Athletes

Name a person who inspires you to be a better skier/rider?
I am lucky enough to coach for the Teton Village Ski Team in Jackson, WY. The kids that I have had the opportunity to coach the past few years inspire me the most to keep skiing for the right reasons: the fun of getting after it and pushing the limits. 

In lieu of our 70th film, what’s your most memorable or favorite Warren Miller film or segment – past or present?
Thats easy... In Flow State when Jess McMillan is eating breakfast at a Diner with Justin Dersham talking her ear off about some powder day. Then she receives a text from Chris Davenport and Ted Ligety inviting her to go heli skiing. She pays her bill and hops in a race car to make it to the heli pad in time for take off... that is actually my dream in a ski segment. 

What would you do if you won the lottery?
I would buy a snowmobile, maybe a little cabin somewhere and keep chasing the dream of skiing all over the world with the people I love. I would probably pick up the bar tab a little more too. 

Best meal you can cook?
I can whip up a pretty fantastic burrito of most variations. 

Favorite chairlift and why?
The Jackson Hole Tram - If you are hoping on Big Red you are about to have one of the best days of your life. 

The most interesting thing you’ve read or seen this year? (books, podcasts, TV shows)
Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese. 

Highlight memory from filming with WME for this year's film?
I remember standing on top of Corbet's Couloir in Jackson one day filming this past winter. The conditions were pretty sketchy. Looking into Corbet's was a lot like looking into a bottle of milk. It wasn't really an ideal day for sending. I looked around however and saw a handful of my heros, Jess McMillan, Rob and Kit Deslauriers, Tom Day...I stared at the line I wanted to ski and just thought, 'they would send it'. I launched off the nose, hit a hard spot and tumbled into an aggressive tomahawk. Once I realized I was ok I just started laughing, I looked up at a bunch of legends cheering about the fact that I was ok...I will never forget that day. 

Gear you are loving right now, on or off the ski slopes, and why?
I am madly in love with my Blizzard Rustler 11's for those deep days and my Zero G 108's for when I want to get after a spicy high alpine adventure.

What is a cause you care about that you'd love to share with the Warren Miller audience?
I had the opportunity to take part in a fundraiser for Doug Coombs Foundation in Jackson Wyoming this past spring and it was an amazing experience. The Doug Coombs foundation "provides the opportunity for low-income children to join their peers in activities on and off the ski slopes of Jackson Hole". It is an organization I hope to get involved with more over the next few years because everyone deserves to experience the joys of the outdoors and all of the activities they provide. 

Do you have any sponsors, if yes, who?
Blizzard
, Tecnica, The North Face, Shred Optics, Tenayo Salsa

Current favorite piece/pieces of gear? Why?
My Salomon skis because they're so fast, and they keep innovating and changing the game to make them lighter and faster!

What’s your “Back in my day, we…”?
Back when I was learning to ski, I 100% did it for the hot chocolate.

Who has inspired your skiing the most?
My parents! They taught me to ski, showed me how fun it was and their genuine love of being outdoors and enjoying nature keeps me inspired to this day!

Best recovery exercises?
Foam rolling, for sure!

Ideal down day?
Swimming in the lake with my teammates.

Favorite on-mountain fuel/snack?
I've been crushing ProBars this summer through hours and hours of training.

Spiciest/most intimidating line or place you've skied or ridden this year?
We race UP the alpine mountain in our final race of the Tour de Ski, which is 7 races in 9 days across 3 countries. That...was pretty spicy.

Goals in skiing/riding this next year?
I'm focusing in on the World Championships in Seefeld, Austria this February.

What’s a great book you’ve read recently?
Before We Were Yours

Favorite mountain range?
I love training in Seiser Alm, in Italy.

Working title for the book or movie about your life?
Brave Enough

Best moment filming with WME this year?
It was fun having the WME guys come cross-country skiing with us in New Zealand! And cool to get to show off our sport.

How did Warren Miller the man influence your skiing/riding career?
By inspiring people to respect and love winter and not be afraid to go play in the snow!

Current favorite piece/pieces of gear? Why?
My Hestra gloves, quality, and generations of family care!

What’s your “Back in my day, we…”?
did watch tv, we played in the woods

Who has inspired your skiing the most?
My Brother

Best recovery exercises?
Massage

Ideal down day?
Hitting the Stanley Bakery, and soaking in some hot-springs

Favorite on-mountain fuel/snack?
Crushed PB & J

Spiciest/most intimidating line or place you've skied or ridden this year?
The Devils BedStead in the Pios outside Sun Valley.

Goals in skiing/riding this next year?
Podium World Championships

What’s a great book you’ve read recently?
Mans Search For Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

Favorite mountain range?
Sawtooths

Working title for the book or movie about your life?
The Surprise

Best moment filming with WME this year?
Whole Trip in New Zealand

How did Warren Miller the man influence your skiing/riding career?
Get out there and send!!

Current favorite piece/pieces of gear? Why?
My Santa Cruz 5010 mountain bike- so fun to rip on!

What’s your “Back in my day, we…”?
Skied on natural snow.

Who has inspired your skiing the most?
Kikkan Randall

Best recovery exercises?
Yoga, easy jogs, massage

Ideal down day?
Drinking lots of coffee and relaxing at home

Favorite on-mountain fuel/snack?
Clif Bar Shot bloks- my favorite flavor is Salted Watermelon

Spiciest/most intimidating line or place you've skied or ridden this year?
I usually keep it on the XC groomers but we did do some awesome crust skiing in the Pisa Range of New Zealand

Goals in skiing/riding this next year?
World Championship medal and World Cup podium

What’s a great book you’ve read recently?
Educated by Tara Westover

Favorite mountain range?
Green Mountains of Vermont

Working title for the book or movie about your life?
Full speed ahead

Best moment filming with WME this year?
Crashing right in front of the snowmobile.

How did Warren Miller the man influence your skiing/riding career?
Loved watching the films as a kid and always made me excited for winter

Current favorite piece/pieces of gear? Why?
My Salomon skis!

What’s your “Back in my day, we…”?
all grew up cross country skiing, it was what kids did around here!

Who has inspired your skiing the most?
My dad

Best recovery exercises?
Sleep!

Ideal down day?
Sleep in, coffee, big breakfast, get some errands done, go for a walk, nap, eat

Favorite on-mountain fuel/snack?
Candy :)

Spiciest/most intimidating line or place you've skied or ridden this year?
Nothing to crazy cross country skiing!

Goals in skiing/riding this next year?
Be on of the fastest sprinters in the world

What’s a great book you’ve read recently?
Educated - Tara Westover

Favorite mountain range?
Elk Mountains and White Mountains

Best moment filming with WME this year?
So awesome having them down in New Zealand with us!

How did Warren Miller the man influence your skiing/riding career?
I'm a new follower of Warren Miller, but I'm pretty psyched that they've decided to include cross country skiing and can't wait to see future films!

Current favorite piece/pieces of gear? Why?
The Rossignol Jibsaw Heavy Duty is a quiver killer - I coach freestyle on it and still road it off the heli during the shooting of our segment for Face of Winter. Super nice to have that versatility in a deck.

What’s your “Back in my day, we…”?
Crashed a lot. Seriously, have you seen the pro game now? Everybody is super consistent and so darned good. I miss the era of the huck and the crash!

Who has inspired your skiing the most?
I grew up devouring Jeremy Jones video parts; the commitment in his riding is unreal. Now, the all-mountain freestyle crew has my attention - Travis Rice, Nicholas Muller, Gigi Ruf. That style of shredding is flat-out fun and so creative!

Best recovery exercises?
Climbing. It stretches me out, compliments the work we put in on the hill, and seems to heal some of the abuse we put ourselves through during the Winter.

Ideal down day?
I'm terrible at down days. But, I'm a champion napper. So, sleep?

Favorite on-mountain fuel/snack?
I never regret making and taking a proper sandwich into the backcountry. More the PB&J - we're talking meat and cheese and avocado. Yeah, that sounds good.

Spiciest/most intimidating line or place you've skied or ridden this year?
Hahaha, well...I almost fell down a big mountain competition venue when helping my junior athletes inspect their lines. Turns out, riding a brand new board/binding setup down a refrozen and steep entry was a poor choice.

Goals in skiing/riding this next year?
I'm hitting the age when my skillfulness is as strong as it's ever been, but my mind and body are becoming more and more calculated. I want to keep pushing my all mountain riding this season - hit a few of my bucket list bigger lines, take a few more tricks to larger natural features. Yet, I'm cool with those moments of pushing happening on their own timeline.

What’s a great book you’ve read recently?
The God of Skiing. Look it up. It engages the reader with the skiing/riding dream.

Favorite mountain range?
The San Juans

Working title for the book or movie about your life?
Contradiction' - the story of a Snowboarder from Kansas

Best moment filming with WME this year?
Besides feasting on Chilean red meat for two weeks, our crew was legendary. The guides and filmers and Fran were so fun to adventure around with. And, we enjoyed some unreal sunset/day-closing lines that I won't forget. Perfect light, soft snow, and the satisfaction of finishing a strong day's work.

How did Warren Miller the man influence your skiing/riding career?
Growing up as a kid in Kansas, my only exposure to skiing and snowboarding was visual media. I watched Warren Miller movies throughout my youth, and that man's ability to capture and share the snow experience changed my life. Thanks for everything, Warren!

Current favorite piece/pieces of gear? Why?
Leki carbon poles, for cross country racing and ski touring. Super light, super stiff, and my xc race poles have a shark on them

What’s your “Back in my day, we…”?
Skipped quite a few days of school when it snowed more than 8” (an actual rule in my household)

Who has inspired your skiing the most?
My parents

Best recovery exercises?
Contrast bath: 1 minute in hot (104°)/1 minute in cold (50°) x five each

Ideal down day?
Making a huge breakfast, reading for a bit, then trying to fix my bike which always seems to be broken

Favorite on-mountain fuel/snack?
Clif Bar Nut Butter bars

Spiciest/most intimidating line or place you've skied or ridden this year?
I skied 900 kilometers in New Zealand during a 3 week training camp. Does that count?

Goals in skiing/riding this next year?
Win a medal at the World Championships in Seefeld, Austria

What’s a great book you’ve read recently?
Educated

Favorite mountain range?
Elk Mountains, CO

Working title for the book or movie about your life?
Living the mountain life: the story of an Aspen kid who grew up with skis on his feet but without a Range Rover in his driveway

Best moment filming with WME this year?
Face planting right in front of the camera while doing a speed

How did Warren Miller the man influence your skiing/riding career?
I can still vividly remember going to the original Isis Theater in Aspen every October when I was a kid and watching that year’s Warren Miller film. Hearing Warren’s narration got everyone totally amped for the coming ski season, and people would always leave the theater hooting and hollering because they were so psyched for the coming winter.

Current favorite piece/pieces of gear? Why?
The Atris skis by Black Crows. I can take them anywhere and I know I'll be able to shred whether the snow is awesome or really bad. And I like to wear the Black Crows Corpus jacket and pants, it's a 3-layer Gore Tex outfit with a big mountain touch, but it also works for touring and summits, it looks like a parka , I pretty much wear it all winter.

What’s your “Back in my day, we…”?
... we could handle skiing all day every day, sometimes in exotic locations, and then party at night where things would sometimes get intense and exotic as well!

Who has inspired your skiing the most?
It's not really a specific person, even though I had "ski heroes" when I was younger, but when I reached my 20s, what motivated me the most was the whole discovery and travel side of skiing. Reaching new peaks, discovering new lines... Skiing's the best excuse to try and lead as free a life as possible.

Best recovery exercises?
Hot lemon water and a sauna.

Ideal down day?
I can think of a few options, but nowadays, it would probably be watching a Korean movie in a small theater in the Latin quarter in Paris, then have a coffee on a terrasse.

Favorite on-mountain fuel/snack?
Well, I'm french, and I come from the mountains, so without any hesitation: saucisson, cheese and bread. In the sun please.

Spiciest/most intimidating line you've skied or ridden this year?
Nowadays and for the past ten years, ever since I launched Black Crows, I spend the better part of my days behind a computer. I have less time to ski but as soon as I get a window I get out there, I need it so bad, it's my whole life, but I'm also a mere office guy, as they say...This winter for the Warren Miller shoot, the most intense moment was probably when we were on the North Face of the Aiguille du Midi. The light was really poor and we had to wait close to an hour on the face to try and see the terrain. The light never came, but we had to go ahead and ski down regardless. I hadn't skied the North face all winter and it was actually almost pleasant...

Goals in skiing/riding this next year?
I'm planning on going back to the Himalayas for a high altitude expedition. I haven't been back in years because my schedule is too heavy but I definitely want to head there and experience these unique times again.

What’s a great book you’ve read recently?
It's a book called "Le Lambeau" by Philippe Lançon, a french journalist. It's a tough read, really intense. It tells the story of a journalist who comes back from the dead after being killed in the Charlie Hebdo massacre (terrorist attacks in January 2015 against french journalists). It talks of his pain and his metamorphosis. It's really well written. A great book on life.

Favorite mountain range?
Every morning, when I wake up in my hometown of Chamonix, I look out the window and I see the Aiguilles of Chamonix and the Mont Blanc Massif and I never get bored. They look intense and different every day, it's been like that since I'm a child!

Working title for the book or movie about your life?
The Metamorphosis

Best moment filming with WME this year?
There were so many good times but the best was probably to shoot for something as iconic as a Warren Willer production alongside my long-time friends Michael Schaffer and Bruno Compagnet, whom I co-founded Black Crows with. We've been friends for over 20 years and we skied together way before Black Crows existed, so being able to shoot together just adds another cool page to our story.

How did Warren Miller the man influence your skiing/riding career?
As a teen in France, it was really hard to get our hands any American ski movies, but I have flashbacks from old Warren Miller VHS where skiing seemed so gnarly and exciting! My ski club buddies and I would come across a movie and we'd head straight to the mountain to try just about anything! Those movies lead the way to skiing heaven!

Current favorite piece/pieces of gear? Why?
My skis, the interface between me and the snow

What’s your “Back in my day, we…”?
We partied all night, skied all day

Who has inspired your skiing the most?
Franz Klammer

Best recovery exercises?
A good bottle of wine, cheese and charcuterie shared with my ski partners

Ideal down day?
Lie in, a good book, a sauna, a healthy meal.

Favorite on-mountain fuel/snack?
A big piece of artisan bread, lard du Val d'Aosta, garlic

Spiciest/most intimidating line you've skied or ridden this year?
Face nord du col du plan

Goals in skiing/riding this next year?
To ski good snow far from the crowds in wild places.

What’s a great book you’ve read recently?
Le sabot du diable Ken Nhum.

Favorite mountain range?
The one which is yet to be discovered in perfect conditions.

Working title for the book or movie about your life?
The tracked mountain

Best moment filming with WME this year?
The day we spent in the sun on top l’aiguille du midi.

How did Warren Miller the man influence your skiing/riding career?
It was a vision of an alternative ski lifestyle which didn't yet exist in Europe. It made me realize a career as a professional Skibum was possible.

Featured Athlete: Jim Ryan 

Name a person who inspires you to be a better skier?

My buddy Chris Moody. Whenever we're scheming and dreaming, he never laughs at my ridiculous ideas...."Dude, why not?" is his standard response. That attitude makes the impossible, possible.

 

What would you do if you won the lottery?

I'd buy a Cat (snowcat) and a lodge in BC and just shred with the crew - happily drifting into obscurity.

 

Breakfast of champions?

Smoothie: Banana, Blueberry, Ginger, Garlic, Peanut Butter, anything green in the fridge. I crave it. Plus, early AM garlic breath is a good way to get some personal space on the Tram.

 

Favorite chairlift and why? 

Sublette Lift at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. The terrain is so steep (and often hacked) and runs right under the chair. I love the show, I love the performance.

 

The most interesting thing you’ve read or seen this year? (books, podcasts, TV shows)

Papillon (book), by Henri Charrière - it's an incredible adventure story. The main character is a total folk hero: He's a hardened criminal and yet it's impossible not to root for him from the very beginning.

 

Ideal down day?

I've gotten really into saunas recently. I'm morphing into an old Finnish man. For real, the scandos have it figured out. It's so nice to sweat after a long day of freezing your buns off.

 

Fictitious character you most identify with from a book, movie, etc. and why?

Neal Cassady. That answer kinda freaks me out, but when I read about him, I can't help but see myself. Dude had a hunger for life and was unwilling to accept anything less than peak experience.

 
Highlight memory from filming with WME for this year's film?

Oh this one is easy. Kaylin and I got to open up this run called Skyeburst in perfect cowboy cord just as the sun was coming up over a frozen Vermont dreamscape. Unreal. We got to the bottom and turned to each other... I can't even remember what we said, but we both knew it was special.

 
How do you think the year 2020 will shape the future of skiing?

More gratitude, less people are going to take just being outside with friends for granted.

 
Gear you are loving right now, on or off the ski slopes, and why? 

I got a pair of Volkl Rise High 88's paired with the Marker Alpinist 12's...so sick, when so much of touring is the up, weight makes a huge difference. I'll happily sacrifice a couple cm's underfoot in order to enjoy the whole process. Buy light, ski more! And the Helly Hansen Odin Lifaloft Down Hybrid, if you buy just one good puffy layer, you rarely need much else.  

 

What is your vision for the future of skiing?

Continued diversification. It used to be all about the resorts, now people are finding new ways to get their vert (touring, snowmobiles, etc)... I'm currently researching the possibility of accessing lines via human flight.

 

What is a cause you care about that you'd love to share with the Warren Miller audience?

Food rescue programs. The program here in Jackson is called Hole Food Rescue, and it helps feed those in need by "rescuing" perfectly good food that grocery stores would normally throw out. Rescue programs often need volunteers, the task of picking up the food and making it accessible requires a lot of work. Most cities have a program, check yours out!  

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Don't miss Jim in our 72nd film, Winter Starts Now, dropping Fall 2021! 

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