Skiing
Skiing the world’s hardest rail with Max Moffatt & friends
With over 200ft of metal to slide, Canadian freeskier Max Moffatt put together a roster of the best rail skiers in the world to see if they could create and conquer the hardest rail.
It takes a truly gnarly looking structure to live up to the claim of hardest rail, but what Max Moffatt and crew have put together might justify that statement. All the elements that would have an impact on rail difficulty - like the number and variety of kinks, the length, and speed - are all present. The only thing left is for the skiers to give it a go and decide if it’s worthy of the title.
Max Moffatt & crew finalizing the hardest rail design.
© Liam Glass
To help out with the project, Max brought out some of the most talented skiers on the planet, including some of his close friends, to put the rail to the ultimate test. He was joined by Jesper Tjader, the world record holder for the longest rail, World Cup freeskier Hunter Henderson, fellow Team Canada member Mark Hendrickson, and close friend Brayden Tritter, who now coaches the Canadian halfpipe ski team.
Let’s take a look at how this idea came to life and how the crew got on with the rail.
01
The concept
This project is the perfect combination of game and tradition, bringing together the trampoline-originated game of Add-On and the spring skiing tradition known to park rats as “Boxzilla”. Not Familiar with these? We’ll break it down for you.
The game of Add-On in the trampoline world is when athletes take turns adding tricks one after another to create a difficult sequence of moves. The aim is to either make it too difficult for the others to complete or to come up with a hyper creative sequence of maneuvers you may not have thought of on your own.
Pretty scenic spot for a difficult rail.
© Liam Glass
As for “boxzilla”, as is tradition in the springtime at many resorts, terrain park builders will put as many box-style features together, creating a lengthy challenge-feature otherwise known as “boxzilla” due to its monstrous size.
Put both ideas together with a few tweaks and what do you get? You end up with a game where skiers add a rail after at least one crew member has cleared the current layout and you see how many rails you can put together and slide until the end.
Seems simple enough, right?
02
The hardest rail
Wrong. The final combination of rails isn’t easy, totaling 210 feet and 8 inches, merging 10 different features together.
Watch the action now!
The crew finds themselves nestled in beautiful Banff Sunshine Village, Alberta looking at a wide variety of rails to choose from.
The initial feature is a simple 32ft teardrop rail which the skiers have a fun session on, lacing up tricks like it’s nobody’s business. This trend continues on after the second and third rails are added; a down flat and a flat down rail, with some heavy tricks being thrown down during both sessions.
Get to know Max Moffatt:
Things start heating up when the fourth rail is fitted in the mix: a right-handed elbow rail stretching the feature to 89ft. With the rail no longer in a straight line, a serious balancing challenge is added for the crew to overcome. Jesper Tjader, however, locks in on his second attempt and slides all the way through.
The rail garden from which to choose which rail goes next.
© Liam Glass
Building out the feature in miniature format.
© Liam Glass
Endless possibilities
© Liam Glass
To even his own surprise, the Swedish freeskier clears the fifth rail on his first attempt, pushing the team to add yet another stretch of rail. “[With] a regular rail, you can look at the end, but when it’s this long and with so many elbows, you have to look at the next elbow. It’s so hard to plan ahead,” notes Jesper.
A blank canvas for a massive rail.
© Liam Glass
When we reach 10 rails, that’s when we’re pushing it
The group of skiers is now installing the sixth segment of this metal monster. Adding yet another challenge, the selected rail is a left-handed elbow, giving it an overall “Z” shape. Mark Hendrickson closes out the session with a stylish backside 270 out and the group goes back to the top to decide what goes in next.
03
The battle is far from over
Now, you would think that by the seventh rail everyone would agree on adding an easier feature to lighten the task, but no. To bring the railzilla to just over 143ft, they decide on a one-piece z-rail. Inching towards the 150-foot mark with 4 redirecting kinks, the monstrosity is really starting to earn its name as the hardest rail. Both Jesper and Mark slide from start to finish with 18 and 10 tries respectively, ending the session.
The length extends to 190ft after the eighth and ninth pieces are added. After completing the eighth segment, Jesper comments “I was thinking this is the hardest rail, but I got it in 10 attempts, so we’ve got to keep adding more”.
Max Moffatt testing out the eight addition to the Hardest Rail.
© Liam Glass
Time to add the 10th piece. To end on a satisfying note (literally), the group of skiers opts to add a waterfall rail which consists of 3 steps, each ringing out as the skis drop from one level to the next. Totaling 210 feet and 8 inches, this is no easy task. “By far the hardest rail I've ever tried,” claims Max Moffatt after a long session of attempts, closing out the third day of skiing.
It all came down to the fourth and final day of the shoot. No matter how difficult and frustrating the session got, the crew kept their elite mindsets, not accepting defeat as an option. As fatigue started to settle in and bodies began feeling more and more sore, the clock was rapidly winding down.
By far the hardest rail I've ever tried.
The final battle
With a finite amount of time reserved to complete the mission, it was coming down to the final hours. After a nearly a full day of riding, a few swear words directed at all 10 pieces of metal and 202 attempts, Jesper Tjader greases the whole thing and it’s mission accomplished.
Max Moffatt, Hunter Henderson & Jesper Tjäder celebrating after a long day.
© Liam Glass
So, does this justify the claim as hardest rail? We think so. The technicalities of it and the immense balance skills required to make it all the way through make it stand out on its own.
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