Video

“Circle of Madness” with Markus Eder and Victor de Le Rue

A palpable buzz of excitement spread through the room as we crammed into a full house at the Royal in Nelson, BC.  

“Circle of Madness,” Markus Eder and Victor de Le Rue’s 2024 film chronicling their spring in Haines, AK, had been available to stream online since November. But two months later, the excitement to watch it on the big screen felt as if it were the world premier. 

In the 50-minute film, which won Film of the Year at the International Freesports Film Festival (iF3) in 2024, Eder and de Le Rue travel back to Haines to ski and ride the massive Alaskan spine walls that have enthralled them for most of their careers. The two European riders contemplate the ever-looming pull of wild Alaskan spines, treating the steep walls and cliffy faces like an X Games venue. 

Each of Eder and de Le Rue’s lines could have been a single segment in any other film, a nonstop onslaught of prized ski lines. Somehow, they make harrowing terrain look fun and playful—like when they camp out on a big spine wall and turn a ridge below their basecamp into a massive booter. 

The Ski Journal’s 18.3 opening spread features Eder dropping into what they called “La Sagrada Familia,” a seemingly inaccessible stack of Seussian spines and pillows that they camped on towards the end of the film. 

Markus Eder drops into La Sagrada Familia in the opening spread of Tips Up in 18.3. Photo: Christoph Thoresen

“Massive cornices were hanging all over the place, and the zone was so hostile that at first we considered it inaccessible,” said Christoph Thoresen, who directed and shot the film. “When we found a way to establish a four-tent camp in the middle of the face, on a shoulder protected from avalanches, the boys started to dream big. Sagrada Familia is long and sustained for thousands of feet, its name inspired by the famous Barcelona cathedral—the pillow stacks are like the flutes of a giant organ pipe. And you better pray before dropping in.”

These days, most ski films are released on Youtube soon after premiering. It’s easy to rip through the season’s greatest hits on your laptop at home and forget just how special it can be to watch some of the best skiers in the world rip big lines alongside a jam packed room of people. Watching “Circle of Madness” at the Royal, hearing whoops and whistles when Eder drops into a spine switch, was the perfect reminder of just how much better it is in person. 

It’s always better on the big screen. Carl Bissonnette from The North Face introduces “Circle of Madness” and “Swamp Donkey,” which played for a full house at the Royal in Nelson, BC. Photo: The North Face

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