Free-skiing in Detroit’s ghost districts

Film reveals the abandoned urban landscapes of Detroit re-purposed as a playground for 'urban skiing'

Detroit has become a somewhat stark icon of decline in the post-credit crunch world. Once the powerhouse of the American auto industry and a booming manufacturing centre, the city had to file for bankruptcy this year.

However, if necessity is the mother of invention, it could be said that scarcity is the mother of creativity. The city itself is rising anew. While the automotive industry is picking up, this is not the same Detroit as before, but a more creative countercultural place, meeting problems with innovative approaches.

The decline pre-dates the global financial crisis; Detroit's population dropped has more than 25% since 2001. The result is swatches of urban landscape where nobody lives or works, monuments to the city's former bustle.To skier Karl Fostvedt the tracts of urban ghost town posed not a grim picture but an opportunity for incredible freestyle ski stunts.

https://youtu.be/-M34yz47b-w

He features in a film by Poor Boyz Productions and Red Bull Media, Tracing Skylines, in which he can be seen performing freestyle ski tricks on roofs, down stairways and on warehouse floors.

The city has spent more than $20 million demolishing vacant homes since 2009. With the aggressive demolition programme set to continue, urban free-skiing in Detroit is a limited time only experience, it would seem.

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