Video: Freeriding Remote Russia with Petr Vinokurov

Cinematography: Andrey Burylov, Nikolay Chernyavski
Drone Pilots: Vladislav Ekimov, Alexander Soloviev
Photography: Dmitry Simakov


Words: Petr Vinokurov

In this strange summer, with regional lockdowns and closed borders, I many times recalled previous travelling to Europe to shoot projects or races, and was really missing new trips. So many plans for this season were put on hold - HuckFest in Norway, Megavalanche, coasting the European bike parks. I didn't have much of a choice and spent the whole season in the Sochi bike park. Thoughts of going somewhere again with a bike constantly haunted me. By the end of August, I decided to go to Elbrus. And in October, we were there, ready to film.

Here I entered my first ever race in the mountains - the Russian Cup in 2014, and in 2015 we were filming a freeride movie here with the RideThePlanet project. From that moment on, I had a dream to return here and ride the Wolf's Gate at full speed. This is for sure the best thing that has happened to me in the last year! I am stoked with what we've achieved.

At this time, the Elbrus region turned out to be very harsh and cold environment with unpredictable weather. There was a lot of wind and rain during filming. We barely made it - as the next day we finished shooting, the mountain was covered in snow. Of course, some ideas not realized, something was left behind in sketches. Maybe it's for good - to return here stronger and faster next year.