Winter is drunk and won’t go home. You know the type. Well that’s how this season is turning out. But it’s a good drunk and a fun party. We’ll take it. To celebrate the never-ending snow, the folks at The Inertia Mountain asked me to give them my 5 favorite lines of all time. So I did. And here they are:
Photo: Scott Markewitz
1.Though most people would guess “The Crack” was the scariest and burliest line I’ve ever done, when it comes down to it, this line (above), up near Girdwood, Alaska still to this date, feels like the gnarliest line I’ve ever skied. It was a massive line—probably 2,000 feet of vertical — with a super blind rollover, a single solitary spine to get on for safety and had a 70-80-foot exit air. With slough racing on both sides of me, once I was in the line, there was no turning back. I was so scared I couldn’t even look down the hill when I was getting counted in to drop. I looked to the sky and when they said “Drop” I just pushed off. Somehow I found the spine despite the blind entrance, found the exit air, stuck it between my slough and screamed like a little school girl when I got to the bottom.
Photo: Chris Christie
2.This is a zone up in Whistler, British Columbia that somehow, I keep finding myself in. I’ve filmed on it at least four times now, probably shouldn’t go back but just keep getting drawn back because it’s so damn fun. It’s got everything. Steep spiny entrances, big hucks with good trannies and a multitude of creative variations on the lines. My wife @elysesaugstad and I have filmed quite a bit there.
Photo: MSP Films
3. This line is in Tahoe and kind of started it all for me. It’s called the Dirty Tooth and I first skied it about 12 years ago. I remember being so proud of myself because I was the first skier to ride it after @jeremyjones made the first descent of it a year or two prior. But I was a green 20-year-old and skied it so poorly that it probably shouldn’t have counted. With snow finally coming back to Tahoe, I went back with the @mspfilms crew and got redemtion.
4. Of all the great lines I’ve been fortunate enough to ski in Alaska, this one stands out because it was the first time I hiked for one of those lines. There is a certain wholeness and feeling of accomplishment that comes from hiking for your lines. After staring at this, The Wizard of Ah’s, for many years before, last year camping out underneath it for two weeks and getting to ski it with @markabma and @austinross1 stands out as a huge highlight.
Photo: Blake Jorgenson
5. Okay. Fine. Yeah the Crack. In the Tordrillos Mountains, AK. It was pretty cool too.
We’ll leave you with another view:
Editor’s Note: Watch for Cody Townsend’s Intagram takeover on The Inertia – Mountain.
