use
of natural building materials
has earned him the label ‘the
bamboo architect’. Nghia, 44,
wants to see greener and more
liveable cities in his home
country and beyond. House for
Trees’ forest canopy provides
natural shade from the tropical
sun, while the soil absorbs
water and reduces the risk of
flooding. The houses were also
cheap to build – each one cost
around £120,000.
“It’s about reintroducing
nature into modern life,” says
the devout Buddhist. Nghia
harnesses mindfulness to
keep his firm’s commitment to
green architecture on track;
his employees’ job descriptions
include two hours of meditation
each day. He also asks that
his staff at VTN Architects
observe the Five Precepts of
Buddhism: no killing, no lying
or gossiping, no stealing or
cheating, no engagement in
sexual misconduct, and no
consumption of intoxicants.
The practice of meditation
coupled with a respect for the
Five Precepts makes Nghia’s
20 or so architects “10 times
more efficient,” he says. The
small team undertakes an
extraordinary number of
increasingly ambitious projects.
In 2016, on the outskirts of the
old port town of Hoi An, VTN
Architects designed the Atlas
Hotel in simple brick, but with
exteriors hung with greenery.
Putting down
roots: House For
Trees resembles
five giant planters
VO TRONG NGHIA
Bloom town
This Vietnamese architect is cultivating inner-city happiness with
flourishing vegetation and a spiritual homegrown philosophy
Three years later, in Da Nang
– another of Vietnam’s fastdeveloping
cities – it gave the
entire 21-floor Chicland Hotel
a façade of lush foliage.
At its HQ in Ho Chi Minh
City, the firm is now working
on enormous green apartment
blocks that will house
thousands of people, and
also office buildings designed
to connect employees with
nature. “I want the whole city
to look like a huge park,” he
explains. But Nghia knows
that for his architecture to be
truly sustainable, his buildings
must be timeless in their
design and long-lasting in
their structural integrity. “The
most important thing,” he
says, “is that all my buildings
outlast me.”
vtnarchitects.net
THE RED BULLETIN 23
Sophie Williams
Starting the
conversation
The author and activist has been talking
about race for as long as she can remember.
Now, she says, people are listening
Words RUTH McLEOD
Photography REBECCA PETTS DAVIES
Sophie Williams is back at her flat
in London after recording the audio
version of her new book, Anti-Racist
Ally. “As a child, I’d listen to an
audiobook every night,” she says,
“so it’s funny to find myself reading
out the ‘written by Sophie Williams,
read by Sophie Williams’ bit.”
The situation is all the more
surreal for Williams because at the
start of 2020 the book wasn’t even
part of her plans. In January, the
former chief operating officer (COO)
in advertising started an Instagram
account to build a community for
Millennial Black, her guide for Black
women and business owners, out next
April. On May 28, she posted a set of
slides defining the difference between
being non-racist and anti-racist, and
offering advice for would-be allies.
It blew up. “I saw the number [of
likes] go up and up,” she says. “You
can see on my Fitbit stats, there’s an
evening where I’m going to bed, all
chilled out, then I get a message:
‘Is this your post on Justin Bieber’s
grid?’ My heart rate spikes!”
Since then, Williams, 33, has
gained more than 180,000 followers
and, among many other things, run
a poster campaign in London, set up
an online merch store in aid of mental
health charity Black Minds Matter,
written for The Guardian about world
change, and finished both books.
But, as strange as this year has been
for Williams, she was ready. “I’ve
never been good at picking my
battles. I’m someone who’s always
had these conversations. The change
now is that people want to listen.”
THE RED BULLETIN: What was the
strategy to get your message heard?
SOPHIE WILLIAMS: Actually, the
reason I felt able to start posting is
because I didn’t think anyone was
listening – I had only a couple of
hundred followers. I really don’t
know what changed that. I made my
first post because the day after the
murder of George Floyd I spent the
day crying. Bad stuff kept happening
to Black people, things that were
literally costing people their lives.
Then there was the conversation
about COVID and how that was
disproportionately affecting Black
people, and it all felt like too much.
And that led to Anti-Racist Ally…
Yes, it became clear there are people
who want to start their ally-ship
journey, and I wanted them to have
something physical to refer to. It’s a
deliberately small book, 180 pages,
as cheap as my publisher would
allow. I want people to treat it as a
shareable resource. It’s a beginners’
guide. Every other page has a graphic
statement like, ‘Not being racist is not
enough,’ along with advice. It’s broken
down for people who want to be part
of this but haven’t yet been able. Or
for those who have started and want
to keep up the momentum.
How do we keep it up?
What I’m seeing now, which is scary,
is that people are already losing
momentum in this conversation. It
makes me so sad; it feels like the only
thing that keeps people galvanised is
a new video of a Black person being
murdered. I don’t want any more
videos, but I do want people to stay
interested. I ask them to change oneoff
actions into habits. So if anyone
is donating, I ask them if they can
make it a standing order. You can
make a template for people to write
to their MP – that will help many
others. You can form an accountability
group: on my social, I ask what people
have done that week. Being able to
check in with others and have them
check in with you is really valuable.
Millennial Black addresses issues
faced by Black women at work. Was
personal experience an influence?
Yes, I wrote it because I needed it.
I was a Black COO in an ad agency
and people didn’t know what to do
with me. When third parties came
in, they’d presume I was the person
who’d be taking notes or making the
coffee. [With this book] I wanted
to first of all say [to Black women],
“You’re not alone.” And I wanted
to tell business leaders, “This is the
business benefit of including this
group of people.” I’ve found that
the most effective approach. What
I didn’t want the book to do was tell
Black women they need to change
themselves to succeed. I ended up
speaking to many amazing people,
like [model and transgender activist]
Munroe Bergdorf, [author and
influencer] Candice Brathwaite and
[Star Wars actress] Naomi Ackie –
inspirational Black women from
different industries and backgrounds,
with different experiences.
Can you see change happening?
We’re in a civil rights movement, and
people ask, “How will we know when
we’ve won?” There are no quick wins.
I’m having the same conversations
my mum did, and her mum before
that. These are multigenerational
struggles. But hopefully, together,
we can make iterative changes over
time. I just ask that people read
about race, understand race, and
understand white people are not
raceless people. Letting something
happen and not speaking out is an
action, too. I hope that change
happens – and I want to be part of it.
Williams’ book Anti-Racist Ally is out
now, published by HarperCollins.
Instagram: @officialmillennialblack;
@sophiewilliamsofficial
24 THE RED BULLETIN
“Letting
something
happen and
not speaking
out is an
action”
THE RED BULLETIN 25
Fantastic Negrito
Taking an
outside chance
The Grammy-winning blues guitarist reveals how
a hard-learnt education in hustling helped score him
one of the most unlikely careers in music
Words FLORIAN OBKIRCHER
Photography LYLE OWERKO
In 1996, Xavier Dphrepaulezz was
bound for superstardom. After being
taken under the wing of Prince’s
former manager, the guitarist had
just signed a million-dollar deal with
major label Interscope – not bad for
a young man who grew up in a house
with 14 siblings, ran away at the age
of 12, and got involved in petty
crime during his teens on the streets
of Oakland, California. But then
life took another U-turn. His debut
album was a flop. Then, in 1999,
a near-fatal car accident put him in
a coma and mangled his strumming
hand; Interscope dropped him.
When Dphrepaulezz picked up
his guitar again several years later,
he had a new mantra: don’t try to
please anyone and don’t chase trends.
He reinvented himself as delta
blues guitarist Fantastic Negrito,
playing raw protest songs, dressing
outlandishly, and making statements
others might find uncomfortable.
This new direction has earned the
52-year-old the Grammy award for
Contemporary Blues Album in 2017
and 2019, and praise from the likes
of Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders.
THE RED BULLETIN: What’s your
aim when you write a song?
FANTASTIC NEGRITO: Basically, every
song I write, I write for my kids.
I ask myself, “What do I want to tell
my kids?” The things I sing about
are openness, equality, healing,
accountability, a little bit of the
middle finger. I think we need all of
these things in our toolbox in order
to navigate through this construct
of society. Most importantly, I want
them to know: don’t let anybody tell
you what you can or can’t do.
Is that a rule you live by?
I mean, look at me! I released my
first Fantastic Negrito album at 46.
People in the music industry, they’re
bean counters. They didn’t get it at all.
They’re like, “Wait a minute, you’re
not a rapper, you’re not a pretty
white girl singing pop.” I didn’t fit
into any of these categories, and yet
here we are. So I like to think that
Fantastic Negrito is for all the people
who’ve been told no; all the people
who didn’t get picked for the team.
So Fantastic Negrito is the patron
saint of outsiders?
Absolutely! Aged 12, I ran away from
home and never saw my family again.
I was living on the street. I was
hustling for food, for water, trying to
find an abandoned car to sleep in.
I was hustling to that mentality of
surviving. I wasn’t hustling to rip
people off – although I did do some
of that – I was mostly trying to eat!
When it came time to create Fantastic
Negrito, I picked up the guitar and
was like, “I know how to do this: you
just don’t take no for an answer.”
What makes a good hustler?
It’s someone who gets things done;
someone who turns bullshit into the
good shit. When I was homeless, I
faked my way into the University of
California, Berkeley. I pretended to be
a music student coming to practise.
I sat there and just listened to what
people were playing, to learn. The
first thing I did after my accident was
lease a grand piano so I could just
clunk with my hands. I don’t believe
in giving up. I’m a lifelong hustler.
How does a two-time Grammy
winner hustle?
I’m still on the outside of things.
People still ask me, “Why don’t you
do something easy, like this ’60s
retro thing?” They’re basically asking
me to make them feel comfortable.
But listen, I don’t give a fuck about
making people feel comfortable.
Being an artist is about confronting
society. Making people comfortable?
That bores the shit out of me. I don’t
care about selling records; what I care
about is liberty as a human being.
What does liberty mean to you?
It’s about not giving a fuck. It’s the
most powerful thing you can do. All
my heroes made their best music
when they didn’t give a fuck, when
they didn’t try. I’m a firm believer in
that. Because when you give a fuck
you lend yourself to this repressed
fantasy that people in power have
of where we should fit. So that they
feel comfortable. Why are we living
in a society that’s openly medicated?
I don’t drink or smoke – I don’t need
that. Because I feel liberated, I don’t
give a fuck. It’s a beautiful thing.
How do you get there?
Through failure and disappointment.
I got there from watching my little
brother killed at 14, seeing him on
the ground with a hole in his head. I
got there from seeing my 16-year-old
cousin in a casket. I got there from
losing my playing hand. But I also
got there from walking the streets as
a kid, trying to find a way. Finding
out who I am, embracing who I am,
then celebrating who I am and, most
importantly, not making apologies
to people for who I am. I don’t need
anybody’s permission, because I feel
amazing. And I want to pass that on
to people who may not feel amazing.
That’s what I want to pass on to my
kids, your kids, your grandkids. I
feel like that’s my mission.
Fantastic Negrito’s third album Have
You Lost Your Mind Yet? is out now;
fantasticnegrito.com
26 THE RED BULLETIN
“I don’t need
anybody’s
permission,
because I
feel amazing”
THE RED BULLETIN 27
Jenny Schauerte
The road
less travelled
The German downhill skateboarder
came to the UK to learn about adrenalin.
She left with the key to inner happiness
Words RUTH McLEOD
Photography TOMÁŠ TEGLÝ
When Jenny Schauerte began
downhill skating six years ago, she
says she found the key to inner
happiness. The 32-year-old has since
become one of the world’s best in the
sport, which involves racing down
steep roads on a longboard at speeds
of up to 100kph, often – outside
competition – while negotiating
oncoming traffic. It has introduced
Schauerte to lifelong friends and seen
her travel extensively; she has also
used her passion for sport, adrenalin
and filmmaking as therapy in testing
times. Her latest project, the fly-onthe-wall-style
film Woolf Women, is
the story of a skate pilgrimage to an
ancient monastery in the Turkish
mountains. A celebration of downhill
skating, travel and sisterhood, it
marks the German’s transition from
lone wolf to head of her own pack.
THE RED BULLETIN: You started
downhill skating in London,
which isn’t exactly known for its
mountains. How come?
JENNY SCHAUERTE: I’m from
Bavaria in Germany, but I did my
bachelor’s [degree] in graphic
design in London. Then I was
accepted by Central St Martins to
study my master’s in communication
design, and my thesis was about
adrenalin and how it can influence
our emotions. I started doing
research, looking at sports that are
really connected to adrenalin, and
I found downhill skateboarding.
So you had never skated before?
Why did you have such an interest
in adrenalin?
I had some experience. I was three
years old when I first learnt how
to ski, and then at the age of nine
I learnt snowboarding, so actually
I’m a snowboarder. But when I did
the research and found downhill
skateboarding, I thought, ‘Wow,
it’s like snowboarding for summer.’
So I decided to look into it a bit
deeper. I had to know how it feels.
The first time I longboarded
properly was in Crystal Palace Park
[in southeast London].
What did you expect to discover
about the effects of adrenalin?
I wasn’t sure at the start. But
experiencing it on my own body
changed a lot. I knew how it was
when I was snowboarding: you don’t
think about anything but what
you’re doing in that moment; you
have to focus. But [downhill]
skateboarding requires even more
focus, because you do fall and crash
a lot at the start. To have that
singular focus and not think about
anything else but what’s happening
with your body right now in this
moment was mind-blowing. It
changed my whole perception of life
in some ways. I was going through
depression and I found [skating]
could really take me out of it. A
regular adrenalin rush is, in my
eyes, the secret to inner happiness.
Where has skating taken you?
Everywhere! First, at an
international race in Bavaria, some
girls who weren’t participating took
me to some backstreets to skate.
They were like, “Wow, Jen, you’re
going super-fast.” In the beginning,
I wasn’t able to properly brake; I was
just going as fast as I could, then
realising, “Shit, now I need to stop!”
Skating with these girls was so
empowering, and I knew I wanted to
keep doing it. Then I signed myself
up to a small event in Austria and I
came fourth – in my first race! Little
successes here and there push you
to want more and go faster. I also
got to know the community, and it
was a big family. You feel part of
something, and it’s wonderful – it
really enlightened me. Since then,
skating has taken me around the
world. I’ve seen a lot of Asia, South
America, all of Europe; I’ve been
to the US, South Korea, China…
I started properly skating in 2014,
then in 2016 I came second in the
world championships. I came third
in 2017, and second again in 2018.
Then last year I injured my knee
and couldn’t race.
Injury seems like a regular thing
in downhill skating. How fast do
you actually go?
My fastest recorded speed was on
a racetrack in Vermont [USA], and
the police came with a speed gun to
measure it for fun. I reached 62mph
[100kph]. It’s crazy. If you crashed
and you weren’t wearing leathers,
it would shred you.
So what was it that got you
hooked on the sport?
The adrenalin, of course. And when
I compete, basically I want to have
fun. For me, skating is about
travelling with other skateboarders
too, sharing that like-mindedness,
talking about roads and mountains.
You get a very different perception
of the world. When I was in London
I met a friend, Russ, from Lithuania.
He was the first person to teach me
to do a slide in the backstreets of
Greenwich Park. Then we started
travelling to Wales in my van. You
develop not only a friendship but
you have to trust the other person
with your life. We have to spot for
each other, for example. We have
little systems. When there’s a road
with traffic, we have one person at
each corner, and the first one does
the sign that you can go. If there’s
a car coming, we cross our arms over
28 THE RED BULLETIN
“Skating
changed my
whole perception
of life”
THE RED BULLETIN 29
Jenny Schauerte
our faces to say ‘stop’. Travelling
and living together bonds you. That
was where the ‘wolf-pack’ feeling
began. There are not many of us
[downhill skaters] and people just
don’t know about the sport. So by
making a film I wanted more people
to be aware that we exist.
Who are the Woolf Women?
When I started racing around
Europe, I suddenly met all of these
amazing women. It was incredible
that there were all these girls out
there like me, who love to travel,
skate, and are stoked about finding
a nice road. We skated together and
started bonding. I remember when
I was a teenager I always dreamt
of having a clique or a group who
belonged to me somehow, but I was
always alone until that point. Now,
I’m part of a group who like to
explore, who are open to new
things, and who love nature and
the environment. Other people
just do a lot of talking, but when
we have an idea we go for it. We like
“We’re
fearless but
also curious”
Speed freaks: the thrill of downhill skating is addictive
stepping out of our comfort zone
and feeling the adrenalin. We’re
fearless but also curious. I started
filming everything with my GoPro
because these girls are so cool. I
posted a clip called ‘Woolf Women’
and people really liked it, so the five
of us decided to make a film.
And it came at an important time
for you…
Unfortunately I lost my father three
years ago, which was a real shock,
and I became [depressed] again.
Skating with these women is like
medicine. I knew it would sort me
out and help me process [the loss].
The trip is a bit of a pilgrimage to
light a candle for my father on a
beautiful mountain. And the girls
are there to help me push through it.
So it’s not just about crazy skating –
we had a story to tell. At one point,
all the girls were lying on the floor
and we had this big map, wondering
where we should go. We found
Sumela, a beautiful monastery built
into the [Pontic] mountains in
Turkey, and I knew that was a place
my father would have liked to visit.
And no one had ever skated down
from there. So I prepped my van,
Bimbo, and set off on the 10,000km
round trip to Turkey.
Was making the film the medicine
you needed?
It was fucking wonderful. We tried
and failed to fish, and we almost
didn’t get from Bulgaria into Turkey
as we didn’t have the right papers.
Then, in Istanbul, we met the one
and only downhill skateboarder in
Turkey, who showed us a few great
spots. When we finally saw the
monastery, the view was worth all
the effort to get there. On Google
Maps’ satellite view, the road down
from the monastery looked like
a dirt path, but when we got there
it was fresh tarmac! It felt like
divine intervention. That was the
real highlight – we skated all the
way down from the monastery to
the valley.
Woolf Women: (from left) Jenny Schauerte, born in Boston, USA, but raised in
Bavaria, Germany; Anna Pixner from Austria; Lisa Peters from the Netherlands;
Jasmijn ‘Jas’ Hanegraef from Belgium; Alejandra Gutierrez from Colombia
What does a Woolf Woman do
when she can’t travel?
I was about to go and race and travel
around the world this year, but
obviously COVID stopped that. For
me, it turned into a chance to create
a base, somewhere I can come back
to after living out of my van for two
years. I moved to Innsbruck, Austria,
as most of the Woolf Women live
here, and outside my house you
can go and climb a mountain. You
can explore in the area you live in.
That’s my advice: now is the chance
to discover all the small adventures
around you that you never imagined
were there.
Schauerte’s film, Woolf Women,
premiered at this year’s Raindance
Film Festival and will be released
next spring; woolfwomen.com
LAUREEN MAHIEU
30 THE RED BULLETIN
The Outdoors Beckons
Elite Product Testing | Nims Purja, Osprey Ambassador | Chamonix, 2020
In 2012, NIMS PURJA
climbed a mountain
for the first time.
Eight years later, he
has changed the face
of mountaineering.
And he’s just
getting started…
Words TOM GUISE and MATT RAY
Photography SANDRO BAEBLER
Higher
purpose
32
Nims Purja on Mont
Blanc, September
2020. The Nepalese
climber holds the
record for the fastest
ascent of the world’s
14 highest mountains
In 2017, the Gurkhas undertook
an expedition to summit Everest.
For the elite brigade of Nepali-
Indian soldiers it was a pilgrimage
of great significance – a
celebration of 200 years of
allegiance to the British Crown, and
their second attempt at the world’s
highest mountain after their 2015
mission was aborted when the
fateful Gorkha Earthquake
triggered an avalanche that wiped
out base camp and stranded most
of the climbers at Camp One. Now,
this expedition was also in
jeopardy. Unpredictable weather
meant the official rope-fixing team
had yet to fix a route to the summit
that year. No one could ascend.
“I was like, wow,” says Nirmal ‘Nims’
Purja – at the time a 35-year-old member
of the Gurkha climbing unit. “Everyone
thinks, as a Gurkha, you are not only the
bravest of the brave, but that Everest is in
your back garden. Our reputation was at
risk. But secondly, when were we ever
going to get another chance to climb
Everest using British taxpayers’ money?
I decided to lead the fixing team.”
When word spread around camp
about his plan, there was one reaction:
“‘Does he have a clue what he’s doing?’
Nobody knew who I was,” recalls Purja.
“So I led 13 members of the expedition
to summit – the first team to make it
from the southern side that year. We
came back down into Kathmandu and
celebrated with a week of partying.
“Then I climbed Everest again, then
Lhotse and Makalu [the world’s fourth and
fifth highest mountains], all in five days,
with two days of partying in between.”
These days, people know who Purja
is. In 2019, he scaled all 14 ‘eightthousanders’
– the official designation
for mountains that exceed 8,000m in
height – in the fastest time he could. The
record stood at seven years, 10 months
and six days; Purja planned to do it
within seven months. He achieved it in
six months and six days. It propelled the
Special Forces soldier (the first Gurkha
to ever be accepted into the UK Special
Boat Service) into the mainstream
spotlight. It also brought criticism from
alpine purists, in particular for his use
of supplemental oxygen.
“I only do that on the final peak.
I climb, setting a fixed line, everything
without oxygen up to Camp Four,” he
retorts. “People were saying, ‘Oh, Nims
34 THE RED BULLETIN
Nims Purja
Nims Purja, the Gurkha
Pictured on his graduation day with the elite military unit at ITC Catterick
in Yorkshire in 2002. “My dad was a Gurkha, my brothers were Gurkhas,
and it’s such a life. People respect that in the Nepalese community.”
NIRMAL PURJA
did Nepal mountains because he can
use helicopters to the base camp.’ I said,
‘OK, fine,’ so I climbed all the Pakistan
mountains without any helicopters,
running from base camp to base camp –
23 days, buddy. All five 8,000m peaks. I
have no problem with critics. If someone
breaks my record I’ll be the first to shake
their hand, but it’s easy to just say it.
“Please write that when Nims said
that, he said it with a smile, OK?”
Purja’s words may read as defiant, but
in person he gives off a different energy
– a restless cockiness that draws people in,
rather than repels them. Sitting in a hotel
room at the base of Mont Blanc, where
he’s spent the summer vacationing, he’s
all smiles. Muscular, as you’d expect, but
diminutive at 170cm tall, the gentlemanexplorer
moustache Purja sported during
2019’s ‘Project Possible’ missions has been
shaved off to reveal a boyish face that
belies his age. “I’m 38, but to be honest, I
don’t really know how old I am,” he says
(Wikipedia also has trouble, putting it at
‘36-37’). “I never celebrate my birthday,
because age is just a mindset, a way of
letting yourself think that you’re getting
old and having that as an excuse.”
If this self-consciousness is surprising,
it’s just one of many contradictions that
penetrate the myth that is Nims Purja. For
example, the stereotype that a Nepalese
climber benefits from a life raised at high
altitude. “I grew up in Chitwan, which is
the flattest and warmest part of Nepal. It’s
almost sea level. We were a really poor
family in a small house with chickens
next door. I didn’t even have flip-flops.
That changed when my two brothers got
into the Gurkhas.” Wanting a better life
for their sibling, Purja’s brothers sent him
THE RED BULLETIN 35
Nims Purja
Annapurna, April 2019
More than 30 per cent of climbers who attempt to summit the world’s
10th highest mountain perish. Avalanche risk forced Purja’s team to
ascend along a rarely-traversed route called the ‘Dutch Rib’ (pictured).
to boarding school, where, by his own
estimation, he excelled.
“I used to be top five; I could have
been first, but I’d finish a two-hour exam
in an hour so I could be first to leave the
test room. But I didn’t want to be a
doctor or an engineer, I had two options:
one was to be the Robin Hood of Nepal,
seeing off those rich people who don’t
pay tax – you know, politicians and all
that – and distributing that money to the
poor.” He chose option two: the Gurkhas.
“Getting in was tough. In my time,
32,000 young Nepalese applied and only
320 made it. I started training at 15, in
a hostel. I’d wake up at 3am and run with
weights strapped to my legs. I had no clue
what that did, but I used to go back to bed
at 5am and pretend I hadn’t left. I passed
the selection on my second attempt.”
Purja’s time in the armed forces – he
joined the Gurkhas in 2002 and moved
to their UK Infantry Training Centre in
Catterick (he now lives in Hampshire),
and the SBS in 2009 – is one he is deeply
proud of, but for every detail he isn’t
willing to reveal (“What I can say is I
have been shot; I have been into the most
sensitive operations across the globe.”),
he is candid about one aspect: “I had
what others didn’t have – I could climb
an 8,000m peak in two weeks. When
I got leave I’d empty my savings and go
climb.” Indeed, when Purja finished
partying after his five-day tour of
Everest, Lhotse and Makalu in 2017,
he had to go straight back to work.
“I was supposed to get a heli ride to
a Special Forces mission, but the heli
didn’t come because of the weather, so
I ran all the way from base camp – six
days’ worth of trekking in 18 hours,
NIRMAL PURJA/PROJECT POSSIBLE
36 THE RED BULLETIN
“It’s a thin line
between being brave
or stupid; living in
that moment and
getting yourself killed.
I want to live in the
moment for a long time”
Nims Purja
“I wanted to show
the world what is
humanly possible if
you put your mind,
heart and soul into it”
Purja speed-flying
on Mont Blanc. The
day before this photo
was taken, he went
into a sharp spiral.
“When a force is so
big, you just have to
roll with that force”
39
“I love what I do to the
bone. And I’m having
so much fun that all
the tiredness goes
away. An 8,000m peak
is where I come alive”
Purja on the summit
ridge of Gasherbrum II,
July 18, 2019 – the
ninth mountain in his
quest to summit all
14 eight-thousanders
Nims Purja
“I CARRY MY FAMILY WITH ME”
Four days before Purja set off on Project Possible, he attended
the final sitting for a piece of body art across his back. It shows
the 14 mountains he intended to climb – from the smallest
(Shishapangma, 8,027m) at the base of his spine to the tallest
(Everest, 8,848m) below his neck. But this is no ordinary
tattoo – it contains the genetic code of his loved ones.
Inked by London tattooist Valerie Vargas in four sittings,
the process – patented in 2016 by former Navy SEAL Boyd
Renner and business partner Patrick Duffy, and known as
Everence – takes DNA (in Purja’s case, from the hair of his
parents, brothers, sister and wife) and encases it in a medicalgrade
polymer to create powder-sized beads that can be
blended with tattoo ink. This ink was used to illustrate prayer
flags marking out the route on his back.
“I wanted to take my whole family on this spiritual journey,”
says Purja. “But it was also a reminder that, if I was about to
cross the fine line between brave and stupid, I must come home
alive to look after my family, especially my mum and dad.”
DAVID SHERPA/PROJECT POSSIBLE
running through the night. At that point
I realised: ‘I think I’ve got something.’”
That something, even his fiercest
critics would agree, is an incredible
capacity for recovery. It usually takes
weeks of living at a high-altitude base
camp to acclimatise to the low-pressure
air as your body compensates, increasing
the haemoglobin levels (the protein that
absorbs oxygen) in your red blood cells.
Only then would you attempt an
8,000m+ summit, and you’d need weeks
to recover. When Purja returned to
Everest, Lhotse and Makalu for Project
Possible in 2019, he summited all three
in 48 hours and 30 minutes.
“My recovery time is really rapid,” he
agrees. “It’s a mindset. I love what I do to
the bone. And I’m having so much fun
that all that tiredness goes away. And an
8,000m peak? That’s where I come alive.
I don’t lose any of my strength. That is
my playground.”
Purja hadn’t even worn a pair of
crampons before the age of 29, first
summiting 6,119m-tall Lobuche East in
Nepal in 2012 without any prior
mountaineering experience. Two years
later, he scaled his first eight-thousander,
Dhaulagiri, and discovered his natural
ability to thrive at altitude. “I climbed that
in 14 days without any acclimatisation,
and I led 70 per cent of the route,” he
says. But Purja isn’t immune to the effects
of the ‘death zone’ – the name given to
that space above 8000m – as he discovered
on his first ascent of Everest in 2016.
“I was in camp to carry all my
equipment and oxygen. People were
taking six weeks to get to that phase;
I was doing it in five days,” he recalls.
“As a mountain trooper in the SBS I knew
THE RED BULLETIN 41
Nims Purja
Everest, 2017
This shot was taken as Purja fixed lines to the summit as part of the
Gurkha 200 expedition. “The weather was brutal,” he says. “It’s so painful
that you think you’d rather die, but death isn’t the solution.”
I couldn’t go that fast, but my body was
taking it OK. That’s when I had a
pulmonary oedema [fluid on the lungs].
It’s like drowning. More than anything
I was ashamed, because I had the
knowledge to avoid that, but you don’t
know where your limit is until you push it.”
If that attitude seems reckless, Purja
sees it differently. “It is reckless to many.
Even in the Special Forces I was known for
taking high risks, but risk is not one size
fits all. If a BASE jumper does his stuff,
I can’t do that. You live in the moment,
but that doesn’t mean you don’t do a risk
assessment. It’s a thin line between being
brave or stupid; living in that moment
and getting yourself killed. I want to live
in the moment for a long time.”
When Nims Purja was 13,
he decided to swim across
one of the biggest rivers in
Nepal. “I was just in my
underwear. I wasn’t a good swimmer, but
I was committed and got to the bank on
the other side,” he recalls. “Then I was
like, ‘Fuck, now I have to go back again.’”
As he began his return swim, he started
thinking. “I remembered stories of
people getting attacked by crocodiles. I
was so tired – I came to that point where
you have to give up, so I did. And I stood
up. I found I was in knee-deep water.
I thought, ‘Thank God.’” Purja is giving
an example of his willingness to test his
limits, but he’s aware it also shows his
capacity to perhaps reach too far.
In 2018, Purja was appointed head
of extreme cold-weather warfare in the
SBS. “My job was to learn new climbing
techniques and teach that to my fellow
operators,” he explains. “I said to my
command, ‘Since my job is this and I
have so much leave, I’d like 18 days off to
climb the world’s five highest mountains.
It’s good for the unit.’” His superiors
were ecstatic, then they researched what
he was planning. “They told me, ‘You
cannot take the risk.’ I said, ‘Fine,’ and
that’s when I decided to leave the job.”
It wasn’t a decision he took lightly.
“I was the bread earner for my family.
Every month, I sent money directly from
my pay cheque to my parents. My dad
was half-paralysed, and my mum was
living in a room in Kathmandu to be near
the medical facility. For me to give up
everything now was crazy. My brother
called. He said, ‘No Gurkha’s ever made
the SBS – you’re the first. You’re close to
your pension – why sacrifice that?’ He
was furious. He didn’t speak to me for
two months.”
Meanwhile, Purja’s plan, which had
now become Project Possible, hit a wall.
“A friend who was leading the financial
side said, ‘I’m sorry, I couldn’t raise any
funding after trying for seven months.’
I had only two months to raise £750K.
It was hard, going to every sponsor,
begging. I got £1,000 here, £5,000 there,
but it wasn’t enough; no one believed in
the vision. Some said, ‘If you’re a badass
climber, why have we never heard about
you?’ And I’d say, ‘Because I was in the
Special Forces.’ One guy told me, ‘Maybe
you didn’t get sponsorship because you’re
not white.’ It hit me. I said, ‘You could be
right.’ But at the end of the day, it doesn’t
matter. In life there are harder problems,
but you solve the problem. So I
remortgaged the house, I got the biggest
amount I could – 60 grand – and put
10K aside so, should something happen,
it would pay the mortgage. I started
the mission with five per cent of what
I needed. I was driving down the M3
one day with tears coming from my eyes.
I never cry, but I couldn’t stop. All I could
NIRMAL PURJA
42 THE RED BULLETIN
2
6 7
1
5
3
8
9
15
14
10
12
13
11
FAST PACKING
The kit that helped Nims succeed
1. One-litre Thermos flask: “I don’t
carry any other water bottles,
but I melt snow using the hot water
in this, so I can make two litres with
one and save weight.”
2. Black Diamond Cobra carbonfibre
ice axes: “Very lightweight
and technical. Used for lead
climbing on technical slopes as
well as self-arrest in a fall.”
3. Baseball hat: “Because you need
to protect your head from the sun.”
4. Sunglasses (not pictured)
5. ThruDark bespoke Summit Suit:
“Designed by my two friends from
the Special Forces, this is the third
generation of the Summit Suit
I have been using. It can go as cold
as -40°C.”
6. Beanie hat
7. Lightweight, waterproof 40m
alpine rope
8. Pair of crampons
9. Duffel bag: “For all of my
expedition gear.”
10. Lightweight harness: “Plus all
my climbing equipment: two ice
screws and a rescue system that
includes a Ropeman [mini-ascender
used to climb up ropes], belay
device [for controlling the tension
of the rope attached to a climber
below], sling and Prusik loop [a
separate rope knotted to the main
line that acts as a friction hook
during abseiling].”
11. Thick socks
12. Three different layers of
gloves: “Working gloves and big
summit gloves.”
13. Base layers
14. Summit boots: “They’re black
because when I asked the brand if
they’d support me, they said no. So
I removed their logo with a marker.”
15. Backpack: “I’m designing the
Nims 120 with Osprey. It’ll be the
ultimate daypack for mountaineers,
made of very lightweight material,
small and compact, but you can
make it massive, because we need to
carry the tent, oxygen, everything.”
THE RED BULLETIN 43
“If someone breaks
my record, I’ll be
the first to shake
their hand”
Purja: “Someone said, ‘Do it
next year, Nims.’ Imagine if I’d
tried for this year? If you plan
for the second option in life, you
are already planning for failure”
Nims Purja
think was, ’Why am I doing this project?’
“It was so painful that I just wished
an avalanche would come and kill me.
But it’s not about me. I was doing it for
a bigger reason.”
When embarking on a mission of this
scale, Purja says, you need a purpose.
“If I wanted to just break a record, I
would have said, ‘It’s nearly eight years;
I’ll do it in seven.’ But I wasn’t trying to
be the best; I wanted to show the world
what is humanly possible if you put
your mind, heart and soul into it. And
I wanted to highlight the names of the
Nepalese climbers. For the last 100 years
we’ve been in the background, but
high-altitude mountaineering – eightthousanders
– that is our ground. I felt
I needed to do something about this.
That’s what gives me energy.”
Purja is not of Sherpa ethnicity, but
he identifies with the term as used to
describe any Nepalese who work in the
climbing community. His team consists
wholly of Nepalese climbers, not as
guides or rope-fixers, but as equals.
“When people climb, they want to use
a Sherpa because he knows the route,
he can show you the way. I said, ‘You’re
going to climb that mountain because
this is an opportunity for you too. It’s
equal glory.’ Then he’s also climbing
a new peak and, next time, when he’s
guiding, he can charge double.”
Members of Purja’s team are now
rising stars in their own right, like
Mingma David Sherpa, who, at 31, is
the youngest climber to summit all 14
8,000m peaks. “He’s my right-hand man;
one of the strongest Sherpa I have ever
seen,” says Purja, whose team has given
him a new name: ‘Nimsdai’. Dai means
‘older brother’ in Nepali. It’s the name
Purja now goes by, and how he presents
it on his new book, Beyond Possible:
One Soldier, Fourteen Peaks – Life In
The Death Zone.
On April 23, 2019, the Project
Possible team summited their
first eight-thousander –
Annapurna in Nepal, widely
considered to be the world’s deadliest
mountain. As they descended, Purja got
news that another climber, Singaporean
doctor Chin Wui Kin, had become
separated from his team at 7,500m. Purja,
Mingma David Sherpa and a third member
of his crew, Gesman Tamang, aborted
their mission to go back up and rescue
him (Chin sadly died in hospital). Two
days later, on Kanchenjunga (the world’s
third highest mountain), they deviated
to rescue two more. The stories made
world headlines, alongside a now
infamous photo Purja took of climbers
queuing to summit Everest. “As I ticked
off the mountains,” he recalls, “people
started donating to my GoFundMe.”
More crucially, the sponsors started
rolling in, too. They were finally
believing in his vision.
If Purja experienced any doubt in his
vision, it was at K2, the world’s second
highest mountain at 8,611m. “I checked
the video of where people had given up,
and while I don’t take the word of every
Western climber, when the top Nepalese
climber, who I respect, says, ‘That’s
impossible,’ I think, ‘Fuck, can I make it?’
Other climbers were waiting, thinking
I would fix lines for them, but I didn’t
have to do this. It would have made
more sense to climb nearby Broad Peak,
then everybody could be safe, they could
all go home. But what I remembered
was the UK Special Forces selection –
200 soldiers from the Royal Marines,
RAF, Army, Navy – all thinking they’re
the best, but only four make it. If you
listen to those 196 who failed it, you’re
never going to try.”
Purja decided to ascend K2 with two
members of his team. “I said, ‘If we can’t
“I never celebrate
my birthday. Age
is just a mindset,
a way of letting
yourself think that
you’re getting old”
make it, we’ll come back down, you two
will have a rest, and I’m going to take
you two up. And if we don’t make it, I’ll
take you two – it’s going to be six
rotations before I think about giving up.’
But with just one push it was done.” On
July 24, 2019, Purja’s team summited
K2, a mountain that still, however,
remains unconquered in winter.
“It’s because there’s a very short
window,” explains Purja, when asked
why that is. “But of course it’s possible,
buddy. You just need the speed.”
When Nims Purja – who has
been awarded an MBE for his
high-altitude mountaineering
– takes a holiday at Mont
Blanc, it really is just that. The highest
mountain in the Alps, at 4,808m, is a
cakewalk for him. Or rather a flight. He’s
spent the summer learning how to speed
fly – a revved-up version of paragliding,
with a faster, lighter wing that can fit
into a small backpack, used by extreme
alpinists. “It lets you get down from a
summit quickly, but with style, flying
right next to the mountain,” he explains.
Purja’s idea of fun is always full-on. He
enjoys hard rock, particularly AC/DC
(“I always played Thunderstruck on my
headset in the Special Forces helicopter,”
he reveals), and just before The Red
Bulletin arrived, he’d broken his tail
bone in a hard landing. “I rested for
24 hours, then was flying again,” he says,
nonchalantly. “You’ve got to go with
the energy. It’s like trying to jump off
a moving train – if you don’t run, you’re
going to fall.”
If Purja seems blasé about his process,
he’s deadly serious about his purpose,
and has another to add to the list –
raising awareness about climate change.
“I never used to believe in it,” he says.
“But I climbed Ama Dablam in 2014
and we had snow at Camp One to melt
and cook food. I went back in 2018 and
we had to carry gallons of water from
base camp. I realised, ‘Oh my God, this
shit is real.’
“We are all a part of it. I have this
voice and my power of influencing
people will grow even bigger. I believe
we’ve got these two next decades to
make this change.”
“There’s a solution to every problem.”
Purja’s book, Beyond Possible: One
Soldier, Fourteen Peaks – Life In The
Death Zone, is out on November 12;
nimsdai.com; Instagram: @nimsdai
THE RED BULLETIN 45
With most public
performance on an
enforced hiatus,
dancers are finding
new platforms for
their artistry –
bringing their bold
and beautiful
moves to some
unexpected places
Words ALEX KING
Photography THEO McINNES
Keeping
in step
Crossing over: the
English National Ballet’s
Francesca Velicu
takes it to the bridge;
(left) Polish-born
dancer Andre
Kamienski, who heads
his own contemporary
arts company
49
DistDancing
“At a DistDancing
show, you
can tell people are
still thirsty for
live performance”
Chisato Katsura
I
t’s an overcast Sunday afternoon in
East London, and a small crowd
has gathered on the towpath of the
Regent’s Canal. On the other side of the
water sits Hoxton Docks, a renovated
warehouse complex turned events space,
with a floating pontoon just outside its
tall wooden cargo doors. To the left of
the pontoon is a barge carrying a giant
yellow inflatable balloon that looks like
some sort of bizarre sea Zeppelin. To the
right is a family of four model sharks
emerging menacingly from the water.
With just a few minutes to go until
the clock strikes three, you can feel the
energy rise in the assembled throng as
they wait to discover what will emerge
from behind the cargo doors. The crowd
is here for DistDancing, a new series
of free pop-up weekend performances
created by dancers whose regular careers
have been brought to a halt by COVID-19
restrictions that have shuttered theatres
and venues in the UK and beyond.
However, unbeknownst to those
waiting patiently – and socially distanced
– on the towpath, the police are already
inside Hoxton Docks, and the plug is
pulled on the sound system after just five
seconds. What’s more, the organisers are
told they’ll be arrested if they hit play
again. Another van full of police officers
marches onto the towpath and orders the
crowd to leave, just as dancer Rebecca
Bassett-Graham was going to begin her
routine. As the police continue with their
dispersal efforts, the crowd begins
chanting in unison: “Let them dance!”
Inside, there’s an intense back-andforth
between the dancers and police.
Once it becomes clear that only the
organisers would be arrested, not the
performers, freelance aerialist Jackie Le
decides to complete her routine as a
protest. She begins her descent from
rigging hoisted from the roof, hanging
like a spider on a thread as the stand-off
continues on the towpath.
After eight consecutive weekends
of free shows throughout the summer,
this short-lived experimental attempt
to find a way to dance and perform
despite COVID restrictions has been
brought to a close, for now. “At least
we went out with a bang,” says
Chisato Katsura, First Artist of The Royal
Ballet, forcing an optimistic smile.
“But it’s depressing, seeing this come
to an end. It feels like losing a baby,
when we had a whole month of shows
planned. And it really doesn’t make
sense: right now, there are hundreds of
people in the parks, going out in Soho,
or sitting on planes. Yet with all these
gatherings happening we’re the only
ones being shut down.”
Raising hoops:
aerialist Annalisa
Midolo wows the
towpath crowd
Rewind a few days and the mood is
more upbeat – despite the pouring rain
outside – at a rehearsal for the weekend’s
performance. In an elegant, woodenfloored
yoga studio in London Bridge,
Katsura leads the session as Francesca
Velicu, 22, and Erik Woolhouse, 24, from
the English National Ballet (ENB), and
Bassett-Graham, 29, from Company
Wayne McGregor, practise their routines.
The moment is made even more special
by the fact Katsura has been out of action
since October due to a stress fracture to
her left shin, which necessitated crutches.
First, Velicu and Woolhouse, who are
a couple, practise a breezy duet together.
Then, for their solo pieces, Velicu floats
› ANDREJ USPENSKI
50 THE RED BULLETIN
The world’s a stage:
Chisato Katsura,
co-founder of
DistDancing and
First Artist of the
Royal Ballet, is
helping keep dance
alive in lockdown
THE RED BULLETIN 51
“I hope people
become more
appreciative
of what dance
brings to
our culture”
Jordan Bautista
across the floor, seemingly as light as
a feather, and spins on one foot in a
pirouette, every bit the classical ballerina,
while Erik dances with a more muscular
and modern energy, throwing out his arms
and legs in wide, sweeping movements,
like a warrior psyching himself up for
battle. Bassett-Graham shows off her
contemporary, almost glitchy solo, with
her body contorting itself into expressive,
abstract shapes, before all three join on
the floor for what will be the show’s
finale: dancing in synchronisation with
one another. You can feel their sense of
joy and excitement at being able to dance
together again after months of lockdown.
“I remember back in March, slowly
everything was cancelled, minute by
minute, hour by hour,” remembers
Bassett-Graham, originally from New
Zealand. “This isn’t just a job to us,
it’s part of who we are as humans. After
more than a week off, you start itching
for that physicality. The uncertainty
of not knowing when I would be able
to perform again, or when it would be
possible to dance in a studio with other
people again… all of these things really
started weighing on me.”
For dancers, whose very meaning in
life is to move, the lockdown came as a
particularly harsh blow. Not only were
all their shows cancelled and their
companies put on hiatus, but there was
no way of knowing when they’d even be
able to dance again, let alone in front of
an audience. Often confined to small
shared flats – especially those living in
London – and dancing or training in
bedrooms and kitchens, they did what
they could to stay active and prevent
their bodies from losing the intense
physical conditioning for which they
had worked most of their adult lives.
“The whole dance community really
pulled together,” Bassett-Graham says.
“Everything went onto Zoom, and people
began opening up their classes to whoever
wanted to watch.” Across the industry,
the barriers came down, membership of
particular institutions no longer mattered,
and professional dancers became one big
family online, sharing tips, classes and
workshops with each other and legions
of amateur dancers, too.
Woolhouse embraced the change in
routine and the opening of his world
to other forms of dance, music and
movement. At 15, he relocated to the UK
from Japan to train with the Royal Ballet
School, and he has been in the ballet
bubble of the ENB for the last five years,
training and rehearsing for upwards of
six hours each day. The ENB’s season
usually starts with an autumn tour of five
or six cities in the UK, then a five-week
“intense marathon” of Nutcracker at
London’s Coliseum, followed by original
shows such as Creature by celebrated
choreographer Akram Khan, which has
had to be postponed due to COVID.
It’s an intense schedule that often
doesn’t leave much time or energy for
anything outside ballet. So, during
lockdown, Woolhouse has taken the
opportunity to expand his repertoire
and dance to other styles of music he
enjoys, including jazz, hip hop and
techno. In July, the ENB returned to
training, albeit in much smaller groups
of around eight to 10 dancers, all
confined to their own personal boxes
taped onto the floor, dancing for just
52 THE RED BULLETIN
DistDancing
“After more than
a week off from
dancing, you
start itching for
that physicality”
Rebecca Bassett-Graham
four hours a day, Monday to Saturday.
It wasn’t only training and fitness but
also performance that flourished – and
continues to flourish – online. The ENB
joined other companies in offering shows
for free, with its popular Wednesday
Watch Parties helping to open up ballet
to a new audience. For Velicu, who
originates from Romania and moved to
the UK in 2016 after training at Moscow’s
world-famous Bolshoi Ballet, these free
online shows were particularly special
as her mum could now watch all her
performances from back home.
“I really hope the intense interaction
and engagement we’ve had on social
media continues,” Velicu says. “It’s been
so great for bringing in new, younger
audiences. For the first time, people
from around the world can easily see the
work produced in London. My mum is
enjoying it so much, she’s watching an
opera from the Met in New York or a
ballet show from London every day.”
Woolhouse believes the ruptures
created by the pandemic were necessary
for an industry with a tendency towards
elitism. “Dance needs to be more
approachable to the public,” he says.
“Young people nowadays can’t afford an
£80 ticket and a suit to go to the ballet.
That grandness and tradition must be
kept alive, but the industry will die
without the next generation, so I think
something with a more casual atmosphere
is necessary [in order] to move forward.
That’s what’s so great about DistDancing:
you can just drop by with a coffee on the
side of the canal, watch a performance
and realise you really enjoyed it.”
Dance companies around the world
have taken an enormous hit. The ENB,
for example, lost two thirds of its income
and was forced to furlough more than
85 per cent of its staff through the UK
Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention
Scheme. Having received an emergency
grant from the Arts Council that helped
it stay afloat, adapting to a world of
online-only performances is crucial to
the ENB’s survival, as staging shows for
a reduced audience just isn’t financially
viable for most larger companies.
However, Katsura and her Italian-born
colleague Valentino Zucchetti, a First
Soloist at The Royal Ballet and co-founder
of DistDancing, remain passionate about
finding ways to bring live performances
back – both for dancers’ and audiences’
benefit. “Online content is a cure for the
moment,” says the Japanese dancer, “but
it’s just not the same effect as in real life.
Online, people click a button and get
what they want; they get bored easily
and there’s no opportunity for those
chance encounters with the unknown.
“As a performer, you feel the energy
of the audience’s applause,” Katsura
continues. “It’s hard to put into words
how it feels to hear 2,000 people
cheering for you. You can be in so
much pain for two hours, but then you
hear the applause and it just pushes
you through to the end. I want to give
performers the opportunity to feel
that audience response again and keep
doing what they love.”
THE RED BULLETIN 53
Stepping out: Velicu has seen
interest from a whole
new audience thanks to the
ENB’s free online content
DistDancing
“Dance needs to be
more approachable.
That’s what is great
about DistDancing”
Erik Woolhouse
Head east along the towpath from
Hoxton Docks and you’ll find
yourself at Here East, a creative
complex that backs onto the River Lee
Navigation and was built for the 2012
Olympics. Here, a corner room has been
turned into a makeshift dance studio for
Company Wayne McGregor’s RESET 2020
programme, which began in August and
offers a free 10-week programme of
ballet, contemporary and fitness training
to both the company’s own dancers and
freelancers who have fallen through the
cracks support-wise. The three-and-ahalf-hour
daily programme is a far cry
from Bassett-Graham’s pre-COVID
routine of being on tour for the majority
of the year or rehearsing in London from
10am to 6pm. But getting back into the
studio with other dancers – even if it is
socially distanced – is still very welcome.
One of the freelancers to benefit
from RESET 2020 is Jordan Bautista
(who uses the pronouns they/them),
a 25-year-old dancer originally from
Gibraltar. After dancing with the Polish
National Ballet in Warsaw, Bautista
relocated to London, and it was while
they were searching for work following
surgery that the pandemic struck. Today,
they’re confined to their own square
opposite Bassett-Graham, which has
been marked out on the floor with white
tape so that they and the other dancers
can train in a COVID-compliant way.
Each square has its own barre, a plastic
box for possessions, and a supply of
disinfectant wipes.
When the class is ready to start, the
instructor reels off a list of positions
so fast it sounds unintelligible to the
untrained ear, like an alien language or
the shipping forecast. But the masked
inhabitants of all 18 white boxes move
through their positions in perfect sync,
throwing their bodies into the kicks,
spins and curtsies of the physically
demanding ballet routine.
“I think one of the changes that will
come out of this pandemic is that both
dancers and audiences are going to be
much more aware of how much it takes
to come together and collaborate to
create work,” Bautista says. “I hope
people will become more appreciative
and understand how much work goes
into things, and how much dance
contributes to our culture.”
In mid-September, following intense
negotiations with the council and
police, and considerable support from
the public, the landlord of Hoxton Docks
allowed DistDancing to return. “We’re
still very much on alert, and there’s the
possibility of another shutdown,” says
Katsura. “We had to change our format
and drop the strict scheduling to prevent
a crowd gathering or police intervention.”
Now, in late September, it’s time
for the final show of the relaunched
DistDancing. It’s grey and overcast again,
but because of the lack of notification
there’s no crowd outside Hoxton Docks.
The Royal Ballet’s Giacomo Rovero walks
onto the pontoon stage and starts his
routine. Passers-by hear the music, stop
to look, and by the end of his threeminute
solo there are 20-30 people
watching in awe. These aren’t the legion
of fans DistDancing amassed through
social media, but rather new people
stopped in their tracks by a chance
encounter with dance – just as Katsura
and Zucchetti had originally intended.
“Things will never go back to ‘normal’
as we know it; they’ll only move forward,”
Katsura says. “When the theatres shut,
we worried we’d lose our connection
with audiences. But at a DistDancing
show you can tell people are still thirsty
for live performance. The connection is
maybe even stronger. I think lockdown
has made people realise how much they
need arts and culture in their lives.”
Fittingly, Katsura is DistDancing’s
fifth and final performer. Due to her
recent recovery, she performs a modified
version of the Emeralds solo from
choreographer George Balanchine’s
ballet Jewels. She avoids going en pointe,
but sweeps her arms gracefully in a port
de bras as her flowing skirt billows
around her, and finishes kneeling with
her arms crossed, facing the audience on
the towpath across the canal. The crowd
has now grown to around 50 spectators,
who applaud wildly as Katsura takes
a bow before being joined on stage by
the other performers.
“We’re so grateful to be able to bring
joy to people again,” Katsura says, relieved
at the hitch-free performance. “The
support we’ve had during the shutdown
has been incredible. To see everyone
come together to keep the arts alive is so
heartwarming. It’s the strength and hope
we need during these dark times.”
ballet.org.uk; roh.org.uk; waynemcgregor.
com; Instagram: @_distdancing_
THE RED BULLETIN 55
“I make
people want
to rewrite
their bars”
The multicultural
Birmingham-born
artist has forged
her own unique
style of rap, which
resonates from
London to LA.
Here, she talks
about Drake’s wise
words, the benefits
of speaking Dutch,
and why Instagram
crushes creativity
Words FLORIAN OBKIRCHER
Photography SALIM ADAM
56
Red alert: Stefflon
Don never looks
less than 100 per
cent – even, it
would appear, when
doing the dishes
Stefflon Don
When British rapper Stefflon Don arrived
on the scene in 2016, heads were turned.
Her flow on the debut mixtape Real Ting
was seamless, with lyrics that blended
Jamaican patois, East London slang and
US hip hop references. And, in contrast
to the down-to-earth attitude of most UK
rap, she presented herself as glamorous
and brazen, a superstar in the making.
In November that year, she was
longlisted in the BBC’s newcomer poll
Sound of 2017. Four months later, she
signed a £1.2m deal with a major label,
and in August 2017 her single Hurtin’
Me, with US rapper French Montana,
reached number seven in the UK Singles
Chart. Since then, the 28-year-old – real
name Stephanie Allen – has won MOBO
and NME Awards; worked with artists
including Sean Paul, Nile Rodgers, Charli
XCX, Skepta, Drake and Mariah Carey;
and in 2018 became the first British
artist ever to make legendary US hip hop
magazine XXL’s annual Freshman List.
Born in Birmingham to Jamaican
parents, the rapper moved with her
family to Rotterdam in the Netherlands
when she was five, before settling back
in the UK – in Hackney – at 14. As a
result, Stefflon Don’s music is a blend of
dancehall, grime, R&B and house, her
rhymes incorporating influences from
London, Jamaica, Holland and America.
She says that growing up among
different cultures opened her mind and
broadened her music and, in that sense,
is the secret to her success.
THE RED BULLETIN: You have an
unmistakable East London snarl, but
you also use Jamaican patois and US
slang. You even rap in Dutch...
STEFFLON DON: That’s because of my
diverse upbringing. I spent most of my
childhood in Rotterdam. People there
speak American English, and I grew up
in a Jamaican household. On top of that,
I had White friends, Turkish friends,
Moroccan friends. People are really
accommodating there, so I’d learn a lot
about their cultures, about their
traditions, their food, their music.
What were the musical influences you
picked up there?
So, Holland used to control Suriname
[the South American country was
under Dutch rule between 1667 and
1975] and the Surinamese culture has
a heavy influence in Rotterdam – similar
to the influence of Jamaican culture
in London. The language they speak [in
Suriname] is a mix of Spanish, French,
Dutch and English. Growing up there,
I used to listen to Surinamese songs all
the time; we’d also use their slang words.
I think it even left a mark on my
pronunciation: I was in Spain the other
day and some locals thought I was from
there. I’m not even fluent in Spanish!
Do you think being fluent in Dutch has
had an impact on your rapping skills?
Definitely. When I’m speaking Dutch,
I talk really fast. Because of that, I’m
quick on the tongue when I rap. That
was a big advantage when I started out.
You’re known for your eclectic musical
style – on your new mixtape, Island
54, you even add Afrobeats to the
mix. Wouldn’t music executives rather
you stick to one thing so you don’t
overwhelm your fanbase?
Well, I feel like there are certain artists
you can put on any track – whether it’s
a Latin track or a slow jam or an
alternative song – because their voice is
like an instrument. They hold a certain
sound through their voice, and I feel
like I’ve got that. On my next single, I’m
actually speaking Yoruba [a language
spoken mostly in West Africa]. I think
the audience is going to be shocked –
it’s totally different again. But, for me,
this is something that I’ve always been
experimenting with. As an artist, I just
feel so free.
Two years ago, you made history as
the first UK artist to be named on XXL
magazine’s Freshman List. Do you
think your global perspective is the
reason the US audience has embraced
you more than other UK MCs?
Definitely! I feel only now Americans are
more accepting of the British accent on a
rap track. Before that, it was like, “I love
when you guys talk, but when someone’s
rapping I can’t take you serious. I feel
like you eat crumpets and drink tea all
day.” Literally, that’s what they would
say to me! But when they heard my
songs, they’d always say, “OK, so you
don’t really sound that British.” And
again, that comes from growing up in
Holland, where I used to speak American
English. Rapping with a real British
accent was actually a challenge for me
in the beginning.
That reminds me of something your
brother, drill artist Dutchavelli, said
in a recent interview about your
family moving back to the UK from
Rotterdam: “I had an accent and there
58 THE RED BULLETIN
“Americans would say, ‘I love
when you [Brits] talk, but when
someone’s rapping I can’t take
you serious. I feel like you eat
crumpets and drink tea all day’”
“Thank God I was just born with
confidence. When the [other]
kids used to try me – and they
would try me a lot – I always
stood my ground”
Stefflon Don
were lots of words I didn’t know.
It messed up school for me.” Can
you relate to that?
When I came back, I had the weirdest
accent. I was torn between American
English and Jamaican patois. I told people
here that I was from Jamaica. They were
like, “You’re not Jamaican. What kind of
accent is this?” It was very difficult.
How did you gain acceptance?
Thank God I was just born with
confidence. When the kids used to try
me – and they would try me a lot –
I always stood my ground. And I think
anywhere in life, if someone tries you
and you continue to stand your ground,
they just have to respect you. After
a while, they were so confused at how
confident I was, and that’s what made
them like me.
How can others achieve that level
of confidence? Any advice?
Stay away from people who belittle you,
whether it’s friends or family. Just don’t
be around people who make you feel less
confident. Or at least try not to ask them
for advice if you know that they’re not
going to have your corner. You have to
realise that nobody has the answers to
everything. Believe in yourself – that’s
how you gain confidence.
Someone who gave you advice early
on in your career is Drake. He said,
“Make sure that, whatever you do,
your opponent is scared of you.” Is
that something you still live by?
Yes, 100 per cent. In anything you do,
whether you’re a plumber or a carpenter
or a gamer, you should always want to
be the best. Else why do it? Coming up
rapping, I was in so many situations
where there was a beat playing and it
was like, ‘OK, who’s going to rap on it?’
And I was always ready in those
situations. I always made sure that I had
many lyrics ready, so whoever was on
the mic I would destroy them.
Ruthless…
Yeah, I’ve always had that mentality.
I want to make people want to rewrite
their bars. Because sometimes I used to
feel that way. I’d hear certain females
rap and I’d think, “Oh my God, what I’ve
written is not as good. I need to go back
and rewrite my shit.” That’s how I want
“In anything
you do, you
should always
want to be the
best. Else why
do it?”
people to feel when they hear me.
Because that’s how you keep a healthy
conversation, that’s how you push each
other. If people aren’t challenging one
another, if they just follow others, then
we’re stuck. And that’s what has been
happening for a while. No one is really
trying to be the best. I see a lot of
followers. I see a lot of people who think,
“Oh, this works, this charted. Let me do
something similar.”
Why do you think that is?
As an artist, the way you’re criticised
today is different from when I first came
up. Back then, there were no Instagram
trolls. I wasn’t scared to fail by putting
out videos that might not be what I want
them to be – I just had to do it, because
that’s all I could afford. I can’t imagine
how it is for young artists today with
so many eyes on them; so many eyes
of people who don’t know what they
are talking about, projecting their
insecurities on others on social media.
Platforms like Instagram are responsible
for a lack of creativity in the new
generation of artists. And even for
established ones, it’s very hard to really
say what they want to say, or express
how they feel.
Sounds like you’re talking from
personal experience…
I used to record my family on Snapchat
a lot. I would always speak my mind on
certain topics that got me in trouble a
couple of times. [In 2018, she apologised
for tweets from 2013 in which she said
“dark-skinned” girls would change their
skin colour if they could]. I got in trouble
for stuff I didn’t mean in that way, and
things were taken out of context. It made
me feel like, “Do you even deserve to
really know who I am if you going to take
small parts and use them to make it seem
like I am this person that I’m not?”
That is what the internet has become
now. People are looking at your image
and thinking, “What can I pick up [on]
that’s wrong?” And the second thing is,
“Let me see the comments,” to find
what narrative is being pushed. You’re
not supposed to be yourself. You’re not
supposed to be a self-thinker. It’s all
about playing it safe, about following
others. And I really just want to break
away from that.
Is there a way to make the internet
a place of positivity again?
I actually had a couple of meetings with
one of the heads of Instagram, and one
thing I requested was to take the likes
off the comments.
What do you mean?
There was a time when you could
comment on posts, but you wouldn’t
get likes on your comment. Now that
people are more extreme and meaner in
their comments because they want to
stand out in order to get likes, it’s like a
competition. As a result, you look at your
post and realise that 3,000 people liked
a really hateful comment about you. It
feels awful! I don’t think people realise
how detrimental Instagram is for us
and the next generation. Everyone is
tiptoeing around [the issue] and saying,
“Oh yeah, it’s bad.” But people are so
insecure because of this, people don’t
create because of this, people don’t share
new ideas because of this. It’s a very
serious thing and I wish more people
would speak up more about it and
demand change.
With that said, what’s your strategy
for staying sane?
I’m so blessed that I have my family.
I bought a big house and my [11-yearold]
son, most of my six siblings and my
mom live with me. That’s the main reason
why I’m OK. Also, I consider myself lucky
that I didn’t come up in the social media
age. I have a sense of reality. I know what
it means to be original. I know what it
means to not really give a fuck about
what no one says. And no one can take
that away from me.
Stefflon Don’s new mixtape Island 54 is
out now; stefflondonofficial.com
THE RED BULLETIN 61
French BMXer Matthias
Dandois in Paris, August 2019,
performing a steamroller
barspin trick for the featurelength
film The Old World
Come
together
Seven countries,
15 riders, eight
nationalities, eight
disciplines, numerous
wrecked drones,
multiple injuries,
one epic film. Inside
Europe’s most
ambitious bike movie
Words TOM GUISE, STU KENNY and
PIERRE-HENRI CAMY
Photography JULIAN MITTELSTÄDT
63
It’s early morning in Strandafjellet,
Norway. In winter here, you can ski
from the mountain tops to the fjords
below, but right now, in spring 2019,
a blanket of cloud sits atop grassy
cliffs. From it emerges a bike rider,
Martin Söderström, a camera crew
catching his every move. The 28-yearold
is one of Sweden’s highest-profile
freeriders, yet, astonishingly, this is
his first feature-length film…
“How is it possible that one of the most influential riders in the
world has never had a big movie part?” German pro mountain
biker Andi Tillmann had pondered in 2018. The answer: all the
big ensemble action-sports flicks were made in North America.
“They get to choose their regions and the riders,” says the
32-year-old who, together with his brothers Toni and Michi, has
produced and starred in MTB movies that have been seen by
millions, “so top-level European riders were never featured.”
That was the catalyst for the biggest project the Tillmanns – and
perhaps any European bike filmmakers – had ever undertaken.
Two years later, The Old World is complete. It’s a journey
from the fjords of Norway to the suburbs of Berlin and Paris to
the sun-baked dust of La Poma in Spain, gathering together a
roll call of Euro riders never before seen on film. The ride wasn’t
without its bumps – injuries, technical malfunctions, a global
pandemic – and the crew learnt a lesson as steep as their handdug
courses. “In Europe we have a very narrow weather window,
and each country comes with its own drone and filming
restrictions,” says Tillmann, whose hair literally fell out due to
stress. “I was blond when we started, now I’m bald,” he laughs.
Here, Tillmann and some of the riders share a glimpse of
what it took to make Europe’s first bike blockbuster…
The Old World is out November 22. See it on Red Bull TV; redbull.com
Director Andi
Tillmann films
Martin Söderström
in Stranda, Norway.
Left: Tillmann
(centre) with
brothers Toni
(left) and Michi
64 THE RED BULLETIN
The Old World
STRANDA,
NORWAY
Riders: Martin Söderström
(pictured), Emil and Simon
Johansson (all SWE)
Discipline: Trail and slopestyle
Tillman: It took a year to
convince the Strandafjellet
authorities to grant us access
– none of the landscape could
be damaged as it’s part of their
slope system. The idea was to
communicate that Scandinavian
perfection of control, and our
three riders are proponents of
something called the ‘Swedish
Style’. We developed a special
rig: a backpack with an Arri
Alexa movie camera on a gimbal,
to be carried by a second rider
– me – at high speed.
Söderström: I’d never been to
Stranda. It was surreal to see
the sunrise with my best riding
buddies, Emil and Simon, and
have the course to ourselves. I
was the first rider from Sweden
to go professional, but a lot of
incredibly talented athletes
have come through since then.
I guess some were inspired by
my riding, and that’s become
the ‘Swedish Style’. We ride a
lot indoors during the winter,
because of the weather. That’s
why most Swedish riders
have a technical background.
We do a lot of barspins and
tailwhips. I value my riding
style more than the tricks I do.
I’d rather do less complicated
tricks and have them look
great than not look in control.
THE RED BULLETIN 65
Freeride MTBer
Vincent Tupin (top)
films the ‘summer
segment’ with fellow
rider Robin Delale
in Rhône-Alpes
BERLIN,
GERMANY
Riders: Bruno Hoffmann
(pictured above), Mo
Nussbaumer (both GER)
Discipline: BMX street
CHÂTEL, FRANCE
Rider: Vincent Tupin (FRA)
Discipline: Snow freeride, downhill MTB
Tillmann: Originally, this was a winter-only segment
filmed at Châtel snowpark with a cameraman following
Vinny’s freeride manoeuvres over slopes and jumps.
Tupin: First [in March 2019] it went well. Then I
planted my front wheel in deep snow, flipped and
dislocated my shoulder. Eventually we decided to
come back in better conditions the following winter.
Tillmann: [But February 2020] turned out to be the
shittiest winter of all time. The temperature stayed so
high that even the descent into the valley was closed.
Tupin: Plus COVID-19 began closing the resorts. So we
shot on the slopes near my home [in Maxilly-sur-Léman],
with a final section at the end of summer – in the dirt.
Tillmann: We wanted to show
street riding, so sought out toplevel
BMXers, which was tough
because we’re a mountain-bike
crew and their mindset is quite
different; they have their own
filmers. We shot solely with a
handheld camera, to capture
how they use the restrictions of
the city to express themselves.
Hoffmann: Street riding is
often illegal, so usually there’s
only one filmer and you have to
hit and run. But for this we had
permission for pretty much
every spot. That eased some
of the pressure, but the scale
of the production added more
– we couldn’t just ride around
randomly. For me, BMX street is
more accessible than mountain
biking – you don’t need an
expensive bike or special trails.
When you ride a BMX, you see
a city differently. You look at
stairs, rails, ledges. Everything
is a spot. You never stop looking.
66 THE RED BULLETIN
The Old World
BMX street pro
Bruno Hoffman
in August 2019:
“I love coming to
Berlin, especially
in the summer”
“When you ride
a BMX, you see a
city differently.
Everything is a
spot. You never
stop looking”
The Old World
“It’s difficult to
scout spots for
Chris – he rides
the stuff nobody
else wants to”
MTB trials rider
Chris Akrigg in the
Scottish Highlands,
September 2019:
“Each morning,
the schedule would
change due to
the weather”
SCOTLAND, UK
Rider: Chris Akrigg (GBR)
Discipline: MTB trials
Tillmann: Chris is known for
his humour and a crazy-yetdedicated
riding style. It’s
difficult to scout spots for him
– he rides the stuff nobody
else wants to, and still makes it
flow. We scouted the Highlands
and the islands, but it was all
for nothing: as we flew in, bad
weather meant that we couldn’t
shoot at any of them. So we
had to work on the fly instead,
finding locations and shooting
on the spot.
Akrigg: The Scottish landscape
is so vast, but I don’t need
huge slopes, I dial it down
into bits. When I reach a
location, my mind starts racing.
Sometimes I just need five
minutes to think about how it
could work. It can be hard to
convey the technicality of the
more intricate stuff on video.
Halfway into the shoot,
I jammed a radio antenna into
my ribs, clipped a pedal and
went head over heels. When I
landed, I folded myself in half. I
had a radio, and it sounds funny
but it was down my pants and
got stuck between my thigh and
ribcage. I don’t know what it
did in there, but it wasn’t good.
I managed two or three more
days of riding, but it got to the
point where it was distracting
me so much that I just couldn’t
ride. I ended up taking copious
amounts of painkillers.
“When filming
something like
this, you want
to be on top of
your game”
WALES, UK
Rider: Rachel Atherton (GBR)
Discipline: Downhill MTB
Tillmann: The theme of this
segment was ‘dedication’,
but that took on a whole new
meaning. Our original idea was
to film only with drones, but at
our first session on Cadair Idris
[mountain in Snowdonia] the
wind and rain made that less
than ideal. Then the drone
crashed at the first shot, so I
ran down the whole mountain
to get the spare, only to find it
had a software problem. Then,
before our next filming session,
Rachel tore her Achilles…
Atherton: I can remember it
like it was yesterday [the injury
occurred in July 2019]. It’s a
process you go through, almost
like grief. You feel angry and
upset, then just devastated.
Getting injured mid-season [in
the UCI Downhill MTB World
Cup], you go from winning
races to almost nothing. It
takes a lot to change your
mindset and focus on the long
road ahead. It was nine months
before I even picked up a bike
Downhill MTB pro
Rachel Atherton
films around
Cadair Idris, Wales
again. When filming something
like this, you want to be on top
of your game. I was nervous,
because I didn’t know if I was
going to be fast or look good,
so I put it off to the last minute.
But I think it was the right
choice, because I did feel I was
riding well when it came to
filming again. The first half was
all mountain stuff – outback
riding and big mountains, all
about freedom. The second
half was on tracks near my
home in Wales. Having a big
injury halfway through filming
changed the plan a bit, but
hopefully the hard work and
the dedication to return comes
across. To be back up to speed
and feeling like a racer again –
that’s what I’m looking forward
to the most. When you don’t
race for so long, it takes away
who you are. [Racing] is in
my blood. Being back on the
track makes you feel like
everything makes sense again.
[Just weeks after this interview,
Atherton announced that
regrettably, as a result of her
ongoing rehab, she wouldn’t
be racing again this year.]
THE RED BULLETIN 69
PARIS, FRANCE
Rider: Matthias Dandois
(FRA)
Discipline: BMX flatland
Tillmann: In Paris, Matthias
delivered his smooth
interpretation of BMX
flatland. Finding a new
perspective on the city was
hard, as he has filmed so
much here. We developed
a fresh way of filming his
riding style with a gimbal
on a Segway and a 600mm
super telephoto lens to
capture the technicality of
his tricks. We shot a lot in the
outskirts, and the production
car got broken into. All our
laptops and hard drives were
stolen. Fortunately, all the
footage was backed up.
Dandois: Getting clearance
to film in a city like Paris takes
months, but having a big,
professional crew made
things easier. For 20 years,
I was kicked off almost every
spot I rode on, and now – paf!
– authorisations. In Barbès
[in northern Paris], we were
accompanied by police to
ensure our safety, but
nothing happened. When you
film in working-class
neighbourhoods, colourful
characters always show up,
like the drunk guy who gives
you riding tips [laughs].
The Old World
August 2019:
Matthias Dandois
performs a onehand
MC circle
in a bustling Gare
du Nord, Paris
71
The Old World
LA POMA, SPAIN
Riders: Nico Scholze (GER, pictured left), Dawid Godziek
(POL), Diego Caverzasi (ITA), Bienve Aguado Alba (ESP)
Discipline: Dirt jumps
Tillmann: Dirt jumping has a strong community vibe at this
bikepark [30 minutes outside Barcelona], almost akin to surfing.
We shot with a big cable cam and a crane. Diego arrived with an
injured thumb, then, on the third day of shooting, Nico slammed
hard and broke part of his back. Fortunately, it wasn’t serious.
Scholze: It was a routine trick – a 360 tailwhip on the biggest jump
– but I came up short and went straight over the bars. I was only
just saying to Andi beforehand, “It’s going to be a good day.” I wanted
to show it’s possible to do freestyle motocross tricks on a mountain
bike – there’s a similar rotation and airtime. I watched guys with
FMX bikes on a shoot once, and I knew I could do the same tricks.
Polish dirt jumper
Dawid Godziek
initiates a one-foot
tabletop at La
Poma bikepark
“I wanted to
show the world
it’s possible
to do freestyle
motocross
tricks on a
mountain bike”
72 THE RED BULLETIN
Vink pulls off a
‘flaming’ manual:
“Andi told us to
bring an extra
helmet because
they might set us
on fire. It was still
a bit of a surprise”
KUDOWA, POLAND
Riders: Nico Vink (BEL, pictured right),
Szymon Godziek (POL)
Discipline: Big air
Tillmann: This was the opposite of Norway
– that was about control, but this is about
the edge of control. We filmed big air and
high-speed riding with a crane, a $100,000
[£77K] camera backpack and a Super 8.
The insane course will blow people’s minds
– and we set the guys on fire. A stuntman
usually doubles for the actor, but obviously
they couldn’t ride the course. The stunt
team only agreed to it after seeing the
athletes wouldn’t panic when set alight.
Vink: I’d ridden through fire, but I’d never
actually been on fire. We had underlayers
that were covered in a protective gel, then
fuel was added to the top layer – that’s
what was set on fire. The sections we were
riding weren’t super-long, and there were
two extinguishers at the bottom, but if you
crashed partway you were burning. We had
to do it a couple of times. Sometimes they
didn’t add enough fuel, and once there was
too much. It got a little hot, but I never got
cooked. When you’re riding, it’s all about
being on the limit of control – you’re close
to the edge, but getting away with it. That’s
the line any athlete in extreme sports is
riding all the time. It’s our life.
THE RED BULLETIN 73
OWN THE NIGHT
Maxx-D Mk13
4000 Lumens
Handlebar mounted
Reflex Technology
Diablo Mk12
1800 Lumens
Helmet mounted
TAP Technology
VENTURE
Enhance, equip, and experience your best life
WILLIAM COPESTAKE WILLIAM COPESTAKE
SEA
KAYAKING
Summer Isles,
northern Scotland
75
VENTURE
Travel
“The pleasure of a sea kayak is
you’re in the water rather than on
it, which provides a connection
with wildlife that’s hard to achieve
in another boat”
Will Copestake, adventurer and guide
It’s six in the morning and, on the
horizon, the sun is creeping over
a panorama of jagged mountains,
adding a shimmer to the sea. I’m awake
before my guests who, as the dawn
light brings heat to their tents, are just
starting to stir in their sleeping bags.
It’s a typical summer morning in the
Scottish Summer Isles – calm with a
gentle breeze that smells of the sea,
the slow rhythmic rumble of the surf
rolling against cliffs nearby, seals singing
melodically from the rocks.
Since 2013, I’ve pursued adventures
around the world, both personal and
through leading others – from a yearlong
journey kayaking, cycling and
climbing through Scotland to a 1,000km
expedition kayaking through deepest
Patagonia. But it’s the Summer Isles
I call home. As an outdoor activity
provider running our company Kayak
Summer Isles, it’s my job and pleasure
to encourage venturing off the beaten
track and pausing there. We deliver the
confidence and skills to enjoy what’s
around us while visiting remote places
and reconnecting with the natural world.
My day is mostly spent teaching then
leading along natural archways, caves,
cliffs and wild sandy beaches amid this
stunning landscape.
At my side, my mocha pot gurgles
on a stove as I prepare my morning
‘guide coffee’. I was first introduced to it
by a tutor at university, who explained
that the idea wasn’t the brew itself but
allowing yourself a small slice of time
before the day begins. Time to think, to
plan, to gain a sense of calm and place.
It’s a practice that goes hand in hand
with the rising concept of ‘slow tourism’,
the counterpart to ‘tick-list’ landmark
bagging. Drinking a coffee quickly fills
the need, but when you pause to enjoy it,
it becomes so much more. There is a
drive – partially fuelled by social media
– in the travel industry at the moment
to ‘experience’ as much as possible in
a short amount of time. It’s a quick way
to see a lot of great things, and fits in
with the busy lives many of us lead.
But fast travel has huge limitations, too.
Few who do it allow the time to truly
experience the communities, landscapes
and wonders they fly past en route to the
next attraction. Travel, after all, is about
the journey as much as the destination.
During the lockdowns earlier this year,
it was inspiring to see so many of our
neighbours discover the local gems that
have been seldom explored. Encouraged
by necessity to explore nearer to home,
many have learnt more about their
backyard and their own personal
interests in these short months than in
decades of living here. Personally, I’ve
never been at risk of taking the stunning
scenery of the Summer Isles for granted,
as I regularly get to see the expressions
of amazement on my guests’ faces.
Water man: the writer, Will Copestake, knows the Summer Isles like the back of his hand
WILLIAM COPESTAKE
76 THE RED BULLETIN
VENTURE
Travel
How to
get there
The Summer Isles – an
archipelago of around
20 islands, rocks and
skerries (islets) – lie
off the northwest
coast of the Scottish
Highlands. They can be
reached by boat from
Achiltibuie harbour,
which is just under
two-and-a-half hours
by car from Inverness.
Slow and low: sea kayaking amid the picturesque scenery of the Summer Isles is the antithesis of ‘fast travel’
Glowing report: awe-inspiring sunsets are commonplace in this part of the country
It’s the last day of our multi-day
adventure, and before setting off we
discuss how to pack a kayak: loading
the boat equally with the weight centred
around the hull, packing multiple small
bags rather than a single large one, and
keeping metal objects away from the
in-deck compass. We finish by packing
the remaining spaces with litter
collected from the foreshore – an
endless stream of ocean plastic brought
in by the waves. It sparks a discussion
on the human impact on such wild areas,
how we ultimately leave our footprint
wherever we travel. Already we’ve
ensured to remove all trace of our tents
and have packed our bagged waste, yet
still a few footprints remain behind. As
THE RED BULLETIN 77
VENTURE
Travel
REAR HATCH
Food supplies, sleeping bag, sleeping
mat, tent poles and pegs, cooking set
(pot, cutlery, bowl and mug)
POD HATCH
Pencil and waterproof notepad,
compass, head torch, night paddle kit,
spare knife and flares, chocolate bars
Kayak loading
The formula: well stocked but also
perfectly distributed
DECK HATCH
Medical kit, hypothermia pack, bothy bag,
emergency repair kit, Thermos with hot
sugary drink, tarp, quick stove and gas
FRONT HATCH
Food supplies, clothing and spare layers,
boots, tents (but not poles – no metal
items allowed under deck compass)
Lightweight
Midweight
Midweight
Heavyweight
Midweight
Heavyweight
Midweight
Lightweight
a company we won’t use this site again
for a few months, to allow regeneration
between our uses.
A wave breaks over my bow as I push
my kayak from the shore with a whisper
of seaweed beneath my hull. The crisp
water catches my hand as I dip my
paddle for the first stroke of a new day
ahead. ‘Psht’ – a seal breaks the surface
behind me as it escorts us from camp.
The pleasure of a sea kayak is you’re
in the water rather than on it, which
provides a connection with wildlife
that’s hard to achieve in another boat.
Through connection comes care, and
through care, ultimately, comes a
sense of stewardship to preserve the
environments we enjoy.
When working in Patagonia over my
winter seasons, I admired the Chilean
approach to managing sustainable
adventure tourism, which, just like the
north of Scotland, grew exponentially
faster than the infrastructure to care for
it. Flow, friction, rhythm: slow the flow,
reduce the friction, plan for the rhythms.
Encouraging visitors on a day’s kayaking
or hiking adventure siphons numbers
to a wider area, slowing the flow from
the main roadside. Where busier tick-list
attractions exist, frictions are managed
by facilities and infrastructure.
Understanding the rhythms of summer
booms and winter quiet allows the
chance to adjust and restore.
Seabirds take flight from the nearby
cliffs with a clatter of wings, bringing
a smell of fresh guano that stings my
nose. I don’t smell much better after
a few nights away from the luxuries of
home, but with that minor sacrifice
comes a restoration of energy, rolled
into the soul as the swell rolls life into the
ocean. The kinship with our surroundings
and between us as paddlers grows on
the water. When we return home
refreshed by genuine escapism, we will
have a new story to tell with the next
morning coffee.
Will Copestake is an adventurer,
photographer and guide who leads
outdoor pursuits and expeditions in
Scotland, Patagonia, and around the
world. Follow his adventures at
willcopestakemedia.com and learn
how to travel with him at
kayaksummerisles.com
Total ice-olation: when kayaking in Patagonia, you’ll
have entire glaciers and icebergs to yourself
Change of pace
Embrace slow travel
EXPLORE LOCH BROOM AND
THE SUMMER ISLES
The nearby towns of Ullapool and
Achiltibuie make a great jump-off point
for some of Britain’s wildest places,
a UNESCO GeoPark, and a thriving hub
of traditional arts and music.
ADVENTURE IN THE CAIRNGORMS
The Cairngorms are a good year-round
centre for adventure, with skiing in the
winter and more trails than you could
complete in any holiday. Activities cater
to beginners and experts alike, from
mountain pursuits to watersports.
GET COASTAL IN CORNWALL
With stunning coastlines and beaches
with hundreds of coastal trails to explore,
there’s something in Cornwall for every
interest. Base yourself in one of the many
communities and explore the vibrant
culture, arts and music, as well as walks
and swims along the way.
KAYAK TYNDALL LAKE IN PATAGONIA
Without doubt one of the wildest trips you
can do by kayak anywhere on Earth. This is
real wilderness that takes effort and intent
to reach, with whole icebergs and glaciers
to yourself as a reward. You won’t see
anyone other than the guide for the
majority of this trip. kayakenpatagonia.com
EXPLORE REYKJAVÍK
The Icelandic capital offers a fantastic
base to find an adventure that fits you, be
it snowboarding the mountains, soaking
in a mud bath, or learning to guerrilla-knit
a jumper for a tree (yep, that’s a thing).
A short hop from the UK, the city is a true
unsung hub for adventure.
WILLIAM COPESTAKE
78 THE RED BULLETIN
ALPHATAURI.COM
VENTURE
Equipment
From top: SWEET PROTECTION
Interstellar RIG Reflect goggles
have a toric lens (more asymmetric
than a standard lens) for less edge
distortion and greater impact
resistance, sweetprotection.com
Flight Path XL Factory by OAKLEY
allow you to switch between seven
lens types for maximum visibility in
all snow conditions. Quick-changing
Ridgelock tech seals the lens as it
snaps into place, oakley.com
ZEAL OPTICS Pando goggles use
Observation Deck tech inspired
by air traffic control towers – the
bottom of the lens tilts towards
your face to increase vertical
peripheral vision, zealoptics.com
RVX OTG by DRAGON ALLIANCE
have a 100-per-cent UV-protected
lens that can be popped out and
locked into place with levers. OTG
means ‘over the glass’, so specs can
be worn, too, dragonalliance.com
TIM KENT
80 THE RED BULLETIN
VENTURE
Equipment
SNOW
Slope into view Switchable-lens goggles for optimal vision on-piste
From top: POC Cornea Solar Switch
goggles don’t feature swappable
lenses; instead, the glass
automatically adapts to the light
for you. Faster than previous
light-reactive technology, the
award-winning liquid-crystal lens
changes its tint near instantly to
suit every condition, from midday
glare to serious cloud cover, and
the whole process is powered by
solar energy, pocsports.com
RED BULL SPECT Magnetron goggles
come with two lenses: contrastenhancing
(shown fitted) for bad
weather, and mirrored (below) for
fair, each with moisture canals to
prevent fogging, specteyewear.com
Enigma Elements Water by KOO
sport a silver mirror Zeiss toric lens
for high glare protection, easily
swappable with the included Sonar
lens (pictured) for better visibility
on an overcast day, kooworld.cc
THE RED BULLETIN 81
VENTURE
How to...
Sophie Radcliffe has
twice completed
Ironman, cycled
from London to Paris
in 24 hours nine times, crossed
the US from coast to coast by
bike, and set a world first by
climbing the highest peaks in
eight Alpine countries and
cycling between each of them
– the equivalent of scaling
Everest five times in 32 days.
And yet she wasn’t always so
sporty. In fact, at school she
was the last person who
wanted to put on sports kit.
“When I was younger, I was
very unfit and never a natural
athlete,” admits the 35-yearold
Brit. “I had a different
body to other girls and felt
uncomfortable about it.”
The problem, Radcliffe
came to realise, was never to
do with her body – it was in
her head. And it’s an issue she
discovered is common among
young women: “The rate of
drop-out for girls in sport is
huge when they hit 13 or 14.
Body image, eating disorders,
mental health [issues] and
suicide are all rising.”
So, in 2013, Radcliffe quit
her job at a tech start-up and
became an endurance athlete
and motivational speaker.
Today, she runs TrailBlazers,
a not-for-profit youth initiative
that equips teenage girls with
the confidence and skills to
live active lives to the best of
their abilities. “I want to show
them that it doesn’t have to be
about sport itself – it’s about
how you feel about yourself.”
The key, Radcliffe says, is
simply starting somewhere.
“Making yourself physically
strong has a knock-on effect
on your mind and the rest of
your life, but you have to start
any sport from a place of
passion and curiosity, thinking,
‘I’m going to find what it is I
love.’ Challenging yourself and
doing things that are difficult
and scary, like a physical
MOTIVATE
Live courageously
In her teens, Sophie Radcliffe hated sports. But then the adventurer
changed her mindset and made fitness an unbreakable habit
challenge, creates adversity
and forces us to find out who
we are. All the things I wanted
to feel in life – confidence,
motivation, feeling energised
– have come from facing
challenges in the outdoors.”
As a friend of Radcliffe told
her the night she quit her job,
“A ship in a harbour is safe,
but that’s not what the ship
was built for. Go sailing.”
You can follow Radcliffe’s
personal journey on
Instagram: @challengesophie.
And check out TrailBlazers
at blazeyourtrail.co.uk
Radcliffe poses with her team during
the Ragnar White Cliffs Relay in 2017
Find your
new path
Five trailblazing tips
from Radcliffe to
help fire up your
mental approach
Try many different
types of sport to
find what you love:
“People say to me,
‘I really have to go to
the gym soon.’ Why?
The only way to get
into fitness long-term
is to find an activity
you love. I discovered
that I’m made for
endurance sports.
I just never knew
that before.”
Just get outdoors:
“A great way to do
this is by making
your commute an
adventure. Start
cycling in, or walk
part of the way into
work. Find ways to
spend more of each
day outdoors.”
Help others along the
way: “Throughout my
journey, people much
more experienced than
me took me under
their wing. Those
people helped me so
much. The idea of
mentoring and giving
back is crucial.”
Shift your perception:
“What I tell people is:
simply set yourself
a challenge, which
can be big or small.
It can range from
going for a run to
the power of lifting
weights. Discover
the other world of
outdoor and
adventure sports.
Do a boot camp in
a London park, or
burpees while
watching the sunrise.”
Commit yourself to the
fact that it’s a journey:
“I love pushing myself
physically and
mentally. I love being
in the pain cave,
because it’s there
that I find out the most
interesting things
about myself; things
that help me learn
and grow into the
person and athlete
I’d love to become.”
TRISTAN SHU LOU BOYD
82 THE RED BULLETIN
10 ISSUES
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BEYOND THE ORDINARY
The next issue is out on Tuesday 8 December with London Evening Standard.
Also available across the UK at airports, universities, and selected supermarkets and retail stores.
Read more at theredbulletin.com
LITTLE SHAO / RED BULL CONTENT POOL
VENTURE
Gaming
INPUT
Evolution of play
In 1972, the world's first commercial games console,
the Magnavox Odyssey, was released. Its controller
– a box with three rotating knobs – was a revolution in
digital input. Games controllers have come a long
way since then. With the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series
X/S being released this month, three gaming experts
look at how controllers have changed the way we play...
DUALSHOCK 3, 2008
“With the PS3 [in 2006], Sony faltered
with a wireless pad that swapped
vibration for motion controls, but fast
returned with this rumbling DualShock.”
PLAYSTATION, 1994
“The first PlayStation controller is an
icon in its own right,” says Tailby. “The
triangle, circle, X and square buttons
have remained in every iteration.”
DUALSHOCK 2, 2000
Released with the PlayStation 2. “Two
analogue sticks made 3D games easier
to navigate, and rumble [vibration]
made the action more impactful.”
DUALSHOCK 4, 2013
Larger grips, a touch sensitive pad, and
a button to share your gaming moments
with friends. “Absolutely Sony’s best
controller at the time.”
DUALSENSE, 2020
"PlayStation 5's controller is the series’
biggest design departure yet,” says
Tailby, “and it delivers more nuanced
vibrations through haptic feedback.”
PLAYSTATION “I‘ve grown up with the PlayStation’s DualShock controller,” says Stephen Tailby, associate
editor for PS gaming website Push Square (pushsquare.com). “The ergonomic hand grips, which gave the device
a unique silhouette, have influenced controller design ever since.” However, Tailby believes that the DualSense
controller, which debuts with the PlayStation 5, will transform that gaming experience. “The haptic feedback
and adaptive L2 and R2 triggers [on the top], which make it easier or harder to press down depending on what’s
happening in-game, should enhance immersion in tactile ways. But the fundamentals remain intact – the DNA
of Sony’s very first controller exists in all its successors.” PlayStation 5 is out on Nov 12, playstation.com
SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT INC, MICROSOFT
84 THE RED BULLETIN
VENTURE
Gaming
XBOX, 2001
The ‘bulky’ original Xbox controller. “It
led to a more compact design hitting
the market soon after,” says Gilbert.
“But fans are very nostalgic for it.”
XBOX 360, 2005
“The design was modernised, with
additional shoulder buttons and a
headset and add-ons port, and it was
significantly more comfortable to use.”
XBOX ONE, 2013
Gilbert describes the evolution here as
“quality-of-life adjustments. So popular
was the Xbox 360 controller, there was
no need for radical changes”.
XBOX SERIES X/S, 2020
“Improved ergonomics, reduced input
latency, a new D-pad design – the
controller is compatible with Xbox One,
Windows 10 PCs, even Android devices.”
XBOX “The original controller didn't get the best reception back in 2001,” says Fraser Gilbert, news editor
for Xbox gaming website Pure Xbox (purexbox.com). “It was bulky and oversized, but it laid the foundations for
what we've come to expect today in its button layout, analogue stick placement and trigger design.” For the
new controller, Microsoft has taken a markedly different approach to size, scaling it to the hand size of an eightyear-old
after finding that worked equally as well in smaller and larger hands. “It’s an evolution rather than a
revolution. The popularity of each iteration is a testament to how well the company has refined its controller
over the past 20 years.” Xbox Series X/S is out now, xbox.com
THE RED BULLETIN 85
VENTURE
Gaming
RAZER BOOMSLANG, 1999
The first gaming mouse. “Prior to this,
mice had a sensitivity of less than 500
dots per inch; this had 1,000dpi.” In
2000, a 2,000dpi version was released.
RAZER DIAMONDBACK, 2004
Eschewing the ball-on-tabletop
mechanics, this was Razer’s second
optical-sensor mouse. “It was more
precise and reliable,” says Jennings.
RAZER NAGA CHROMA, 2014
Pushing that optical sensitivity up to
8,200dpi, with multiple buttons that
players could map to in-game actions.
RAZER MAMBA, 2015
Razer's first mouse to top 16,000dpi
in optical sensitivity allowed players to
adjust the force of their finger clicks.
RAZER DEATHADDER, 2020
Wireless mice can suffer from
latency, but this switches frequencies
on the fly for a fast connection.
THE GAMING MOUSE It’s difficult to remember a time when games were played using an office
mouse with a ball inside, but that was the state of play before the Boomslang launched in 1999. “It was born
out of necessity,” says games journalist Mike Jennings (mike-jennings.net), who has written for Tech Radar,
Wired, Custom PC, and more. “As PC games became more complex, more buttons and greater precision were
needed.” Since then, gaming mice have diversified for specific genres. “The Naga’s extra buttons were ideal
for MMOs [massively multiplayer online games]; the Mamba’s improved sensitivity for twitchy, fast-paced
shooters. The demands of gamers have driven innovation – these mice excel where office mice won’t.”
RAZER
86 THE RED BULLETIN
RAZER TOM GUISE
PLAY
The game
changer
How one video gamer’s need to
skill-up changed the way we play
Min-Liang Tan is currently
playing Fall Guys: Ultimate
Knockout, the cutesy
multiplayer battle royale game
that has taken the world by
storm. And the 43-year-old
Singaporean has an edge over
his opponents: all the gear –
including the PC – that he’s
playing on was designed by
him and built by his gaming
company, Razer. The business
earned him a place on the top
40 list of the most powerful
people in video games in 2012,
and five years later, at 40, he
became Singapore’s youngest
self-made billionaire.
And yet the former lawyer's
success in the industry was
merely born out of the simple
desire to be a better player.
“When you miss a shot, you
never think, ‘It’s my skill,’” Tan
laughs. “I just wanted a better
mouse, so we built one.” That
was in 1999, and the result was
the Boomslang, the world’s
first dedicated gaming mouse.
Today, Razer applies that
same mindset to building
gaming laptops, headsets,
smartphones and more, and
the brand – and Tan – have
generated something akin
to a personality cult. “We
get thousands of photos of
people with Razer logo
tattoos,” he says. “Somebody
even tattooed my face on
himself,” Last year, a fan
even named their son Razer
after the company.
For Tan, though, this is
less about corporate success
and more about community.
“I’ve never thought of myself
as a CEO,” he says. “I’ve
always been a gamer.” And
Tan applies that ethos to
everything he does: “It’s
about finding that competitive
advantage to help you win.”
I’ve learnt to trust
my instincts
“With the Boomslang, we
didn’t set out to make a huge
amount of money. It was more
like, ‘This is something I need,
and I’m sure there are others
who’d want it, too.’ When we
redesigned the gaming laptop
to be super-thin, we got a lot
of hate. Everybody said, ‘This
isn’t what gamers want – they
want something thick and
powerful.’ But we brought in
thermal engineers and made
it thin and powerful. Now it’s
the industry standard.”
If it works for gamers,
it’s for everyone
“It’s cool to see non-gamers
using our products. We’ve got
medical professionals getting
them for their precision, and
I’ve seen a space programme
using our mousepads on TV.
People don’t do competitive
Excel spreadsheets, but
VENTURE
Gaming
Min-Liang Tan: gamer, billionaire businessman and zombie (as
seen in the 2015 gaming spinoff film Dead Rising: Watchtower)
we’ve had requests from the
financial industry saying,
‘Our traders are using Razer
mice and keypads to do fast
actuations. Would you make
office stuff?’ But we’re not
going mainstream – we’re
more interested in the
mainstream coming to us.”
Class of 2020: the Razer
BlackShark V2 Pro, a state-ofthe-art
wireless gaming headset
Bad ideas are poorly
executed good ideas
“We were the first to go with
the whole matte-black theme
that has become the colour
for gamers. Then we added
LEDs, starting with single
colours and then RGB lighting.
Designing with light is
incredibly difficult: if you
use too little, it’s pointless;
too much and it’s garish.
I’m in meetings about how
many millimetres of light
we’re going to put into the
stairway of our new building
– it’s four storeys high, and
we’re doing multiple models
just to get the perfect
amount of light.
Great solutions are
always in demand
“Recently, I slipped a disk.
Then I got a whole bunch
of gamers saying, ‘I’ve got
the same problem from
playing too many games.’
I summoned my head of
engineering and said, ‘What
are you gonna do about it?’
And he goes, ‘You should
be asking an orthopaedic
surgeon.’ But I said, ‘You
guys are going to design
something, because I’m sure
other people will want the
solution. Let’s come up with
something good and maybe
it’ll ship hundreds of millions
of dollars of product.’”
Sometimes I need to
keep my mouth shut
“One gamer really wanted
a Razer toaster. I said, ‘Get
to a million likes and maybe
I’ll make it.’ I check in on
him from time to time. Then
somebody said, ‘I’ll get a
Razer toaster tattoo,’ and
I made the mistake of
saying, ‘Get 10 people to
do it and I’ll make one.’ I think
today they may have 15
people with that tattoo.
I promised to make it, but
I didn’t say when. We’ve had
some early prototypes, but
it’s not up to par yet, So I’m
still working on it. It’s got to
be the ultimate toaster.”
razer.com
THE RED BULLETIN 87
VENTURE
Fitness
YOGA
Shredding
tradition
Sadie Nardini discovered
yoga to get back on her feet.
Now she’s reinvented the
practice to work for everyone
Sadie Nardini’s fitness
journey started with an
accident. When she was 13,
a man cannonballed into a
swimming pool and landed
on her head, leaving Nardini
partially paralysed. “The
doctors said I would probably
never walk again,” she
explains. “They stabilised
me and sent me home.”
While Nardini was stuck
inside, day in, day out, her
mother introduced her to
gentle yoga poses, hoping they
would help her body to heal.
And they did – two years later,
she was able to stand again.
Soon, she felt ready to rebuild
her muscles. Then Nardini
discovered power yoga.
“All I knew about yoga at
this point was that you lie
around and breathe,” she
remembers. “When I realised
that there was yoga that could
confront and strengthen me,
I found my calling.”
In her mid-twenties,
Nardini began instructing
around the world and gained a
global following as a rock-star
yogini (female master yoga
practitioner), promoting an
innovative approach to
traditional yoga. “I’d play
David Bowie in my classes
– my message would be all
about fun empowerment,”
the 49-year-old Californiabased
instructor says today.
“That wasn’t being done at
all back then.”
Nardini had the idea for her
most recent workout while
running through the airport in
Paris to catch a plane. “What
I’d been doing for 20 years
was endurance-based slow
strength, but I was terribly out
of cardiovascular shape,” she
says, “so I went to a few HIIT
[high-intensity interval
training] classes. It was fun,
but as an anatomy-and-joint
expert I was horrified. Many
of the moves were too hard
on the joints; people were
hurting themselves.”
So she developed the Yoga
Shred, a cardio workout that
takes the flowing movements
of vinyasa yoga as a starting
point – improving core
strength through a sequences
of poses – and burns fat
through high-intensity cardio
exercises, always with a focus
on protecting your joints. “It
makes yoga people superherostrong
and gives cross-train
people more range of motion
and flexibility,” Nardini says.
“It’s a nice way to get all the
benefits of both practices in
only 20 minutes per day.”
Nardini’s Yoga Shred can
be studied at home through
fitfierceclub.com. She’s
offering five weeks of fitness
classes for free with the
code FFCFREEMO
The Yoga Shred burpee
in six steps
“The burpee is a classic HIIT move, but it can be hard on
the joints,” says Nardini. “Modify it with yoga alignment”
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 Stand halfway up your mat with your feet hipwidth
apart. Place your hands on two yoga blocks
(better for the wrists and shoulders) or the mat.
2 Step back into an extended plank with your
knees bent, feet still wide apart. Lift your abs so
that the curve of your lower back is no longer
dropping towards the floor, which can hurt it.
3 Step halfway up the mat with your feet still
hip-width apart. This will position them beneath
your hips for less knee strain and a more powerful
centre of gravity.
4 Lift with your abs until you are in Chair Pose
(standing like a chair). Pull your knees and hips
back to protect the knees.
5 Press down your heels to firm your glutes, and
stand quickly with ‘Fists of Fire’ (bend elbows and
quickly sweep your fists down beside your hips)
6 Alternatively, jump out of Chair Pose with
Fists of Fire into your hips. If you hop, land with
your hips and knees pulled back to prevent
pressure on your knees.
JAMES ST. VINCENT FLORIAN OBKIRCHER
88 THE RED BULLETIN
VENTURE
Equipment
BLAST
Baby boomers Small speakers, large sound, maximum mobility
Looking for some audiophile advice
on the ideal speaker size and form
factor, and where best to position
it for optimal sound? The answers
are: small, anything that looks cool,
and anywhere you can take it.
Today’s Bluetooth wireless
speakers prove that good sound
is no longer exclusive to a wooden
box plugged into a vacuum-bulb
amplifier. Left to right, from top:
JBL Xtreme 3 with 15 hours of
battery life, jbl.com; ANKER
Soundcore Rave Mega party
speaker, anker.com; URBANEARS
Rålis with 20 hours of wireless play,
urbanears.com; SACKIT BOOMit
high-power portable designer
speaker, sackit.eu; ULTIMATE EARS
Boom 3 with an IP67 water- and
dustproof rating, ultimateears.com;
NAIM Mu-so Qb 2nd Generation,
naimaudio.com; BANG & OLUFSEN
Beosound 1, bang-olufsen.com
TIM KENT
90 THE RED BULLETIN
VENTURE
Equipment
IMMERSE
Inner bass Wireless earbuds with big headphone features
The ear is home to the tiniest bones
in the human body, and now it can
house the smallest full-spec speaker
systems, too. Miniature audio tech
has made big advances, bringing us
wireless in-ear ’buds with active and
passive noise-cancelling, touch
controls, water resistance, batterycharging
cases, and sound quality
to match over-ear ’phones. Left to
right, from top: X BY KYGO Xellence,
xbykygo.com; RHA TrueConnect 2,
rha-audio.com; CAMBRIDGE AUDIO
Melomania 1, cambridgeaudio.com;
BANG & OLUFSEN Beoplay E8 3rd
Gen, bang-olufsen.com; PANASONIC
RZ-S500W, panasonic.com;
SENNHEISER Momentum True
Wireless 2, sennheiser.com;
TECHNICS Truly Wireless EAH-
AZ70W, technics.com; SKULLCANDY
Indy Evo, skullcandy.co.uk; JBL
Reflect Flow, jbl.com; JAYBIRD
Vista, jaybirdsport.com
THE RED BULLETIN 91
VENTURE
Calendar
10
November onwards
ONE DAY, 4061M & 4478M
The numbers in the title of this film are the heights of Gran Paradiso and the Matterhorn – two peaks
in the Italian Alps that ultrarunner Fernanda Maciel summited in one day (August 20 this year), the
former earning the 40-year-old Brazilian a new female Fastest Known Time (FKT). Her achievement
is made all the more profound by the knowledge that her flatmate lost their life on the Matterhorn
only a year earlier, and Maciel suffered frozen eyes while attempting the climb two years prior to
that. Just a day after her ascent, 25 climbers were trapped in a landslide on its slopes. This is an
inspiring, exhilarating movie about overcoming physical limits and personal demons. redbull.com
10
November onwards
PUSHING
PROGRESSION: RED
BULL STREET STYLE
The freestyle football scene has
exploded over the last decade, rising
from performance art to pro sport
and culminating in the Red Bull Street
Style World Final (to be held on Nov
14). Mixing acrobatics, dance and
dazzling ball control, Street Style
is a form of self-expression for its
practitioners. This film examines the
evolution of the scene from street to
internet to stadium, to discover what
it takes to be the best. redbull.com
10
November
onwards
PLONK GOLF
London’s popular crazy
golf experience brings
its bonkers putting
courses to Peckham –
with social distancing,
of course, and drinks
pinged your way from
the bar. Peckham
Levels, London;
plonkgolf.co.uk
10
November
onwards
HYPERREALITY
VR BAR
Looking to escape from
2020? This cyberpunkthemed
gaming dry bar
serves up both the
techno future and the
retro past with three
arenas of VR-connected
play and a classic
computer games
lounge, all with COVID
precautions strictly
in place. London;
hyper-reality.io
92 THE RED BULLETIN
VENTURE
Calendar
MATHIS DUMAS/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, SAMO VIDIC/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, ALAMY, MARK HUNTER,
STEVEN POCOCK/WELLCOME COLLECTION, TOM LEWIS RUSSELL
10
November
onwards
BACKYARD
CINEMA
It’s been a tough year for
cinema, but here you can
catch Xmas films like Die
Hard and Elf, armed with
a boozy hot chocolate
from the heated bar.
Capital Studios, London;
backyardcinema.co.uk
17
to 19 November
OCEAN FILM
FESTIVAL
This world tour of the
year’s most incredible
nautical-themed films –
including documentaries
on a 6,000km row
across the Atlantic,
and subzero surfing
– goes virtual for 2020.
Passes also grant
access to filmmaker
and oceanographer
Q&As, and behind-thescenes
materials.
oceanfilmfestival.co.uk
10
November
onwards
CHARLI XCX
INTERVIEW
For Charli XCX – like
the rest of the world –
2020 has not gone as
planned. Having had
to postpone projects
due to the pandemic,
the British pop star
decided to record
a lockdown album,
How I’m Feeling Now,
which she announced
on Zoom in April and
released to critical
acclaim a month later.
But before social
distancing came into
force, she filmed this
interview with US
music journalist Will
L Cooper in front of
a live audience at
the Hammer Museum
in Los Angeles.
A Conversation
with Charli XCX is a
candid and insightful
discussion of the
musician’s work and
career. redbull.com
10
November
onwards
WELLCOME
COLLECTION
This free museum
dedicated to the study
of human experience
reopened in October
with exhibits examining
how that perspective
has changed. US visual
artist Kerry Tribe’s work
Standardized Patient
looks at doctor/patient
dynamics, while
London-based Sop’s
sound project The Den
explores enforced
isolation. London;
wellcomecollection.org
THE RED BULLETIN 93
THE ALPS AT
THEIR VERY BEST
Majestic mountains, breathtaking views, perfect
pistes: Zell am See-Kaprun is a snow lover’s dream
Do you ever just close your eyes
and imagine escaping your
day-to-day surroundings?
After the year that we’ve all
endured, more people than ever
will be doing just that, daydreaming
about whisking themselves off to
far-flung locations.
With its awe-inspiring mountains,
expansive lakes, powdery snow
and perfect vistas, the Austrian
ski resort of Zell am See-Kaprun
is certainly a dream destination.
Around an hour and 20 minutes
by car from Salzburg Airport, and
about twice that from Munich, the
picturesque town of Zell perches
Powder play:
fresh snow
is in plentiful
supply on
Schmittenhöhe
in Zell am See-
Kaprun
on the edge of the beautiful Lake
Zell, with the snow-covered majesty
of the 1,965m-high Schmittenhöhe
mountain reflected in its serene
waters. Get your hands on the multiresort
Ski Alpin Card (available at
alpincard.at and other outlets) and
you’ll have access to the slopes
of the Schmittenhöhe as well as
two neighbouring ski areas, making
it your pass to a huge snow-covered
playground with 408km of the very
best pistes in Austria.
Zell am See-Kaprun is a snow-sure
resort, largely thanks to the
Kitzsteinhorn Glacier above Kaprun,
which is open for skiing from early
October to the middle of July. The
Kitzsteinhorn is the dominant
mountain in Zell am See-Kaprun.
It’s also the only glacial ski resort
in Salzburg, but it’s super
accessible. A new hyper-modern
cable car from Maiskogel to
Kitzsteinhorn provides ski-in,
ski-out access to the glacier right
from Kaprun town centre.
The Gipfelwelt 3000 Top of
Salzburg panorama platform, which
is situated 3,209 above sea level,
looks out across the pristine
wilderness of the Hohe Tauern
National Park; to the south, you can
see the 3,798m-tall Großglockner
– the highest mountain in Austria –
while to the west is the glaciated
peak of the Großvenediger. Its
name translates to English as
‘Great Venetian’, believed by some
to be a reference to the Venetian
merchants who once travelled
along this route.
The range of skiing on offer in Zell
am See-Kaprun is so vast that,
whatever your preferred style,
you’ll have no problem finding it.
The terrain is ideal for beginners
and intermediates, with the runs
in Zell primarily blues and reds.
Schmittenhöhe is great for
intermediate cruising, and the
long red run to the zellamseeXpress
cable-car station is particularly
fun to weave down.
There are also a handful of
black runs that are especially
good to ride in the morning, and
the 1km-long Black Mamba on
the Kitzsteinhorn Glacier is
so-named because it winds from
the Kristallbahn valley station
to Langwiedboden like the
eponymous snake. It’s also by
far the steepest piste on the
glacier, with a gradient of 63 per
cent – and once you’re on it,
there’s no way of getting off
except by riding it out, so be
sure to go in with confidence!
If off-piste is more your thing,
there are marked freeride
routes and information points
on Kitzsteinhorn, and as well
as the huge panoramas on
the Schmittenhöhe you’ll find
the tremendous Trass ride –
a 4km route dropping 1,100m
PROMOTION
ZELL AM SEE-KAPRUN TOURISMUS, KITZSTEINHORN, ZELL AM SEE-KAPRUN TOURISMUS
RESORT
FACTS
Nearest airports:
Salzburg Airport
(76km),
Munich (206km),
Innsbruck (148km)
Number of lifts:
28 (49 including
Maiskogel and
Kitzsteinhorn)
Total piste
distance:
77km (138km
including Maiskogel
and Kitzsteinhorn;
408km with
Ski Alpin Card)
Elevation:
760-2,000m
Highest mountain:
Kitzsteinhorn
(3,203m)
Cross-country
tracks: 107km
zellamsee-kaprun.
com/en
Piste mode: experience the thrill of freeriding on the Kitzsteinhorn
Magical: the view at night from Mitterberg
in altitude and bringing you back
to Zell am See. If you’re around
for long enough, the Ski Alpin
Card also opens up the Skicircus
Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang
Fieberbrunn, with an additional
270km of pistes, a short bus
ride away. And there’s a natural
snow piste from Saalbach down
to the zellamseeXpress, which
will bring you to the
Schmittenhöhe ski area.
Back in Zell, the architecture may
be traditional – the area has been
continuously populated since at
least Roman times – but this is
a town that certainly isn’t stuck
in the past. Zell’s weekly winter
programme makes it easy to join
in on winter yoga classes, torchlit
walks under starry skies, and
guided snowshoe hikes.
And, if you get lucky, Lake Zell
might even freeze over, giving you
the cue to pull on a pair of skates
and weave and wind your way across
the frozen water against a heavenly
backdrop. Now that’s definitely the
stuff that dreams are made of.
Imprint
GLOBAL TEAM
THE RED
BULLETIN
WORLDWIDE
The Red
Bulletin is
published in six
countries. This is
the cover of our US
edition for December,
featuring basketball
star and social justice
advocate Renee
Montgomery…
For more stories
beyond the ordinary,
go to: redbulletin.com
The Red Bulletin UK.
ABC certified distribution
153,505 (Jan-Dec 2019)
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96 THE RED BULLETIN
Action highlight
Ready to roll
For his latest video, German skater Vladik Scholz (pictured) and his board
buddies Madars Apse, Gustavo Ribeiro and Jost Arens were shrunk to the size
of woodlice and placed inside one of those labyrinth games that involve
manoeuvring a ball around a maze. Or was it the set that was made bigger?
Whatever, the results are spectacular. Watch the video at redbull.com
The next
issue of
THE RED BULLETIN
is out on
December 8
DANIEL WAGNER/RED BULL CONTENT POOL
98 THE RED BULLETIN
Copyright © 2020 MNA, Inc. All rights reserved.
THE ENTIRE RIDE OUT,
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WHAT ARE YOU BUILDING FOR?
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