2020/2021 season summary: The MM Rapaport Hargin Foundation
Another great ski season has passed and it’s time to summarize the MM Rapaport Hargin Foundation’s initiatives aimed to inspire and support skiers and entrepreneurs to pursue their passions, improve gender equality within the sport of skiing and emphasizing the importance of mountain safety.
The Corona pandemic continued to spread throughout this season which meant we needed to rethink and adapt our physical events and find new ways of activating the foundation’s mission. All in all, four activations took place – our annual Pop Your Airbag event, the NKSK Mountain Safety Panel Live Stream, supporting the production of the OnEdge Reminder-series, and the Peak Performance x William Wahlström auction.
Pop Your Airbag
This year’s version of the Pop Your Airbag event had a different setup than previous years due to the Corona pandemic event restrictions. The event was held outside, and the attendees were assigned specific time slots to test their equipment and learn from experts. During the event, we had two avalanche backpacks that didn’t pop – a very important reminder to always test your equipment. Our experts were able to identify and solve the issue for the owners. Although we weren’t able to welcome as many guests as previous years, it was great to spend a bit more time with each individual party.
NKSK Mountain Safety Panel Live Stream
Together with our partner, department store NK Sport (NKSK), we held a digital live stream event focused on mountain safety. Facilitated by television presenter and sports journalist David Fjäll, we gathered a panel of experts consisting of professional freeriders Jackie Paaso and Reine Barkered, mountain safety expert Rickard Svedjesten, and foundation founder and professional freerider Mattias Hargin, to share knowledge and hands-on tips around practice, preparation and safety in the mountains. The event was viewed by an audience of around 1,000 people live and has been streamed over 15,000 times since it aired. In connection to the live stream event, we had the opportunity to spread awareness of the MM Rapaport Hargin Foundation’s work in one of NK’s window displays, in which we placed a chairlift from Stockholm ski resort Flottsbro to gain attention. See the full panel talk here!
OnEdge Reminder-series
To emphasize the importance of practicing with your safety equipment, we partnered up with women’s extreme sports community OnEdge to produce four safety reminder videos in Stockholm’s Hammarbybacken. The aim was to educate and inspire the audience to get out and practice in real life scenarios and showcasing that this can be done without access to a major ski resort. The videos have been streamed over 4,000 times since they were published. Check them out at OnEdge's IGTV!
Peak Performance x William Wahlström auction
Designer William Wahlström (who designed Matilda’s wedding gown in 2016) created a unique couture dress for Peak Performance in memory of Matilda. William and Peak Performance chose to donate the creation to the foundation to be auctioned off for the benefit of the foundation's activities. Read more about the story here. The auction reached a winning bid at 12,500 SEK, which was donated in full to the foundation.
The 2020/2021 season was different in many ways and we couldn’t move forward with all plans in their original shape, however, it turned out to be a season filled with knowledge, insights, and inspiration that certainly will lead to more educated choices on the mountain in the future.
We would like to send a special thank you to the following people and partners who have made this season’s initiatives come to life: Alpingaraget, Marc Nylander, Nordiska Kompaniet, Peak Performance, William Wahlström, Skidbytarboden, Erik Erner, Skistar and OnEdge.