Photos by Sebastian Hoellwart
Despite living and skiing in the Alps, and having been involved in the ski industry for more than a decade, I think I’ve only met Dennis Ranalter in real life once. My first impression of him, as a softly spoken, reserved, and intelligent guy was certainly reinforced by this interview. I learned that he’s a keen painter and photographer, and applies his artist’s eye to spot selection. More than anything, he’s a dedicated student of the sport. He knows skiing inside out and loves the tiniest details of this niche passion we all know and love. Outside of the ski world, he likes to keep things simple, something I can very much relate to. But he also has a strong vision for the future. He’s a passionate advocate of the sport and of opening it up to a much more diverse group of people. The result of his unique vision, and quite frankly, not knowing him very well beforehand, is that this is one of the most enjoyable interviews I’ve had the privilege of doing in my many years at NS. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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Hey Dennis, I hope you're doing well. Welcome to this modern-day interview. For the reader's context, it's 7 am, I'm sitting in a train station in the south of France and I think you're in a car somewhere in Austria. Keeps things interesting. It sounds like you're not skiing yet this season because you’re carrying a little injury. Do you want to tell us what's happened and how you're healing up?
Hey Twig, I hope you're doing well, man. Yeah, that's pretty funny. Modern life at its best. Yeah, I’ve had a cartilage injury for maybe 10 years now and it’s playing up. It has always come and gone. It started with a knee injury, an ACL that luckily wasn't fully torn. In the same slam, I also injured my cartilage and MCL. The rest is pretty fine now, but the cartilage issue comes and goes. This season it’s feeling kinda rough, signs that I'm getting older maybe. I feel like the seasons are getting more intense towards the end of the year too, so I’m not in a rush to start too soon.
Back in the day, I would start to feel it a little bit more as the season went on and so I’d take a break or stop skiing in April and it would get better. But then there were a couple of seasons I pushed through. Bad idea. Now it’s mostly at the beginning of the season that it hurts more until the muscles and the body get used to skiing again. I think I'm going to be back on skis pretty soon, I’m just letting it have all the rest I can first.
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I certainly know that feeling of the body feeling a little bit older, and taking a while to work my way into the season. You've been doing the pro skier thing for a while now, it’s been your full-time job for quite a few years. Presumably that took a lot of hard work to get to that point, so maybe just run through who your sponsors are and how it feels to have achieved that kind of ‘status’.
For sure! I’m with Atomic Skis, Dragon, The North Face, Absolute Park, GoPro & Stance Socks. I wouldn't say that it's a status or something, but it took time to get here. And it feels amazing to have such a good relationship with the brands I work with. They support me in what I want to do and I try to do what works for them. We try and think of some cool things we can do together and work in the same direction. I think it’s super important that the relationship is authentic and no one gets pushed into things. I’ve always wanted more of a relationship, than a two-year contract where it's more money-based and money-related for both sides kinda thing. I think it's sometimes it's better not to get the craziest deal profit-wise but you have a really good relationship and work together very well.
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Dennis' new pro goggle, designed by the man himself. You can get a free pair here.
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I think that's a good take on the way industry relationships work, definitely something a lot of people misss. I guess I'm gonna ask one more question on that one actually, I know your goal is that you want to focus on the film side of things. But what is it that brands generally ask of you?
Maybe it sounds a little bit weird, but I think the main thing brands want is just me being me. They want to know what projects I want to do, and why I think they’ll be good for both of us. That’s what I mean when I say it’s important to build those close relationships because it allows me to be genuine AND for that to help the brand. The reason why they pick you up, or that you sign with them, is because you are mutually stoked about what each other is doing. If that’s the case then you get to be happy doing what you love, and the brand is happy too. Ultimately you ski for a brand for a reason.
It's also super important for me to put stuff together for local young guns , to fulfill my, um, way of thinking, how I see skiing in the future. I think the brands support that too. Of course, I like to film but I also like to work on design projects with brands and help them with their direction. I'm very interested in art in general and in being involved in product design. I feel super lucky that I get the chance to work with Dragon on the pro models and now I'm working with the North Face designing a collection with them. Oh, and I’m working on a graphic for Atomic too.
I think everybody has their take on this, but I’ve felt over the years that it's very important to integrate yourself into the company and try to work on stuff together. To show that you're in you're interested and you also have other qualities outside of skiing that can be useful for the brand. That allows you to grow together, and make cool stuff happen together. I think companies recognize that riders know certain things because they are doing it day-in-day-out. How a ski should work, how a jacket should fit etc. And I think we, as riders, can give the best feedback there too, and brands respect and value that.
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Hell yeah. I think that's a great take on the sponsor/rider relationship for anyone out there reading this by the way.
Now, on to more of a... challenging question. We’ve all watched Descendence and seen that your journey hasn’t always been the easiest one. You’re one of the very few skiers of color and probably THE best-known freeskier. Putting the irony of me asking this aside, does it make you feel singled out by the industry? Does it make it feel like you have more pressure than the other skiers around you? Or do you feel it's a positive chance to get to raise awareness?
Yoo, thanks for the question, I think it's super cool. I think it's very important to be out there, mostly for the next generation. When you're a kid you kind of have role models and people you look up to. Usually way more so than you do as an adult. You get motivated and set your goals by seeing other people and thinking, 'This is something I want to do when I grow up.
In sports like football, everyone sees people from different backgrounds playing together and it's kind of like you can relate to it wherever you're from. I think in snowboarding and skiing it's very very rare to see much diversity. But I feel like me being out there, gives kids with a similar background someone to be like, ‘I saw this guy out there skiing and he looked like me’. To have them ask their parents if they can have skis for Christmas because they saw this sick DVD *laughs*... well actually, a DVD is pretty unrealistic these days. But be like ‘I saw this crazy thing on the internet and this guy looks like me, I could do that too’. And I find that super motivating.
Growing up, I didn’t have that example. I remember how hard that was, so I know how hard it is for the younger generation that only sees white people doing the sport and never sees black people up on the mountain. It’s hard to imagine yourself skiing or snowboarding or whatever. When you’re growing up, things hurt way more too. So when you do put yourself out there, you’re being looked at and getting the feeling you are different and often unwelcome. I’m older now and it’s still hard. You’re aware that you look different and are being treated differently, and it hurts.
This sport we do is so amazing, I think it’s incredibly important to open it up for everybody you can, to get more people to do it, and have more people feel the mountains and nature and the joy they can bring. The stoke we all have, and grow up with, I think that's a beautiful thing and something everybody should have the chance to share and to feel invited to be a part of.
In terms of pressure, I think the only pressure I feel is to try and help make that happen. I kinda made it, so I’m like, 'Hey, how can I use my knowledge and my past, to make a more positive future for everybody?’ And to include everybody and make something positive out of it. I want to try and do more and more with my sponsors in that direction. I’m super grateful for how supportive they have been in that journey so far and plan on doing a lot more in the future. More generally, it feels like some things in skiing are going in the right direction, but there is a long way to go.
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That's an amazing answer, it's gonna be a long one to write up, I'm stoked. On that, note, I feel like in a lot of places, but particularly Austria, things are moving in a scary direction. I know that in Austria's recent election, there was a huge far-right vote. Austria as a country, even more than most places, seems to be becoming less 'welcoming'. Is that something you ‘feel’ when you are at home? Or does the reality feel more positive than that?
Thank you, right back at you! Very cool interview, and very cool questions. This is a hard one because I don’t feel super qualified to talk politics. But of course, in my opinion, it's very sad to see the way things are going. Especially with the past Austria has… people know what happened, that awful things have taken place. We have so much knowledge, we all learn about it in school, so it's very sad to be going back to a way of thinking that we learned is so wrong, so abusive, and just not right in so many ways.
I don't know what drives some people to vote for very, very right-wing parties. People can be so nice to your face and then you have a conversation with them and they tell you they would vote for a certain party because they have this and this issue. One promise from a party appeals to them and they kind of… forget all the rest. And you’re standing in front of them thinking ‘That party, they don’t believe I have the right to exist here’.
That’s where it gets very dangerous because you need to see the bigger picture. And of course, many people vote for the right-wing party because they have a real problem in their lives and believe it can be fixed by excluding others. And a lot of people just aren't tolerant, are they? That’s hard to fix.
But the scary one, is where you are talking to people who you see as friends, or see as nice or kind, and they are still voting for those parties. Often they know what it means for you, and they are trying to cover it in something, in some other issues or problems. Saying things like, it’s not YOU but all these other people. I try to have these conversations and so many people, they know how bad it could be for me, and they are trying to hide it or deflect.
I feel even more sorry for the young. It’s so very, very uncomfortable to be somewhere and know you aren’t welcome. You fully feel it, the vibe people give you, looking at you in a judgy way, you know what I mean? I’d say I’ve felt it for most of my life but for a while, it kind of seemed a bit better. But now it’s almost like it’s acceptable to be more racist again.
I kind of got to a point where I can kind of deal with it, but you know, it's still there and it still hurts. I'm lucky to be free enough to escape the worst of it. I work as a skier and a freelancer, so I can also choose to avoid it in the day-to-day. But not everybody has that chance. Most people need to be in a certain place, need to go to school, need to work a job, need to do this and that, so it's not an option to flee from racism.
And of course, it shouldn’t be like that, I shouldn’t have to avoid places, and they shouldn’t be trapped. Nobody should be scared because of the color of their skin, their gender, or whatever. I think that should be the last thing that a person is made to feel uncomfortable about. I can imagine how hard it is for the younger generation to feel not welcome. I’ve felt it. That feeling when you know your friend’s parents or people you go to school with don’t want you to be there. It’s a horrible feeling. And we can change it, but we need to take action and need to do something against it because things are going in a scary direction.
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https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/1101259/DennisMinute-mp4
One hot minute with Dennis. Clips via Dennis courtesy of Mathias Reich, Fabian Hyden & Cole Pates
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Woah, it’s pretty rare to hear someone in skiing actually give a proper opinion to be honest, thank you! My next question is on a more positive but related note. In Descendance, you get to go back home to Ghana and meet more of your family. So I wanted to follow up on that, have you been back or do you have plans to go back?
Yeah, definitely! Going to Ghana changed my life in some ways, in a very positive way. Especially reconnecting with my dad. Unfortunately, I haven’t made it back to Ghana yet. But I have a tight relationship with my dad again, so I’ll go back with him the next time he goes, probably next summer after the ski season.
We chat a lot now. He's living in England with his wife and my half-sister. His new family and I have a really good relationship too and we're all in close contact. I go over there and meet up with them and we have a great time together which is amazing. We all get on so well, so that has been an amazing addition to my life!
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Oh, sick. Well, I’m from London, and so I know it’s a bit of a different vibe from our mountain lives. Anyway, after a long detour, I guess we should bring this back to skiing. You kind of started as a park skier, and even did a few comps. But in recent years you've been moving more towards backcountry skiing and skiing pow. Where do you see the next few years of your skiing going?
Oh nice, that's really cool. I love London, it's very, very different from out here. It's just nice to be in such a big city, a lot of stuff is very different and it’s a super sick culture.
I did some competitions back in the day but it was never really something I enjoyed doing much. As for the future, I really enjoy side-country and backcountry freestyle. For me, it’s always kind of about going with the flow, I don’t plan too much. But right now it's definitely backcountry freestyle that speaks more to me than trying to find some gnarly high alpine line, where it’s an achievement just to go up to this mountain and make it back down… and maybe the skiing isn’t even that good the on way back down, if that makes sense.
For me, the skiing is always, and has always been, more important to me. I simply like skiing the things I enjoy the most. Of course, I come from a very park-focused background and I really to combine it with the freedom of powder and being out there. I like being creative and looking at what I can do differently. I think what is so good in powder, is that it speaks to people differently and everybody sees something in how the mountain is shaped and what you can shape out of it. And I think that's what makes it the most interesting for me and something I want to explore for as long as I can. As long as I'm fit enough to go out there and put some tricks down, I’ll keep doing it.
The beautiful thing is that it doesn't always have to be the craziest trick. When you look at it, it's just the spot itself. And you can see, okay, somebody made a real mental leap, they thought about shaping this spot, or hitting it in a certain way. I think it’s often highlighted better in snowboarding. There are some riders where you can see that the spot IQ is really high. It's very well-thought-out how they want to hit a certain feature and how they want to portray it on film. That’s something that speaks to me a lot. I would also love to create more events for the younger generation, bring people together, and just have a good time.
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I wanted to finish off with a 'final' question but you kinda already started on this in the last answer. Anyway, you've done pro goggles, you’re working on more pro lines right now. At the same time, you’ve been stacking bangers in the biggest movies… That's a pretty good track record for a professional skier to achieve all of those things. But is there anything specific within skiing that you haven't already? And what would you want your skiing legacy to be when you're retired?
Oh wow, that's a hard question. I think for me, the ultimate goal, which would be my biggest achievement is filming a part where I'm one hundred percent happy with everything: trick selection, music selection, the way it's cut, spot selection- all of these things.
I think that might be impossible but that’s kind of the beautiful thing. That’s what keeps me hungry for more. It’s different for everybody but that’s what keeps me motivated, makes me get out of bed early to chase the perfect shot... The thought that my perfect shot, my perfect part is out there.
And I do want to try and make a change in skiing. You know opening it up for more people, making a positive change in skiing itself. It’d be amazing to be able to go up to the mountain and see hundreds of skiers in the park from all different backgrounds. That would be a very beautiful thing.
Ultimately, I hope that when it's all over I was able to inspire some people. I grew up watching ski movies over and over. I guess you probably did too. Those movies inspired me, through watching them over and over and over again and having that Christmas morning feeling in my whole stomach. That excitement where the only thing you want to do is dive into the screen and be on the mountain. The first thing you do before school: is watch a ski movie, and then watch it again as soon as you're home again. Poor Boyz, MSP, Level 1… they just left such a big mark. I still listen to the songs from those movies and I’m transported back to that pure stoke. I hope I can give that feeling to some people as well, get them hyped and motivated to get out there, to go skiing with their friends. I think that would be my perfect legacy. That would make me the most happy I guess.
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