Founded in 1923 by Georg Volkl in Straubing, Germany, the iconic ski company has come a long way but has stayed true to its roots, manufacturing its high-quality skis in the same town 100 years later.
Although originally known for its high-performance race skis, Volkl has expanded its ski lines to include big-mountain freeride skis as well as bombproof freestyle park planks. With this expansion into new territory, they have amassed an international team of close to 100 strong across their four disciplines of race, freestyle, freeride, and touring.
Here are some of their heavy hitters (and our personal favorites) across each specialization.
Freestyle: Hunter Hess
Mt. Bachelor local, Hunter Hess is a halfpipe and slopestyle machine. Check out the interview in the digital archive of SKIER 22.1 to hear about his battle with the pipe dragon.
Freeride: Markus Eder
Italian Markus Eder is a menace on the Freeride World Tour and a new school freestyler who takes the park tricks to the big mountain.
Race: Katharina Truppe
Austrian Katharina Truppe is a speed demon. Specializing in Slalom and Giant Slalom, she has multiple podiums and a gold medal at the 2022 Beijing Olympics!
Touring: Dani Arnold
Dani Arnold is an alpinist to the extreme. With first ascents in China and Alaska as well as speed ascents of all six north faces of the Alps, you won’t see Dani on the skin track, just a blurred outline as Swiss mountaineer whizzes by you.
Young Gun: Charlie Beatty
Canadian grom Charlie Beatty is seemingly the future of Volkl Freestyle. The youngin’ from Oro-Medonte, Ontario is the youngest skier ever to be named to the Canadian National Freeride Team.
100 years is a heck of a long time. It’s inspiring to see how far Volkl has come over that time frame, and with their diverse and extremely talented team, it seems as though the sky is the limit for this iconic ski company.
