20-year old Aidan Sheahan, a Warren Miller athlete who stars in the Aspen segment for Ticket to Ride, can lay claim to being a lot of things: a 20-year old professional park skier, Aspen local, college student, a globetrotting athlete, intellectual and green-thinker. What he won’t lay claim to is being stereotyped or typecast - from his one-of a-kind skiing style to juggling all the incongruous aspects of his life, Sheahan combines it all with a cool-headed and unique twist. We caught up with him to find out the latest accomplishments, how he finds balance in the differing aspects of his life, and what is up next.

I was on the road quite a bit last winter, but not a crazy amount. I had a trip to Canada in January for about two weeks, than a couple trips around southern Colorado. I ended up doing a lot of filming around Aspen however, which was super cool since I got to spend more time at home.

Besides filming with WME, I did some filming with Sweetgrass Productions up in Canada, and worked on a new project with Vital Films in the Aspen area, which I am so excited about. It’s going to show the mental side of action sports, and what I have used to help me dial my skiing in and make it more of my own.

I’m a philosophy major at the University of Colorado-Boulder (CU). I usually go to school in the summer and fall, taking the winters off, but this summer I was lucky enough to find a couple of biology classes right here in Carbondale at Colorado Mountain College, which will transfer to CU credit. I will go back to CU next fall, once I have to start taking courses that count towards my major.

I have one year down at CU. I am just starting my sophomore year credits-wise, age-wise I should be a junior this fall (haha!). I think I have a good system to balance school and skiing. The only thing that gets me is I miss summer skiing in May and June, but July August make up for it especially since I am going to South America this summer!

We are skiing mostly Portillo this trip. I have been to Bariloche, Argentina to ski a couple of years ago. I have been skiing the backcountry quite a bit lately, I’d say 60% park and 40% backcountry last year, which I would like to reverse next year.

After every pow trip I come back to the park and ski even better. Knowing how to ski and make turns and adjust and adapt to terrain besides predictable groomers naturally has a positive effect on my skiing, and it’s just exciting in a different way.

Safety in the backcountry is the most important thing though; you can’t just go out and send something you see like you can in the park. But I think that is what makes it interesting. It adds an element of strategy and forces you to slow down.

Next winter I want to film more and make a well-rounded segment with backcountry and park, and also work on more different projects regarding sustainability and the environment. It’s such an important part of human existence, and skiing is so connected to nature that I think it can be captured in a really good way.

On the same note, the environment inside our heads needs sustainability, and I think mindfulness and meditation have a really important part to play in action sports in general, especially with how crazy the tricks are getting. If it isn’t for yourself, in my opinion that’s when things can get dangerous, and cultivating more awareness of your motivations inside your head I think is the best helmet or you can put on.

I just want us all to have fun and be safe while doing what we love. Oh and I would like to not take myself so seriously, skiing is already just so much fun, and I am so lucky and grateful to be able to do it for a living.