Our lives are influenced by chance, often without us realizing it. In my life, a series of coincidences led me to where I am today and shaped the person I have become. This was not obvious over twenty years ago, but I later realized that I owe a lot to a specific pair of skis.

In the winter of 1999, I visited a local ski shop in Petropavlovsk and came across a catalog showcasing the Dynastar 4x4 freeride skis series. The skis were all impressive in their design and features. One particular model caught my eye - the 4x4 Big by Arno Adam, the 1998 world freeride champion. Its design captivated me from the moment I saw it. However, I didn't have the money to purchase them, and even if I did, they weren't available locally. So, I continued skiing with my classic Head skis while dreaming about owning a pair of those remarkable skis.

In the spring of 2003, I got some coins to purchase new skis. At the same time, I met a guy on a Russian ski board RASC who worked for a Dynastar distributor in Russia. I asked him about the Arno Adam pro model (without any hope), and he mentioned that only a few pairs of this model were brought to Russia, and only one pair, a 194cm version, remained in stock. On the same day, I sent him the money, and a few weeks later, I held these beauties in my hands. It was beyond my wildest dreams. The skis and I had a fantastic couple of years, and life was good.

Unfortunately, I don't have any photos from that time; I only have a short video of skiing on a city hill in downtown Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

In 2004, I received a call from Fedor Farberov, a local Kamchatka mountain guide who was also my instructor and mentor. Years ago, I had the good fortune of meeting him. However, this story is very different; you will hear it someday. Fedor asked me to work as a tail-guide (more like a helper) for Martha Madsen, an American woman who lived in Kamchatka and worked in the travel industry. She organized a week of heliskiing for athletes from The North Face team. The group included the TNF Women's freeride team, with ski stars Hilaree Nelson and Kasha Rigby, photographer Lee Cohen, their friends, and partners.

It was an incredible week for me, but this windy day in early May was very special. That day, the crew, our lead guide, and I went to the helipad and waited for better weather and less strong wind. Later, another group of heliskiers arrived, including a French filming crew. One of the guys from our team told me, "Hey, Grisha, there is the same Arno Adam, the skier!" I hastily grabbed my skis, asked Lee for a marker, and timidly approached the French group. To say that I was surprised by the situation is an understatement. But once Arno saw me with the skis, he was even more surprised. I asked him to sign my skis, and he did. This moment was captured on film, making me a 3-second ski-movie star (laughing). You can see it in "Do You, Do You Chamonix," a movie released in the Autumn of 2004.

Lee Cohen took this shot (a middle one) and later sent me a print.

It's incredible to think that such a small episode in my life (well, it felt major to me but in reality was minor) could lead me to where I am today. The entire journey involved far more people, situations, opportunities, and failures than I can even recall, but it all began 20 years ago.

One of the pro-riders featured in the film "Do You, Do You, Chamonix" was Stephane "Fanfan" Dan, a mountain guide from Chamonix Valley and a Dynastar athlete. He later began working for the heliski agency Vertikalny Mir, the company that organized the filming that week. Four years later, I was offered a position as a tail-guide at this company. It was then that I reconnected with Fanfan, and we shared many great days together.

Over the course of six winter seasons, I worked for a company and had the chance to meet many good people. One person who had a significant impact on me was the mountain guide Ralf Tenbrink, with whom I worked closely for six years. In the spring of 2010, he advised me to go to Canada or New Zealand to obtain my ski guide certification if I wanted to have better prospects in the future. I took his advice to heart and two years later, I began my guiding study at ACMG.

In 2013, I decided to leave this job and focus on skitouring and my personal projects. On the last day of my final heliski season in Kamchatka, I used Dynastar Arno Adam skis.

The skis were stored in my dad's attic in Kamchatka for the next six years and were rarely used. In 2014, I moved to the Chamonix Valley and brought the skis back to where they were originally crafted over 20 years ago. I still occasionally use them, often attracting surprised looks from other skiers.

Over the past 20 years, I have crossed paths with several people from May 2004, made numerous connections, and tied many stories to that period. At the same time, many sad and difficult things have happened.

Ralf Tenbrink tragically died in a mountaineering accident on Mont Blanc in the summer of 2016. Hillaree Nelson died in 2022 in a ski accident while descending from the summit of Manaslu. Kasha Rigby lost her life in an avalanche while skiing in Kosovo in February 2024.
Martha Madsen was forced to leave Kamchatka by authorities shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Fanfan resides in the same village as us and I see him time to time. As for Arno Adam, he is somewhere around, skiing in Chamonix Valley from time to time. But somehow, we have never crossed paths.