All the way to 2016. NYE at Berghain–wopwoop

Despite the immense lack of snow, we managed to get a descent amount of good skiing and good fun. Nate Wallace was often my motivator…he is always up for something…

Dusan benes on the entreve

a wing suiter off brevent

Black crows ski entertainment apres ski party at grand monte

I also had a memorable christmas celebration night with amazing friends— ending at 12 noon the next day…

and then the epic new years 3 days party marathon at Berghain club in Berlin

Back when i was introduced to freeriding , it was all a punk rock-death metal-greg stump-blizzard of ahh’s ode to hedonism sung by all sort of interesting human-characters-mutant-animals. Today, the “incorporated” idea of alpinism sort of took over (ruined it all), trading the emotionally heretic disordered poetic expression for the technical cold ultra light gear-carbon-time A to B-how many verts/day -angles/airbag and whowhat blah blah- orderly talk , mostly conservative boy scouts on a very expensive pee contest in an exotic location…boring. SO, I miss the wilderness…where is Greg Stump? take me back to the zoo !. I haven’t been to a hedonist party with a proper sound system, fascinating freaks and tribal tekno since november moontribe 2011. The idea of being in a dark room in the middle of a 4 corners Funktion-one stacks of bass and the legendary industrial dark and dirty tekno berghain is known for, makes me horny. seriously. i would trade a night with Charlize Theron-johnny depp for a night at Berghain. Berghain’s door policy is almost as famous as its A-list roster of DJs. The club’s main bouncer, Sven Marquardt <-link to brilliant sven photography, a bearish East German photographer with a face covered in barbed-wire tattoos, is a celebrity in Germany and referred to in newspaper headlines as “the lord of the night.” resisting gentrification is awesome but I am not into that 2 hours line to -maybe- not get in -thing….
My old time socal-desert party debauchery friend Francis kirigin -HERO_ who is currently working on a phd in computational biology in Berlin told me she could get me on Alessandro Cortini (Nine Inch Nails music designer playing berghain as SONOIO for NYE ) guest list. I booked my ticket in the next minute.

I knew i was gonna get good sound and good tekno in a dark room. I was not expecting the full religious experience i got. i was immersed in a concrete nave of darkness, brutal techno holds you by the throat , parties tangles over several days .

In the past two decades, the city’s tradition of sexual permissiveness, lax drug policing and left-wing, anarchist politics blended together to create the most sexually adventurous, unconventional party scene in Europe.The city’s historical poverty meant high unemployment and large numbers of people with no reason to wake up early on Monday, fueling the appetite for marathon-length parties and a dislike of closing times. “It’s a fuck-off to the rigid capitalist version of time that is enforced in any other city in the world , They’re truly saying that money is of secondary importance, that it’s the experience that matters.”

This stands in contrast to the big-business barcelona /ibiza/vegas/miami EDM scene and events, which have introduced a new generation of young (or not) people to electronic music, albeit without the sense of danger and edginess that characterized the rave scene of the Nineties.
By contrast, Berlin is scrappy, grimy and chaotic. Cover charges and drinks are still cheap, the venues look run-down and authentic, and you’re less likely to see a celebrity than you are two people fucking at the bar. For people hungry for a taste of underground tekno culture, the lure of this seemingly unspoiled scene can be hard to resist. “There’s the legend of Berghain,” DJ Harvey says. “It’s a cross between The Lord of the Rings and the Stonewall Riots, and then there’s the stories about the guy who turns up with frozen shit and uses it as a dildo.”

the club is located in a former power plant near the Berlin Ostbahnhof railway station. The building is distinguished by its enormous dimensions, and accommodates an 18-meter high ceiling dance floor The interior’s minimalist design is dominated by steel and concrete.
The construction is similar to that of a cathedral of the Middle Ages
There’s something almost spiritual about the atmosphere.
The club contains a “cavernous” main room, as well as a smaller upstairs space called the “Panorama Bar”, which is decorated with large-scale Wolfgang Tillmans photographs
the décor is spare, the walls are mostly empty. the slightly less Dante’s Inferno-esque upstairs space, makes use of cages that formerly housed electrical equipment.
It has the look and feel of an abandoned building.The building is so large and maze-like, you can discover new stairways and rooms even after spending a few days in the club.
first absorbed in the cloakroom ,a huge room where stands a huge mural of Polish artist Piotr Nathan called “Rituals disappearance “.
On top of the grand iron staircase to the dancefloor , i was struck by the onslaught of tekno escaping the huge function speakers as by the beauty of the place: in its 18 meter ceiling , the club of the cathedral-style concrete, in which throng around 3000 clubbers every weekend . Shrouded by darkness , there is a choice between melt into the sweaty body waves rippling on the dancefloor Berghain tekno or join the Panorama Bar, mostly playing tek-house.

Photography is strictly forbidden inside Berghain, and no mirrors or reflecting surfaces can be found anywhere in the club.As many leathermen chaps strutting in the aisles of the club as hipsters chewing imaginary gum , kissing couples in the corners, ravers licking on ice creams , girls sprawled on swings, dready Erasmus students stuck closer to the speaker, and even at certain times, old coked up bankers at the bar.
Everything happening at berghain stays at berghain “. This tacit rule let you flow into the party without fear of tomorrow, the absolute prohibition of taking pictures and no mirrors inside the club is the promise of an enclave cut off from the outside world and its standards. .In the shallows of the building is home to a third club : the Lab.Oratory, a maze of narrow rooms reserved for men. Lab.Oratory, is known as Berlin’s most extreme sex club. The club hosts regular nights called “Yellow Facts,” ” Sewer System” faustparty ….

Anyway…i had a blast. A real routine breaker, an absolute trip challanging my daily normalcy….the only pictures i have are the one of Fran  taken fast  on the 2nd while going to catch my train and plane  after I exit the club where i was since the 31st…very standard almost dull pictures in contrast with  the Lynch-Felliniesque place i was in for 35 hours. but this is why i like them……

worth noting: Sven, the door curator at berghain is a brilliant photographer. You can see his work and maybe a little of berghain…http://marquardtfotografie.com/galerie/