On this episode of Next Level Skiing, I speak with Ted Mahon, one of Colorado’s most respected mountain athletes. He has an impressive 25 years of experience in skiing and mountaineering. During most of that time, he has worked as a ski instructor. He has also skied most of the country’s highest mountains. On top of this, he has helped countless skiers reach their peak level of performance.

Join us for an interesting conversation about preparation, uphill clinics, and Ted’s mountain experience.

Topics:

[02:44] Tips for kicking off your ski vacation on the right foot.

[06:05] Skiing with returning clients.

[07:45] Why it’s important to show up with a basic level of fitness.

[08:35] What separates a great skier from a great bowl skier.

[11:33] Ted’s uphill clinics and who attends them.

[13:46] Weekly social uphills at Buttermilk.

[15:10] The appeal of backcountry skiing.

[18:18] Easing people into backcountry skiing.

[20:35] How boots can affect your footwork and the effort you have to exert.

[23:12] Advanced uphill clinics and what they offer.

[29:41] Picking your peaks.

[32:15] Thinking back on the highlights of his career.

[34:10] Ted’s parting advice to other skiers.

Resources:

Wagner Custom Skis

Welcome back to Next Level Skiing, where we pick the brains of the best in the sport. Today, I speak with Erik Lambert, one of the founders of Bluebird Backcountry. He and his partner wanted to test the idea that skiers needed an intro to the fundamentals of backcountry skiing before diving in. As such, they figured out a middle ground and thousands have flocked to learn from the guides at Bluebird. They have since expanded their program and the training grounds. 

Tune in to hear more about this fantastic program and Erik’s experiences as a mountain sport enthusiast.

Topics:

[03:15] Starting from scratch with a new reservation system to help keep numbers small.

[05:45] Finding a middle ground between resort and backcountry skiing.

[10:45] Figuring out how to make the program sustainable.

[13:24] What makes Bluebird different from another mountain’s Backcountry 101.

[14:15] Why people just beginning their backcountry journey are often not ready for Avalanche One.

[21:10] The feedback from Aerie-certified instructors.

[23:05] Formalizing the way people learn and grow.

[24:35] Growing up as a skier in Upstate New York.

[27:00] Who the Bluebird Backcountry clients are and why the demographics surprised Erik.

[33:00] The different skills required for backcountry skiing.

[34:26] Erik’s solid piece of backcountry advice.

Resources:

Bluebird Backcountry

Wagner Custom Skis

Welcome back to the Next Level Skiing podcast, brought to you by Wagner Skis. Today, I chat with Cody Townsend, a Southern California football superstar turned mountain hero. He has piloted a career on skis unlike any other I’ve seen. He claims his achievements were driven by boredom, of all things.

His current undertaking, The Fifty Project, exposes the glory and work in skiing and mountaineering. 

Join us as we discuss his transition from heliskiing to hiking peaks and the unrelenting mental game involved therein. 

Topics:

[03:52] Cody’s experience growing up in a football family.

[04:22] How his family got him into skiing.

[06:41] Critical skills he developed as a racer.

[11:42] Cody’s experience as a heliskier and the ensuing transition to mountaineering.

[12:07] Boredom and danger were catalysts to his shift.

[15:54] The single most important skill in ski mountaineering.

[19:15] Heading into his Fifty Project knowing he had a lot to learn.

[24:25] Skiing the Sphinx in Alaska.

[26:45] Perceptions of pro skiers vs. the reality.

[29:05] The tendency to pull back when skiing intense steeps.

[32:40] A basic drill that helps change your mindset on the steeps.

[36:25] The experience that made him dream about skiing The Crack.

[37:50] Drawing on past experiences to help you reach the next level.

[39:40] Why skiing partners can affect your experience.

[45:00] An article made Cody tear up.

[46:35] A great piece of advice Cody received.

Resources:

The Fifty Project’

Wagner Custom Skis

Dr. Wes Wylie is the guy you want on your heliskiing crew. He’s a heliski guide at Alaska’s Tordillo Mountain Lodge as well as Powderbirds out of Snowbird. He’s been a ski patroller at Deer Valley for more than 20 years. He travels to Chile and New Zealand in the summer to guide clients. Oh, and he’s also a private physician who travels the country practicing medicine. 

1:00: Are you a ski guide who practices medicine or a doctor who skis? 

2:30: Getting into medicine as a way to ski

3:45: The overlap between doctoring and skiing. A typical year on mountains, with a few months in hospitals.

5:50: “The big dinner conversation.” Honing aging bodies for skiing. Clients as patients. How to offset the 1% annual loss of muscle mass in men in their 50s, 60s and 70s. 

7:15: The “easy” prescription to offset that muscle loss and even build muscle past age 50. 

9:00: And even thwart the insidious weight gain of life after 50. 

12:00: Advice for skiers looking to stay on skis deep into their 80s or even 90s: minimize the impacts. 

12:35: People get injured for three reasons. Two of them are the fault of the guides. 

14:20: Progressing “never-ever” Alaska helicopter skiers into steep, deep, sprawling terrain. 

15:20: Second time's the charm. 

18:30: Being “really spherical” when talking as a guide.

20:00: The photographic component of guiding. Tips for creating lifelong keepsakes. 

23:40: Photos as “a great venue for people to review their skills.”

25:50: Building the ultimate guide ski for heavy-pack skiing in variable conditions in Alaska

28:00 The ultimate guide ski looks like this

32:00 The best advice he’s ever received: Movement is good. Stay in the flow. When people stay in the flow state, all the mechanics fall into place.

Doug Stenclik opened his Cripple Creek Backcountry shop in Carbondale in 2012 with a premonition that uphill skiing was about to explode. It did, and how he’s got three shops in Colorado and an online site that ranks among the top sellers of all backcountry and ski touring equipment. 

Doug’s vision began with a distinct belief that skiers should not be making life-and-death decisions while they are learning a new sport. His take is that backcountry skiing done right can be just as safe as skiing a resort. It’s all about making the right decisions early. Liberal uphill policies at a growing number of ski resorts has enabled uphill skiing to thrive. 

And that’s good as we head into the great unknown for the coming season. Doug saw sales at his Cripple Creek shops and website explode after resorts suddenly closed in mid-March. Could that be a clue of what we can expect for the upcoming ski season?

Listen in as Doug riffs on the “out of order” alignment in backcountry skiing and avalanche education, how resorts embracing uphill is fostering the backcountry movement, how resort skiing can help your backcountry turns, the right ski for the right day and what he sees ahead as a ski season unlike any other unfolds. 

4:30 — Avalanche education, it’s talked about out of order. Risk of life should not be your first concern when you are learning how to kickstep. 

6:10 - Resort uphill policies are enabling the transition from touring to backcountry. 

10:30 — “Find the worst snow possible.” Tips for honing backcountry skills while skiing off chairlifts.

13:20 — Is the boom in backcountry ski equipment sales in late March an indication of what’s to come? 

18:00 — Trail running shoes, home gym equipment and bikes are hot commodities in the pandemic summer. Could uphill skis join that list this winter? 

20:30 — Don’t necessarily think of touring as a better way to ski. “Think of it as a better way to hike in the winter and get outside and exercise in the winter.” 

22:50 — Cripple Creek encourages all buyers to sit for a virtual consultation when buying an uphill kit. 

24:10 — Light is right. “Know that you will eventually go lighter … 90% of the time you are going uphill.” 

27:00 — Industry rollercoaster trends push the single-tool quiver but best bet it to have a resort ski and a backcountry ski. 

31:10 — Best advice: Enjoy the whole day, the uphill and downhill as one journey in the mountains. 

I would argue that no one has taught more people to heliski powder than Robert Koell, aka Roko. The Austrian skier grew up skiing to school and ski racing in his uncle’s ski school at a resort his dad built. He was a coach for the Austrian ski team and arrived at Canadian Mountain Holidays in 1989 with a plan to spend a year learning English before returning to coaching. More than 30 years later, he’s still guiding with CMH, rotating through the operation’s stable of lodges. He’s written training programs for CMH’s powder masters, enabling skiers in their 80s and even 90s to stay on skis. And he’s able to break down the techniques required to rip pow into bite-sized morsels revolving around the notion of up-and-down movement, creating a solid platform in soft snow, focusing on angulation of joints and eliminating bad habits. 

2:45: Skied to school as a 3-year-old in Austria’s Tirol.

3:50: Injury as a ski racer pushed him into coaching. 

4:45: Coaching for the Austrian ski team from 1986 to 1989. 

6:02: Decides to stay with CMH

8:14: Powder is an interesting medium, with all ranges of shapes, weights and feels. 

9:00: Subtle difference between skiing hard pack and skiing powder “Build your own platform.”

10:00: Dispelling the myth that skiing powder is for experts. Experts can ski chopped powder. Untrammeled powder is for everyone. 

12:15: Equally weighted versus weighting each ski. 

14:20: Overcoming intimidation by “seeing obstacles as friends.”

15:30: Give people the feeling they are in control and "the scary things aren’t so scary any more.”

16:40: Balancing the need for speed and control in powder.

20:00: Motion is lotion. Don’t be static on skis. 

20:25: Vertical movement is the heartbeat of skiing. 

21:50: But keep vertical movement in a range. Not too high. Not too low.

22:12: Handling the “fall-line effect.”

24:20: Use small, linked turns to control speed in powder and maintain equal weight on both skis. 

26:50: Use bone structure to weight and unweight skis. 

28:30: Effective up-and-down movement using bone structure and momentum. 

31:00 Building CMH’s “Powder Masters Program” to help veteran clients in their 80s keep skiing into their 90s. 

34:40: Best advice is to think about angulation in shoulders, hips, knees and ankles. 

36:30: Every learning process begins with destruction. 

38:10: Learn the soft hockey stop to butter through sketchy terrain and variable snow. 

Few skiers have had such a lasting impact on their sport like Mike Douglas. From Olympic-caliber bumper to freeskiing pioneer to ski design innovator to influential filmmaker, Whistler’s.

Douglas has been at the forefront of skiing for more than 25 years. There’s a good reason everyone calls him “the Godfather of Freeskiing.” He pushed his young moguls skiers — like Vincent Dorian, J.P. Auclair, J.F. Cusson and Shane Szocs — into “snowboard parks” in the mid 1990s, where the crew became known as the New Canadian Air Force. Their FIS-dissing trickery chafed against international rules that forbid mogul skiers from getting inverted. 

Douglas and his crew designed their perfect ski, which became the Salomon 1080 and changed skiing. 

Douglas has spent his life exploring skiing from the perspective of athlete, coach, ski designer, instructor and filmmaker. Tune in as the Godfather holds court.

3:57: Moving to Whistler for a quick year before university, Douglas signs up for moguls contests and ends the season ranked third in British Columbia. 

5:00: Making a run for the Lillehammer Games in 1994, Douglas works with the Canadian Freestyle Team.

5:25: Bad habits plagued his early skiing. The worst? The heavy head. “The world slows down the farther you look.”

8:00: Started coaching in Whistler Blackcomb, teaching the next generation of mogul skiers.

9:15: Top athletes were grating under the strictures of FIS mogul skiing. Snowboarding was blowing up. Skiers wondered why they couldn’t do that same tricks as snowboarders.

10:30: Back then, if you wanted to change a trick, it took two years to win FIS approval. “Meanwhile we were watching snowboarders innovating every week.”

11:10: Douglas and top bumpers started poaching the snowboard-only terrain parks after moguls practice.

12:04: The skills from mogul skiing transferred to the park. Balanced at speed. 

13:20: Trial-and-error skill development in the park predated trampolines and airbags.

14:32:: The creation of the Salomon 1080. “We knew we needed a ski that was different.”

19:45: Absorbing the fire he sparked in freeskiing. “Every day I see something ridiculous that melts  my brain.”

22:18: Longevity on skis comes from a drive to keep moving and keep improving. 

27:10: Almost every day on the same skis and boots.

29:44: The technology that enabled the one-ski quiver.

31:35: Lessons from 18 years teaching at Chile’s Superstars Camp.

33:35: Three most basic principles of skiing. Simple is better. “If you can do those three things you can ski well anywhere."

36:16: Seeking the secret to longevity and “The Fountain of Youth” in Japan with Everest skier Yuichiro Miura and his son Gota.  

39:50: Step by step. “You got to have a goal.”

42:28: Notching wins for the climate as a driving force behind Protect Our Winters Canada. Motivating skiers to write 23,000 letters to the government, forcing a coal mine expansion to undergo intensive environmental review. “We may have saved 15 million tons of carbon dioxide from going into the air every year.” 

On today’s episode, I had the opportunity to speak with Joel Gratz, the captain of a team of meteorologists at Open Snow, who love to give winter sports enthusiasts the most accurate weather reports. Joel has helped people chase powder and find the best snow for years. Tune in to hear us talk about Open Snow and how Joel got his start.

Topics:

[02:15] Having moderate expectations is important.

[03:00] He’s a skier, so he knows how to speak the language.

[04:05] You can get excited within 3-5 days of a good snow report.

[04:35] A 3 day forecast can be 95-98% accurate in terms of storm tracking.

[05:00] At 5 days out, you are at 90% accuracy and it continues down from there.

[07:50] There is no one who could consistently predict the weather for all the different regions in the U.S. year in and year out.

[09:48] Joel discovered his love of skiing at Shawnee Mountain in Pennsylvania.

[10:20] Joel has loved skiing and weather since he was four years old.

[12:52] When he started out, Joel didn’t have a strategy or business plan.

[13:05] Basically, he was surprised by the weather and found it frustrating.

[13:30] His method was a lot of trial and error.

[15:15] Joel credits his success to his team at Open Snow.

[15:52] When Open Snow started, they didn’t mean to make it a business; it was mostly for their friends.

[19:00] Skiing is better than not skiing, so you can’t wait for perfect weather.

[19:32] If you are on the fence, always choose to ski. Worse case scenario, the conditions aren’t perfect, but you still get to ski with friends and family.

[21:00] All you can say a week to 10 days out is whether there may be storms in a region. It’s very general.

[25:02] Wind direction is a key factor in figuring out the weather in the west.

[27:50] If you want to look at weather maps, look at them at the 700 Millibar level (around 10,000 feet).

[30:48] Open Snow gets a lot of emails from thrilled users.

[34:40] The snow report that you see on most apps is a 24-hour snow report.

[34:57] That 24 hour period usually covers 5am the previous day to 5am that day.

[35:13] So, you have to figure out when the ski fell.

[35:50] Joel yells at himself to keep his hands forward whenever he is tired and not skiing well.

Quotes:

“Science is always advancing and the only way you advance is by trying, failing, trying again, failing, trying again, failing.”

“We write the way we feel.”

“Beyond about 7-10 days, you’re really grasping at straws.”

Resources:

Open Snow

Wagner Custom Skis

Allen Tran is a high-performance dietitian and chef for the US Ski Team. Today, he will tell us how to convert regular meals into power-boosting food for your next run.

Tune in to hear how Allen does his job and helps athletes perform at their peak.

Topics:

[01:50] Allen got his start by going to culinary school and worked in the culinary industry for years.

[02:09] He then got a Masters in sports nutrition and exercise physiology. 

[03:07] He preps with athletes in the summer to see what their goals are for the upcoming season.

[05:16] You want enough food to fuel your performance, but you don’t want to overdo it on competition day.

[08:12] The whole role of a sports snack is convenience.

[12:22] Listen to your body and figure out if you need more snacks and where to fit in meals.

[15:45] Sherpas in the Himalayas tend to eat higher fat diets, which is great for slower burning energy.

[18:55] Allen likes to take traditional recipes and turn them on their heads.

[23:10] At high altitudes, alcohol is something to avoid.

[23:37] It’s so easy to get dehydrated in high altitudes. 

[24:16] It’s important to strike a nice balance when eating (not too light, not too heavy).

[29:01] A lot of athletes have specific preferences, which means Allen has to travel with a lot of stuff.

[29:23] Going overseas can make meeting preferences tricky.

[30:25] When overseas, Allen always has to make sure the water and meat are safe.

[35:15] When it comes to powdered foods, there’s a time and a place.

Quotes:

“ ‘You train really hard, so the day of competition is easy’ is one of those cliche sayings.”

“Comfort food does have its place.”

“When these fad diets come in and out of vogue...it can all be worked out, as long as you use real food.”

Resources:

Wagner Custom Skis

On this episode, I speak with Jonathan Ellsworth, Founder of CEO of Crested Butte’s Blister review website. He has made it his mission to test and review the latest gear, in order to pass on knowledge to other skiers.

Tune in to hear us talk about Blister and how Jonathan approaches his reviews.

Topics:

[02:05] Jonathan grew up in the Chicagoland area, not anywhere near a ski area.

[02:50] He thinks his late start in skiing is key to Blister’s success.

[03:00] When an injury ended his football career, he threw himself into his studies in kinesiology.

[04:14] Jonathan went to New Mexico to work on his dissertation, which gave him access to the mountains.

[04:47] He took a year off of school to do everything he could in the mountains and never went back to Chicago.

[07:04] Blister does not accept money from gear manufacturers that they review, which is in contrast to a lot of ski publications.

[08:50] He wants to make sure his revenue streams don’t undermine his work.

[09:30] Integrity and credibility is everything.

[11:15] Blister employs 6 or 7 reviewers to do most of the ski gear reviews, but employs 50-60 freelancers.

[14:10] By coming late into skiing, Jonathan has a greater appreciation for gear that improves performance.

[15:24] Skiing and ski design stole so many good ideas that came from snowboarding.

[18:26] Jonathan has spent a lot of time telling people lightweight skis suck.

[21:50] Making lightweight gear is such a thing now.

[22:00] Manufacturers try to say that you don’t lose performance, but this isn’t 100% true.

[25:08] There are still hundreds of thousands of skiers out there in incorrectly sized boots.

[26:45] If you’re an intermediate skier, get yourself to a boot-fitter.

[27:24] Heat-moldable shells are becoming more common for ski boots.

[27:55] If you have trickier feet, heat-moldable shells are the way to go.

[30:15] Jonathan has to be intentional with his workouts, because his time is limited.

[30:40] You absolutely must stretch your hamstrings.

[39:15] Crested Butte has a lot of steep terrain.

[39:45] Jonathan thinks the more scared you are of the terrain in front of you, the more forward you should be on your skis.

Quotes:

“Institutional trust: right? That’s not just a problem in the world of outdoor sports reviews, that’s a problem at the biggest levels of government…”

“Tip and tail rocker...has really opened up the sport in a super significant way.”

“Do not buy your ski boots online and have them show up in a box...go to an experienced boot-fitter…”

Resources:

Blister

Wagner Skis