A few years ago photos began showing up in Telemark Skier magazine of a young freeheeler jumping over playgrounds and taking huge air in the parks and backcountry of Europe. Photographer Tero Repo was capturing all of these fresh images and documenting domination by this young buck named Joonas Karhumaa. “I met Joonas in Lapland and we both were keen to shoot. I saw straight away that Joonas was a hard worker and technical Telemarker. The rest is history. Last year was the best so far at least, thirty pics got published worldwide.” Though relatively unknown outside of Europe, Karhumaa has been laying down solid finishes in all types of contests over the past few years, including two consecutive Scandinavian Big Mt. Championship titles in Riksgränsen, Sweden.

His life is as diverse as his skiing ability. He enjoys surfing and skateboarding in his down time as well as clothing design, which he will be attending school for this coming fall. Though born in Finland, Joonas now lives in Stockholm, Sweden and will be going into his 9th year’ of freeheel skiing. Despite his success in organized events, it is apparent that Karhumaa is motivated by merely enjoying himself. “I have some good success from different competitions and my long time goal, to get closer to alpine level, is getting nearer all the time.” Close friends of Joonas know that he is not out to push Telemark skiing in Europe, but as Repo says, “Joonas is a skier with a free heel among alpine skiers.”

“To be free in the mountains with friends is as great as winning a comp.”

Although he is obviously focused on what skiing is really about and not concerned about an agenda, Joonas is sporting a healthy roster of sponsors this season including: Cross, Head, Exel, Bollé, Rottefella, Scarpa, Boeri, & DaKine who are supporting his endeavors to ski all of the time. He’ll be traveling around Europe shooting with various photographers and competing, but stresses how “to be free in the mountains with friends is as great as winning a comp.”

Keep an eye out for Joonas this season in a special Tero Repo photo gallery that is coming your way later this season. He will also be joining the FHL film crew in various locations this season to shoot for his segment in their upcoming film…so get ready.