MAKE IT YOUR OWN
Henrik Harlaut’s charismatic style belies his quiet life hidden away in the Andorran Pyrenees.
JUST INSIDE THE APARTMENT DOOR, THE SMELL HITS. Passing the bathroom lined with dozens of battered park skis, it gets stronger, as if pouring directly from the reggae-laced speakers in Henrik Harlaut’s living room.
Wu-Tang and Mobb Deep CDs litter the shelves, interspersed between X Games medals, Dew Tour trophies, and a World Cup Big Air Crystal Globe.
Harlaut and three friends engage in a fierce video-game battle; framed magazine clips of Phil Casabon, Tanner Hall, Mickael Deschenaux, and Travis Heed hang on the far wall. Harlaut’s friends lounge on the couch, but he sits apart, manipulating his Xbox controller as he pedals a stationary bike. He only plays if he can sweat out a few miles at the same time—justification, he says, for sitting still off the snow.
The smell continues to circulate, not from the table strewn with rolling papers and energy drink cans, but from the kitchen. Garlic. Two years ago, Harlaut adopted a vegetarian diet in an effort to get stronger and leaner for ski season. He’s been hooked on the bulb ever since.
From competition to films like and to every backcountry booter and urban wall ride in between, Harlaut has redefined what freeskiing is supposed to look like over the past half-decade, putting emphasis back on style when the sport was destined for Olympic spin-to-win monotony. But while it’s impossible to
