Freeskier Magazine - February 2013

SKIER of the YEAR

CAN WALLISCH RECLAIM THE CROWN FROM HARLAUT? pg. 54 BLOOD ON THE RAILS LEVEL 1 IN FINLAND

MIKE HORNBECK PROFILE OF A WORKING MAN

FEBRUARY 2013

SKIERS: HENRIK HARLAUT & TOM WALLISCH PHOTO: NATE ABBOTT LOCATION: PARK CITY, UT DISPLAY UNTIL: NOVEMBER 13, 2012

FIRST LOOK NOVEMBER 2012 DISPLAY UNTIL: MARCH 31, 2013

SKIER: PARKER WHITE PHOTO: BRYN HUGHES_LEVEL 1 LOCATION: COAST MOUNTAINS, BC

NEXT YEAR’S BEST GEAR

THE “FUNNEST” PLACE ON EARTH! | WINDELLS.COM

JOHN WARE guest pro & coach ERIK HOFFMAN photographer

SKIER: TANNER RAINVILLE PHOTO: CHRIS O’CONNELL LOCATION: CHATTER CREEK, BC

CON TENTS EPICS 018 Pictures for the people.

P.

SKIER OF THE YEAR P. 054 We unveil your picks for 2012 Male and Female Skiers of the Year.

BLOOD ON THE RAILS P. 064 The best shots frequently come from the biggest falls. LJ Strenio, Spencer Milbocker and Tim McChesney tasted both in Helsinki, Finland.

SPIN 032

P.

ABOUT THE COVER P. 034

MIKE HORNBECK P. 074 From the mighty Midwest, Mike Hornbeck has made his way in skiing by combining style and hard work.

PROFILE CHRIS LOGAN P. 036

DESTINATION KIRKWOOD P. 042

PROFILE AUSTIN NELSON P. 038

COMPANY CALLOUT GOPRO P. 048

FIRST LOOK 2014 GEAR P. 89

P.

TALK 050

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HOW TO DO SKI CAMP P. 082

THIS MONTH ON FREESKIER.COM P. 095

PROFILE FREJ JONSSON P. 040

JIBARDY 094

WIRE 096

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FINAL THOUGHT P. 98

PG. 006

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EDITOR MANAGING EDITOR SENIOR EDITOR

Matt Harvey Shay Williams Nate Abbott

ART DIRECTOR

Chris Hotz

ONLINE EDITOR

Henrik Lampert

GEAR EDITOR EDITOR-AT-LARGE SENIOR WRITER COPY EDITOR SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHERS CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Damian Quigley Christopher Jerard Tess Weaver Alison Larson Bryn Hughes, Chris O’Connell Darcy Bacha, Bryan Barlow,

Adam Clark, Ian Coble, Rachid Dahnoun, KC Deane, Oskar Enander, Ruedi FlĂźck, Erik Hoffman, Miles Holden, Amy Jimmerson, Chip Kalback, Tyler Orton, Bryan Ralph, Christoph SchĂśch, Erik Seo, Elina Sirparanta, Josh Skoglund, Fabrice Wittner CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Liam Downey FOUNDER & CEO ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER SR. ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE FINANCE DIRECTOR

I : K D > K P A B M > > @ .

ADMINISTRATION & AR SPECIALIST

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CALIFORNIA

DESIGN. INTERNATIONALLY

TESTED

Bradford Fayfield Greg Wright Jason Smith, Nicole Birkhold Zach Berman Andrew Fuhrer Erin Gunther Mattie Girard

THIS ISSUE WAS MADE POSSIBLE WITH THE HELP OF Thanksgiving. Nobu sushi.

Garcia. Jay Floyd’s new skis. Santa Claus. Downton Abbey.

La Familia. Alana Blanchard. Heart coffee. Chocolate milk.

Marshall’s Haute Sauce. Skier jocks. Skier nerds. Jimmers.

Gordon Parks. Good Thoughts Printing. Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Neil Young. Guy Mariano. Sunday Night Football.

Churchkey beer. Animal Collective. The Clash. Nitro Club. Park City. Lupita. Peyton Manning. My smokin’ hot wife, Gretchen.

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SKIER: FABIO STUDER PHOTO: CHRISTOPH SCHÖCH LOCATION: DAMUELS, AUSTRIA

I click on the next video, but it’s one I saw about 90 minutes earlier so I go back to reality. I started with an old ski edit from Keystone and I’ve been lost ever since. Well, maybe not lost, but certainly wandering aimlessly.

The Internet makes that type of time travel easy, even likely. Of course, I was working the whole time, doing research as it were, for a profile on Mike Hornbeck (beginning on page 74). From the first edit, I just kept clicking on what caught my eye. Next thing I knew I had jumped, mesmerized, through about 30 links featuring Hornbeck’s unique skiing only stopping the video streams to watch his Level 1 segments.

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Perhaps we should call this the “Internet Issue.” That’s where our cover boys, Henrik Harlaut and Tom Wallisch, and their counterparts on the women’s side of the bracket, Kaya Turski and Ingrid Backstrom, met to do battle over the two 2012 Skier of the Year titles. And that is where those four skiers have explosively built their fan-bases over the past five years. Although all four semifinalists dominated each round of the voting, all 24 nominated skiers warrant being called the best. SOTY is a test of engagement, not just popularity, because even in this age, when anyone with an Internet connection can indulge any desire for ski media, each skier

has to carve out his or her own niche in the constant barrage of edits, gossip and discussion.

Success in that task is motivating a fan to respond actively to your skiing by sharing your edit, gossiping about you, voting in SOTY, adding you to their Fantasy Freeride team, or going out on the hill and imitating the way you ski.

It’s fitting that Hornbeck and Wallisch share dueling long-form profiles in this issue because they are each on the leading edge of one of two ways to stand out. Wallisch (whose profile begins on page 54) has gone from being a hard-charging Pennsylvania skier to an Internet

[ SPIN |

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sensation to being featured in television advertisements during Monday Night Football. He’s on the fast track to the Olympics and becoming a recognizable name among suburban Americans who might never take a ski trip in their life. Hornbeck is defined for many by his Michigan roots.

He also owes his recognition to online edits that became wildly popular, yet his career is still worthy of the “underground” tag. He embraces that status by avoiding the contest scene and returning to his roots to meet and ski with his fans face to face.

For their divergent paths, the similarities between these two skiers are remarkable. The

combined vertical of the resorts where they started skiing is less than a thousand feet. Neither of them is an imposing athlete. They are both revered for their style and recognized by their peers for their hard working attitude.

They are both skiers. If Mike Hornbeck and Tom Wallisch don’t make you think skiing can take you anywhere, maybe you aren’t a skier. On the other hand, if they show you the possibilities of sliding on snow, wherever you find it, turn off your computer, finish reading every word of this issue, and then go skiing.

Nate Abbott Senior Editor

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ABOUT THE COVER

HARLAUT VS. WALLISCH WORDS AND PHOTO:

NATE ABBOTT As we prepared for our final issue of the publishing season, we decided to celebrate the personalities who captured the hearts and minds of the voting public, your SOTY finalists, Henrik Harlaut and Tom Wallisch. With close races all around, the schedule was tight, but somehow, with a lot of help, we wrangled our two finalists and a spot to shoot. The biggest bonus of the effort was my day scouting at Park City. In spite of the early season timing, right before Thanksgiving, Jeremy Cooper, Park City’s terrain park manager, took me for a few quick laps through their perfect setup—some rails, then two decent sized jumps and a bevy of rails and jibs in the home stretch. Early the next morning we gathered in the cold and banged out the shot of Henrik and Tom before everyone headed back down to the lift and snuck in some more laps. Not a bad way to end the publishing season and start the ski season.

CONTRIBUTORS

INGRID BACKSTROM ADAM CLARK PROFESSIONAL SKIER

“My favorite thing about skiing in South America is the Andes mountains themselves,” says pro skier Ingrid Backstrom. “A huge, wild mountain range. Big, wide open, amazing skiing, gorgeous sunsets, cool wildlife like condors—great nature and always an adventure.” We utilized Ingrid’s knowledge of skiing down south to help our story, How to do Ski Camp in South America, on page 87. “I have been down there nine times in the last ten years I believe? Holy cow.” Backstrom has traveled all over the globe filming with MSP in her decade long career, but calls Squaw Valley, CA home.

Check out Ingrid’s exploits in MSP’s latest movie, Superheroes of Stoke.

PG. 034

PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER

Frequent Freeskier contributing photographer Adam Clark took his talents to Alaska this winter, and the fruits of his labors can be seen on page 26.

“It was a great trip because it was a new location. That always makes it fun,” says Clark. The 12-year veteran lensman has worked with the best in the biz, but on a big trip into new territory, he particularly likes working with Seth Morrison. “Right when I got there we got a lot of wind and sun, so we had to try pretty hard to find good snow,” explains Adam. “But Seth is always game to go out and ski.”

Adam is based in Salt Lake City, UT and shoots Canon. Visit adamclarkphoto.com for more information.

[ ABOUT THE COVER/CONTRIBUTORS |

JEREMY COOPER

LIAM DOWNEY

TERRAIN PARK & ACTION SPORTS MANAGER

WRITER

“Skier of the Year is a tough choice,” mused Jeremy Cooper, the terrain park and action sports manager at Park City Mountain Resort. “Both Tom Wallisch and Henrik Harlaut are really sick, definitely two of my favorites, but if I had to make a choice, I would say Wallisch.”

Jeremy was instrumental in helping coordinate this month’s cover photo of Wallisch and Harlaut at Park City.

The fourth-year terrain park manager took time out of his busy early season schedule to accommodate our Skier of the Year photoshoot. To find out who won the battle between Wallisch and Harlaut, turn to page 54.

| FREESKIER ]

We tapped pro skier and writer Liam Downey for this month’s Talk article—turn to page 50—and he had this to say about the experience: “I was wearing a cowboy hat at the time and I expected them to take issue with it. They turned out to be some of the raddest people I’ve ever met. It was cool to see a piece of history in that bar, and to be reminded that as esoteric and sectarian as skiing can be in its many forms, that the skier bond still runs deep.

Those cowboys came from a time before freestyle skiing even existed, and even though they were racers, they were rebels in their own right. We were so inspired by them that Parker White and I decided to start a website (SlatRats.com) that will be dropping this winter.”

PHOTOS: ERIK SEO_LEVEL 1 LOCATION: WASILLA, AK

INTERVIEW: SHAY WILLIAMS

CHRIS

L O G A N AGE: 22 HOMETOWN: OCEANSIDE, NY SPONSORS: ROCKSTAR, ROSSIGNOL,

ELECTRIC, ORAGE, MAMMOTH, DISCRETE HEADWEAR, LA FAMILIA GLOVES, HIGH FIVES, SUREFOOT, KOOTER BROWN, TALL T PRODUCTIONS RESULTS: 1ST, 2011 NORTH FACE PARK AND PIPE OPEN SLOPESTYLE, NORTHSTAR-AT-TAHOE, CA 11TH, 2011 WINTER DEW TOUR SLOPESTYLE, BRECKENRIDGE, CO 10TH, 2012 WINTER DEW TOUR SLOPESTYLE, KILLINGTON, VT ON FILM: SUNNY_LEVEL 1 PRODUCTIONS, PRIME CUT_MEATHEAD FILMS, FOR THE HELL OF IT_MONTAGE INC.

Chris Logan isn’t the hot new contest guy. He’s not the out-of-nowhere film star. He’s a dedicated, hard working skier whose stock has risen steadily over the years. He’s now a battle-tested Level 1 athlete. He has a number of top 10 results every year. He has a style that is revered by his peers. We caught up with the man they call Dahrkness to find out what makes him tick.

PG. 036

HOW DID YOU GET THE NICKNAME, “DAHRKNESS?” HOW DID THE SPELLING COME ABOUT? I got the name when I first moved to Mammoth, from Kevin Malone. It had to do with my skin tone and personality that differed from my older brother, Sean. The “H” is in there to really accentuate the dark. Over the years it has evolved into just Dahrk, Dahrky, or Christopher Dahrk.

YOU COME FROM A PRETTY SKIINDUSTRY-HEAVY FAMILY. HOW DID THAT INFLUENCE YOU, AND HOW DOES IT CONTINUE TO INFLUENCE YOU? So much of my influence in skiing came and still comes from my older brother Sean. Growing up I would always want to shred with him and his homies but wasn’t good enough to hang. First thing I would do if I learned something would be to tell him and try and get his approval and respect. He always responded like, “You should add another 180 to that,” or “Do it the other [ PROFILES |

way.” That definitely helped push me and still pushes me today. I feel like my little sister Devin just fell into that same line. That’s how I was taught, so that’s how she got taught. Tough love.

more hungry and motivated to go out there and prove myself. I guess the only thing that is different is that I get to go on more trips and have more opportunities to get shots.

DO YOU THINK SKIING IN VERMONT SHAPED YOUR CAREER? Growing up and learning how to ski in Vermont was awesome. If you can ski the ice back there, you can ski anything.

I started on the Mount Snow freestyle team when I was eight, learning how to jump and ski bumps. This was back before park skiing was going on. When the sport evolved more into what it is today, I kinda evolved with it. I went to the Mount Snow Academy throughout high school and had an ill crew of homies I rode with. I would say they really helped form my skiing into what it is today.

FILL THE READERS IN ON THE MONTAGE INC. CREW. Montage Inc. is our Mammoth-based crew. It was started before I even lived out here and consisted of my brother Sean, Sean Decker, Nolan Willard, Kevin Malone, Stu Halverson, Ben Wiltsie, Garrett Russell, Bernie Rosow, Tanner Rainville, Vann Gravage and Justin Kelley. Parker White, Nick Miles, Tory Kelliher (LT), Scotty Donahue, Mike Decker, Jimmy Greenleaf and myself all became a crew when we moved out here. It’s a big group of homies, most of which are from the East Coast, who love to ski, snowmobile and film.

DO YOU LIKE THE COMPETING AND FILMING OR WOULD YOU RATHER FOCUS ON ONE OR THE OTHER? I personally like both aspects of the sport.

Comp skiing has that pressure to it of only having two runs to land your hardest tricks as clean as possible. Filming for a movie is a lot more laid back. You can try something as many times as you want until you are happy with it. For me, the contest mentality has helped out in my filming. I’m going to continue competing while I can still hang, and when I can’t anymore, I will put all my focus towards filming.

WHAT DO YOU THINK STYLE IS? I think style is how smooth and easy a skier makes something look. So I think that it is moving in a positive direction by those skiers who really focus their skiing around that and not just how many spins and flips they can do. I try to keep style in mind whenever I’m skiing, just trying to keep everything clean and smooth as possible.

WHAT WAS IT LIKE FILMING FOR THE FIRST TIME IN EYE TRIP VERSUS BEING A VET FILMING FOR SUNNY THIS PAST SEASON? I feel like not much has changed between my first year filming with Level 1 and this year filming for Sunny. I am just as, if not | FREESKIER ]

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF TOM WALLISCH FILMING HIS OWN EDIT ALL YEAR LONG? I think what Wally is doing is real cool and a sick idea.

Some Nyjah Huston type shit. I think some people have dabbled in that a bit and will in the future. Wally is just taking things to the next level, which is what he usually does. It’s going to be fun to watch and I hope to cross paths with him and Kyle Decker during the season and maybe sesh something together.

WORDS: TESS WEAVER

A U S T I N PHOTO: JOSH SKOGLUND

NELSON AGE: 22 HOMETOWN: KENT, CT SPONSORS: FOLSOM CUSTOM SKIS,

SUREFOOT, OAKLEY

RESULTS: 1ST, 2012 BATTLE OF THE

BOWLS, ASPEN HIGHLANDS, CO T-3RD, 2007 DEAFLYMPICS GIANT SLALOM, PARK CITY, UT

It’s a ski bum’s dream—a week in Alaska with sleds and three buddies.

For Aspen skier Austin Nelson, it was his second trip up north, his second shot at that dream and his first day on the Worthington Glacier, 30 minutes from Valdez. Nelson saw multiple helicopters fly through the bluebird sky and ski tracks everywhere he looked. He and a friend had just made their first tracks of the day and reconvened with the sleds. Nelson left the group and traversed across the slope to get a better look at their next line. He stopped about 200 feet from his friends, perpendicular to the fall line, and began sinking. All of a sudden, he began to free fall into total darkness. “I had no idea how far I was falling or where I was falling to, but I knew that that was it,” says Nelson.

He ping-ponged violently back and forth, from ice wall to ice wall, picking up speed until he landed on his back in a place that had never seen the light of day. As soon as he tried to stand, he knew his leg was severely broken.

He didn’t know how far he’d fallen or if he’d be able to hear anyone, not only because he was god-knows-howfar down a crevasse but also because Nelson is deaf.

His right hearing aid was compromised in the fall, so Nelson turned up the volume on his left hearing aid and sat in the darkness, waiting and hoping. Twenty agonizing minutes later, he heard the best sound he’d ever heard, “Austin!”

When Nelson was finally raised out of the crevasse, his body temperature was a dangerous 88 degrees. He had fallen more than 60 feet. “I’m so glad my left hearing aid was intact, allowing me to communicate with my rescuers,” says Nelson. Had that not been the case, the rescue could have been much more complicated and time consuming.

Nelson, 27, was born with damaged cochleae. Without hearing aids, he has 65-percent hearing loss in his left ear and 85-percent loss in his right. In elementary school, he wore a bulky pack on his waist with wires PG. 038

up to his ears. His teachers wore devices around their necks and the system worked like a two-way radio.

“I got picked on a lot,” remembers Nelson, who learned to read lips and underwent speech therapy from ages 4 to 12. “I was always trying to decipher what people were saying.”

But the technology evolved rapidly, which Austin says is critical when you rely on it “all day, every day.” He remembers when hearing aids switched from analog to digital.

He heard sounds he had never heard before, from the alarm on his watch to his own voice. “It took some time just to get used to my own voice as well, which sounds completely different.”

Now, his hearing aids use Bluetooth to wirelessly sync to his iPhone, iPod and other devices. In a crowded bar, the aids automatically enhance human voices and soften background noise. “It’s cool having volume control,” says Nelson. “I can turn people down when I want.”

After graduating from University of Denver in 2008 with a degree in international business, Nelson moved to Aspen, where he’s skied at least 100 days each season. Last spring, he and a partner won “Battle of the Bowls,” a prestigious local race that uses GPS devices to time teams on their descents of the various bowls of Aspen Highlands. “He’s a strong, agile, powerful skier,” says Aspen Valley Ski Club coach JF Bruegger.

“You can definitely see that racing background. He’s awesome to ski with. Everyone in our crew has their music in when they’re skiing, so I tend to forget he’s deaf.”

Nelson grew up in Connecticut, where his parents taught him to ski on weekend trips to Mohawk and occasional trips to Killington. “I’d ski without my hearing aid and forget I was hearing impaired. It was just me and the mountain.” Nelson started ski racing when he transferred to Green Mountain Valley School, an elite ski academy. He heard about the Deaflympics during his junior year, from a professor with a deaf son. [ PROFILES |

Held every four years since 1924, the International Olympic Committee-sanctioned Deaflympics is the second oldest international multisport event in the world. In 1949, the Deaflympics drew 1,000 athletes from around the world. Now, the event draws more than 2,500 athletes from 30 countries. Athletes in the Deaflympics can’t use hearing aids. Countdowns and timing cues are visual. Cross-country skiers tap the racer ahead of them with a pole to signal a pass. When a penalty is called in hockey, strobe lights flash around the rink.

At age 17, Nelson competed in the US Deaf Ski and Snowboard Association qualifiers, where he won the slalom and joined the US Deaflympic team. He earned a twoweek break from school to train at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid. Nelson was assigned a sign interpreter (he doesn’t know sign language), and he then headed to Sundsvall, Sweden.

After crashing in the first run of the slalom event, Nelson ran last

It was the first time in my life I was stoked to be deaf. on the second run and notched the fastest time. When he placed sixth in the downhill, officials paid him a surprise visit and tested to make sure he met Deaflympics standards of not being able to naturally hear sounds softer than 55 decibels. He passed the test. “It was the first time in my life I was stoked to be deaf,” he says.

Four years later at the Deaflympics in Park City, Utah, Nelson tied for | FREESKIER ]

third in super G and became the first American to medal in an alpine skiing event in Deaflympics history.

When the next Deaflympics were announced for Vysoke Tatry, Slovakia, Nelson began researching the High Tatras. Like his teammates in the US and comrades around the world, he fundraised to train like an Olympic hopeful and pay for his journey to Slovakia. But in February 2011, less than a week before Nelson was set to fly to Slovakia, the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf (ICSD) announced the 17th Winter Deaflympic Games would be canceled because of “the local organizing committee’s comprehensive failure to deliver on its promises.”

Some athletes arrived to nonexistent hotel reservations. The Canadian hockey team arrived to ice rinks still under construction. “I’d been a part of two Deaflympics, and they were so well organized,” says Nelson. “I never could have imagined this happening.”

The president of the Slovakian Deaflympics Organizing Committee, Jaromir Ruda, was eventually found guilty of embezzlement and sentenced to 13 years in prison. “I feel bad for the first-time competitors,” says Nelson.

“They might never know how amazing the event is.” The next Deaflympics will take place in 2015 in Vancouver, Canada.

“It will have been eight years since the last Deaflympics,” says Nelson. “There is going to be that new 17-year-old kid. I will be almost 30...” But after surviving a fall into a crevasse, Nelson has a renewed determination. During the fall, he shattered the base of his left tibia in 11 places and snapped his fibula.

He’s now dealing with 12 screws and five plates. His doctor says he won’t be skiing this winter, but Nelson says otherwise. “I’ll be back this season to defend my Battle of the Bowls title. And then I want gold in Vancouver.”

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PHOTOS: NATE ABBOTT_LOS LOCATION: GROSSGLOCKNER PASS, AUSTRIA

INTERVIEW: SHAY WILLIAMS

F

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E

J

JONSSON AGE: 19 HOMETOWN: ÖSTERSUND, SWEDEN SPONSORS: ATOMIC, RIP CURL, DRAGON RESULTS: 4TH, 2012 JOI BIG AIR, ÅRE,

SWEDEN, 9TH, 2012 WORLD CUP SLOPESTYLE, JYVÄSKYLÄ, FINLAND ON FILM: HURT SO GOOD_LEGS OF STEEL, JOY & PAIN_TFJ PRODUCTIONS

Frej Jonsson set the Internet ablaze last spring at the Jon Olsson Invitational when he introduced the world to his unique double flip 720. But not much was known about the precocious Swede, so we caught up with Frej to find out more about where he’s from and where he’s going.

YOU HAVE THE SAME NAME AS A SWEDISH HOUSEWARES STORE. IS THERE EVER ANY CONFUSION? I’ve actually never heard of it so I guess there hasn’t been any confusion at all. [laughs] IS IT HARD GETTING NOTICED IN PG. 040

THE SWEDISH SKI SCENE BEHIND JON OLSSON, JACOB WESTER AND HENRIK HARLAUT? THOSE GUYS HAVE BIG NAMES. I’m really grateful to those guys for making freeskiing as big a deal as it is here in Sweden. But it’s a small country with limited resources in the industry for us coming up after them to get sponsors. So I guess it’s hard but a good place for skiing.

HOW DID YOU GET INTO FREESKIING IN SWEDEN? WHO WERE YOUR IDOLS GROWING UP? I actually started out a snowboarder, but that changed when skiing got really big and I pretty much switched gears along with a lot of other kids. I remember seeing Lolo [Laurent Favre] in films and competitions doing massive switch sevens, zero spins and stuff with so much style. That inspired me to want to work hard towards doing the same thing.

WHAT WAS IT LIKE FILMING WITH THE LEGS OF STEEL CREW? It was pretty crazy getting there, seeing how professional everything was set up with super high-tech cameras, RC helis and stuff. It felt like a really cool opportunity for me to be a part of that—hanging out with a great crew of people and awesome skiers.

WHAT WAS THAT ROAD GAP LIKE? Insanely big and scary, but that’s part of the fun. [laughs] TELL ME A BIT ABOUT HOW YOUR DOUBLE FLATSPIN 720 CAME ABOUT? HOW DID YOU COME UP [ PROFILES |

WITH THE ROTATION? I wouldn’t really call it a double flatspin seven. I’ve always wanted to do some kind of a double seven and worked on the trampoline trying to figure out how. I experimented with a few things and got to a point where I thought it would be possible to do on skis.

WHERE DID YOU FIRST TRY IT? WHAT WAS IT LIKE AND HOW DID IT NOT END IN TOTAL DISASTER? JOI was the first time I tried it. It felt like the perfect circumstances with that super big jump that I still felt pretty safe hitting.

Tried to get my mind back to where it was when I worked on it on the trampoline and did a couple dub nines. From there, I just tried to stall myself and put the seven down to my feet. I think I basically knew what the rotation would be like, so I just translated my preparations into the actual thing and it turned out well.

After that, I’ll just be filming and competing around Europe and hopefully drop a couple of edits during the season.

HOW IMPORTANT IS STYLE TO YOU—TO MAKE A TRICK LOOK UNIQUE AND SMOOTH VERSUS JUST BEING ABLE TO DO A TRICK? I think it’s super important because there are so many skiers doing the same tricks, but an individual style is what makes you want to watch it.

WITH DOUBLES (AND TRIPLES) BECOMING THE NORM, WHERE DO YOU SEE BIG AIR GOING? DIFFERENT ROTATIONS AND GRAB VARIATIONS OR FLIP TO WIN? You will get rewarded a lot for doing a triple in any competition right now, so obviously as long as it stays like that people are going to do it. I really hope to see more different rotations and grabs though, like JOI for example. Vincent Gagnier did his dub bio 12 octo, and I was also doing something different, and we both got rewarded really well for it. I guess it’s gonna depend a lot on the organizers and judges for different competitions.

WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS THIS SEASON? THINKING ABOUT THE NORTH AMERICAN CONTEST SCENE OR STAYING IN EUROPE AND PUTTING TOGETHER A TIGHT EDIT? I’m starting off the season with a month in Colorado with the Swedish freeski team, and then I’m going back to Sweden right before Christmas to shoot some urban.

AFTER YOUR BREAKOUT AT JOI LAST SPRING, HAS YOUR CAREER TAKEN AN UPSWING? It helped a lot.

Since then more people know me, and I get recognized more. I’m getting more write-ups and more attention from the media in general. It’s not like companies are crowding me to give me sponsor deals, but it definitely has helped with everything.

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KIRKWOOD, CA

BIG TERRAIN AND BOUNTIFUL SNOW HIGHLIGHT SOUTH LAKE TAHOE’S HIDDEN GEM Ski areas off the beaten path share common ground. They breed a different culture. The locals are a little crustier, the amenities less posh, the infrastructure basic, the lunches brown bag and the après scene more tailgate than fireside.

The terrain and snowfall are usually the selling points. And Kirkwood lacks neither.

You have to want to get to Kirkwood. It’s nearly an hour drive from South Lake Tahoe, over two mountain passes that often close during storms.

Those who make the trek are after Tahoe’s lightest and most consistent snow. The resort has the highest base elevation of all the Tahoe resorts and some of the most legitimate big mountain terrain in the country. And things are only getting better with Vail Resorts’ acquisition of the mountain in February, 2012.

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SKIER: KEVIN O’MEARA PHOTO: AMY JIMMERSON_MSI

After 40 years of private ownership, some say Kirkwood’s unique identity is at stake, but Kevin “Coop” Cooper, Kirkwood’s brand manger—who has been riding the resort for 20 years—is excited for Kirkwood’s future.

“It puts energy and momentum behind our programs,” he explains. “We always had ideas but couldn’t get the backing to make them happen.”

Vail Resorts has already upped the ante for Kirkwood’s biggest event—the Freeride World Tour stop in February. Kirkwood is the new Tour’s only US stop and though Kirkwood has hosted big-mountain events since the early ‘90s, it’s the resort’s first five-star event. The event features a packed social calendar, much like a festival, and promises to be far more energetic than the tour stops of the past.

“We have a 15-year history with Kirkwood,” says Mountain Sports International’s Bryan Barlow. “The one thing that stays consistent is the reliability of the snow and a perfect arena with great vertical drop, lots of launching options, and it’s all right there in your face.”

The area of the mountain utilized for the contest, known as “The Cirque,” is a permanently closed area the rest of the season. “The Cirque is a skier’s dream,” says 2011-12 Freeride World Tour winner and Kirkwood local Josh Daiek. “It has everything you’d ever want—steeps, chutes, hucks and more.”

While that particular section of the mountain may be closed, the ridges flanking it are open and offer similar features. The snow on the lookers left flank of the Cirque—a face called “Thundersaddle”— enjoys a more northerly exposure, making it a key zone for soft snow in between the massive snowfalls Kirkwood receives.

Kirkwood is famous for receiving slightly (sometimes significantly) more snow than its Tahoe counterparts. If you find yourself at Kirkwood’s base the morning after an 18-36-inch overnight dump you’re going to need a very specific plan of attack to get the deep stuff while it lasts. The mountain’s best terrain zones tend to open in stages due to the extensive amount of patrol work that coincides with the massive snow storms.

So here’s our advice: Listen to the chatter in the lift lines. Most people are going to line up at the base of Cornice Express (aka Chair 6) first thing as patrollers tend to start on that side of the mountain. The progression typically goes lookers PHOTO: RACHID DAHNOUN_KIRKWOOD MOUNTAIN RESORT

left to The Wall (aka Chair 10) and then to the areas surrounding The Cirque. But wind can do tricky things to the snow and patrol may have to change up their plans at the drop of a hat. The locals have a funny way of knowing when plans are about to change, so stick on their tails.

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At the end of the day, make your way over to The Wall Bar or Bubs for a classic après ski scene. You’ll hear stories about the lift openings you might have missed and rumors about the next storm lining up.

The scene wraps up as soon as the sun sets, but your night could just be beginning. While there’s lodging available at the base of Kirkwood, the town of South Lake Tahoe offers more options and a late night scene for the hardest of partiers. But we think after a full day of charging Kirkwood’s steep and deep you’re going to want to skip the posh nightlife, opt for the solid night of sleep, get up and repeat.

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PHOTOS: JUSTIN BEFU

DO AK ON THE CHEAP AT

FLOW TAILGATE ALASKA

WORDS: SHAY WILLIAMS

If you’ve ever wanted to experience Alaska and the terrain it has to offer without incurring the expense (and frills) of a heliskiing trip, you want to look into the Flow Tailgate Alaska festival.

Entering its sixth year of operation, Flow Tailgate Alaska is a gathering place, camp and community for ski and snowboard enthusiasts that acts as a jumping-off point for accessing the amazing terrain around Thompson Pass (near Valdez).

Whether you’ll be skinning from camp, catching snowmobile bumps or taking advantage of discounted cat rides and heli drops, your options for getting up on the mountains are numerous. Plus, with an adventureminded community of skiers and snowboarders enjoying the same amenities, there is no shortage of others to join up with on backcountry missions.

On inclement weather days, you can take part in snow safety classes, participate in beacon searches and learn about sled maintenance. After hours you have the option to enjoy a live DJ, beer garden and parties galore, with all of your newfound Alaskan brethren. Not exactly something you can find in most Alaskan towns.

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Your best bet is to camp or sleep in an RV at the Tailgate venue itself. But if roughing it isn’t your idea of fun, Tailgate offers discounted rates at the nearby Mountain Sky, Best Western and Totem hotels. This allows you to enjoy all the benefits of the group without giving up your long-held love of mattresses. [ FLOW TAILGATE ALASKA |

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This season’s Flow Tailgate Alaska is scheduled for March 29th to April 7th and is limited to 150 participants. There are three packages to choose from. Visit tailgatealaska.com for more information and to sign up.

Location / Valdez AK Photo / SKS

WORDS: DAMIAN QUIGLEY

GoPro. It’s a household name. You know it. Your friends know it, and your mom probably does too because you can’t go skiing without seeing the cameras all over the place. But once upon a time, none of us had heard of these ingenious little devices, and many still don’t really know where they came from. As it turns out, it was a pretty humble beginning for the tremendously successful company.

GoPro’s roots are in surfing. It was on a trip to Australia that founder Nick Woodman decided to act on an idea he had been thinking about for a number of years. He wanted to capture images that would convey the feeling of what it’s like to ride that perfect wave—to be deep inside the tube, skimming your hand across the water as it curled overhead. Unfortunately, the camera options at the time meant that this was a tall order. The lack of affordable equipment meant that only pros had the means to get quality pictures while others were stuck with flat images taken by people whose feet were planted firmly on the sand. Nick and his posse wanted to “go pro,” to have a camera that could capture the moment that would make them look like heroes. And so he set out to develop the world’s first affordable, wrist-mounted camera.

While traveling through Indonesia with his then girlfriend (now wife), Nick noticed she had purchased an eye-catching bead and shell belt from a local vendor at a more than fair price. He quickly recognized the opportunity. They placed an order for 600 belts and a couple of months later, they were back in California selling them out of Nick’s 1974 VW Westfalia van. By summer’s end, he had the seed money to fund the first GoPro prototype.

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Woodman moved back in with his parents to cut expenses. He began traveling to trade shows to talk with manufacturers and find someone to produce the first line of cameras. The exhaustive process led him to one that he believed was a good fit, and the first 35 mm film GoPro Hero was born. Nick used a sewing machine borrowed from his mom that he hooked up to the battery of his van to make the first wrist straps. Surfers loved the wrist-mounted cameras, and the company began to gain traction. As business grew, Woodman borrowed money from his parents to buy more inventory and never looked back.

The first big leap in technology was when the cameras went from film to digital. Nick picked up auto racing and decided to use the wrist strap to attach his camera to the roll bar to capture some video. “It was at the track that I realized, ‘Wow, I can mount this camera anywhere and capture anything that I’m passionate about,’” he says. This realization was a major part of what would eventually make GoPro wildly successful.

“I think the big thing that has helped to get us to where we are today is how people are using it for more than just POV,” says Rick Loughery, director of communications.

What started out in the skiing world as a “helmet cam” has evolved into something much more. “If you watch, even just in skiing over the last couple years, people are taking it off of their helmet and putting it on their pole or creating a mount that sticks outside their backpack. This is what makes our cameras so unique, the versatility of them.”

The company added a wide-angle lens, and as it continued to up the imaging capabilities of the camera, ultimately going to high definition in 2009, more and more people took notice. Just as it had initially been developed for surfing and expanded to other sports, it was now reaching beyond that realm. Despite very little marketing outside of action sports, GoPro cameras are now being employed on television shows such as 60 Minutes, Deadliest Catch and many others. It seems the more the camera gets used, the more uses are found for it.

If you were employed by GoPro from the beginning, it was either because you had gone to school with Nick or were [ COMPANY CALLOUT |

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a family member. This soon extended to friends of friends and has now expanded to about 350 people, most of whom work from the company headquarters in San Mateo, CA. Much of the rapid expansion was in the engineering force, which enabled the company to stay ahead of the competition.

“Not only are we doing more in-house but we’re doing more,” says Loughery. “The best case in point is when we rolled out the Hero 3, we didn’t just roll out one new camera. There are three new cameras in this lineup.” And that’s in addition to other accessories that were introduced alongside. A company that used to release one product at a time is now giving its loyal customers even more to love. In 2011, the company also acquired CineForm, a producer of software products for easy post-production of high-definition video. Users can now look for dramatically increased software and sharing functionalities from their cinematic gadgets.

In addition to their software, GoPro took over CineForm’s location in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, CA, just north of San Diego.

About 25 of the company’s employees now work in the action sports hub of SoCal, including all of their athlete mangers.

So what does GoPro look for in an athelete? They look for people that inspire through content creation. “Tom Wallisch is a great example,” says Loughery. “He got to where he is today because he took a video camera out to Seven Springs, PA and was capturing footage of himself, putting it up on YouTube and getting discovered that way.” Posting footage both exposes the rider and gives the camera company perpetual free advertising with new videos being uploaded to YouTube every couple of minutes. With publicity like that, combined with a quality product, it’s hard to imagine anything but success for a company like GoPro. Nick Woodman started out with a simple plan, to develop a camera that he and his fellow surfers could use to share their passion. More than a decade later, that dream has turned into a phenomenon. One that enables millions of people around the world to create and share what matters most to them. Having helped shape the content creation landscape as we know it, GoPro will continue to set the standard for POV cameras.

NEW THIS SEASON

CHRIS LOGAN

PARKER WHITE

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MAMMOTHUNBOUND.COM

THE DOWNTOWN COLLECTION & UNBOUND PLAYGROUND PROGRESSION PARK

THE NEVER-ENDING PURSUIT OF THAT JUST-LANDED-A-NEW-TRICK FEELING, NOW SIZED FOR ANY ABILITY DOWNLOAD THE NEW MOBILE APP AND THE FREE UNBOUND DIGITAL MAGAZINE AVAILABLE ON APPLE & ANDROID DEVICES

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH INYO NATIONAL FOREST

PHOTO: DARCY BACHA LOCATION: BRIGHTWOOD, OR

Our eight feet crunched on the sandy pavement where the road became parking lot. We walked through the red front door. Inside, it was dark and the air was stale with the dusty smell of time. The Brightwood Tavern was still there—a shanty built a hundred years ago by someone with a yen for log cabins. In the time since, the building had been added on to with extreme bias, like a trailer home with many bastard additions.

The place was empty except for two cowboys by the jukebox. We sat at the bar and ordered Caucasians. This might seem odd to someone who has never cultivated a proper taste for dairy mixed with booze, like the acne-faced German girl I’d run across in Government Camp the day before. “White Russians are for gay guys,” she whispered loudly in my friend’s ear while I was speaking on the finer points of the beverage.

“You’re a nihilist,” I said. But she didn’t understand. There was much she didn’t understand.

So I felt a certain obligation to have a Caucasian when Big Bennard ordered one, heightened by a sense that the Brightwood Tavern was the kind of place where we could drink without explaining ourselves to German girls.

But any illusions of peace were broken when I felt the tap on my shoulder...

In spite of its seclusion, or maybe because of it, the little town of Brightwood has more than a few crazies. We’d recently made friends with a toothless Portuguese Indian named Jesús from around the way, a noble savage with a reputation for quoting Descartes and welshing on his gambling debts.

There was a rush of blood to my brain as I turned around on the barstool. The man facing me was one of the cowboys from the way in. He was wearing a Canadian tuxedo. At a glance, he could have been 47—or 63.

“You look jest like George Thorogood,” he said to me. “Shit, man, I know George and you look jest like him.” I’ve never counted Thorogood among the gods of rock-and-roll, but I decided to keep that to myself. It was high praise.

in history.” The Queen tried explaining something about an annual slug race, but none of it made any sense. He was probably just drunk on some old-fashioned feeling. Maybe just drunk. Every so often, he’d point to an unlabeled bottle behind the bar and tell the big-boned barmaid, “Shot,” like a character from a Sergio Leone spaghetti western.

WORDS: LIAM DOWNEY

“You guys snowboarders?” he asked. He’d seen our type running around Mt. Hood many a summer.

“Fuck no, we’re skiers,” Parker White answered before I could say anything.

The cowboy jumped backwards in shock. I thought for a second that he must have had a deep-seated hatred for skiers that was about to manifest itself in an Old West style of justice. Instead he grinned big and hooted, “Yee-ew!” The years showed in the leathery creases of his smile. “Slat rats!

You hear that Curly? We got us some slat rats over here.”

Curly was still fucking around with the jukebox. “Naww, ginuwine?” he said.

“Yep,” said the first cowboy, “we were skiers too, a ways back. Stick dodgers, slat rats! We shore use to raise hell.” He craned his neck to look at the patio outside. “If my old lady wun’t here, I’d give ya the real dirt.”

He winked and stuck out his hand. “They call me the Slug Queen,” he paused for effect, “which means I get laid, a lot.”

It was hard to tell how his old lady figured in to all that. Curly made a face like he was tired of the Slug Queen’s politics.

I could picture the two of them 35 years back, skylarking around Government Camp with a bevy of bell-bottomed babes, kicking ski-boot holes in the walls at Charlie’s and the Ratskellar.

We never did figure out exactly what a “Slug Queen” was or why he was so proud to be “the first male Slug Queen

“She’s my daughter,” he explained after the third or fourth shot, “so don’t git no ideas.” His whiskey wit had come to ferment. The drink seemed to have the opposite effect on Curly, who was very tall and serious. When he talked about skiing, he got serious as hell.

“We had cable bindings,” he said, carefully, as if testing his handle on a forgotten language. “You had to break your leg to git ’em off. Still got pins in mine. I don’t git up there much anymore. It just ain’t the same.”

Curly didn’t elaborate on how skiing had changed. I guess he figured that we could see for ourselves, or that we would soon enough if we hadn’t already. After Curly spoke his piece, he dragged the Queen back over to the jukebox and played “Bad to the Bone” followed by “I Drink Alone.”

I felt a sense of relief as they left us to our drinks. We’d been tested; there was no doubt about that. And we’d made the grade, but I worried that we might not bear up under a more intense kind of scrutiny. It was a needless feeling.

“Slat rats,” Curly said as we got up to go. “It’s a state of mind.”

“Bring it back,” the Slug Queen added.

“Don’t worry about that,” Parker said, “We’ve got friends.”

They nodded and tipped their Stetsons at us before the heavy wood door swung shut behind us. There was much they understood.

We walked back to the house along the road. The lights and trash-barrel fires of Brightwood strobed through the foliage below. The creatures of the woods were partying down there in the damp August night. Even in the dark, the salmon made their run up the Sandy River. The fish were returning to the spawning grounds of their birth.

FREESKIER welcomes submissions of stories, opinion and art for Talk. E-mail to Talk@freeskier.com.

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PHOTOS: NATE ABBOTT LOCATION: MOTTOLINO, ITALY

WORDS: TESS WEAVER

TOM WALLISCH IS FREESKIER¡6 6.,(5 2) 7+( <($5 )25 7+( 6(&21' 7,0( ,1 7+5(( <($56 %($7,1* 287 ),1$/,67 +(15,. +$5/$87 :,7+ 29(5 927(6 &$67 21/,1( ,1 129(0%(5 Last season, Wallisch landed on seven podiums and won two X Games medalsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;gold in Aspen DQG VLOYHU DW (XUR ; +H WRRN Ă&#x20AC; UVW at the Breckenridge and Killington Dew Tour stops, second at the Dew Tour stop at Snowbasin, and won the overall Dew Cup. He was also named 2012 Menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Slopestyle World Champion and FDPH LQ Ă&#x20AC; UVW LQ WKH $)3 6ORSHVW\OH World Rankings.

It was a season that would send some skiers on vacation to Hawaii by mid-March, but, even after sprinkling video shoots into his contest schedule, the day after he secured the Dew Tour overall, :DOOLVFK KRSSHG D D P Ă LJKW to Japan and spent the rest of the VHDVRQ Ă&#x20AC; OPLQJ 'XULQJ RQH VL[ GD\ trip to Anchorage, Alaska, with Level 1, the crew got only three to four hours of sleep per day. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In my 13 years of making Ă&#x20AC; OPV LW ZDV WKH PRVW LQVDQH VOHHS less, hectic week that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve ever witnessed,â&#x20AC;? says Level 1 founder

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Josh Berman. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And the stuff Tom wanted to do was so consequential.

I thought, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Wow, there is nobody out there who would have this approach and put this all on the line at this point in the season.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;?

On the third day of the trip, they shot a feature all afternoon, shot another at 4 a.m. and planned to shoot something off the roof of a fairly major building in downtown Anchorage that had to be done at the very moment of sunrise. After a couple of hours of sleep in the car, the alarms went off at 6:45 a.m. Everyone wondered whether they shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just call the shoot, but a sleep-deprived, pale, wipedout Wallisch peeled his eyelids open and said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s do this.â&#x20AC;?

After almost a week of aroundthe-clock insanity, the crew took a red-eye from Anchorage to Reno (after an afternoon shoot), got in at 10 a.m, jumped in the car, drove to Mammoth, geared up and took the lift up to a Monster Energy team shoot.

In the next online voting matchup, it’s the epic mountains of Italy versus Wally’s 720 Cuban. Who gets your vote?

PHOTOS: NATE ABBOTT LOCATION: MOTTOLINO, ITALY

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A lot of skiers in Wallischâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s position, having accomplished so much in the sport, might look at skiing as a job, but Berman says thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not how Wallisch views it. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He skis because he loves it. He works hard to get the mindblowing shots because he wants to challenge himself.

Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s really what sets him apart.â&#x20AC;?

Wallisch isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a rock star; heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the kid next door, and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just the person people want to root for. His mass appeal stems from fans relating to him. He comes from Pittsburgh, grew up skiing a tiny resort and never had a personal coach.

Nothing was handed to him. Wallisch even looks normal.

Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not an intimidating jock. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not noticeably ripped or particularly tall. He doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have the chiseled jaw line of a male model. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s your average, everyday 25-year-old guy.

Even after one of the best competition seasons a slopestyle skier could dream of, Wallisch is still a personality kids can relate to. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not super far out there,â&#x20AC;? adds Berman. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a persona that scares people away. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s very approachable.â&#x20AC;?

Wallisch was the one who made it clear that fame, fortune and success could be achieved in the ski industry through alternative channels. With 103,000 Facebook fans and 22,000 Twitter followers, Wallisch owns the online ski community. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I came onto the scene right as online edits, YouTube and Facebook were blowing up,â&#x20AC;? says Wallisch. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been doing Facebook since the beginning. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been putting out edits for seven years and developing a good name on YouTube and Vimeo. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve had lots of time to develop a fan base on the Internet.â&#x20AC;?

Wallisch was in the right place at the right time, but his father, Mike, says itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s something beyond the timing. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He has a contagious love of skiing that he wants to share. Somehow that comes across in his videos.â&#x20AC;?

Wallischâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fans have been supportive since the beginning.

They knew him on Newschoolers before he even won the 2007 Superunknown contest, Level 1â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s talent search. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Ă&#x20AC; UVW WLPH ZH VDZ WKDW HGLW LW RSHQHG RXU H\HV Âľ VD\V %HUPDQ â&#x20AC;&#x153;He displayed far and away the most diverse and technical skill set we had seen, period. He did every trick in the book, every rail combo weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d ever thought of.â&#x20AC;?

Wallisch was invited to Level 1â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s park shoots that spring. He was 19. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We had a true step-over style jump at Copper, and every time he hit it, he did a different trick,â&#x20AC;? says Berman. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Nine times out of ten, it was a trick he hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t tried before, and he stomped it. It was the upper echelon of tricks at the time, not the stuff you just try and VWRPS WKH Ă&#x20AC; UVW WLPH DW D SKRWR VKRRW RQ D ELJ MXPS Âľ $V D semi-unsponsored rookie, he scored three magazine cover shots from those spring shoots and a partial segment in Level 1â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Realtime, released in September 2007.

6LQFH WKDW PRYLH 7RP KDV Ă&#x20AC; OPHG VHJPHQWV ZLWK Field, Level 1, 4bi9, Stept and TGR, all while competing IXOO WLPH LQ GRPLQDQW IDVKLRQ +LV IRRWDJH LVQ¡W Ă&#x20AC; OOHG with backcountry jumping, but overall the segments are FRPSDUDEOH WR WKRVH RI PRVW IXOO WLPH Ă&#x20AC; OP VNLHUV DQG his urban footage includes some of the biggest hammers ever captured on video. Kyle Decker, a former Level 1 cinematographer who has been working with Wallisch since 2006, says Wallisch is the same guy he shot six years ago, pre fame and fortune. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I shot with him back when he was a poor college kid.

Now, heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a superstar skier whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s made a little money, but it hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t changed anything. If anything, I think heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s relaxed a little because he doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have as much to prove. His lifestyle hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t changedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;he lives the same way. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not buying really ridiculous things or acting different. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the same old Tom.â&#x20AC;?

7KLV VHDVRQ :DOOLVFK LV GHGLFDWLQJ KLV Ă&#x20AC; OPLQJ HIIRUWV WR D solo project with Decker. All his footage will go towards one edit, dropping on iTunes next summer. The model follows skateboarder Nyjah Hustonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Rise and Shine, an eight-minute video part that premiered on iTunes in 2011. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We work really well together and have the same goals and motivation,â&#x20AC;? says 'HFNHU ´+H GHĂ&#x20AC; QLWHO\ PDNHV PH ZRUN WZLFH DV KDUG ,W¡V a project Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve dreamt about doing. There are only so many skiers that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s realistic to do something like this with. You need some budget to do it the way Tom wants to do it.â&#x20AC;?

at Wisp, a 700-vertical-foot resort in Western Maryland near Deep Creek, where his family owned a townhome.

Wallischâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s father says heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s always been energetic, fun After heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d mastered every run, he found his next loving and determined. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He saw something he loved and FKDOOHQJH ´, ZDQWHG WR Ă&#x20AC; QG D ZD\ WR VFDUH P\VHOI DQG stuck with it,â&#x20AC;? says Mike. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I give all the credit to him. get a rush, and that became catching air, building jumps, We just let him do what he wanted to do.â&#x20AC;? Sometimes jibbing everything and experimenting,â&#x20AC;? he says. that meant building a jump off the roof. Other times it Wallisch was the ultimate weekend warrior, skiing was getting the ice rink to deliver ice shavings to their )ULGD\ QLJKW WKURXJK 6XQGD\ DIWHUQRRQ +H EULHĂ \ MRLQHG KRXVH ´2XU UHFRUG ZDV ER[HV RI LFH VKDYLQJV WR Ă&#x20AC; OO WKH the freeride program to ski more during the week, but he backyard,â&#x20AC;? Mike adds. wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a fan of having a coach. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The best coaches are my Wallisch was hard on his toysâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;his razor scooter got peers and the people I respect,â&#x20AC;? he says. frequent air, his bike often skidded sideways and his The East Coast made Wallisch a better skier. He credits trampoline was worn out from overuse. He learned to ski the night skiing with allowing him to ski more, the terrain PG. 058

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In the spring of 2007, Jon Olsson noticed Wallisch skiing in the park at Park City. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was impossible not to be impressed,â&#x20AC;? says Olsson. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He was just so smooth, and it really looked like he was having fun.â&#x20AC;? Olsson invited Wallisch to the upcoming Jon Olsson Invitational on the spot. As it was such short notice, Olsson even offered to ORDQ KLP PRQH\ IRU WKH Ă LJKW :DOOLVFK GLGQ¡W PDNH WKH Ă&#x20AC; QDOV WKHUH EXW KH SXW RQ D VKRZ ´+H MXVW VHHPV WR KDYH some super power when it comes to landing smooth,â&#x20AC;?

VD\V 2OVVRQ ´, WKLQN WKDW KH¡V WKH PRVW LQĂ XHQWLDO VNLHU LQ WKH ODVW Ă&#x20AC; YH \HDUV Âľ :DOOLVFK HQWHUHG KLV Ă&#x20AC; UVW PDMRU FRPSHWLWLRQ WKH Aspen Open, in 2008 and placed second, but nothing FKDQJHG IRU D FRXSOH \HDUV +H ZDV Ă&#x20AC; OPLQJ DQG JHWWLQJ paid a little here and there. Then, in 2009, Wallisch won WKH Ă&#x20AC; QDO 'HZ 7RXU VWRS RI WKH VHDVRQ DW 1RUWKVWDU ´7KDW really blew it up for me,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was a big win on a premier stage with the top guys. From there, I got more sponsors and started working with an agent.â&#x20AC;?

Wallisch is eager to attribute everything to his fans. ´7KH\¡UH WKH PRVW LPSRUWDQW Âľ KH VD\V ´7KH\ DUH WKH reason I get paid to go skiing. Kids all over the world DUH LQVSLUHG E\ P\ VNLLQJ DQG P\ YLGHRV ,W¡V WKH PRVW UHZDUGLQJ SDUW RI P\ MRE Âľ :DOOLVFK¡V JLUOIULHQG 6WHSKDQLH VD\V KH LQWHUDFWV ZLWK IDQV HYHU\ GD\ ´:H¡OO ride the lift, and if a little kid knows who he is but is too shy to say anything, Tom will always start a conversation DQG DVN KRZ WKH NLG¡V GD\ LV JRLQJ Âľ A typical winter day for Wallisch includes waking up sore and tired from shooting an urban feature the night before, drinking coffee, making one of his famous bacon and cheese breakfast sandwiches, and heading to Park City. He spends his summers half on snow, skiing at Whistler and Mt. Hood (and last summer he ZHQW KHOLVNLLQJ IRU WKH Ă&#x20AC; UVW WLPH LQ 1HZ =HDODQG DQG half doing summer activities like mountain biking and ZDNHVXUĂ&#x20AC; QJ +H WRRN RYHU KLV SDUHQW¡V ZDNHERDUG ERDW last summer and brought it to Utah. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We spent a ton of WLPH RQ WKH ZDWHU ODVW VXPPHU Âľ KH VD\V ´,W¡V VRPHWKLQJ , PLVV DQG LW¡V KDUGHU WR Ă&#x20AC; QG QDWXUDO ZDWHU RXW KHUH ,W reminded me of the good days growing up.â&#x20AC;? :DOOLVFK LVQ¡W D ELJ IDQ RI WKH J\P +H¡OO MXPS on the tramp, mountain bike and wakesurf, but you ZRQ¡W VHH KLP SXPSLQJ LURQ ´,W ERUHV PH Âľ KH VD\V ´, GRQ¡W WKLQN LW¡V JRRG SUDFWLFH IRU VNLLQJ 2WKHU sports make you learn to balance better and think quicker. Skateboarding, tramping, mountain biking, ZDNHERDUGLQJ ZDWHUVNLLQJ VXUĂ&#x20AC; QJ %XW WUXO\ QRWKLQJ makes a person a better skier than simply skiing itself. ,W¡V PRUH PHQWDO DQG Ă&#x20AC; QHVVH WKDQ LW LV EUXWH VWUHQJWK or athleticism. Though the gym is essential to injury UHFRYHU\ LW¡V QRW QHFHVVDU\ IRU RQH¡V VNLLQJ Âľ

After winning most everything there is to win in VORSHVW\OH RQO\ WKH 2O\PSLFV UHPDLQ :DOOLVFK¡V concern is maintaining originality. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The idea of being individual and having tricks look different and different grabs and different clothing styles is important when our sport is presented on a worldwide stage. Everyone needs to look different doing his own thing. It needs to EH YDULHG VR LW¡V H[FLWLQJ DQG \RXWKIXO Âľ :DOOLVFK¡V VW\OH FRQWLQXHV WR LPSUHVV MXGJHV SHHUV and fans alike. He says it comes from taking bits and pieces from everyone and creating a collage of style WKDW¡V KLV RZQ ´+LV VW\OH LV OLNH D YLGHR JDPH Âľ VD\V 6NLHU RI WKH <HDU UXQQHU XS +HQULN +DUODXW ´,W¡V WKH best style for competitions you can have.â&#x20AC;?

PG. 061

%HUPDQ GHVFULEHV LW DV HIIRUWOHVV ´+H PDNHV everything look easy. There have been skiers over the \HDUV ZKR PDNH LW ORRN VR HDV\ WKDW LW¡V URERWLF DQG ORVHV LWV DSSHDO ,I LW¡V WRR SHUIHFW LW ORVHV VRPHWKLQJ %XW KH VWUDGGOHV WKDW Ă&#x20AC; QH OLQH ZKHUH LW ORRNV LPSUHVVLYH DQG effortless at the same timeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a very hard thing to do.â&#x20AC;? ´,¡P FRQVWDQWO\ WU\LQJ WR LPSURYH E\ ZDWFKLQJ P\ buddies, the new edit or other sports,â&#x20AC;? says Wallisch. ´7KHUH¡V DOZD\V VRPHWKLQJ QHZ \RX FDQ GR WR PDNH LW PRUH GLIĂ&#x20AC; FXOW DQG JLYH \RXUVHOI D VFDUH ,W¡V DOZD\V IUHVK LQ WKH SDUNÂłLW¡V VR HDV\ WR VNL GLIIHUHQWO\ HYHU\ ODS DQG QRW UHDOL]H \RX¡YH EHHQ VNLLQJ IRU KRXUV Âľ

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WORDS AND PHOTOS: NATE ABBOTT

“I hate when I fall asleep and I think I’m not going to remember today. I’m sitting here right now, and I’m tucking this away. I’m going to remember today.” It’s sometime after midnight, and LJ Strenio is lying on his back in a small bed at a hostel in Helsinki, Finland. His left leg is raised up, encased from ankle to thigh by an enormous cast. Twelve hours before, his life was different. “My whole life was get as many shots as I can right now. Push it. Then get ready to compete again, and then film again. Send it, send it, send it. Now my whole life is 180 degrees different.”

PAGE | 064

TIM McCHESNEY

FILMING IN HELSINKI, FINLAND WITH LJ STRENIO, SPENCER MILBOCKER AND TIM McCHESNEY BRINGS SUCCESS, PAIN AND PLENTY OF BLOOD.

LJ Strenio weighs in at 180 pounds, which matches the degrees of rotation he pulled after wall riding into this 20-foot plus drop. It was so cold that the snow in this landing didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really do much more than a pile of feathers.

Combine those facts and you get a really solid landing.

You saw McChesney’s bloody nose on the previous page, but that flat landing didn’t come close to stopping him from going back and stomping his 180.

It actually gave him something to aim for, a small target like a torero’s red cape.

Probably a quarter of our trip was spent in the touring van. We didn’t name it anything cute. It was big and awkward to drive, and though it had comfortable captains chairs and plenty of room for generators, shovels and all our gear, it was too ugly, dirty and cold to deserve a name.

Top: Returning from a late night session.

Left: McChesney creeping over Spencer’s shoulder.

Right: Kyle Decker, the best driver in Finland.

The morning started off carefree and fun. LJ, Spencer Milbocker, Tim McChesney, under the gloomy dark of a Scandinavian winter morning, set off from our hostel to hit a rail in the suburbs of Helsinki. “We were re-upping on this double kink, the classic Finland double kink that was sessioned in Refresh,” says LJ from his bed. “I did a four pretz two on it that felt really good, and I was stoked on the shot. I thought I’d tee up the six on ’cause Wally [Tom Wallisch] did it [earlier in the 2012 season], and I heard that’s what’s hot. I had a few really good ones that were feeling clean, was starting to lock into the rail coming out forward.

I just wanted to lock one in 100-percent and maybe even put a front two in there. I came off a little stair heavy, and my knee went underneath the rail into the last support. One hundred and eighty pounds of me and 25 miles per hour of me was 100-percent into the front of my kneecap.”

PAGE | 068

The sound wasn’t definitive like you’d expect. Even with the blurted, “Ohmyohmyohmy!” before he slid to a stop, I wasn’t sure what had happened. The trip, before and after this moment, was a wild blur of sleepless nights, endless driving, stomping feet to fight the cold and some happy moments when a shot worked out. The next 30 minutes though, they stick in my mind just like LJ said later that night. LJ knew his kneecap was shattered, and we worked quickly to get a jacket on him, throw all our gear in the van, find a hospital on our GPS, get him into the van and navigate Finnish street signs to get to the small hospital.

PAGE | 069

Once we got there, it still wasn’t exactly smooth sailing.

“Going to a hospital in a foreign country is the worst experience I’ve ever had,” says LJ, with the ordeal fresh in his mind. “No one spoke English. They wanted to operate immediately. It was miserable. I couldn’t even understand what they were saying to me. It took four hours to even get an X-ray.” Eventually though, we got a hold of his father and doctors in Utah, where LJ wanted to have the inevitable surgery to mend his shattered knee.

Spencer Milbocker is from Michigan, which is also called the mitten state.

Finland is pretty cold, so he brought his mittens and also warmed by running up the stairs of this downc-down rail about 20 times before he got his front up, continuing two out.

On the first rail of the trip, LJ helped McChesney get speed for a perfect lip 270, 270 out.

Less than a week earlier, I was on the phone with Kyle Decker talking about putting together a trip to shoot for Level 1’s movie Sunny. With dismal snow in North America, we made a snap decision and, two days later, jetted off to Helsinki with LJ, Spencer and Tim. We reached out to some local crews, organized a van and lodging, and started the long process of finding spots to hit by watching video clips, pouring over files of photos and scribbled addresses, and cruising Google Street View.

On our first day, we went to a superlong down rail. We had an address and had seen some photos and video, but still, our GPS sent us circling and cursing while we peered out the dark windows of the van. When we finally got it together, each of the skiers made relatively quick work of their tricks, and I thought the hard part of the trip wouldn’t be the skiing. Aside from two big smashes, that held true.

Our second day, we spiraled toward an old snowboard video clip and a Google address by the city’s waterfront and eventually found some stairs off a large apartment building. The rail leading down them was soft aluminum, but Tim decided to step up to a sizeable drop over the rail.

It took the skiers from an angled wall ride to a landing way below, right on the limit of being stompable. For numerous attempts, Tim fought to land his 180 after the 20-foot drop.

One extra abrupt landing, a little wide of the small pile of snow that masqueraded as a tranny, left him bleeding from his nose. Still, he persisted and got a clean landing on the trick a couple of tries later. After Tim’s long battle, I was surprised to see that LJ still wanted a crack, but with the short day fading, he stuck another 180 after only a few tries.

While two solid shots would often earn us a little rest, these skiers flew around the world for a short trip, and they wanted to drive on. And drive they did. Actually, it was Decker who did the driving. The van was an enormous beast, perfect for hauling our gear around, but it wasn’t exactly perfect for navigating the tight, snow-packed streets of the city, especially with the confusion of Finnish street names and unfamiliar surroundings. I will also take this opportunity to apologize for my merciless heckling of Decker’s driving because having a team captain to push us on was, ultimately, what made our trip a success.

That night, after a few hours of scouting, we ended up at the double kink that would claim LJ’s kneecap the next day.

Our rental generator didn’t cooperate, so we called the mission until morning. As memorable as that day was—for all the wrong reasons—the days after LJ left were a blur of street shooting. “I knew he would want us to keep hitting stuff and going hard for the rest of the trip,” says Tim. “So we had to just put it in the past and keep on going. Pretty much right after he left, we got right back to where we were going.”

We drove hours north from Helsinki to visit a string of successful features. We battled traffic, cold, spotty GPS directions, a barely functional generator and lack of sleep with endless cups of coffee, torn puffy jackets, daytime shooting and a single-minded desire to find any rail worthy of shooting. We shot another double-kink rail late at night, followed by a dark drive back to Helsinki. We found a gap to down rail on a random street far from any spot we had heard about. We set up and Spencer got a 270 pretty PAGE | 072

quick. Then, as Tim worked on his switch 270, a couple of police officers showed up. Decker talked to them (while Spencer filmed the proceedings). “They ended up being real cool with us,” recalls Tim. “Usually in America, it’s the complete opposite.” They moved their van away from the landing and on his second try, with the police patiently observing, Tim pulled the trick perfectly, and we drove off to our next feature without so much as a warning.

Certainly, LJ’s injury is the most intense memory that remains from the trip, while the rest of the experience blends together. It takes some blood—a little pain—to bring out the best in each of us. LJ is scarred by his injury, but he has those shots and his memories. Just this past week, as I was finalizing this story, LJ skied up to me in Park City. He chatted with me for a couple minutes, then skied off. As I rode the lift for my next run, I watched him do a perfect 270 onto a down rail.

Spencer banged out this 270 disaster and, after he got his shot, he was filming a second angle of McChesney when the police showed up. Not bad getting a ski shot published and shooting a video shot that was used in Sunny.

PAGE | 073

WORDS: NATE ABBOTT

At the end of a long mazelike road above the town of Park City, I find an icy driveway fronted by a mid-80s Toyota Land Cruiser. In the fading light, I see the smiling face of Mike Hornbeck peering from the driver’s window. Behind him, the truck is filled with a jumble of the tools of his trade: skis, shovels and construction lights. We gingerly climb the driveway covered in the remains of the season’s first big storm and the ice from the melt off.

A couple of friends wander in and out of the kitchen while Hornbeck’s girlfriend, Jessica, cooks up a stir-fry for us all. The rental house, home for the coming season, is spacious and clean. The scene borders on domestic bliss, and the conversation ambles gently from skiing to personal history to any other topic that pops into Hornbeck’s head. He chats about making ski edits; why he’s never held a job where he’s used a cash register; and La Familia (La Fa), the nascent ski accessory and media company he founded with skier Ahmet Dadali and Kelly Armintrout, known as K-Day, a friend and underground skier from Michigan.

This isn’t the story of a superstar, a champion skier who’s driving an oversized diesel truck with a brand new sled in the back, someone who just signed some big energy-drink check over for the down payment on a new house. Mike Hornbeck is, though, another cliché. He grew up in Bloomingdale, Michigan, and it would be silly not to embrace the stereotype, to not describe him as a hardworking guy from the American heartland. It’s the scruffy beard, the constant laugh, the willingness to put his sweat into achieving a goal, the crooked smile that brand him Midwest. And maybe the Land Cruiser isn’t your typical Michigan vehicle choice, but its condition is certainly in line with its owner—well worn, utilitarian and filled with possibilities.

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PHOTO: CHRIS O’CONNELL

The sculptures in Burns Park were like a faucet in the men’s room of a rock concert last winter. Almost every urban ski crew stepped up to the various features, and probably left some germs lingering. Hornbeck got this shot to open Sunny, so if he had anything infectious, you all have it now.

PHOTO: CHIP KALBACK_LEVEL 1 LOCATION: DENVER, CO

To get out of the so-called flyover states, that’s a goal of many who grow up there. When I ask what growing up in a one-stoplight town like Bloomingdale did for him, Hornbeck can’t help but toss out the punch line, punctuated, as most of what he says is, with a laugh, “Wanting to see more. Wanting to ski on other stuff, too.” But through our conversation, he keeps coming back to the Midwest, back to the friends, back to the work, back to his family.

Sean Hornbeck is Mike’s brother, three years older, and the person Mike credits with inspiring him to start skateboarding and skiing. After a few years in his teens spent snowboarding (“I hated strapping in. That’s why I quit.”), Hornbeck went back to skiing and eventually got really into the sport. The catalyst was Sean getting his driver’s license. “Then we could ski every day,” Mike remembers. “We’d get there at 4 o’clock, ski til 10—all night long.”

Their home resort, Timber Ridge, has a whopping 240 feet of vertical and 15 runs. For many of Hornbeck’s formative ski years, skiers weren’t allowed in the terrain park—thus the snowboard hiatus—but there were still skiers to look up to and learn from. “It was all just mimicking people around the hill at first,” he says. “I saw an older kid do a backflip on skis, and it was like, ‘That dude is sick.’ Once you meet those kids, they get you up to date.”

Skiing wasn’t all that Bloomingdale taught Hornbeck.

His parents bought a retired brothel and split it into six rental studio apartments. “There was always work to be done,” he recalls. “I was at work for them, they paid me, but it taught me a work ethic. I had a dirt bike and stuff, but to have a dirt bike, I’ve got to work three days a week and not get paid.”

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Hornbeck’s mother worked in nursing and his father did property management for some apartment complexes. He took their ethic and the push of his big brother to heart as he made his way into skiing.

“It’s definitely all from that,” he says. “I’d want to be skateboarding or swimming, and I’d be working. And my brother was always like work, work, work, making me look bad. My friends wouldn’t come over ’cause they’d be like, ‘He’s got to do some work before he can go.’ It wasn’t ever negative. To be able to go skiing, buy a season pass, you got to work to be able to do that.”

Although his last job outside of skiing was during shooting for Level 1’s After Dark, the willingness to put in the labor required to accomplish a goal crosses over into his ski life. “He represents our company as much as any person that works with Armada,” says Chris O’Connell, co-founder of Hornbeck’s main sponsor. “He brings a great dynamic, no attitude, and he’s downhome good times. He works hard and always appreciates where he’s at. That’s pretty rare in today’s overprivileged pro skier world.”

Whether it’s his sponsors, friends, or the filmers he works with, people speak with one voice describing Hornbeck. “He truly has that Midwest mentality,” says Kyle Decker, who has been filming with Hornbeck since 2006. “Talking to his parents, ever since he was a kid they made him work hard. He’ll pick up a shovel and work his ass off to build exactly what he wants, no matter how long it takes. And once he puts his skis on, he has such a different perspective of style than a lot of skiers.”

The Level 1 tour of Denver real estate didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t stop in the park. On the left is a local elementary school, which has a great stair set that you can rail slide up and gap, 180 out over the chain link fence. Here youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll see a beautiful urban water source. Hang out on the railing before skiing down and gap over the stream.

PHOTOS: ERIK SEO_LEVEL 1 LOCATION: DENVER, CO

Surpassing his geographic roots— the sheer Midwestern-ness of Mike Hornbeck—the most common point of discussion is his style. Through the years, few people have had more close up experience with the way he skis than Decker and Dadali. “I’m going to continue to shoot with Mike Hornbeck as long as I’m filming skiing,” says Decker.

Part of the loyalty is to Hornbeck’s temperament; the rest to the way he skis.

Of course, to separate Hornbeck’s character from his skiing is willfully blind to the fact that the person, and their history, is the skier. “His style is his personality,” says Dadali. “He’s got a very unique style, and it comes from a lot of unique shit going on in his brain.

He’s one of those guys that you can tell his style is all natural. It’s coming from him. He’s not pushing tricks to make it different, it’s just how he skis.”

As much as how he skis appears to be an organic manifestation of who Mike Hornbeck is, he is constantly thinking about his style. “It’s crazy how close I’ve been skiing, with my feet together,” he explains. “I don’t know why. It’s just the skis I’m on, they kind of make you ski like that. But someone like TJ [Schiller], he’s got that super wide stance, so sick. It’s just how your knees are, what feels best.”

The discussion of the act of skiing makes it clear that he spends a great deal of time watching and learning from videos, from the latest edits on Newschoolers to snowboard and skate movies. And skiers are watching him, trying to learn from any piece of footage they can find. “He’s got a unique, smooth style that has incredible flow,” says Decker. “I think that’s why he is one of the most emulated skiers.” Which fits perfectly with how Hornbeck describes his perfect ski feature.

“This summer I skated a lot, and I was trying to do a couple trick lines, and it’s so hard to do three cool tricks on a skateboard in a row. That’s definitely influenced now, how I want to ski.

Skateboarding, you snap a kickflip real quick before you do a nosegrind on a ledge or something. It’s just added in there. It’s so fun to do that on a skateboard. On skis, rather than just build one big feature, there’s a whole hill, I might as well ski down it.”

As Dadali says, and Hornbeck readily admits, a lot of random thoughts are floating inside his head.

Hornbeck doesn’t exactly make linear arguments. Talking about the process of filming shifts to how it’s stupid to have poles in your hand when you’re using a bungee to hit a feature. That becomes an idea about how more people should be skiing. It all wraps back around to the poles again. Hornbeck’s take on skiing is intriguing to me because it is all encompassing. If you let him go wild, the way he does on skis, it all comes together—his peculiar mind in conversation is just as varied and sharp as his skiing.

How did Hornbeck get to the other side of the road? Not by going through the underpass. C-ledge slide to re-entry.

PHOTO: ERIK SEO_LEVEL 1 LOCATION: ANCHORAGE, AK

It’s a noble idea, getting more people to strap on skis and rip down some snow-covered hill switch.

And Hornbeck isn’t just talking about it. Although La Familia has been around for a while—in name, stickers and t-shirts, at least—this is the winter where Hornbeck, Dadali and K-Day are bringing the idea to their people in a new way.

The new focus of La Fa can be seen through a Vimeo channel (vimeo.com/lafamiliachannel) featuring some short clips and edits, including 5 on It (five tricks on a single feature) and Fucked-up Fridays (epic wrecks).

The real payoff for this season is their Lake Effect tour of the Midwest and East Coast, starting in December at Big Boulder, PA and hitting Mad River, OH; Bristol Mountain, NY; Cannonsburg, MI; and Trollhaugen, WI by mid-January.

Along the way, they’ll be filming for a La Fa movie on any urban spots they can hit, which is really why Dadali and Hornbeck ski together so often. “We’ve got a similar point of view on what we want to hit,” says Dadali, “and we’re usually pretty good at doing two different things on one feature. It makes it more interesting for the both of us not to be doing the same exact thing.” But maybe doing the tour as La Familia is perfect for another reason. “We both almost needed someone else to split the gas with to make it happen,” says Hornbeck when I ask why he started skiing with Dadali. “That’s the dude who would do it.”

By building a couple of features out of whatever rails or jibs are on hand in the terrain park at each small resort— “Creative and cool to hit, no superpark shit, just fun stuff,” as Dadali puts it—and skiing with anyone who shows up, La Fa intends to get more kids into the sport. Although both say they respect and admire the contest scene, it’s obvious from the way they ski, and from how they talk about the sport, that Dadali and Hornbeck feel like the pinnacle of skiing has very little to do with who spins or flips the most. Hornbeck explains, “You don’t want kids at these little Midwest resorts to look at the sport of skiing like, ‘Damn, I’m over this because this dude’s doing a triple flip.’ Kids might just not do it because it’s so untouchable almost.”

“Poles are just another thing you can buy,” Hornbeck says. “What if more people could start skiing? They could just buy boots and skis.” The argument might be faulty; it’s not like the cost of a pair of poles keeps anyone from joining the sport. But it makes more sense when he flashes back to his own childhood, remembering that he had a cheap, edgeless backyard snowboard. “I had a good snowboard, but my parents said, ‘You’re not going to mess that up in the yard.’”

The concept of inexpensive access to skiing certainly comes from his Midwestern roots: kids without a resort around should be having as much fun as possible. To Mike Hornbeck, that means going skiing, and his version of skiing is free of rules or boundaries. “People ride on tubes and hit jumps,” he explains of the city park snowday culture of the Midwest. But imagine if there were people on twin-tips trying to learn how to ride down that hill backwards. Even a mom could do it. Essentially that’s what urban skiing is. That’s all we’re doing.” In his world, everyone is included in the fun times.

Couldn’t he accomplish the goal of converting the masses in a grander manner, for example by going to the Olympics and being on TV in front of millions of potential skiers? To Hornbeck, there’s a fundamental problem with expanding the audience in that way. “That’s where I think the Olympic thing is weird,” he says. “I don’t want kids to be buying skis to only have that goal. No, you can do it whatever way you want. You can compete if you want, but you slide down this hill. You don’t ever have to go to a resort, but you should have a pair of these skis ’cause they are fun as hell to be on.”

If watching video of Hornbeck’s smooth style on skis has inspired anyone to have the “I could do that” feeling, then Hornbeck has accomplished part of his goal. Through the La Fa tour, he wants to let kids see, in person, that they can jib whatever is around them. “I’m just gonna go ski and ski with them. If I want more people to ski urban rails, you gotta show kids it’s possible to do it right there.”

For a couple of skiers who have committed themselves to filming for their movie parts, the tour may be the first time since school that there’s a schedule instead of just a snow report. “With the tour, we’re going here, here, here,” he says. “I’m committed. I gotta be there. It’s fun though, taking it in your own hands. That’s how you grow I guess. You eventually do your own thing.”

It seems silly though, to hear Hornbeck talk about “eventually” doing his own thing. Isn’t that what he’s been doing since he first got on skis? But he wants to go further in skiing, for himself and for others. “Going from your local hill, keep going up to the terrain park, and then you’re in AK, at the peak. But you can branch off, with rails or whatever, and get people into skiing that way.”

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180, nose-tap to tail-stall, 180 out. Like, was that sick? I don’t even know.

PHOTO: CHRIS O’CONNELL LOCATION: SAPPORO, JAPAN

This stadium is basically a toy store for handrail skiers. You could probably make an entire movie of ski and snowboard footage shot last winter on it. Gap up, 270 out.

This fall Hornbeck’s parent’s came to the premiere of Sunny, their first big movie premiere. “It was definitely a big goal,” he says of getting his first opening segment with Level 1. “It was cool my parents were there. I was excited that timing worked out. It was sick. ‘See, I’m doing all right!’” The recognition is great, but like when he was young, working for a ski pass, anything that requires effort and drive is a pathway to the end goal. “I get to go ski—I’m so damn lucky.

I just gotta keep it going,” he says.

“I was fully thinking of my skiing. That’s when you realize you’re trying to make it. You’re fully committed. Not just skiing at a resort, filming an edit to promote yourself.

No, you gotta go all in, hit real shit, get shots.”

“The season is never long enough,” Hornbeck says.

“I want 60 clips back to back, every trick I can do, showcase my skiing to the fullest. Get everything I can do on film. Well, not everything, there’s always more.”

Maybe time isn’t long enough for the ideas for video projects he dreams up.

He throws out a variety of projects he wants to do— an all-pow segment advocated by Adam Delorme, a greatest hits movie filming all the played-out urban spots in Utah with his own style, and the ultimate homecoming.

“You could be pro outta Michigan,” he says. “There’s pros who are from there, but I want to be the dude to go live out there. You’d be so different from everybody.

You’d be so open minded about everything.” As the ideas flow, you can’t help but get excited to see what he comes up with next or to go ski yourself.

PHOTO: ERIK SEO_LEVEL 1 LOCATION: ANCHORAGE, AK

Earlier in the evening, Hornbeck was talking about when he thought he had made the biggest leap in his career. He told me about a year when he didn’t get on many Level 1 trips, but instead he filmed a Keystone park edit before doing a trip to Minnesota to shoot urban for Sammy Carlson’s movie Can’t Stop. “I was trying to do some different tricks,” he said. “I was fully thinking of my skiing and being, like, ‘I’m going to put time into this.’ That’s when you realize you’re trying to make it. You’re fully committed. Not just working and skiing at a resort, filming an edit to promote yourself. No, you gotta go all in, hit real shit, get shots.”

Regardless of the drive to succeed, it’s still all skiing to him. Several times over the course of the evening, Hornbeck implies he would just as soon ski with his brother as he would anyone else. He is a family guy, except that, as I drive down the maze of streets away from his house, I can’t help but think that Mike Hornbeck wants to ski with everyone.

And he wants everyone to ski with him.

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WORDS: SHAY WILLIAMS

THERE IS NO BETTER WAY TO SPEND A PART OF YOUR PRECIOUS SUMMER THAN AT SKI CAMP. GET COACHED FROM THE BEST PROS IN THE WORLD, SESSION GREAT PARKS IN THE SOFTEST CONDITIONS, EAT HOT DOGS FOR LUNCH, AND WELL, GENERALLY HAVE A PRETTY DAMN GOOD TIME. BUT WHICH CAMP? MOMENTUM? WINDELLS? WOODWARD? THE CHOICES! YOU’RE GUARANTEED TO HAVE FUN WHICHEVER YOU CHOOSE, BUT WE’RE HERE TO HELP YOU MAKE THE CHOICE THAT’S JUST RIGHT FOR YOU.

HERE OR THERE

WHAT TO BRING

Every camp has its own unique experience to offer, and for a lot of people, the decision comes down to cost and off-hill experience.

Besides the obvious—you are going to ski camp—you’ll want to err on the side of warmer weather gear. Hoodies, pipe gloves and noninsulated pants will make up the base of your wardrobe. “Sunscreen and lip protection are a must,” says coach Dania Assaly. “And don’t forget, smiles and positive vibes so you can conquer any weather!” Do your eyes a favor and don’t forget dark lenses for your goggles.

Hopefully, you’re blessed with a whole session full of sun and warm temperatures, but bring a winter coat just in case.

Bring extra socks, gloves and base layers because skiing in hot weather tends to make things, well, smelly. Buy a GoPro, too, so you can show your friends you did something more fun than they did.

You don’t have to be Warren Buffett to realize that from most places in the US, flights to Vancouver are more expensive than to Portland, Reno or Denver. It’s pretty simple, going to camp in Canada costs more. On average, a full session at Windells is less than Momentum, and Woodward Snow is less than Windells. That being said, each camp’s session prices vary and can fluctuate based on à la carte options (day camper, ski-only camper, just lane access, etc.). Plus, you’re gonna need a passport to go to Canada, which will cost you another $120 to $165 depending on your age. So if you’re on a tight budget, keep it in the red, white and blue.

If price doesn’t matter, then look at the differences between camp locations. Whistler, BC, where Momentum is based, is bursting at the seams with restaurants, activities, bars (for those over 19), and is generally considered one of the most fun towns in the entire world. The Windells compound is packed with a ton of traditional off-hill ski camp activities (see off-hill activities section), but Sandy, OR, has a similar population to New York City—in the mid-to-late 1600s—so don’t expect much in the way of local fare. And if you take a trip to one of the Woodward campuses, you’ll find that the Tahoe and Copper areas aren’t exactly known for their after-hours scenes. Ultimately, it comes down to what you want to get out of camp. If skiing and skating are your only objectives, any camp will suffice. If you’re looking for a bit more atmosphere outside of the camp, Whistler is your better bet. If you want a traditional summer camp experience— cozy cabins and mess halls—take a look at Windells.

Bring cash. You’ll need it for the coaches’ sale. “Kids can get their favorite pro’s skis, goggles, outerwear and swag for cheap!” says Assaly. Pros and up-and-comers who make up the coaching staffs of the camps have loads of gear from sponsors. So, they peddle new and mostly new next year’s gear to you. “You won’t break your parents’ bank and will be decked out the next day on the hill,” Assaly adds.

WHAT TO EXPECT “Ski camp will help you learn everything you need to know to be the best skier on the planet, while having the best time ever,” says Mike Riddle, a five-year Momentum coaching vet. So it doesn’t matter if you’re about to win Superunkown or barely learning how to slide rails, expect to have a great time, learning from some of the best pros in the biz. “When I

was little and went to camp, I looked up to the coaches and wanted to be like them. So now, it’s not only about skiing but helping kids have fun and making everyone’s experience better.”

As far as camp lanes go, they are a veritable feast for jibbers. Imagine rails and boxes of every size and shape.

Jumps that progress in size from small to are-you-serious?

Slushy halfpipes, creative jibs and bags of salt. “The best part of summer parks is how soft they are. You can do any trick you want with low consequences. You have quick laps and coaches around to help you,” says 2011 X Games gold medalist Alex Schlopy. “It’s a fun vibe as opposed to winter where your toes are cold and you gotta get hot cocoa.” Bobby Brown, 2012 X Games gold medalist, says about Windells, “On hill is insane! Some of the best park features I’ve ever hit, with tow ropes that allow for endless laps.”

OFF HILL Skate parks. Paintball. Video review. Zip lines. Biking.

Trampolines. Water ramps. Soccer. Basketball. Basically the most fun stuff ever. “There is never a shortage of things to do,” says Bobby. “Off hill is just as fun [as on], with the campus at Windells being a full on skate park, along with an indoor tramp setup.”

No matter where you head, remember to keep an open mind and enjoy the experience. Summer camp is meant to be fun, and summer ski camp is no different, with the exception that your counselors aren’t college freshmen on break, they are world-class pros like Carlson and Dorey. Oh, and make sure you bring enough money for the coaches’ sale. Can’t stress that one enough.

SUMMER CAMP SPOTLIGHT

Windells offers one of the most comprehensive camp experiences you can find, both on and off the snow.

Skiing is done on the glacier of the legendary Mt. Hood with a private park lane that’s over a mile long and two rope tows to keep the laps going. Among the 40-plus features you’ll find, are two BagJumps— one booter and one vert-style at the end of the 22foot pipe—and those who sign up for the early sessions are treated to a 100-foot jump to really send it. The coaching roster is a long list of pros like Mike Hornbeck, Collin Collins, and Will Wesson, just to name a few. Tom Wallisch will also be hosting his birthday session (Session 5), which is sure to go off, so sign up early to avoid missing out.

SKIER: WILL BERMAN PHOTOS: ERIK HOFFMAN

Private park lane aside, what really sets Windells apart from other camps is their campus. The allencompassing home base really brings the summer camp vibe to the experience and is located on the outskirts of Sandy, Oregon, just 45 minutes from Portland and 16 miles from Mt. Hood. Campers spend their week living in well appointed cabins that are surrounded by a concrete skatepark, dirt jumps, an indoor skatepark, trampolines, foam pit as well as a dryslope rail park and BagJump. There is also a demo shack from which you can try out any new gear you’ve been dreaming about. Fresh gear, sick park and awesome campus—what’s not to like?

SKIER: STEVE STEPP

SKATER: MASON MERLINO

VITALS: windells.com Windells @windellscamp 503-622-3736

DATES:

COACHES & VISITING PROS:

SESSION 1 __ JUNE 06 - 13 ($1,899) SESSION 2 __ JUNE 16 - 23 ($2,069) SESSION 3 __ JUNE 26 - JULY 03 ($2,069) SESSION 4 __ JULY 07 - 14 ($2,069) SESSION 5 __ JULY 17 - 24 ($2,069) SESSION 6 __ JULY 27 - AUGUST 03 ($1,799) SESSION 7 __ AUGUST 06 - 12 ($1,569) * Prices listed for overnight sessions

COACHES: Ben Moxham, Mike Hornbeck, Collin Collins, Will Wesson, Andy Parry, John Kutcher, Nicky Keefer, Steve Stepp, John Ware, Erica Durtschi, Ashley Battersby, Khai Krapala, Brady Perron, and more.

[ FREESKIER |

VISITING PROS: Tom Wallisch, Parker White, Tanner Hall, Phil Casabon, Tim Durtschi, John Spriggs, Banks Gilberti, Clayton Villa, Nick Martini, Shea Flynn, Charlie Owens, Tanner Raineville, Jeff Kiesel, Dane Tudor, and more! *Coaches subject to change at anytime.

| SUMMER CAMP SPOTLIGHT ]

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SUMMER CAMP SPOTLIGHT

PHOTO: HENRIK LAMPERT

Woodward Tahoe is located at Boreal Mountain Resort, just 45 minutes from Reno-Tahoe International Airport and three hours from San Francisco. The summer terrain park on Boreal is fully lift accessed with a variety of jumps and rails in addition to a BagJump for honing those tricks that aren’t quite ready for a hard landing. A 22-foot superpipe is cut for all your shredding pleasure and coaches, along with visiting pros such as Gus Kenworthy and Tanner Hall, are on hand to coach you through the finer points of slopestyle and halfpipe progression.

No expense was spared when building “The Bunker” at the newest location for the action sports training camp. This state-of-the-art, 33,000 squarefoot facility has all you need to perfect your skills including a launch pad, foam pits, six Olympic-sized trampolines, one super-tramp, indoor skate park, skatelite ramps and more.

PHOTO: HENRIK LAMPERT

A typical day will include an on-hill session and bunker time, both with instruction, as well as free time to relax or do with what you please. Campers are housed in dorm-style rooms with tasty meals being served up daily at the mess hall. Woodward Tahoe also offers digital media camps and when the snow starts to melt in the later summer months, dryland training camps that utilize all that The Bunker has to offer at a slightly more economical rate. Whatever camp or session you choose, you’re sure to have the time of your life.

PHOTO: HENRIK LAMPERT

PHOTO: BEN BIRK PHOTO: BEN BIRK

VITALS: woodwardtahoe.com woodwardtahoe @woodwardtahoe

DATES: SESSION 1 __ JUNE 16 - 22 SESSION 2 __ JUNE 23 - 29 SESSION 3 __ JUNE 30 - JULY 06

SESSION 4 __ JULY 07 - 13 SESSION 5 __ JULY 14 - 20 SESSION 6 __ JULY 21 - 27

*Session prices range from $1,099 to $1,999

530-426-1114

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SESSION 7 __ JULY 28 - AUGUST 03 SESSION 8 __ AUGUST 04 - 10 SESSION 9 __ AUGUST 11 - 17

[ SUMMER CAMP SPOTLIGHT |

| FREESKIER ]

SUMMER CAMP SPOTLIGHT

PHOTOS: ERICA PEDERSEN

Summer camp comes to Colorado with Woodward at Copper offering all you’ve come to expect from a destination camp–high-caliber coaching, indoor training, on-snow sessions and tons of other activities when you’re not in your ski boots.

Campers stay at the base of the mountain in Copper’s EDGE building where they can eat, sleep, watch movies and play in the arcade. There are only two campers per room, which includes a private bathroom and no bunk beds. A typical day starts out with breakfast before heading up the hill for some instruction on the snow. The park has jumps and jibs of all sizes and experienced coaches are on hand to help you reach your goals.

After lunch, head down to “The Barn,” an indoor playground that dreams are made of. Ramps, rails, foam pits, trampolines (including a super tramp) and a skate bowl are a few of the things you’ll find here.

Work with coaches and visiting pros to perfect your skills before heading back out to try them on snow the next day. Other activities include skating, hiking, climbing, and go-karting. Oh and did we mention bumper boats and a slip-n-slide? Yeah they have those too.

Head on over to The Cage in your downtime to chill out on some giant bean bags, design your own skateboard or beat up on your friends in Xbox, ping pong and foosball. One thing is for sure at Woodward at Copper, you’ll never be bored.

VITALS: woodwardatcopper.com

DATES & PRICES: Summer ski camp starts June 16, 2012. Prices as low as $1,499.

woodwardcopper @woodwardcopper 970-968-2318

[ FREESKIER |

| SUMMER CAMP SPOTLIGHT ]

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SUMMER CAMP SPOTLIGHT

PHOTO: JEFF SCHMUCK

After skiing all day you can choose from a number of activities to fill your late afternoon. Some of these

Momentum will offer bonus programs at its third session of the summer. Girls Week will offer special instruction and activities focused on women, with one lucky lady earning a free session through the Spirit of Sarah Scholarship. The Exposure Film and Photo camp will also run during the third session and is perfect for people with aspirations behind the lens. Work with top name filmers and photographers such as Johnny Decesare of PBP and Blake Jorgenson to hone your skills and move toward a possible career in the industry.

VITALS:

DATES:

COACHES:

SESSION 1 __ JUNE 21 - 28 SESSION 2 __ JUNE 28 - JULY 05 SESSION 3 __ JULY 05 - 13 SESSION 4 __ JULY 13 - 21 SESSION 5 __ JULY 21 - 29 (Adult only)

PARK & PIPE: Tom Wallisch, Gus Kenworthy, James Woods, TJ Schiller, Mike Riddle, Justin Dorey, Alex Schlopy, Paul Bergeron, Alexis Godbout, Rory Bushfield, Matt Margetts, Mike Henitiuk, Corey Vanular, Peter Olenick, Riley Leboe, Josh Bibby, Dave Crichton, Roz Groenewoud, Megan Gunning, Anais Caradeux, Dania Assaly, Maude Raymond, Jess Reedy and more.

*Ski-only sessions start at $1,445 CAD

MOGULS: Alex Bilodeau, Mik Kingsbury, Phil Marquis, Kristi Richards and more.

momentumcamps.com momentumcamps @momentumcamps 800-949-7949

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include paintball, mountain biking and climbing as well as water ramp and trampoline sessions. These activities, as well as all your meals, are included in the full package price. The inclusion of dinner is especially nice as it’s hosted by various restaurants around the village each night.

COACH/SKIER: TOM WALLISCH PHOTO: NADIA SAMER

Now entering its 22nd year of operation, Momentum offers the quintessential summer ski camp experience in Whistler, B.C. Fly into Vancouver and take a ride north where you’ll be put up at a hotel in the heart of Whistler Village. Each morning you’ll cruise to the top of the glacier where Momentum’s five lanes of terrain await. An abundance of jumps, rails and moguls are complemented by two jumbo airbags plus a private 22-foot halfpipe and an almost exclusive T-bar offering the fastest lap times. The elite coaching staff, with big names such as Wallisch, Kenworthy and Schiller, will work a full day with you on and off the hill to establish goals and raise your level of skiing.

[ SUMMER CAMP SPOTLIGHT |

| FREESKIER ]

WORDS: MATT HARVEY

IN THE PAST FIVE TO 10 YEARS, HEADING SOUTH TO ATTEND SUMMER CAMP HAS BECOME A VIABLE AND INCREASINGLY ATTRACTIVE OPTION FOR THOSE LOOKING TO SHRED ALL YEAR ROUND. AT FIRST THOUGHT, TRAVELING TO SPANISHSPEAKING SOUTH AMERICA CAN SEEM INTIMIDATING. WE’RE HERE TO TELL YOU IT’S NOT. HERE ARE SOME POINTERS FROM TOP CAMP COACHES TO HELP YOU TAKE THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS SKIING POWDER 12 MONTHS A YEAR.

LANGUAGE BARRIER Perhaps the most intimidating part of traveling to a new country is the language barrier. The first language of both Chile and Argentina is Spanish.

“From my travels to Argentina and Chile I’ve found that people are really excited to practice English with me,” says Michelle Parker, a coach with SASS Global Travel (SGT) in Argentina. “They usually are much better at English than I am at Spanish. They are very kind and helpful people so I have never run into an issue with language barriers.”

Like with most cultures around the world, making an effort is the best way to communicate. Show that you’re trying, and most locals will respond in kind. “Just a simple please and thank you and a smile go a long way in any language,” says Ingrid Backstrom, a coach at Powder Quest in La Parva, Chile.

Some South American ski camps, like SGT, offer Spanish language classes so you can come back from ski camp not only a better skier but a better traveler.

Before setting off on your trip, search the app store for language translation and lesson apps. There are many available, but Languages offers the best bang for your buck for offline translation. It costs just 99 cents and comes with Spanish translation built-in, and no Internet connection is required.

CHILE VERSUS ARGENTINA “Everything in South America goes at a slower pace,” says KC Deane, a coach at Evolve Chile. “Busses don’t show up on time, lifts don’t open as planned, there is always something coming up it seems, so you just have to go with the flow. As they say in Chile, tranquilo, which means chill. Oh and don’t expect much for Internet.”

The lack of Internet across South America is a common complaint. So plan ahead, and tell your girlfriend or boyfriend you won’t be posting multiple-times-daily Instagrams. You’ll instead be too busy immersing yourself in the local culture and local snowfalls.

“Argentina is a bit more of a flamboyant, European culture,” says Backstrom on the differences between the nations. “Super late nights (most Argentineans wouldn’t even think of getting a dinner reservation before 11 p.m.), loud music, laissez-faire attitudes. In general, Argentina is cheaper, but since the entire valley of Las Leñas is independently owned it can be sort of a racket sometimes if you don’t plan ahead.”

Where Argentina is more Wild West, Chile brings with it a calmer vibe. “Chile is easier to get to, with downhome, salt-of-the-earth, friendly but perhaps a bit more reticent people, and it has more of a social and political charge to it,” adds Backstrom. “Depending on where you go, you can do some amazing skiing in Chile on a budget, too.”

Where cultures, expenses and political climates vary between the bordering countries, the differences on the hill are much more subtle, since they share the Andes. “The main differences have to do with latitude,” explains Chris Davenport, who runs Superstars Ski Camp in Portillo, Chile. “For instance, there is no tree skiing, or treeline for that matter, in the Santiago zone, including Portillo, and then all across the range to Las Leñas. Just high alpine goodness. The Chilean side typically gets a bit more snow and a slightly more maritime snow quality then the Argentinian side, where Leñas is.”

“Now down south towards Bariloche in Argentina you do have forests low down and lower elevation skiing as well,” he continues. “Same for Chile, south of Santiago, 500 miles or so at Pucón and Chillan and Villarrica you have some forests low down.”

“It’s not like skiing in North America or Europe, it’s a bit more wild and you have to take responsibility for yourself and be prepared for delays and surprises,” adds Backstrom. “But if you can be open-minded and go with the flow, it can be an unforgettable ski experience.”

[ FREESKIER |

| HOW TO_SOUTH AMERICA ]

GETTING THERE Most South American camps will help you with your travel plans, as there can be some tricky layovers required. For instance, to get to Las Leñas, you are usually required to fly to the international airport in Buenos Aires and then travel by bus or taxi to the domestic airport to catch your flight to Mendoza. Each camp will have its travel plans dialed (some even have their own shuttles between stops), so reach out to the camp coordinators before you book your first flight or shuttle to ensure the smoothest travel day possible.

No visa is required to enter Argentina or Chile, but you may need to purchase a Tourist Card upon entry into the Santiago International Airport for $160, which is good for 90 days.

SAFETY Both Argentina and Chile are relatively safe countries, and the camps are located in tourist-friendly locations.

Argentina has seen more economic turmoil over the past three decades than Chile (and thus, higher crime rates), although the only thing to really worry about when traveling is petty theft.

Petty theft is especially prevalent in transportation hubs and hotel lobbies, so keep your valuables in closed pockets and do not leave valuables unattended at any time. Also be wary of counterfeit bills in Argentina. Pay taxi drivers in small bills to avoid the potential for being given counterfeit change.

Like when traveling anywhere, use your head and stay alert. “Keep an eye on your stuff at the bus stations,” adds Parker. “I’ve always felt really safe there, but I am very aware of the people around me while traveling and have heard stories, for sure.”

When your local resort stops spinning the lifts this spring, consider heading south this summer to enjoy the best of what South America offers.

PG. 087

PHOTO: CHRIS O’CONNELL

FIRST

LOOK

HERE AT FREESKIER WE ADVOCATE LIVING IN THE MOMENT, ESPECIALLY DURING THE WINTER WHEN WE SHOULD ALL BE OUT SKIING. ON THE OTHER HAND, WHEN WE STARTED GETTING WIND OF SOME NEW SKI PRODUCTS BEING RELEASED FOR THE FALL OF 2013, WE WANTED TO GIVE YOU A HEAD START AT PLANNING YOUR SETUP FOR NEXT SEASON. IS THE EXPERIENCE BETTER THAN THE ANTICIPATION? YOU’LL HAVE TO WAIT A BIT TO GET YOUR HANDS ON THIS FRESH GEAR, BUT UNTIL THEN READ UP AND GET READY TO DROOL OVER NEXT YEAR’S FRESHEST DESIGNS AND NEWEST TECHNOLOGIES.

PG.

089

OUTERWEAR

FIRST

LOOK

EIDER

FD WEAR

SHIBUYA DOWN JACKET KANDA PANT Eider was started by a tailor whose friends wanted him to make down jackets, so it’s no small wonder that the company is still producing quality down products like the Shibuya jacket. The fact that it comes loaded with 700-fill power duck down and a 10K waterproof rating means the Shibuya can take what mother nature dishes out, yet the brushed yarn plaid pattern is casual enough for any après scene. “Eider wanted a coat that was functional, with sealed seams for those nasty days, but could also be worn around town,” explains Linda Greene, a brand manager for Eider. The jacket belongs to the company’s new CrossOver collection—pieces that are functional on the hill, yet fashionable off. The Kanda pant rates at 10K/10K and perfectly compliments the down jacket on, or off, the hill.

eider.com pages/Eider/9719417655 eider_world PG. | 090

PRICE

J: $369 P: $300

SPORT OBERMEYER

VIRTIKA V4 JACKET VIRTIKA V4 PANT FD Wear continues the evolution of its Virtika line this fall, upping the ante with 3L construction, fully taped seams and a 20K waterproof rating. A generous amount of insulation will keep you warm on the coldest days while wrist gaiters and a powder skirt keep the snow out. A magnetized front flap over the large-toothed front zipper is a nice touch and with 17 pockets in all, you’ll have no problem carrying everything you need. New colorways are being introduced this fall and logging onto fdwear.com allows you to customize your suit for a one-of-a-kind look. Details on the pants include removable bibs with heavy-duty buckles, and adjustable waist and inner thigh vents. One thing that will stay unchanged is the signature FD fit.

fdwear.com fdwear @fd_virtika

PRICE

J: $275 P: $175

OXNARD JACKET BATTEN PANT Nowadays, outerwear is becoming so specialized. Too technical, too cool or too bland seem to be many of the options. So Sport Obermeyer wants to introduce the Oxnard jacket and Batten pant to help bridge the gap. “The target user is the avid enthusiast,” says Brad Miller of Obermeyer. “The products are technical with a value price and covered under a lifetime warranty.” With a 20K/20K rating and Dri-Core breathable interior, you’re going to stay warm and dry, under any circumstance. With a more tailored cut and longer fit you’re going to look better. And let’s be honest, when you look better, you feel better. “We wanted to take our stance in the market with [this] new product line that is in demand with the influencing demographic.” Basically, you asked for it, so Obermeyer is delivering the goods, something they’ve been doing for 65 years.

obermeyer.com obermeyer @obermeyer

PRICE

J: $340 P: $200

OUTERWEAR

ORAGE SEVEN PROLITE JACKET GIBSON BIBS For 2013-14, Orage is set to offer the Seven Prolite jacket and Gibson bibs, inspired by the company’s 7 Peak Crew.

“The 7 Peak Crew is a group of our riders that focus on big mountain and hail from world-renowned mountain towns,” explains Orage marketing director Mike Nick. From the 7 Peak Crew down to the weekend warrior, everyone needs durable and quality garments, no matter where they’re from. The Seven Prolite and Gibson are both 3-Ply Gore-Tex shells that are fully seam-sealed and super lightweight (The jacket only weighs about 21 oz). But don’t think the outfit is all technical features, Orage has imbued the jacket and pants with a strong sense of its DNA: bold colors, strong lines and a great fit.

orage.com orage orage89

PRICE

J: $550 P: $430

patagonia patagonia

LOOK

PATAGONIA

THE NORTH FACE

PRIMO JACKET PRIMO PANT

T-DUBS JACKET T-DUBS CARGO PANT

Patagonia been producing top notch technical outerwear for decades, and the proverbial proof is in the pudding in regards to the Primo kit. The 3L shell jacket and pants are made from a 100-percent recycled nylon Gore-Tex fabric, weigh next to nothing (48.9 oz in total), and feature a progressive freeride fit. “Any time Patagonia updates a product, it is to better its technical performance,” explains Patagonia’s Snow Business Unit Director, Tyler LaMotte. “In the case of the Primo, we took an already great kit and made it better by improving fit, features, and function.”

Additionally, 2013-14 brings more rugged zips, new minimal powder skirt design, and RECCO-compatibility to the Primo.

patagonia.com

FIRST

PRICE

J: $549 P: $399

The North Face will be releasing its new Tom Wallisch-inspired, T-Dubs jacket and cargo pant next fall. The 2L jacket utilizes TNF’s HyVent membrane for waterproofing and breathability as well Heatseeker insulation that varies from 60-80 grams depending on the zone. The cargo pants are also 2L with the HyVent membrane and an adjustable waistband but they skip the insulation. A cord in each cargo pocket allows you to draw the heel of the pant up, a great addition that eliminates walking on it when you’re done riding. “I am excited to step away from flashy, bright colors this year and wear something more true to myself and my style.” says Wallisch. “The suit has some great features for park riding: great fit, built-in suspender system, and the quality protection we’ve all come to expect from The North Face.”

thenorthface.com thenorthface thenorthface

PRICE

J: $280 P: $199 PG. | 091

HELMETS

FIRST

LOOK

GIRO

COMBYN Not all helmets are created equal and not all helmets are right for every situation. Giro is introducing the Combyn, which is part of a new “soft shell” line of helmets for the company.

Most traditional helmets only manage one high impact hit whereas the Combyn employs an impact absorbing liner that, in addition to being flexible, has two layers of foam to manage both high and low energy impacts. “Park and pipe riders tend to put their helmets through a lot of abuse, lots of low energy impacts are common,” says Greg Shapleigh, Sr. Vice President of Product and Brand Marketing at Giro.“If you want durability and flexible fit, then soft shell is the way to go.” Throw in Giro’s proprietary shell material and you’ve got a helmet that can withstand multiple impacts and is flexible for unmatched fit and comfort.

giro.com girosnow

PRICE

$120 PRET

SHAMAN Just because a brand is in its early years doesn’t mean it can’t produce industry-leading products. Case in point, the Pret Shaman. Built for the all-mountain enthusiast, the Shaman incorporates Pret’s all-new RCS technology, a micro-adjustable ergonomic fit system that will allow for precise helmet fit. “Our helmets exceed ASTM standards for safety,” says Ephraim Learned, a sales rep for Pret. “And by using an oval shape it allows for a super lightweight and low profile design.” Pret’s VTT2 tchnology allows for maximum venting and is extremely adept at drawing heat and moisture away from your head due to 23 internal and 15 external vents. It doesn’t matter if you’re hiking back bowls or braving arctic temperatures, the Shaman will adjust to keep your dome piece as comfortable as possible.

prethelmets.com prethelmets prethelmets

PRICE

$130 SMITH

VANTAGE Same name, new helmet. The Vantage has been given a facelift inside and out for 2013. Part of Smith’s ID series, the helmet pictured here was designed with the help of Sage CattabrigaAlosa. “Layered inside a [Peruvian] symbol called Chakana are many things related towards balance,” says Sage of the helmet artwork. “Four elements, four dimensions, four seasons, four levels of consciousness, and four directions are a few of the things it represents.” The artwork continues onto Sage’s Smith ID I/O goggle, too. The Vantage features Smith’s new Aerocore technology that uses Koroyd, a recyclable and lighter core material that improves energy absorbation over EPS-only constructed helmets. By utilizing the dual-construction of Koroyd and EPS core materials, the Vantage is safer and lighter than traditional EPS-only helmets.

smithoptics.com smithoptics smithoptics PG. | 092

PRICE

$220

GOGGLES

FIRST

LOOK

GIRO

BLOK Giro’s newest goggle, the Blok, is a blend of old school looks and new age technology. Building off of the success of the Onset goggle, Giro has imbued the Blok with its EXV (Expansion View) technology, which increases peripheral vision due to the Blok’s low profile, large-volume frame. “We introduced EXV on the spherical lensed Onset,” says Greg Shapleigh, Sr. Vice President of Product and Brand Marketing at Giro. “The Blok uses an injected cylindrical lens that allows us to bring EXV down in price.” The Blok’s lenses, like all Giro lenses, are crafted by the world famous folks at Carl Zeiss, so you know you’re getting the best optics money can buy. “We included our team riders in the design process,” adds Shapleigh. “They really wanted a frame that was simple, but still had a strong style.”

giro.com girosnow tk

PRICE

$90 OAKLEY

O2 XL Oakley’s iconic snow goggle—the O-frame—introduced way back in 1983, is being replaced in 2013-14 by the O2 XL. “The O-frame has maintained a steady following due to its supreme comfort and no-nonsene design,” says Andy McSorley, global goggle category manager at Oakley.

“The O2 XL builds on that heritage by incorporating that same spirit of form following function in a 100-percent new chassis for an updated, modern fit and feel.” The frame will be priced in the mid-range, but don’t think that it lacks all the bells and whistles. The O2 XL comes equipped with dual vented Lexan lenses, F2 anti-fog coating, and a trimmed down frame that leads to an expanded field of view. Times are a’changin’.

oakley.com oakley oakleyaction

PRICE

$70 SMITH

VICE Based in Sun Valley, ID, Smith Optics has been pumping out quality goggles for nearly 50 years. From the first dual-lens snow goggle in 1965 to the Turbofan of the ‘80s to the spherical Triad to the rimless I/O series of recent years. And 2013-14 will bring another hit to the Smith stable. The Vice will come quipped with all the bells and whistles you’ve come to love from Smith—5X anti-fog coating, Carbonix-X lenses, Porex filter—in a semi-rimless frame. Sizing is considered medium fit; it’s somewhere between the I/O and I/OX in size. When asked where the inspiration for the Vice welled from, Ben Flandro, snow product manager at Smith Optics, had this to say: “Never gonna give you up/Never gonna let you down/Never gonna run around and desert you.”

smithoptics.com smithoptics smithoptics

PRICE

$140 PG. | 093

THE RULES:

This is a battle of two minds. No physical prowess necessary.

Cheating not allowed. No Google, no Wikipedia, no smart friends.

No set time limit, but don’t take forever, it’s not rocket science.

Points are awarded at the discretion of Freeskier Z[HɈ In the event of a tie… well, it’s a tie.

Winner does not move on, this is a one issue deal.

JIBARDY

01.

02.

03.

04.

05.

06.

07.

08.

09.

10.

THE

CHALLENGE:

BYRON

WELLS

Who composed the 1812 Overture?

No clue, Beethoven?

What is the dot above an “i” called?

I remember learning it when I was studying music… Treble?

What has a higher summit elevation, Sun Valley or Deer Valley?

Sun Valley.

>OH[ ^HZ [OL SHZ[ Z[H[L [V IL VMÄ JPHSS` called in the 2012 presidential election?

Oh, my Dad would know that. Let’s go with Michigan.

Are snow storms caused by high or low pressure systems?

Low. [1 pt.]

What is the name of the Minnesota resort [OH[ JSHPTLK Ä YZ[ [V VWLU [OPZ ZLHZVU& Who was on the cover of Freeskier’s 2013 Buyer’s Guide?

How many years has it been since Andreas /r[]LP[ TPZZLK THRPUN Ä UHSZ PU H JVU[LZ[& (Closest to the answer)

I don’t even know any resorts in Minnesota, so I can’t really answer that.

Oh man, who was that… JP? That’s got to be a while. I’m gonna say six years. [1 pt.]

True or false: Some temp NFL refs were borrowed from the Lingerie Football League this season.

What is the cost to become a Freestyle Competitor of USSA? (Closest to the answer)

EL

False.

It’s like 90 bucks, I think. [1 pt.]

WALTER Bach.

Who would know that?

I have no idea.

Deer Valley. [1 pt.]

Florida. [1 pt.]

Low. [1 pt.]

Oh man, I don’t really ski out there.

Buck Hill?

Oh f-ck. I can see it sitting at home.

Tom Wallisch. [1 pt.]

It’s probably been a long time. I’m gonna say eight years. [1 pt.]

True. [1 pt.]

I think it’s $32.

3 pts.

WINNER:

ANSWERS: 01. Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky. 02. The tittle. 03. Deer Valley, 9,570 feet. 04. Florida.

05. Low pressure systems. 06. Wild Mountain. 07. Tom Wallisch. 08. Seven years. 09. True. 10. $150.

PG. 094

[ JIBARDY |

| FREESKIER ]

WOOD

6 pts.

T

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freeskier.com

PUSH IT TO THE LIMIT

Among the most popular videos this month on freeskier.com were two showcasing progressive stunts.

Swedish ripper Jesper Tjäder stomped a 1350 off a rail. Kim Herold exclaimed on the website, “holy #$%@… RAD!!!!” To see the action for yourself, check out frsk.me/30x.

Lisa Zimmermann, 16, of Germany became the first female to stomp a double cork 1260 on skis. The video can be seen at frsk.me/31t.

HOW TO: BE A MODERATELY SUCCESSFUL SKI PHOTOGRAPHER

A follow-up to the less than serious article featured in our 2013 Photo Annual, “How To: Be a Wildly Successful Ski Photographer,” this piece offers great insight from Senior Editor/Photographer Nate Abbott and was one of the most shared features on the website this month.

2012 SKIER OF THE YEAR

Tens of thousands turned out to vote for the Male and Female Skier of the Year. We began with 16 men and eight women and battled through four rounds of headto-head voting.

Michelle Gee wrote on Facebook, “I didn’t even vote in the [presidential] election, but came way out of my way for this.” Thanks, Michelle. Although you neglected to fulfill your civic duty, we hope you enjoyed our breakdown of each rounds’ voting information using age, and location-based demographics. And thanks to all others who rocked the SOTY vote.

Michael Overbeck, owner of Michael Overbeck Photography, chimed in on the comments section, noting, “Awesome article, Nate. Really has changed my look on photography. Thanks a lot, man!”

The story can be found at frsk.me/32q.

SKI FILMS FOR FREE

Also popular this month are two films, posted in their entirety on freeskier.com, and available for you to watch free of charge. Voleurz’s Kill Your Boredom (frsk.me/31r), and PYP’s Part Time (frsk.me/323) are not to be missed.

TANNER HALL’S REDEMPTION ROAD

Christopher Jerard’s profile of Tanner Hall, featured in our November issue, made the rounds on the web and stirred up loads of discussion. Ryan Wells of Orem, UT wrote on Facebook, “Thanks, great article. Tanner isn’t perfect by any means (none of us are, derp!) but his accomplishments and heart to overcome are inspiring and something to look up to. Don’t be too hypocritical of him and quick to judge. He has offended people... haven’t we all? I know he has offended many and I don’t agree with that but, lets grow up a bit here. People get offended so easily and judge so quickly. Learn from his accomplishments and his mistakes.”

Spencer O’Brien, a student at University of St. Andrews, responded, “Fantastic article, and great to see Tanner turn himself around. However, Tanner has offended so many people, dissed the ski industry and his fellow skiers, and criticized the US Ski Team members—calling them sellouts and PR puppets. While the crux of your story is dedicated to Tanner’s inspiring turnaround, I think he also needs to recognize how he has treated his fellow skiers, people who looked up to him as the icon of freeride skiing. No one can discredit Tanner for what he has accomplished and how hard he has struggled to pull himself up. But his fall goes beyond his personal faults, and I think he has a long way to go to make up for lost ground… that’s my opinion anyway.”

What’s your take? Read the profile and share your thoughts at frsk.me/32y.

SPYNE 130 BOOT

SIX ISSUES of FREESKIER

While Tanner has found a new home, a few athletes find themselves in the cold as Arma Energy has reportedly stopped supporting skiers. No news on where X Games competitors David Wise, Matt Margetts and Alexis Godbout will end up. In good news for Alexis, he has re-upped with Salomon for the next two years. Fellow Canadian skier Noah Bowman has reportedly linked up with Electric Visual. X Games bronze medalist Brita Sigourney has re-signed with Roxy for outerwear and is rumored to be making the switch from Smith Optics to Oakley, at the start of the new year.

With the competition season starting up, Head has locked up our 2012 female Skier of the Year Kaya Turski for the next three years. “If there was one athlete that we have had our eye on it was Kaya,” says Head team manager Tyson Bolduc. “She seemingly dominates every event she attends and makes skiing fun to watch.” Kaya’s Red Bull teammate, Norwegian PK Hunder, has had his services retained for the next two years.

$8.99

On the outerwear front, longtime Orage frontman JP Auclair has recently made the move to Armada’s outerwear, accessories and lifestyle threads. Seeing as JP is a co-founder of Armada, it’s not a huge surprise that he made the switch. “We want JP to do exactly what he has done for the last 10 years,” says Armada co-founder Chris O’Connell. “To push the envelope with innovation and continue to redefine the image of the sport he helped create. JP has always been an integral part of the development of skis and we are very excited for the future of Armada outerwear.”

When Tanner Hall and Red Bull parted ways after 11 years, the online ski community went nuts with speculation as to who Tanner would sign with. After a brief hiatus sans energy drink, Tanner has signed on board with Rockstar Energy. The move is sure to generate a ton of scuttlebutt. Additionally, Jen Hudak has re-signed with Rockstar for two years.

JEN HUDAK PHOTO: KC DEANE

+ EXCLUSIVE SPECIAL ISSUES

PK HUNDER PHOTO: MILES HOLDEN / RED BULL CONTENT POOL

for just

Big news coming out of the boot world as K2 is getting its feet wet in the market. The company will launch two 2013-14 lines, one being an all-mountain line (for men and women) and the other a freeride line (for men only). Stay tuned for more information coming out on these bad boys.

SLC-based Daleboot has recently signed LJ Strenio, Adam Delorme and Niklas Ericsson to its roster. They join an already diverse Daleboot team that includes Wiley Miller and super ski guide Aaron Karitis.

Corrections

The gossip train is buzzing about a couple of heavy hitters—Pep Fujas and Kye Petersen—who have left longtime sponsor Oakley for Patagonia outerwear starting at the new year.

CORRECTIONS In the January issue Contributors section, we incorrectly noted that Griffin Post was from Australia, when in fact, he is from Austria. Sorry about that, mate. And in the Backcountry issue, we incorrectly labeled a photo of Elyse Saugstad as being shot by Tyler Ceccanti, when in fact it was really shot by frequent contributor Ian Coble. Apologies, Ian. ELYSE SAUGSTAD PHOTO: IAN COBLE

N O W O N i T U N E S N E W S S TA N D

[ FREESKIER |

| WIRE ]

PG. 096

Freeskier (ISSN 1522-1527) is published six times a year: Buyer’s Guide, October, November, December, January and February by Storm Mountain Publishing Company, PO Box 789, Niwot, CO 80544-0789. Subscription rates in the U.S. are $9.95 for one year (6 issues). In Canada, $29.95 (includes 7% GST); other foreign $39.95 payable in U.S. funds. Periodicals postage paid at Niwot, CO and additional mailing offices (USPS# 024094). Standard postage paid at St. Cloud, MN (USPS #65). POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Freeskier, PO Box 469024, Escondido, CA 92046

PG. 98

[ FINAL THOUGHT |

| FREESKIER ]

SKIER: JP AUCLAIR PHOTOS: ELINA SIRPARANTA

“It wasn’t the ascent of the Chardonnet Glacier in blizzard conditions, or skinning with 50-lb packs or the lack of wood for heat through single-digit nights. No, the hardest part of our Haute Route trip was quitting. The odds were in our favor. We had the best guide in the Alps, a strong crew, a deep, relatively stable snowpack and an early start to the spring hut season. But out of nowhere, the temps skyrocketed.

In Verbier, wet slides went to the ground. Four days into our 10-day trip, our guide said it was shaping up to be the most dangerous week of the winter. I thought of the months Julien Regnier had spent planning the route, the money we’d spent to get to Chamonix, the gear we had dropped ahead, the story I was supposed to write… But I was fortunate the guide made the call. Who knows what we would have decided on our own. It’s hard to turn around when so much is invested. The ability to quit is perhaps the hardest skill of backcountry skiing and the most underrated. There’s no reward for not accomplishing a goal except the promise of tomorrow, which, when you are a skier, is the greatest prize of all.” —Tess Weaver

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