30 years ago I embarked on a formative road trip. Last winter I recreated it to see what’s changed in our little ski world. The resorts have grown up way more than I have, but there was still some youthful spirit to be found at each of them. Bruno Long added his impressive images to make it all look good.
Check out the feature for Forecast Magazine HERE.
Like any skier, I’m impressed by Cole Richardson’s skiing. It’s perfect and stylish and absolutely jaw dropping. I wanted to study how the perfect freeskier is created, you can pick up the first issue of Forecast Magazine to see the results. Or you can check it out online HERE.
“To profile Cole Richardson is to profile a family, and to learn how three generations of stoke for skiing is distilled into the highest octane.”
The three Mountain Lifes: Coast, Rockies, Blue Mountains and the Mountain Life Annual are running this piece I wrote on Christina Lustenberger and her recent domination of the ski mountaineering world. If you can’t find a print copy to flip through, here’s a LINK to the digital version (page 84).
Steve Shannon photo of Lusti and Brette Harrington
Bruno Long and Rob Heule agreed to walk with me and link up the three local ski hills as a way to explore the backyard and think about the contradictions of mechanized skiing in a national park. It was more fun than I expected, and Bruno’s pictures capture it wonderfully. Check out the article in Forecast Magazine!
image: Bruno Long
Being translated is a new experience. The Aftermath, which I wrote with Meghan Ward, was just translated into German for PowderGuide.com, and I don’t understand a word of it. I am thankful to Lea for all the effort translating it, though. It’s pretty cool to think someone will read that article in a language I could have never talked to them in. READ GERMAN?
photo: LH
A goofy article about a fascinating couple who travelled all over Western Canada to ski more than a dozen different resort opening days. READ ON
On a clear spring morning, Rob Heule takes in the sunrise atop the Great Divide; British Columbia to one side, Alberta to the other. He studies a dozen different ski objectives in the golden light. The obvious descents would take him west to “Beautiful British Columbia” but, Rob has a different plan.
From Issue 1 of Mountain Life Rocky Mountains. Read On…
Rob Heule slashing. Photo: Kyle Gibson
Waterworks, fire fighting, utilities, waste treatment - Sunshine really is a Village and one man runs it all.
photo: Banff Sunshine Village
I’d rather write about puppies, and this one was tough to get finished, but Meghan Ward at Crowfoot Media helped a ton and now it’s been nominated for a Canadian Online Publishing award. You can check out the awards in February HERE.
In the meantime, give the article a read…
Photo: Paul Zizka/Crowfoot Media
A feature looking at some of the best run names at Lake Louise and how a resort goes about naming new runs in an expansion.
Reuben Krabbe / SkiBig3
How cool is this project? Tim Huss narrating a ski/surf film in Alberta? I’m damn lucky to have been involved, even in a small way. Check it out!
“In the multicultural Bow Valley, where most people have come from somewhere else, “home” can be a complicated concept. A few thousand people show up every year to work and live in these mountains. The same number leave.”
Skiing in oil country.
Where the oil rigs and farm fields end, a gravel road descends the steep bank of the Red Deer River. As the road switches back on itself, a T-Bar slowly reels into view, and from out of nowhere pops Red Deer, Alberta’s Canyon Ski Area.
Originally published in SBC Skier, read it HERE on Medium.
Read On at CrowfootMedia.com
image: Mason Neufeld
“I look around at the competition. They are no longer friends, but adversaries in the race for fresh snow. There is plenty for everyone, but there is no better feeling than flying down a mountain unmarked by other skiers. Chris smiles back and I know it’s on. Before Dave has even finished his directions the two of us are racing off. I ski as fast as I can but can’t ditch the bastard.”
A trip to Sentry Mountain Lodge for a week of ski touring: Read On HERE
The youngest Capel, Jemma, made the podium at the Freeride Junior World Championships in Austria earlier this season. It reminded me of this article I did for Crowfoot Media a few years ago.
Well this is an old one I wrote way back in 2004. That was a pretty different time for skiing. People had been down on skiing for a decade or so. Snowboarding had been/was the cool thing, but skiing was making somewhat of a resurgence with freeskiing, twin-tips and fat skis. Like with most things in life, I was conflicted by that.
Anyway, this was the first thing I wrote and it was what got me all my other writing gigs so let’s start there:
Obituary Column, 2004
Take a minute to think about why you ski. You ski to get sponsored, right? Maybe you ski because of the new “carving” technology. Or you ski because you heard, “skiing is cool again”. That’s what magazines like this one tell you. And you want to be cool, right? Just buy these new fat skis and these cool baggy clothes. That’s what skiing is about after all. How good you are and how good you look. And make no mistake - you do look good!
Yes, it’s great to be a skier these days, with the X Games showcasing true skiing and the urban jib movement proving that skiing is just as cool as skate or snow boarding. We’re now skiing in a golden age, where headlines claim things like, “Skiing’s not Dead”, “Snowboarding Saves Skiing”, “New Ski Technology will make Anyone a Skier”, or “Freeskiing Saves the Industry”. What a load of crap it all is! Are we seriously supposed to be thinking, “What a relief! What would I have done if skiing wasn’t cool anymore?” The problem is, the people pushing this new media/hype wheel are the same ones responsible for skiing’s near death two decades ago. Regardless of their efforts, catchy captions, or new gadgets, skiing really hasn’t changed that much in the last twenty years, and it never will. It always has and always will progress, because skiers never stop progressing. Regardless of some marketing genius’ plans.
Besides, would it be so bad if skiing had died? Or if it does die? If the whole industry collapses? Let’s imagine snowboarding hadn’t come along and the number of skiers had continued to slowly decline. This may have gone on until most ski areas went bankrupt. To maintain profits, other ski hills would have had to raise prices, as they love to do, until only the ultra-rich could have afforded to ski. Most of these wealthy skiers would have quit as soon as Tom at the Country Club clued them in to the fact that skiing wasn’t cool anymore. And maybe that would have been the end of it. No more ski resorts. No more skiers. No more ski companies.
After all, no one needs new skis or new ski gear if they aren’t skiing. So manufacturers would have gone back to making tennis rackets or whatever the hell they do and everyone would have moved on. If you are one of those that would have moved on at this point: thank you for your time, you can stop reading now. Go check out SKI Magazine. For the rest of you, try to think of this new reality. No mega resorts charging a grand for a season pass. No mega manufactures charging a grand for this years new ski graphic. No ski instructors working on the “new” perfect pole plant to take advantage of the “new” skis. No ski patrollers giving speeding tickets. No Nothing.
I guess a few things are left, though. The mountains are still there. The snow’s still falling. You’re still there. Maybe there are even a few like-minded friends with you. Possibilities! Maybe you could still ski a bit, even without the industry. You could hike for what you ski. Yeah, right! Maybe you could get a sled. Snowcats would be cheap. You and your friends could buy one with all the money you would have spent on season passes. It wouldn’t be easy to find or make skis, but it might be worth the effort and who knows, you might just come up with a ski that lasts; a ski that’s made for longevity, not just a product cycle.
Those of us still skiing at this point would laugh about the days when sponsorship was a concern, or when we stood around on beautiful powder days setting up photos. Of course, we’d also have to find real jobs! Best of all though, in this new skiing world there would be no attitude. Period. No attitude in the lift line, no attitude in the lodge, no ATTITUDE by Holmes. It wouldn’t matter who was better, because no one was going to get any exposure or win any stupid contests anyhow. There wouldn’t even be anyone on the chairlift to impress and no one would even dream of getting laid because of their skiing. Sorry.
Maybe I’m crazy, but this alternate reality doesn’t sound that bad to me. I’m not saying I want the ski industry to crash or skiing to lose popularity. I don’t want to lose my sponsors or my job coaching. I’m just saying that next time the wheel turns that way, maybe we shouldn’t be in such a rush to “Save Skiing”. Because when you save skiing, all the bullshit gets saved with it and nothing I truly value about skiing is ever gonna die.
Just found a link to a Ski Canada article I wrote about how to find more avalanche education and training. Especially worth reading if you are a fan of Marty Schaffer's!
Here's a trip report by Drew Wittstock from our Meadow Lodge adventure last year. This year the group is heading to Icefall Lodge. Should be fun!
Meadow Hut Trip 2013 from drewwittstock on Vimeo.
Here's an article I wrote for Ski Canada this year on avalanche airbag use. Looks like there are some interesting new versions coming to the market in the next year or two.
