It was a privilege to interview and photograph professional snowboarder and Protect Our Winters ambassador, Mat Schaer, for POW UK and POW Switzerland…
Mathieu Schaer is a twenty-nine year old professional freeride snowboarder who, when he’s not dropping cliffs and jumping crevasses for film productions such as Absinthe’s Stay Tuned and Almo & Picture Organic Clothing’s Shelter, holds a Masters in Environmental Science & Engineering from Lausanne’s prestigious EPFL University, works for MétéoSuisse and is an ambassador for the Swiss branch of the organisation Protect Our Winters, which aims to unite the winter sports community to fight climate change.
I met up with Schaer to interview him about his passion project, the movie Shelter, for the non-profit organisation Protect Our Winters. The purpose of the film is twofold: firstly, it aims to illuminate the treasures that are often hidden in our own backyards, flouting the filming methods and rider transportation of a conventional snowboard movie - that is to say, no helicopters and no snowmobiles - the riders travel between resorts using public transport and up the mountains on foot (splitboard or ski touring). Secondly, Shelter hopes to encourage its viewers to reflect on the possibilities open to us in terms of considering how we ourselves can adapt our lifestyle to live in a way that is sustainable and in the best interests of our planet.
As Schaer says: “To solve the climate crisis is going to be a big effort; it is going to need a lot of mentality change, and changing in many ways what we know and how our system is working. We need everyone involved. I just want to do my part to help. I want to just turn a light on inside people; inspire them to think: can I question what I have and try to find new ways to keep doing what I’m good at, but be in line with what needs to be done to help solve the climate crisis.”
Read the story in full on the POW website…
