YouTube has become the largest mountain film festival in the world, running every single day. Somewhere between a freerider's helmet camera in the Lyngen Alps and an hour-long ski resort documentary, there is more genuinely useful and inspiring alpine content published in a week than most magazines managed in a year. The hard part is no longer finding mountain videos — it is finding the channels worth following for the long haul.
That is what this TOP 50 is for. Our editorial team watched, compared and shortlisted channels across five families: ski and freeride, mountaineering and alpinism, resort and travel vlogs, gear and instruction, and documentary houses. Every channel listed here is real, active and was individually checked before inclusion. The list is evergreen: we revisit it regularly, retire channels that go quiet, and promote newcomers that earn their place.
Ski & freeride
1. Nikolai Schirmer — YouTube: Nikolai Schirmer — The Norwegian freerider and filmmaker has turned big-mountain skiing into serial storytelling, mixing frighteningly fast exposed lines with honest conversations about avalanche risk and decision-making. Widely considered the benchmark for independent ski content on the platform.
2. Cody Townsend — YouTube: Cody Townsend — Home of The FIFTY, his multi-season quest to ski every line in the book "Fifty Classic Ski Descents of North America". As much about preparation, partners and turning around as it is about the descents themselves.
3. Candide Thovex — YouTube: Candide Thovex — The La Clusaz legend behind the "One of Those Days" POV films, some of the most-watched ski videos ever made. He posts rarely, but every upload becomes an event in the ski world.
4. Markus Eder — YouTube: Markus Eder — The Italian freeskier behind "The Ultimate Run" shares behind-the-scenes builds, freeride segments and training from the Alps. A rare blend of freestyle trickery and serious big-mountain skiing.
5. Hedvig Wessel — YouTube: Hedvig Wessel — The Norwegian Olympic mogul skier turned Freeride World Tour champion documents her competition seasons and steep-skiing expeditions. An unusually candid look at life as a professional freerider.
6. O_leeps (Owen Leeper) — YouTube: O_leeps | Big Mountain Ski Videos — Helmet-camera cliff drops, couloirs and deep-day laps, mostly filmed at Jackson Hole. The go-to channel for raw POV big-mountain skiing.
7. LINE Skis (Traveling Circus) — YouTube: LINE Skis — Hosts the Traveling Circus, one of the longest-running webisode series in skiing, following Will Wesson and Andy Parry on low-budget, high-creativity ski road trips.
8. SLVSH — YouTube: SLVSH — Head-to-head games of S.L.V.S.H. between the world's best park skiers, a format that turned competitive freestyle into pure, watchable chess on snow. An enormous back catalogue of matches.
9. Yu Sasaki — YouTube: YU SASAKI — A Japanese freeride skier based in Revelstoke, British Columbia, sharing Canadian backcountry skiing, local knowledge and season-long storytelling for an international audience.
10. The Faction Collective — YouTube: The Faction Collective — The independent ski brand's channel carries full-length team films and athlete edits from one of the strongest rosters in freeskiing.
Mountaineering & alpinism
11. Magnus Midtbø — YouTube: Magnus Midtbø — Norway's former top competition climber has built one of the biggest climbing channels on YouTube, with millions of subscribers following his training experiments and collaborations with elite mountain athletes.
12. Kilian Jornet — YouTube: Kilian Jornet — The Catalan skyrunning and ski mountaineering great shares training insight and films from his fast-and-light projects across the Alps and the Himalaya. Essential viewing for anyone curious how far human endurance in the mountains can go.
13. Jost Kobusch — YouTube: Jost Kobusch — The German alpinist documents his solo winter Everest project in an ongoing episode series, alongside minimalist solo climbs. He first became known worldwide for filming the 2015 avalanche that struck Everest base camp.
14. Alpenglow Expeditions — YouTube: Alpenglow Expeditions — Adrian Ballinger's guiding outfit publishes expedition dispatches and straight-talking mountaineering education, including its signature rapid-ascent approach to 8,000-metre peaks.
15. Climbing the Seven Summits — YouTube: Climbing the Seven Summits — The guiding company's channel offers expedition films and unusually detailed briefings on Everest and the rest of the seven summits — useful homework for aspiring expedition climbers.
16. Dave Searle — YouTube: Dave Searle — A British IFMGA mountain guide based in Chamonix, vlogging ski mountaineering, alpine climbing and refreshingly practical gear and technique talk. See his guiding work at davesearleguiding.com.
17. Mediocre Amateur — YouTube: Mediocre Amateur — Danny and Blake tackle absurd single-push missions — Rainier in a day, state high points, ski descents — with the running joke that they are just amateurs. More info at mediocreamateur.com.
18. Uphill Athlete — YouTube: Uphill Athlete — The channel of the coaching company co-founded by alpinist Steve House, covering endurance training, aerobic-base building and preparation for mountaineering and ski touring objectives.
19. JB Mountain Skills — YouTube: JB Mountain Skills — A UK-based mountain professional teaching ropework, scrambling, winter skills and self-rescue in short, clear tutorials. One of the most practical skills channels in the mountain space.
20. UIAA – International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation — YouTube: UIAA International Climbing and Mountaineering — The world federation of alpine clubs, founded in 1932, publishes safety-commission videos, ice climbing world tour coverage and mountaineering heritage content.
21. EpicTV — YouTube: EpicTV — Home of Climbing Daily, the long-running weekly news show covering climbing and alpinism, plus a deep archive of adventure films.
22. Hard Is Easy — YouTube: Hard Is Easy — Famous for the most thorough belaying and rope-technique breakdowns on YouTube, mixing climbing education with honest storytelling about progression and risk.
Resort & travel vlogs
23. PeakRankings — YouTube: PeakRankings — Documentary-length, fiercely independent ski resort reviews built around their "Mountain Score" methodology. Their written reviews live at peakrankings.com.
24. Aplins in the Alps — YouTube: Aplins in the Alps — Jana and Brett Aplin, an American family based near Interlaken, have explored all 26 Swiss cantons and share concrete Switzerland trip-planning advice. Their itineraries and guides are at aplinsinthealps.com.
25. Swiss Ski Resorts — YouTube: Swiss Ski Resorts — A channel dedicated entirely to touring Switzerland's ski areas, run by run — a handy scouting tool before booking a Swiss winter holiday.
26. SnowboardProCamp — YouTube: SnowboardProCamp — Kevin's beginner-friendly riding tutorials and resort-day guides have made this one of the most-watched snowsports channels anywhere. Ski-adjacent, but invaluable for anyone planning mountain trips with mixed ski and snowboard groups.
27. Graham Bell — YouTube: Graham Bell — The five-time Olympic skier and long-time British TV presenter shares resort visits, gear tests and skiing advice with a broadcaster's polish.
28. Kraig Adams — YouTube: Kraig Adams — Silent, beautifully shot solo hiking films from trails around the world, with a minimalist ultralight approach that has inspired a whole genre of hiking cinema.
29. Chase Mountains — YouTube: Chase Mountains — A hiker and fitness trainer teaching people how to physically prepare for trekking and mountaineering: strength, mobility and injury-proofing for mountain legs.
Gear & instruction
30. Stomp It Tutorials — YouTube: Stomp It Tutorials — Clear, energetic ski tutorials covering everything from parallel turns and steeps to your first 360, backed by on-snow camps. Arguably the most-watched ski instruction channel in the world.
31. CARV — YouTube: CARV — The digital ski coach company publishes sharp technique breakdowns and challenges with top instructors and racers, translating boot-sensor data into understandable skiing advice.
32. Deb Armstrong — YouTube: Deb Armstrong — The Olympic giant slalom gold medallist teaches skiing with rare depth, from racing drills to the mental side of the sport, filmed largely on-snow in Taos.
33. Tom Gellie – Big Picture Skiing — YouTube: Tom Gellie - Big Picture Skiing — A self-confessed biomechanics nerd breaking down ski technique frame by frame for advanced skiers. His full coaching platform is at bigpictureskiing.com.
34. Projected Productions (Paul Lorenz) — YouTube: Projected Productions — The Australian APSI trainer and examiner produces some of the most satisfying high-performance carving footage and analysis on the internet.
35. Reilly McGlashan — YouTube: Reilly McGlashan — The New Zealand instructor and trainer shares technical skiing edits and lessons filmed across Japan, Europe and the southern hemisphere.
36. Ski School App — YouTube: Ski School App — Structured lesson progressions from beginner to expert by instructor Darren Turner, the on-video companion to his popular Ski School apps.
37. Henry's Avalanche Talk — YouTube: Henry's Avalanche Talk — Val d'Isère-based off-piste safety education built on the "Safety is Freedom" framework, with talks and short films that make avalanche awareness genuinely accessible. Full resources at henrysavalanchetalk.com.
38. ORTOVOX — YouTube: ORTOVOX — The alpine safety brand's Safety Academy series is a free, structured video course on avalanche awareness and ski touring — one of the best safety resources available in English.
39. BLISTER — YouTube: BLISTER — The outdoor media company known for exhaustive, honest gear reviews brings its deep-dive approach to video, including conversations with product designers. Written reviews at blisterreview.com.
40. SkiEssentials — YouTube: SkiEssentials — Their chairlift-side ski test reviews have become a fixture of every buying season, comparing dozens of skis with consistent, plain-spoken testing.
41. Powder7 — YouTube: Powder7 — The Colorado ski shop's staff of obsessive skiers publish comparison reviews and buying guides for the gear they actually sell and ski. Their blog and reviews live at powder7.com.
42. Black Diamond — YouTube: Black Diamond — Athlete films plus the cult QC Lab series, where the brand's engineers break, test and torture climbing and ski gear so you understand what it can really take.
Documentaries & ski films
43. Teton Gravity Research — YouTube: Teton Gravity Research — The Jackson Hole-based studio behind three decades of benchmark ski and snowboard films, with trailers, full segments and athlete edits on the channel.
44. MSP Films — YouTube: MSP Films — Matchstick Productions of Crested Butte uploads full-length ski movies, behind-the-scenes features and athlete interviews from one of skiing's most storied film houses.
45. Warren Miller Entertainment — YouTube: Warren Miller Entertainment — More than seventy years of ski film heritage, with classic full-length features and new annual tour footage from the genre's founding name.
46. Salomon TV — YouTube: Salomon TV — The brand's acclaimed film arm, whose Quality Ski Time projects range from big-mountain action to funny, thoughtful short films about why we ski.
47. Red Bull Snow — YouTube: Red Bull Snow — Red Bull's dedicated snow channel gathers freeski and snowboard series, contest highlights and full projects with the world's most-followed winter athletes.
48. Arc'teryx — YouTube: Arc'teryx — The outdoor brand consistently produces festival-grade short films on alpinism, steep skiing and the people who build their lives around mountains.
49. ReelRockFilmTour — YouTube: ReelRockFilmTour — The channel of the Reel Rock climbing film series, with trailers, shorts and archival gems from the team behind many of climbing's most influential documentaries.
50. Summit Fever Media — YouTube: Summit Fever Media — Independent adventure filmmakers documenting alpine climbing and expedition life in long-form films, proof that serious mountaineering documentary now thrives natively on YouTube.
How this TOP 50 is built
This list is maintained editorially by the Stay in Alps team. Selection rests on four criteria: the channel must be real and currently active, it must publish substantial mountain content (not one-off viral clips), it must be useful or inspiring for people who travel to and ski in the mountains, and the overall list must balance disciplines — freeride, alpinism, travel, instruction, safety and film.
- Update policy: we review the list regularly. Channels that go dormant are rotated out; strong newcomers are rotated in. Numbering reflects sections, not a strict quality ranking.
- Independence: inclusion follows from our editorial process, and it cannot be bought.
- Suggest an addition: know an active ski or mountain channel we missed? Get in touch through our website and tell us why it belongs — the best suggestions make it into the next revision.
You're featured? You're welcome to mention it and link to this page.
FAQ
How were these 50 channels selected?
Every channel was individually verified as real and active before publication, then assessed on consistency, production quality and usefulness for skiers, climbers, hikers and alpine travellers. We deliberately mixed household names with smaller specialist channels that deserve a wider audience.
Is the numbering a ranking from best to worst?
No. The numbering runs 1 to 50 for readability, grouped by theme. Number 37 is not "worse" than number 5 — a safety education channel and a freeride filmmaker simply cannot be ranked on the same scale.
Why are there no direct YouTube links?
Channel URLs and handles change more often than you would think, and dead links help nobody. We list each channel's exact name in plain text — typing it into YouTube's search bar will find it instantly — and we link creators' own websites where we could confirm them.
If this list has you dreaming of your next trip, keep exploring: browse the rest of our TOP 50 selections, plan your base camp with our alpine city guides, and see how we build our rankings before you book.
