Two time X-games medalist Alex Hackel checked off a major side quest at the end of the 2025/2026 season and he considers his participation in this free-for-all race down an Austrian mountain to be the highlight of his winter.
Der weisse Rausch (translation The White Rush) is an annual mass start ski race in St. Anton am Arlberg, Austria where 500+ skiers and snowboarders line up on a ridge with their tips hanging over the edge waiting for the starter pistol and simultaneously drop in for a breakneck race to the bottom. The rules are pretty slim, first one to cross the finish line wins.
Join Hackel as he interviews past participants to form a battle plan to best negotiate the 1,346 meter vertical descent that runs 9km and then employ it against 554 fellow athletes.
The legendary ski race in St. Anton:
When the lifts close on the afternoon of April 18, 2026 , the real action begins in the St. Anton am Arlberg ski resort . It’s the day of the “White Rush”—the iconic ski race that pushes its participants to their athletic limits every year. Even during the day, there’s a palpable sense of excitement in the air: a striking number of skiers are wearing racing suits and masking their rising nervousness with jokes in the gondola or deliberately nonchalant expressions. At 5 p.m., things get serious: 555 skiers, snowboarders, and telemark skiers head to the mass start at the Vallugagrat.
