RUNNING TO SAVE OUR WILD PLACES   Words by Tom Batrouney Photos by Calumn Hockey   When was the last time you ran to SAVE THE WORLD? For me, it’s been a three-year journey to finally reach the start line of the Pilliga Ultra 50k, and I was stoked to be there this year. The Pilliga is Australia’s largest inland forest spanning over half a million hectares and the For Wild Places team host this...

  Longtime Le Bent ambassador and backcountry aficionado Rohan Kennedy has been living in Jindabyne since 2007 and skiing the Australian Main Range since 2012. Now a backcountry guide for SMBC after spending 10 years in ski patrol, Rohan practically lives on the Main Range during the winter and spring months.  Rohan helped guide Cody Townsend, Elyse Saugstad and the Le Bent team out along the W...

  Cody Townsend is a skier of international renown. At one time most known perhaps for his “line of the year” in 2014, he’s now turned his attention to a self-produced film series “The Fifty Project”, inspired by the book, ‘The 50 Classic Ski Descents of North America.’ He’s less known, but equally defined in his mind by an, “undying love of fart jokes, abhorrence of math and curious infatuatio...

  The acronym G.O.A.T gets thrown around a lot in professional sports. So, perhaps adding the word ‘Mountain’ as a prefix more accurately represents what Xavier De Le Rue is to modern professional snowboarding. A 3 x Freeride World Tour champion and 4 x World Boardercross Champion, Xavier has seen, and probably ridden, it all. Xavier joins Pro Team riders Cody Townsend, Sammy Carlson and Elyse ...

  A recent addition to the team, Michael Wirth is a 23yo ski mountaineer from Aspen, Colorado. Michael had an epic goal last season, and we wanted to tell you about it, but we didn't even know how to put the feat into words. Instead, we thought it should come straight from the horses (or Elk's) mouth. The below was written by Michael. Expect plenty more to come from him.   The Beauty and Challe...

  Freeride World Tour rookie and Le Bent athlete Isaac Freeland took the tour by storm this season with consistent runs, strong line selection and a bag of tricks that saw him end up on top of the men’s ski field with one final event remaining in Verbier, Switzerland. While a decision was made to conclude the tour early and the Bec des Rosse face would not be skied on account of Covid-19 and ...

  Elyse Saugstad has the unenviable position of first-hand experience when it comes to avalanches. In 2012 she was caught in one that took the lives of three close friends. If anything positive can be said to come from such a devastating event, it would be a renewed appreciation for snow safety and upskilling in the mountains. For Elyse this came in the form of co-founding SAFE AS Avalanche Cli...

  ELYSE SAUGSTAD – WELCOME INTERVIEW It was obvious to us Elyse Saugstad belonged on Le Bent's team. Not because her husband Cody Townsend’s a bona fide le family member, but because of the way she skis… she bloody rips! And that’s putting it lightly. A third-generation Alaskan, it’s unsurprising most of Elyse’s award-winning ski segments feature a spine line that’ll blow your mind. Freeskier ...

1st of June, 2019 is looking more like the 1st of August! Photo essay within...   If you follow skiing and snowboarding in Australia you’ve probably come across @australian_backcountry. Not necessarily experienced it for yourself – the backcountry that is – but seen its embodiment through the images produced by the man behind the social handle – Jake Sims. Jake comes on board this season as a ...