Freeskiing
Fabian Bösch's freestyle ski circus will leave you breathless
How did Fabian Bösch dream up his audacious Circus Bösch project? Dive into the story of his stunts with balance balls, swings and an upside-down rail that have taken freestyle skiing to new heights.
Fabian Bösch has won world titles, X Games gold medals and even gone viral by Double Front Flipping a massive ski jump, but with his new poject, Circus Bösch, the fun-loving Swiss freeskier has truly broken new ground that shifts the goalposts of the sport.
Forget clowns and lion tamers, in Circus Bösch he turned the iconic peak of The Schilthorn in Switzerland's Bernese Alps into a true freeskiing circus, using trapeze swings, bouncy balls and snow-covered railings to put on an act full of never-seen-before tricks that take freestyle skiing to a new level.
Hit play on the video above to join Circus Bösch and then read on to find out how he turned the dream into reality.
Fabian Bösch's latest freeski adventure pushes the boundaries of the sport
© Lorenz Richard/Red Bull Content Pool
Step inside Circus Bösch
In Circus Bösch, Fabian Bösh rides various elements inspired by an unlikely spot – the gym. Years of training with gym balls sparked the idea, but instead of using them for fitness, they would become part of a ski jump. With that idea, the circus came to life and incorporated balls buried in snow volcanoes, a custom-made trapeze swing, classic high wire and more.
Get to know the unique features dreamed up for Circus Bösch below:
From paper plan to full park
While the idea for Circus Bösch was born in Fabian's head, he couldn't pull off a park this grand and tricks so unique with out some vital help. Fortunately, he had a strong team to help bring his vision to life. Swiss company Helvepark – a company known for designing and building innovative snow parks – took on the challenge of creating this mountain top circus – certainly not an easy task.
Helvepark worked closely with Bösch to craft custom trapeze and rail setups that would allow him to perform his tricks. Project manager Sven Toller says, "We'd never realised anything like this before. These elements had never been built like this and we would never have come up with this idea ourselves."
The idea for Circus Bösch took shape on a computer first
© Red Bull
The construction took a core team around two weeks to finish
© Jan Cadosch
Fabian Bösch admires his finished circus
© Lorenz Richard/Red Bull Content Pool
Circus Bösch is open and ready to entertain
© Lorenz Richard/Red Bull Content Pool
Helvepark plans, builds and maintains snow parks for ski resorts, taking on work that's so niche that it even needs to build some of its own tools for certain jobs. The main feature in the centre of the arena, a big air jump with a narrow in-ramp, was something Helvepark were confident in building, calculating the trajectory, the airtime and the impact, but the unique elements were another matter altogether.
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“The shapers from Helvepark asked me how they should set up the different elements, but I didn’t have any more of an idea than they did," explains Bösch. "We had to try out a lot of options and listen to both our experience and gut feeling when we were building the elements."
Bösch and the team had to figure out things like building upside-down rails
© Jan Cadosch/Red Bull Content Pool
The shapers asked me how they should set up the different elements, but I didn’t have any more of an idea than they did
The team drew up a 3D plan based on Bösch's ideas and then brought in specialist metalworkers and scaffolding experts to construct the trapezes, wires and swings the circus needed to come to life. In total, a team of five people spent two weeks building the circus arena to bring it to life. "The outcome was completely open, but the gut feeling of myself and the shapers' was that it could work," Toller recalls. "We learnt so much from this project: how gym balls react in the cold snow, how an upside-down rail works, how close a trapeze needs to be placed to the jump. The way Fabian then skied everything, becoming more precise with every attempt, was impressive."
From training to landing
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Circus Bösch's upside-down rail
Freestyle skier Fabian Bösch tries a new trick where he skis upside down on a rail. After several failed attempts, he masters this unique trick.
Bösch's Circus Bösch training started in the gym. He's always worked with gym balls, that's why he knew how they'd react and could roughly imagine what it would feel like using them on skis. But with all the new and unique elements involved, he was constantly weighing things up and assessing his chances. After trying a few of his planned tricks on the snow, he says: "From that moment on, I knew it could work."
Still, Bösch had just 10 days on the mountain planned to learn all the tricks he had planned - 12 in total. Due to the bad weather, those 10 days turned into three days. 12 new tricks to learn and land in three days. That was tight.
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Circus Bösch's trapeze swing
Freestyle skier Fabian Bösch tries a new trick in which he performs a front flip using a harness. After several failed attempts, he masters this unique trick.
Bösch felt the intensity of the project: “Circus Bösch was about as challenging as taking part in a big competition. What really got to me were the little falls – approaching an obstacle 30 times and failing 30 times. In a contest, I'm alone, so when I mess up it only bothers me. With Circus Bösch, there were 20 people on the mountain. You don't want to disappoint anyone."
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Bösch shows his tricks on the slackline
Freestyle skier Fabian Bösch tries a new trick in which he slides over a slackline with a ski. After several failed attempts, he masters this unique trick.
Who is Fabian Bösch?
Fabian Bösch was born in Engelberg, Switzerland, on July 6, 1997. Today he's one of the best freestyle skiers in the world who's won the FIS World Championships in both slopestyle and big air, as well as a gold medal at the X Games. Although he's more recently made a name for his highly creative video parts, culminating with Circus Bösch, in the coming two years he wants to concentrate on contest, with a focus on the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Italy.
Fabian Bösch is one of the freeskiing's most creative minds
© Lorenz Richard/Red Bull Content Pool
I'm very grateful I get to do projects like this and hope that one will come my way again, where I can explore movement sequences and tricks
