Capping a successful last few years of contests, including Olympic and X Games medals, this Norwegian will be adding some serious filming credits to his résumé this fall. This piece is from our latest print magazine, keep an eye out for the issue hitting shelves soon!

Mark Clavin: You’ve been riding a ton with Torstein Horgmo the past two or three years, right? 

Mons Røisland: Yeah, he was doing a movie this year and I was lucky enough to be part of that, so that’s pretty awesome. When I was a kid growing up, I just wanted to ride and be like Torstein. So it’s pretty dope to just see it come around that way. I started meeting him at contests, like the Laax Open [in Switzerland], and then we started traveling with the national team, and yeah, being a part of his project now is pretty special. 

What spawned your jump outside of just the contest scene, where you have had so much success, and into the backcountry? 

I guess for me it feels more free, in a way—to see every different perspective on riding it, from people making their own projects. It’s just always evolving and changing. Even where people have been filming for years, it’s never the same, whereas a contest can get very repetitive. There’s a new kind of learning curve as well, riding in powder. Everything from respecting and learning more about the mountains…[to] having confidence. A 360 in the backcountry gives you the same boos feeling as an 1800 on a jump. 

1800s feel good to you?

For sure…if you land one. They feel amazing. You don’t see shit—just a big blur for a second or two. And if you land on your feet, it’s pretty crazy. Standing on top of a pow feature…you get the same kind of jitters, in a way…[as] dropping into a big-air comp or slopestyle run. You want it to be that perfect style you imagined in your head. It’s so hard to get right—like, how you envision the trick—and you can never do it again. 

Do you think 1800s look good?

They can for sure. It’s pretty amazing to watch some of the guys that have really good style go into the hard, hard spins. You watch Dusty [Henricksen] do a back 18 Japan [and it] looks pretty freaking chill for him. To me, style is a lot of what you do with your other hand you’re not grabbing with, and you can just tell with Dusty [that] the other hand is just chilling. Same with some of the Japanese guys—just have incredible 18s where if you would take a photo, it could be a 720, because they’re tweaking and not knee grabbing or whatever. But it also pushes people to do really bad-looking ones to just get it around. There’s different aspects to it, but it definitely can look good.

Are you going to quit competing now that you are getting better on a sled? 

Those machines are ridiculous. No, I love competing as well. You know, like, I think it keeps me pushing my level of snowboarding, and I still have a lot of fun. I really want to go hard these next couple of years and then assess where my competitive motivation is after that. 

Is the Norwegian snowboard team the closest of any country? 

It’s a good question. We spend a lot of time together back home, too. Almost everyone lives really close here in Oslo. Just today I was climbing with, like…Mark Solemstad and Fridge [Fridtjof Tischendorf] and Bendik [Gjerdalen] and our filmer, Christian [Bjønnes]. It’s always been a kind of a focus point for of the Norwegian team to have a really good crew dynamic.…I guess that’s probably just…having the most insane role models there to look up to. Like, Mikkel Bang was on the team way back, and he’s just, like, the nicest guy ever. And we’ve had, you know, Ståle [Sandbech], Alek [Østreng], Andreas Wiig, Torstein Ulrich, Bjergman, Torger. I think we’ve just always had a good team to look up to.

How does your girlfriend feel about adding filming projects now to your season? 

We’ve been together for eight years now, so she’s definitely come around to the concept of me being gone a lot. So it is, you know, a lot of traveling, but she’s supportive and takes an interest in snowboarding too. 

You’ve been competing for over half your life. Any changes you’d like to see? 

It’s hard to do big changes, but one thing I would really love to see is just all big airs be head-to-head. Imagine the Olympics just being head-to-head. It would be about the battle between the riders instead of understanding the difference [between] a 19 and an 18. Right now it is a lot of people looking very similar and doing similar stuff.

At such a high level, with all these crazy young dudes coming up, what keeps you motivated to keep pushing it and getting podiums?

I don’t feel like I’m kind of stagnated on progression. So I still feel very motivated because there’s still new tricks to do and to learn. I feel like I’m still feeling better on my board each year. You work so hard against a ton of really good snowboarders, and when you get a good result, it is easy to want to chase that feeling. And if you are in a rut, you can go and hike a tiny little quarterpipe and do handplants and learn new tricks there. You can film with your homies, or you can go ride pow. Snowboarding is the best. It’s not like cross-country skiing in Norway, you know? That’s just the same shit over and over and over again.

Didn’t you grow up wearing spandex and racing skis? 

Oh yeah, I was a big-time ski racer until I was, like, 11, 12. Just hitting gates in spandex—that’s what it was all about. Getting up at 6 a.m. and 20 below and having to do 12 or 15 runs in spandex before you could take a lunch break or whatever was strict, though. 

What was it like finding a new home at Nidecker after all your years on DC? 

I got to have a period of time where I just, like, was trying out different gear, and Nidecker kind of just came into place. I was super excited; they’re running their program so well, and we’re making some new boards that are incredible.

How was filming in Japan last winter, when it seemed like all of snowboarding was there? 

It was funny. We were just driving past other crews all the time, just honking [at] cars and waving. Every time you’d build something and not hit it, you’d just be hoping nobody was there the next day. Japan is mind blowing. Never been in that deep of pow before. If you left the ground, you’d just be snorkeled once you landed again. Like, any jump we built, you’d kind of just disappear in the landing.…It was incredible, with a reset every day. 

Anywhere else for this project? 

We definitely spent the majority of the time in Valhalla. Scored. The program up there is amazing—great guides. Hayden Manney was up there with us every day, and just experiencing and learning from, like, the most comfortable guys in the backcountry was a trip.

Can’t wait to see it!