Photo: Alain Sleigher
Cody Townsend is a guy who understands the ski industry incredibly well. His perspective was formed from a range of experiences that include filming for ski flicks since his late-teens (he’s now 33), winning industry awards, and the mainstream fame that comes with having a line go viral. Attaining the goals that many amateur and up-and-coming skiers pursue has resulted in his appreciation for the more basic elements of backcountry skiing. However, that is not to say that he laments the main job of pro skiers nowadays: producing and sharing media.
Cody and I caught up while he was in Alaska, grounded by gray skies and waiting to board a heli and tackle some of the state’s imposing mountain faces. He’d just returned to the U.S. from somewhere tropical, where he was filming for a Hollywood action movie.
I’m guessing you weren’t acting as a stunt double for skiing, considering you were in a tropical place?
No, I was. I don’t know how much I’m at liberty to say, but I’ll just say I was working as a stunt double for a [insert: actor’s name] movie and we were in the [insert: tropical country].
Was this your first foray into stunt work?
Yeah, definitely, that was my first Hollywood movie.
How was it different than being on a ski movie set?
It’s crazy because its very similar in that you’re doing the same thing…you’re planning shots, scoping it out, looking at angles, working with natural light, doing a lot of the same things that we do [for ski movies]. So in that regard its very similar.
But then, there are 180 people on set, which is entirely different than I’m used to because [normally] we’ll have two cameramen and three skiers, or something like that. Sometimes [while filming ski movies] we’ll say we’re a “junk show” as a film crew. But this is a “junk show” x 100.
Photo: Guillaume Tessier
Is there more pressure for each take on a Hollywood set? There’s obviously a lot of pressure when you’re up in the mountains because it’s not easy to get from the bottom of a line to the top.
Yes and no. I mean, when you’re doing this kind of work – as I’m learning from the main guys – you’re at 75 percent of your max. You’re not trying to go 100 percent. When we’re filming ski movies, you’re trying to get to 100. You’re skiing at your upper limits because that’s what you desire. You put yourself in those situations so you can challenge yourself. But for this [being a stunt double], you’re not going to that limit. So yes, there’s pressure. Someone told me they’re spending [a lot of money] per minute, ridiculous sums of money, but you’re also doing stuff that you’re very, very comfortable and confident with.
Where did this stunt work come from?
One of those bucket list items, just growing up and thinking “man it’d be rad to be a stunt man one day.” This one just popped up out of the blue. Someone had my number, made the call, and I was like, “yeah, why not?”
So, I was told you recently spent a part of the winter in the Ruby’s, in Nevada. Is that right?
Yeah, well actually, I only spent like five days out there. Still super hard. But yeah only five days in the Ruby’s just kind of exploring.
This is Nevada. Seriously.
Were you self-support camping?
No we weren’t camping…Essentially I did this thing where there’s this infamous line called Terminal Cancer. It’s one of the most aesthetic, beautiful, cool looking couloirs in the world. Very well-known. I’ve skied it now three times, maybe four. Yeah four times actually. Generally people go out to the Ruby’s just to ski that line. Well, about six years ago, I was standing at the bottom of it and some guy on a snowmobile came up to me and was like “oh, did you guys ski that line? There’s way more of those out there.” And I remember that just kind of sticking with me…like really? There’s more of those? I guess I don’t see why not. There are totally different routes, crazy formations with the geology out there. So this year it was kind of like let’s just go out there and try to see if that’s true. Let’s go out and explore. And there’s only one zone you can ride snowmobiles in. So we [figured] we’d ride our snowmobiles to the wilderness boundary and start touring from there. Just checking out canyons and going up and down mountains, looking up and down trying to find rad couloirs. It was Josh Dueck and myself, primarily. Also my wife, Elyse, came out to ski Terminal Cancer with us. And we had a photographer there as well.
It’s funny how those little interactions with random people can have a big effect on you.
Totally. I really like that. I think it’s always worthwhile to talk to everyone. People can be shutouts. But it’s amazing, you just start sharing stories with people, talking to random people, especially in mountain communities and they can start pointing you in the right direction. You can start hearing some wild stuff.
Were you skiing lines that you hadn’t really done that much research on or talked to other skiers about? So just kind of winging it?
Yeah, I mean, we did do a little earth research, and that was it. Of course, we could have done a heli op out there. We could’ve hired a heli and flown it around and been like “oh there it is.” Or got a plane and done it. But we kind of wanted to do it ourselves. Do it like any other person would do it, you know, not do it like a pro skier would do it. I find it way more rewarding to do it like that. We wanted to do it as simple as possible and make an adventure out of it. It wouldn’t be that rewarding if you fly around in a plane and then just go drop in…[knowing] exactly what you’re doing and go ski it…like, “cool that’s it.” It’s way more fun to try and figure it out and be like, “hey, maybe we should go to that zone. That maybe looks like it could hold something.” But then you can’t really tell so you go down there and you’re either like “oh, that’s crap” or “that’s amazing, let’s go.” So, yeah, it was pretty cool.
Chasing a rumor usually turns into a big, fat reward.
Since you guys are used to having a heli and that sort of technology at your disposal, do tensions ever run high when you guys are out of your comfort zone?
I would say its almost more relaxing. Because, you know, heli’s are expensive. When you start using all these resources, you start taking away the adventure and you’re substituting more radness. It’s like the difference between paddling into JAWS versus towing in [in surfing]. Like you can tow in on just about any wave in the world and be like, wow, that was amazing. But if you paddle in then it’s way gnarlier and its got a lot more self-sufficiency to it. So it’s the same sort of thing. When you’ve got a helicopter, you’re kind of removing a lot of the peripheral just so you can ski at your top notch, whereas when you’re searching and exploring and doing it on foot, the journey is just as much of what you’re doing as the actual skiing.
Is this a trip that you were mainly just doing for you or is it something you’re going to promote down the line with sponsors and bigger media entities?
So what it was, for me, was a social media trip. It’s kind of an experiment. Media’s changing so rapidly and usually we’d have to plan a trip or be in Canada and it’s this whole big thing. And I was like, no, I just want to go find these [lines] with GoPro’s and handheld cameras. And we have our own distribution outlets with social media so let’s just go on this trip and make a hashtag. We called it #ChasingARumor. And let’s make this adventure that people can follow along with…like a real time kind of adventure.
We have a bunch of GoPro footage that’s being edited right now and we’ll release the video section of it. It was the most “for myself” trip I’ve ever done because there was no pressure to get all these certain shots for a segment. It was just like hey, let’s make a social media story out of it.
Is this idea of making something more on your own, because I know you made your own movie last year, something you are going to try do more of each year?
Yeah I’d like to. There are so many new and interesting ways to reach fans, to get media out there. It’s worth experimenting in different ways. There are big movies, but there are so many different types of media people tend to adjust, so I’d like to just keep doing random, weird, different stuff. It’s funny… a lot of athletes lament [having to use] social media. Like, “ah, I have to post now and I don’t want to. I just want to do my film segment.” But I think that social media is the most democratic form of athlete work you can do. Anyone can do it. It’s really not that hard. And it’s a cool way to create your own destiny, as opposed to relying on so many other factors, like a lighting crew.
How do you feel about the balance between just skiing for the love of skiing versus skiing for producing media? For example, we had a powder day yesterday and I wanted to capture the day on a GoPro but was tired of taking it in and out of my pocket because my hand was freezing. Do you ever find yourself battling the voice in your head that says “you don’t have to promote this. I love skiing and I’m going to enjoy it no matter what.” Versus “I want to get this out there because I have fans that want to see it and it’s my job.”
I think there is a battle with that but that’s what I think is so interesting about social media, where clearly all it takes is taking a camera out of your pocket and turning it on, and then uploading it. Whereas if you’re filming movies, you’re waiting on three cameramen and waiting on other athletes and you ski far less. But with social media I actually ski way more. And yeah, maybe its just I have to remember to turn on my POV cam or take a picture today. But that’s super easy and after that I get to really enjoy skiing the rest of the day. I feel like, as an athlete, you’re in an unnatural position. It is your job. But at the same time, it makes my job pretty easy. I’ll give an example:
I was at Whistler, in between film days, just skiing the resort with my buddy. I brought a GoPro and a gimbal. I followed him through the park, filmed him. Then he grabbed the camera, filmed me through the rest of the run. I go home at night, edit it in about ten minutes, upload it to Facebook and get 50,000 views off of it.
So I got to ski all day, take my camera out for one run and do a really good job for my sponsors. Like that’s awesome. That’s really easy. I like this. It was just, like, people kind of lament it but it actually adds a lot of freedom.
