A Full Life

Happy Wednesday! I’m reporting live from my favorite coffee shop x bookstore hybrid in my favorite town in the world and feeling caffeinated and content.

We’re back in action, and boy, oh boy, do I have links to share. Normally, when I’m scavenging the internet for something interesting to write about I have to really scrape the bottom of the barrel to find some outdoors-related news. Lately, it feels like every time I pick up my phone or open my computer, there’s something new and exciting happening in the ski/mountain/outdoors world.

Without further adieu, here’s the latest and greatest updates I’ve found over the last two weeks — plus some extra stuff that really just make my heart smile. I promise I’ll get back to long-form writing eventually; for now, though, there’s just too much fun stuff to not share.

Backcountry Chronicles

Aspen Snowmass posted their first promo for the Power of Four and they came out of the gates HOT. Rather than your traditional social media promotion with some sort of drip-campaign leading up to race day, they just slammed their fists on the table and said “oh, here’s one the greatest ski films you’ve ever seen. We made it in-house, too.” Are you joking, Aspen????

The film was so good (in my humble opinion) that I texted the below to a friend as soon as I finished it. Skimo journey: loading………

Here’s something I wish all ski brands would do: a BTS with their Creative Director showing how they made their latest line of ski kits. To me, the sure sign of a brand that knows what the frick they’re doing is tapping into semi-professional and professional skiers to play Creative Director for their line — which is exactly what TREW did here. Bonus points because they collab’d with one of my favorite skiers? Of course. But brands, please, take note. This rules.

This article from Powder7 honestly needs no introduction, because anything I try to say about it won’t be as on-the-nose as the article is. I’ll leave you with a quote instead:

What I will argue is that the plight of ski patrollers in Park City—and just about everywhere else—is a symptom of a much larger disease that’s killing not just ski patrolling, but mountain culture. It’s an epidemic, but the problem is bigger than the lab-grown, spiked protein with bubble chairs that is Vail Resorts.    

Content break! I love, love, loved this interview with Josie George: writer, artist, and photographer. When asked “What are your hopes for yourself?” Josie replied, “All I want, really, is to get better and better at being where I am. I used to burn so hot with envy and ambition, it nearly destroyed me. These days, I’m more interested in what happens if I give up the idea of hope altogether and instead move a little closer to what’s already here.”

Andddd we’re back to skiing! I’m going to Telluride the first weekend of March. What was planned as a wedding-planning-trip with my extended family is now turning into my brother’s fiance’s father and me sneaking away to ski as much as possible. Oops! That said, I’m slowly becoming obsessed with the idea of skiing Palmyra Peak. Pray for snow so she opens up.

Denver friends, rejoice. The King Soopers 12-day strike is over as workers reached a return-to-work agreement on the 17th.

More Sierra Schlag content! After the release of her latest film, NISEI, she penned a quick letter in the Ski Journal about the push-and-pull dynamic she feels between two cultures that she explored in her film. Fun fact: it’s her first time being published in print and I just love seeing skiers tap into their creative chops off the mountain.

Jump scare alert: this video of two skiers traveling out of bounds and setting off a massive avalanche, heading straight for the base of a chair lift, gave me a certified case of heebie-jeebies. The dynamics of how this is out-of-bounds and therefore not patrolled, yet basically creates a terrain trap leading straight to a loading zone don’t exactly make sense to me — but I don’t know this mountain at all, so what do I know, really?

Another TOGS plug, who could’ve guessed! Kellyn Wilson takes the mic on this one to talk about bags — a classy rolling carry on for city trips, a tastefully rugged weekender for ski trips, an airport specific crossbody for your passport, a backcountry ski pack for day trips, a backcountry ski pack for hut trips, a kind of outdoorsy kind of city-ish purse for mountain towns, an actual pursey purse for cities, 600 totes bags, I could go on — you get the point. This edition rips.

This ski film came into my periphery by way of every professional skier I follow posting about it on Instagram and saying “you don’t understand how fucking crazy this movie is,” so naturally, I bit. And let me tell you: you don’t understand how fucking crazy this movie is. I had Free-Solo-level anxiety watching some of the lines they skied.

Cool news alert: Colorado’s own Mikaela Shiffrin won her eighth world title at the Alpine skiing world championships last week.

Thinking about: this map of the change in population of Denver area counties from 2020-2023, coined the new era of austerity of Colorado. We should see rent and home prices decrease in the coming months as a result of the above + the rising supply of homes in the Denver metro area, but I’m not holding my breath.

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Now that Kings and Queens of Corbets is done, check out this BTS of building a kicker at the top. One word from me: YEESH.

Ending this edition with one of the most legitimately insane things I’ve ever seen in my life. Jim Ryan and Madison Rose came into my life through the YouTube algorithm and I’ve been praising the algorithm-gods ever since. They sought out to ski the Grand, Middle and South Tetons all in one push and — spoiler alert! — they did it. This made any day that I’ve had in the backcountry look like an absolutely walk in the park.

And here’s quote du jour to send you on your way:

…But I’ve been having a lot of conversations around the idea of engaging in activities for enjoyment rather than any considered or practical purpose. The idea of time spent doing activities, or having conversations that are detached from progress. Detached from achievement. Detached from seriousness. And how seriously hard finding those moments can be, particularly as I get older, the more spread out my friends are around the world and the busier life becomes-a word and lifestyle I don’t love or aspire to.

- McCall 🌻

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