A flash. Cherry blossoms. A train station. A blurry transition. A moment of silence. 

Freeride World Tour (FWT) athlete Max Palm’s new short film, GLÖMASKA, is one that makes us do a double take. Alongside the expertise of filmmaker Felix Raffaelli, the two produced a six-minute ski short that toys with the viewer’s perception. Glömaska means oblivion in Swedish—the state of being unaware or unconscious of what is happening, or “a flicker through time”.

Max, a 21 year-old skier from the French Alps, was the first skier to ever land a double backflip on the FWT in 2022, as well as the winner of the infamous Baqueira Beret Pro in 2023. In this film, he showcases his skiing with various jibs in dim lighting and fresh snow. The film moves through the seasons, allowing Palm to present himself in different forms, in and out of ski gear, throughout the piece. Palm, with a season goal to, “film some crazy projects and get super creative with them” pairs his newest film with a slow solemn beat that changes tune to a crescendo of euphoric symphonies. The creative exploration allows the pair to explore “oblivion” through the lens of a skier. With brightly-lit shots of Palm’s signature boundary-breaking skiing, we see him flip, spin, and slash through handmade jumps and rocky outcroppings in the short film. 

Flickering shots in a train station make us wonder: is the feeling Palm gets while skiing one that causes him to forget the world around him? Is skiing simply an unconscious act, so deeply wired within Palm that even within oblivion it is remembered? Or is the world itself simply worth forgetting in trade for the feeling one gets when skiing? While it is impossible to know the pair’s true intentions with this film, the art of a good short is one in which you stop and think. GLÖMASKA does just that.