When you want to become the best at something, you have to dedicate yourself fully to it. You have to immerse yourself in your goal and put all of your energy into tenaciously pursuing it.

For Nikolai Shirmer, that meant carrying jugs of water up a mountain all summer long, trail running, lifting weights, practicing alpine rope techniques, riding road bikes, building stamina, and, of course, skiing a lot.

In Strike, Shirmer takes us behind the scenes of his freeride training to Austria. The freeski phenom got a few young guns and a cinematography crew together to document how he trains and what kind of skiing he does to prepare for the season.

And spoiler alert: It’s gnarly. Shirmer doesn’t hold back even when he’s just “training.” Alongside Alex Hackel, Virgile Didier, Krister Kopala, and Vetle Sevild, Shirmer shows the world just how rad freeski training season is — and just how hard you have to work to ski at their level.

Runtime: 19 min., 6 sec.