For Silvano, having these tight relationships with his subjects is key to the whole creative process:

“For me it’s more important to prioritise the time you have on the mountain with someone, rather than just whether they’re a good snowboarder. Someone that you like, that you’re comfortable hanging around with. Getting a perfect, crazy action shot is not as important to me as it used to be.”

“Taking follow cam shots is pretty hard to do; it’s kinda dangerous”

It’s all part of an artistic development that’s seen him take a more documentary approach of late. These days, Silvano’s photos are characterised by candid lifestyle snaps off the hill, and atmospheric action shots – often black-and-white – on the mountain. His follow cam stuff in particular is moody and dynamic, transporting the viewer into the cold spray of a powder day in a similar way to those epic tracking shots used by his countrymen Hitch Haller and Stephan Maurer in their groundbreaking movie GLUE.

“It’s way more exciting to do,” he laughs. “One, I get to shred myself, which is awesome – it’s the main reason I still do this, and two, it’s pretty hard to do; it’s kinda dangerous. It’s more exciting than standing around in the cold for hours to see three guys session a cheese wedge which isn’t gonna look any better after the first three tracks!”

Photographers are often even more exposed to the weather than the riders – so what does he use to stay warm and dry himself?

“Holden always had a lot of respect on the style side of things, but now they’re bringing the tech side too which is awesome”

“Last year I was wearing the Felton down jacket. It’s really good. And if I go hiking I’ll wear the Corkshell series. It’s made out of cork, it’s got such a nice feel to it and it’s super light and crazy technical. But I think my favourite piece are the down slippers. I’m wearing them right now, they’re so sick! I have one pair at home and one pair in the trunk of my car for shredding. I throw my boots off and put on the slippers and it’s like heaven.”

Despite having the opportunity to travel the world with his camera, these days Silvano prefers to stick closer to home.

“In Switzerland everything’s so close, but every mountain’s so different,” he explains. “And it’s all easily accessible by public transport. If the snow sucks in Zermatt, then I just jump on the train and an hour or two later I’m somewhere else and maybe the powder conditions are all time. And there’s so much backcountry access in the Alps – just using the lifts or hiking or splitboarding – you start to appreciate what you have at home.”

Last winter he and the Holden team drew inspiration from this local philosophy with the so-called ‘GEX’ project, hopping on Switzerland’s famous Glacier Express train for a fortnight-long Alpine adventure.

“It’s basically a scenic train route through the Swiss Alps that’s been there for ages but when people normally think about it, it’s a bunch of tourists sipping wine and having chocolate cake on the train while enjoying the scenery,” he begins. “But you kinda don’t realise it connects some of the gnarliest mountains in the Alps. It’s a super easy way to get around, and in today’s age of trying to keep your carbon footprint as low as possible, it makes sense. We spent two weeks on the road – well, the train track! – and the goal was a five-episode web series. It was about the different resorts but also the train itself, and the different people you meet on the way.”

“The Glacier Express a scenic train route but you kinda don’t realise it connects some of the gnarliest mountains in the Alps”

Aside from the webisodes, Holden also supported Silvano in producing a 40-page print zine to accompany the project, housing the best of his still photos. Hot on the heels of Honey Ryder, it’s obvious that despite being a child of the digital age, Silvano’s passion for print burns strong. Why is that?

“It’s timeless,” he says. “It’ll be there forever. Instagram will be gone in like, five or ten years, and no one will give a shit about it anymore, and all those photos on it included. People will stop caring about it, just like they did with Facebook. With print… like, I still have those Whitelines covers I shot lying around somewhere, and maybe in 30 years I’ll randomly pick it up and go “Oh yeah I remember this or that”. You can touch it, you can smell it. It’s something else completely to have a photo that’s well printed on nice paper, than on a fucking screen that you can swipe away, you know?”