When the Winter Park Express returned in January of the 2016–17 season, there was a lot to be excited about. The train trip departing from Denver’s Union Station promised to bypass I-70’s notorious ski traffic, replacing it with a scenic, two-hour ride up into the mountains that culminated in a 6.2-mile ride through circa-1927 Moffat Tunnel before the train chugged into Winter Park’s station.

And then skiers found out the price—from $80 for a round-trip fare, and sometimes as pricey as $140—which made riding the train little more than a novelty for most. It also only operated on the weekends, making logistics tricky.

Since then, the Amtrak-operated Winter Park Express has stuck to a similar pricing scheme and a limited schedule, adding in some holiday Mondays and offering a wider range of fares to suit different budgets. All in all, it’s been a success, and has demonstrated an unwavering interest in routes to the slopes that don’t involve sitting in standstill traffic.

Case in point, a couple months ago the Colorado Department of Transportation and extend service beyond Winter Park to Steamboat and further north. Championed by Colorado Governor Jared Polis and state lawmakers, the proposal intends to utilize train tracks already in place to create passenger rail service from Winter Park to Steamboat and as far north as Craig. But those plans are .

In the meantime, Amtrak just announced significant upgrades to the ski train experience, debuting in time for this season. This includes lower train fares, an expanded schedule, more passenger capacity, and an earlier start to the season.

The Winter Park Express will begin service on December 20—three weeks earlier than in past years. There will be two holiday weekends on the schedule: December 20 to 22 and December 27 to 29. Fares will start at $19 each way, and increase based on demand, and fares for kids ages 2 through 12 are only half the cost of adult tickets.

For the bulk of the ski season, Jan. 9 through March 31, trains will run Thursdays through Mondays, departingÌę at 7 A.M. and arriving at Winter Park at 9 A.M. The return trip leaves at 4:30 P.M. and arrives back at 6:40 P.M. at downtown Denver’s Union Station. Also new this season, all trains will carry two additional passenger cars, increasing capacity from 270 to 400 seats per train.

During a press conference at Union Station earlier this week announcing the upgraded ski-season service, Governor Polis said that he hopes to eventually offer year-round train service. Until then, ski train.

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It’s officially that very special time of year again.

The newest Warren Miller film is coming soon, and this year marks a major milestone: the feature film’s 75th anniversary. The first movie produced by the iconic filmmaker debuted back in 1949 as the world was introduced to a whole new way to watch skiing. And today the first official trailer for “75” is live.

“The film showcases a diverse mix of snowsports icons, Olympic hopefuls, and emerging talents,” said Warren Miller Executive Producer Josh Haskins. “It’s unlike anything we’ve crafted before and is poised to ignite excitement and winter stoke in theaters nationwide this fall.”

The official film premiere is Oct. 15 in Boulder, Colo.—an especially meaningful day that would have marked Miller’s 100th birthday. () Celebrations will extend far off the silver screen with a festival-style street party. If you can’t make it to Boulder, the film is going on the road for an almost 100-city North American tour.

This year’s film lineup features 10 all-new segments that will deliver 90 minutes of action and storytelling. The itinerary will take fans to powder stashes and iconic destinations worldwide, from Canada, Colorado, California, and Utah to Finland, Japan, Austria, and New Jersey.

The athlete lineup for Warren Miller’s “75” is stacked, featuring skiers including Max Hitzig, Lexi duPont, Caite Zeliff, Aaron Blunck, Alex Ferreira, and Cassie Sharp, plus snowboarders Shaun White, Zeb Powell, Toby Miller, Danny Davis, and 15-year-old phenom LJ Henriquez.

There’s a 25 percent discount for all new and current șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű+ members who snag tickets before Sept. 19, and tickets for the general public are on sale now at full price.

For more information about the tour, including the schedule, visit .

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“Not the last line, just the last episode,” Cody Townsend stated about halfway through episode number 46 in his ski-mountaineering series, “The Fifty,” which was released this morning, March 20.

And that’s pretty much the gist. This is the end of “The Fifty” as we know it—there will be no more regularly scheduled programming—but Townsend made it clear that he will continue his quest as conditions and opportunities allow.

 

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If you haven’t been following Townsend and “The Fifty,” he’s a pro skier who punctuated his freeride career in 2014 by nabbing Powder łŸČčČ”ČčłúŸ±ČÔ±đ’s . But in a surprise turn in 2019, Townsend pivoted. Inspired by the book 50 Classic Ski Descents of North America, he endeavored to learn the art of ski mountaineering—Townsend was previously known for accessing big mountains via a helicopter. Townsend was a nascent ski mountaineer when he announced that would repeat all 50 lines and document the journey on his . He sought to use the objective and his connections in the ski community to gain skills and knowledge along the way.

Ìę Ìę Ìę ÌęAlso Read:

The Fifty now has a cult following, with fans invested in Townsend completing the goal. Back in February, Ski published a commentary by longtime contributor and ski mountaineer Matt CotĂ© titled “Cody Townsend Should Quit ‘The Fifty’ While He’s Ahead—and Alive.’” raked in both praise and vitriol from Townsend’s fan base, but Townsend himself admitted that he grapples daily with balancing his and his crew’s safety against completing the remaining lines, which are arguably among the most dangerous in the series.

Even back then, Townsend told CotĂ© that he would not die for this series, and gave no timeline for finishing it, especially considering that the final four lines are rarely in skiable shape. He even hinted that he might not officially finish, which is where he seems to have landed with today’s final episode.

“Well folks, this is it,” Townsend said from the base of California’s 12,500-foot Bloody Mountain, which will be the location of the .Ìę “The adventures aren’t over, I’ll definitely still be filming in the mountains and sharing cool stuff.” He urged people to revisit the channel, where he plans to continue posting content.

As for this last episode, Townsend said that it brings ”The Fifty” project full circle. Bloody Couloir was the first big mountain line he’d ever skied some 20 years ago. He ventured out with very little ski-touring experience, in race boots and 202-cm race skis. “We literally had no idea what we were doing.”

For this final installment, Townsend brings back Greg Lindsey, who was with him on his original Bloody Couloir excursion, but this time they do it right—well, “Fifty”-style right, with a bit of slogging to the base via SUV, e-biking, and hiking. Using plenty of video footage from the original mission mixed in with the current trek, this episode brings home just how far Townsend and crew have come, and what they’ve gained in the process.

“It’s pretty cool to come full circle and do it again with the same crew and see where we’ve all been along this route,” Lindsey commented during the episode.

Needless to say, this iteration of the Bloody Couloir line went far smoother for Townsend thanks to a ton more experience, but the joy felt at the summit, and during the descent, remains largely the same.

“Skiing is one of the most magical sports in the world because it can provide a lifetime of adventures, challenges, friends, community, and joy,” Townsend mused.Ìę “When I started this project, I said I wanted to learn the mountains in a whole new way, and after 46 lines I can easily say I’ve learned a lot, thanks to the people, the mountains, the places, and the communities.”

Musing on his journey, Townsend ends the “final” episode with a bit of mystery and intrigue, saying that he will continue to pursue the remaining four lines on his own timeline. “Whether Bjarne (Salen) and I complete all 50 or not, that is a question I continue to seek the answer to, and one day hopefully you all will know the answer too.”

Watch the Final Episode of “The Fifty”: Line Number 46, Bloody Couloir

The post Cody Townsend Ends ”The Fifty“ with 46 Ski Descents Complete appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

The line before us didn’t seem all that intimidating—a subalpine couloir with walls that were almost more gully-like than a traditional, rocky pinner’s would be. But my two partners and I still paused for a solemn moment before dropping in that day. This was the Polichinelle Couloir, where Doug Coombs fell and died in 2006. I had moved to La Grave, France, for a season in my late 20s to follow in the tracks of giants like Coombs and learn to ski mountaineer. This is where I came to understand that the most deadly terrain is not found on the mountain but in the mind.

The trick with ski mountaineering is you can do everything right and still get it wrong. It’s like getting hit by a car; you never think it will happen to you. In Coombs’s case, a simple patch of ice above a cliff proved fatal.Ìę Yet, these stories haven’t deterred other professional freeriders from transitioning into ski mountaineering and thriving. Chris Davenport was one of the first, with his 14ers project. Snowboarder Jeremy Jones followed with his Deeper, Further, Higher trilogy. And today, some of the biggest skiing heroes are Christina Lustenberger, JĂ©rĂ©mie Heitz, and Jimmy Chin.

Enter Cody Townsend, a big, blond, lovable personality with more downhill ski talent than just about anyone on Earth. After reaching the stupefying limits of his freeride career in 2014—when he won “Powder” łŸČčČ”ČčłúŸ±ČÔ±đ’s coveted Line of The Year award for flashing an impossibly tight, aesthetic couloir in Alaska—he found himself at a crossroads, contemplating what lay ahead. In the throes of ski mountaineering’s new pop appeal, he discovered a book Chris Davenport co-authored, “50 Classic Ski Descents of North America,” celebrating some of this continent’s most underground self-powered feats on skis. Townsend, who was not then a ski mountaineer, announced he would repeat every line in the book and Here we are five years later, with Townsend, an ice-axe-wielding viral sensation and only four lines remaining on his daunting list.

The problem now is he’s backed himself into a corner, and what’s left is insane. University Peak has only been skied a handful of times, Mount Robson and the Comstock Couloir twice, and Saint Elias has a short, messy history that’s sent two to their graves. Meanwhile, Townsend is at the height of his powers, with more eyes on him than ever. There are already many dangerous cultural trappings within ski mountaineering, like one-up-manship and summit fever. In Townsend’s case, these kinds of psychic traps are compounded by the pressure of his livelihood—not to mention being the sport’s biggest sweetheart. People love him and want him to succeed; I’m one of them. I love the show.

Sure, like any star, his reinvention has sometimes been cringey to watch. There’s been self-congratulation, like when he praises his own triage of a rescue on Mount Joffre. Or, there was the nail-biting near-miss on Mount Saint Elias, in which his team skis down a close-out line by mistake and hikes back out only minutes before a planet-shaking wet slide tears down it. Throughout the series, Townsend also regularly professes ski-mountaineering techniques or philosophies right after learning them himself. But then again, he’s found a winning formula that’s built him one of the biggest followings in skiing. And, more to his credit, he has indeed climbed and skied almost every line he set out to. Plus, he’s made a reasonable effort to show his mistakes, whether he understands them in the moment or not.

On that note, fans of the series will have noticed a change recently. as he’s tackled the more complex lines on his checklist and wrestled more closely with death. In the Polar Star episode, for example, despite doing everything in perfect style and nailing a triumphant first descent, he narrowly misses being crushed by a random rockfall.

This is the handshake you make to ski these lines: much will be out of your control. As Townsend has run up against the edges of that contract, showy social-media vanity has all but disappeared from his episodes. Instead, he now reveals a tortured process of traveling for thousands of miles and days on end only to have to turn around, exhausted, as he tests the limits of his endurance at the tender age of 40. All for a project he may not enjoy as much as he once did.

Nonetheless, season five of “The Fifty” delivers a version of him operating at the top of his game. At this point, few could argue Townsend is anything less than a full-fledged ski mountaineer, and a good one at that. But if you know how confidence curves work, that is a terrible inflection point with four dangerous mountains left to go. Despite his success, there’s a risk of overconfidence, given the nature of the remaining descents. Townsend has skirted disaster enough times that the statistical truth of what’s ahead of him might be at odds with his expectations.

Still, there are differences between him and other ski-mountaineers. Most notably, he is one of the best skiers in the world. But that difference is also expressly what puts him at more risk. I’ve tried to ski Mount Robson twice and turned around each time because warming temperatures made it unsafe. That wasn’t easy for me, but it’ll be all the more difficult for him. If he chooses to walk in instead of using a helicopter, it takes at least two days to approach the mountain, let alone walk back out. The deeper you go, the more invested you feel. Like Saint Elias and University Peak, Robson has almost no beta available before you get there—you can take your best guess, but you find out the conditions once you arrive.

In the second Comstock Couloir episode, Greg Hill asks him if he would still be trying to get up it despite the fact it’s clagged in that day if it weren’t for the project. Townsend answers no, and it’s a perfect allegory for the entire Ă©lan of “The Fifty.” You’re in a bad place if the point is the objective, not the experience. Fate has stepped in to impress this fact on the very best. Not just Doug Coombs but also Andreas Fransson, and to name but a few.

In my correspondence with Townsend, he told me he would not die for this project, and I believe he believes that. But he was clear he was going to try to finish. That said, he’s given himself no specific time frame and might not even film the last few lines (which is hard to believe). For many of us in the audience, however, his most impressive feats have not been brazen descents but when he’s wrestled with tough decisions. Backing off of the Comstock twice was painful but brilliant. Bailing on Saint Elias was precisely right (though executed poorly). And his patience and perseverance on Split was perfect. A lot of times, adversity is just as compelling, even if what you need to overcome is yourself.

Ski mountaineering is about listening and taking what’s on offer when it’s on offer. If he tunes into that, Townsend can bring his audience on any adventure he wants. But some lines left to go in “The Fifty” only come into shape a handful of times a decade. The chances of parachuting in from afar and nailing the conditions are too slim to quantify. How many years does he want to spend leaving his family to travel for days and weeks to test his willingness to turn around? He has grown so much and has our community’s respect, but I’m worried he still has to navigate the biggest hazard ski mountaineers face. Not crevasses, rock falls, or avalanches, but believing there’s only one ending to his story. In reality, he can write it any way he wants.

Matt CotĂ© is a writer and editor who’s spent nearly two decades continually mesmerized by British Columbia’s peaks and people.

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Let’s be honest: There’s a tried-and-true formula that most ski movies follow. A group of heroes is on an all-too-familiar quest, then cue the slow-mo slashes, steep spines, and stylized shots 
 and repeat until the end. It can all blur into one long segment at times. And that isn’t necessarily a bad thing—we love a shreddy stoke film as much as the next person—but we can all agree that it gets repetitive at times.

, a Bend, Ore.–based skier and filmmaker, decided to throw out the rulebook with The Blackcountry Journal, a short film that mixes backcountry freeskiing with his lifelong passion for jazz. Beneath the smooth soundtrack and savory facade is a complex story about race in skiing, although the nuance may take a few views to rise to the surface. Shot in monochrome and structured in three parts, the film abstractly follows Duncan’s story as black man trying to find his place in the white ski industry.

We sat down with Duncan upon his return from the Banff screening to learn about the making of The Blackcountry Journal. Be sure to when it’s released to the public on Nov. 8.

SKI: Welcome home! How are you?

Mallory Duncan (MD): I’m doin’ alright. Life is chaos right now. I’m juggling a lot, getting ready for the digital launch. I’ve been handling all the post production, from festivals to distribution. It’s been a huge learning experience, but also exhausting. I just got back from screening it at Banff this weekend, along with a bunch of films from CK9 and Level 1, and that contrast certainly made the film stand out.

SKI: What are a few of the recent lessons?

MD: The biggest one is how to say no. I need some time at my house to regroup. I was gone for three weeks and have more travel coming up, so I’m grateful for time at home. It’s all a balance. Also, it feels uncomfortable to promote something this much. That’s not me. I know it’s important for the film’s success and I only get to release my first ski film once, but it feels weird to be posting about it everyday. But, I am proud of what we made and want people to watch it, so I’m just going for it.

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SKI: What’s the theme of the film?

MD: I have been processing this a lot so I appreciate you asking. It’s about “artistic” expression. Skiing doesn’t need to be the gnarliest line or raddest thing. It doesn’t need to be big, unattainable tricks. Instead of pushing limits, it’s about expressing myself on a slope. Looking up and seeing art. Developing my own style of skiing. I wanted to make the skiing relatable and focus on the creative aspects of filmmaking. Below that is a story about finding my place in the ski industry as a black man, but I didn’t want the race part to be heavy handed. You’ll either pick it up or you won’t, and either is okay with me.

SKI: The film is based around a couple poems you wrote; what are the most important lines?

MD: The first poem I wrote in late 2020 and it was the catalyst for the film. The second poem, the one that the film ends with, has been more impactful recently. One of my favorites I thought of while skiing Mount Jefferson. “Did you feel the rhythm of the wilderness, while you rested on a rocky shoulder, the beat of rock fall reverberating off the canyon walls.” It was a beautiful moment and it needed to be in the film.

Another is about appreciating the art left on the slope. “When you look back, didn’t you see the piece you played, improvised on the peaks’ paper flanks.” I love the alliteration of it. Making the film based on the poems helped me connect to skiing in a new way. I hope that it inspires others to express themselves too.

SKI: What other films did you use as inspiration?

MD: One in the ski world and one is not. The first is . It’s an experience just watching it. You can feel that energy without any words. I wanted to do that with The Blackcountry Journal. The second is by Topaz Jones. He’s a hip-hop artist and calling it a visual album doesn’t do it justice. It’s powerful because it can be interpreted in so many different ways. It’s a form of black art, by a black filmmaker, about black identity without putting it right in your face. I appreciate the subtly.

SKI: How does race play into your film?

MD: I wanted to show that black people have a place in skiing, not tell people how they do. I like to be about things, not talk about them. I live a black experience, but that doesn’t define me as a skier. While I will never deny my blackness, I don’t have to force it into conversations either. Just by existing in these spaces I am part of the movement for more representation in snow sports. It’s better to show, not tell.

SKI: Is there anything would you have done differently?

MD: There’s a lot of small tweaks and edits that I could obsess over for the rest of time, but generally speaking I’m really stoked on where it landed. Honestly. Sometimes I wish we added some of the bigger lines we skied in Alaska, but our goal was about the expression of the sport, not proving I’m a good skier. The open, mellow glacier skiing is where you really get to improvise and I’m happy we stuck to that.

SKI: Are you inspired to do more filming after this is behind you?

MD: Absolutely. I want to continue telling stories about skiing in a unique way, drawing connections to urban culture, music, and hip hop culture. We’re throwing around a lot of ideas right now and I can’t speak directly to them yet, but as someone who grew up in the city, I see an opportunity to make more ski films relatable to urban folks. I want to talk about skiing in a way that brings more people into the sport.

Watch The Blackcountry Journal on YouTube

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Bode Miller wants you to try his skis. No, not the burly metal Head or Atomic skis that saw him become the two-time overall World Cup champion and six-time Olympic medalist. He’s not pushing $2,500 pairs of Bomber Skis this time, either. Today, Miller is launching a new venture, , a direct-to-consumer ski brand leading with a line of six all-mountain skis designed for skiers like you and me—which is to say, skiable by mortal enthusiasts. Miller is joined by co-founder Andy Wirth, most recently the president and CEO of Squaw Valley Ski Holdings until 2018, who will serve as the brand’s CEO.

Miller, who retired from ski racing in 2017 and has in the time since, began his latest project over a year ago with the intense focus on developing the highest performance skis possible, designed for all skiers and every part of the mountain. While heavily focused on downhill performance, Peak Ski Company isn’t making racing skis. They instead fall into the all-mountain category.

The company developed its first prototypes and had a team of respected ski testers led by 30-year veteran ski tester David Currier, who has tested for Skiing, șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű, and Mountain Magazine, review the skis. The goal was to build skis that could compete with the top five ranking skis in the șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Magazine ski test.

“After multiple rounds of culling—selecting the best of each of the four prototypes created for each model—I’d say Peak’s skis far exceeded that goal,” says Currier. “In fact, every model of ski would have clearly broken into the top fiveÌę ’21-’22 skis, and three models would likely have won—outright—the ‘Best in Test’ ranking in their respective categories. I’ve never seen a new brand even come close to this performance.”

So what sets this boutique brand apart—and possibly above—the roughly 35-plus ski companies already holding market shares?

“Bode’s racing experience and passion for performance, coupled with his unique and creative approach to engineering, are the key differentiators of our company,” says Wirth.

In practice, that expertise resulted in what Peak is calling Keyhole Technology—an oval cutaway in the top layer of aluminum-titanium alloy that delivers what the brand calls “accessible power.” Meaning, the power is in the ski when you want it (provided you know how to access it), but they won’t ski like wet noodles either when you are just cruising on groomers. In theory, this works because the Keyhole requires less sidecut in the wider models, allowing for easy turn initiation and the ability to alter turn shapes at will.

So when you’re chasing Miller off the tram into the Big Sky sidecountry, or out for a few dreamy corduroy laps on Elk Park Ridge, you’ll be hard-pressed to find terrain these skis won’t dance with. That’s because the ski stays balanced in every length, rather than applying the same sidecut and flex across every model.Ìę

“Just one small example is that if you change the rise or the rocker by a millimeter or two, you change how the ski engages at the initiation of a turn,” Miller says. “If you change that, then you need to compensate by adjusting the torsional rigidity of the ski underfoot. It was with that experience, I learned years ago that a cutaway in front of the binding unlocks the torsional performance of a ski. We’ve integrated this Keyhole Technology into all our skis and it has yielded great results.”

It’s a lot of tech to understand, and to hear Miller talk about the process and development of the line, it’s clear his years designing skis throughout his racing career have taught him to consider every single element, design feature, and measurement.

And according to preliminary testing by Currier, the attention to detail has paid off.

“Bode and the product team have developed an entire line of skis that have a feel of their own and don’t ski like anything on the market,” he says, “meaning they are just plain better than what’s currently in the market.”

The lineup of skis for 2022-2023 include four models of Peak by Bode Miller skis in increasing waist widths: The Peak 88; The Peak 98; The Peak 104; and the Peak 110. ÌęThe line also includes two lightweight sidecountry skis, the Peak SC 98 and Peak SC 104.Ìę

The 2022-’23 Peak by Bode Miller skis and Peak SC by Bode Miller skis will both be priced at $890 and exclusively available through peakskis.com. Based on the limited number of skis produced, customers can make a reservation with a fully refundable $50 deposit to lock in their ski of choice well before they are manufactured in Peak’s 10,000-square-foot-facility in Bozeman, Montana, in early fall of 2022.

So will the skis make you fly like Bode? Probably not. But that’s the point, he says. Not everyone can bend a ski like the world’s top racers—but they shouldn’t have to sacrifice performance because of it.

The post Bode Miller Launches Peak Ski Company with 6 New Ski Designs appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

This past March, SKI magazine hired me for a stock photo shoot at Utah’s Powder Mountain. In some ways, it was pretty standard—myself and three skiers, knocking off a laundry list of imagery: high speed carving shots, laughing while carrying skis shots, aprĂšs shots
the usual. On the other hand, it was unlike any photo shoot ever done in the history of skiing.Ìę

That’s because all four of us are Black.Ìę

I’ve shot skiing and snowboarding for over 20 years, but this was only the second time I’ve done an all-Black shoot. The first was 20 years ago, when I organized an all-Black shoot with Keir Dillon, Ahmon Stamps, Damon Morris, and Ben Hinkley for Snowboarder. This time around, as with the first time, what struck me was the conversations we had during our time together. Being on the hill, setting marks and hitting them, creating the imagery—that’s that same as it ever was. But the discussions between shots, the places our conversations went in the evening over a meal—those are not things I’m used to talking about in this context.Ìę

Errol Kerr, the former X Games and Olympic skiercross competitor, was one of the skiers with me at Powder Mountain. In his 20 years of skiing, he’d never done a shoot with a single Black person, let alone three of us. We talked about the adversity his family went through to keep him on skis, what we’ve encountered when we’ve pushed for equity in the past, what made us feel bad, what made us feel good. It’s stuff that he’s kept mostly bottled up for his entire career.Ìę

The other two skiers were Justin and Lauren Samuels. Lauren, a former member of the U.S. Ski Team development squad, arrived at Powder Mountain in a similar position to a lot of BIPOC outdoor athletes: suddenly in high demand. Prior to the 2018 Winter Olympics, she consulted with and was talent on a Procter & Gamble shoot produced by Wieden + Kennedy. The two of us talked at length about the differences between commercial and editorial production—the pay rates, what’s fair, what’s not; what makes sense from a financial standpoint, and what needs to change from an inclusivity standpoint.Ìę

Rare as they are, shoots like these provide a crucial opportunity for BIPOC athletes and content creators, where we can compare notes and gut check the progress (or lack of it) that’s been made over the past year of racial reckoning in this industry.Ìę

Paying Up for BIPOC Talent

To understand how necessary this is, you only need to look back to this 2018 Subaru campaign. It features a formerly homeless San Diego teenager named Ryan Hudson, whose life turned around after a chance encounter with snowboarding. It’s an inspiring story, one on which Subaru undoubtedly spent significant money, judging from the video’s production value. According to Hudson, however, he didn’t see any of it.Ìę

Typically in a production of this caliber, someone in Hudson’s role is compensated; at a minimum, a charitable donation is made to the cause they represent. But he was still learning the business of how outdoor sports are marketed. Three years later, he’s mentored with Conrad Anker and climbed Denali with Jon Krakauer. Hudson now knows the questions he needs to ask before committing to a campaign, but the brands often still don’t know the right questions to ask him in order to leverage his insight and put his strengths to work for them.Ìę

In 2018, brands could treat BIPOC talent differently and find savings by taking advantage of what that talent didn’t know to ask for. Now, talent like Lauren is the rare expert in a scenario with extreme demand. It’s a seller’s market and she’s the seller.Ìę

The Scramble for Diverse Talent

In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement following George Floyd’s murder, brands everywhere scrambled to find Black athlete and influencers—people like Lauren—to feature in their campaigns. It was like a bunch of brands looking to pull carrots while realizing they never planted any seeds. Lauren and her peers were pulled in all these different directions by brands that don’t understand what they’re doing or why they’re doing it.Ìę

The sudden investment by the outdoor industry in BIPOC athletes, influencers, and content creators might be a trend for some brands, but for the smart ones, it’s a sea change. VF Corp didn’t lay out two billion dollars for Supreme just because it liked the optics of supporting street culture; it was a healthy bet on a future in which authentic diversity is the new key to the kingdom.Ìę

It was smart; instead of buying pieces of the machine and trying to assemble it into some imitation of “the culture,” they just bought the whole factory. On the other end of the spectrum, Black designers and entrepreneurs are already circling the outdoor industry. Watch what Virgil Abloh with Off White or Kerby Jean Raymond with Pyer Moss do over the next few years, and see how long it takes them to reset the deck in outerwear.Ìę

Meanwhile, everyone else in the outdoor industry will need to decide: are they just going to pay some hip hop star to go snowboarding in their gear, or are they going to develop meaningful relationships with content producers and brand ambassadors and allow them to guide these companies toward a more inclusive future?Ìę

I’m all for creating new experiences and buzz with celebrities as long as that exponential value and respect is also shown to veterans like Phil Henderson—people who fought through adversity for advocacy and equality in the outdoors for years before it was on brand.Ìę

Brands who engage with this effort in good faith might be surprised by who they find on the other side of the table. It may not be the kid who can huck the biggest air or who has the largest Instagram following. They might bring a sensibility that’s informed by stick and ball-style deal-making and pop culture-influenced brand building. Maybe these kids model how LeBron James’ SpringHill Entertainment, Ava DuVernay’s Array, or Tyler Perry Studios do business. However they come at it, it will look different than what many outdoor brands are used to dealing with.Ìę

There’s a long game here, business-wise. Sometime in the next 20 to 30 years, groups formerly seen as “minorities” will become the majority. Brands who engage in good faith and allow themselves to learn will earn loyalty from a consumer base that knows virtue signaling when they see it and will spend their dollars with brands in which they believe.Ìę

A Checklist: Is Your Company Doing the Work?

To all the companies out there that want to contribute to a more diverse and equitable outdoors, I have bad news and good news. The bad news is that this will be uncomfortable at times. The good news is that you can prepare for that now by doing internal work that leads to external validations. Consider:

• Has your brand conducted an independent audit of how diverse your workforce is? Did you share the results, both internally and externally? Have you committed to specific goals that move the needle going forward? The New York Times is a great example of a company that’s doing this well.Ìę
• Have you implemented DEI training on topics like unconscious bias for your workforce, and identified ways to ensure your company culture is welcoming to the more diverse workforce you’re hoping to attract?
• If your brand is already working on these kinds of initiatives, how well funded are they? It’s good to have C-suite buy-in for these initiatives, but who ultimately approves the spend? Does your CFO back them as essential?Ìę
• When your brand creates products or services that touch on minority culture, does part of the profit go to these communities? Has your brand committed any percentage of its annual marketing spend to BIPOC-owned media?
• When your brand engages BIPOC athletes, influencers, and ambassadors, are they compensated competitively? Are creators like myself, who require brands to treat the talent and crew I work with equitably, embraced or avoided?

The most interesting conversation I had at Powder Mountain wasn’t with Errol or Lauren or Justin; it was with Lauren’s father, David, who came along just to see something he never thought he would: an all-Black ski shoot.Ìę

Mr. Samuels is basically the Black MacGyver, an unsung outdoor industry veteran from the ’80s and ’90s who worked his way from sales rep for Salomon to senior director of new product Innovation with Rollerblade. The guy has done so many cool things, but what struck me most was his pure and sincere love of the outdoors—and the way he instilled that same love in his kids.Ìę

That generational love has always driven the outdoor industry; the consumer base has been so homogenous for so long because we’ve made incorrect assumptions about who might share that love. Challenging these assumptions—whether by how you market, who you market with, or how you engage those people to whom you’re marketing—is the first step toward a more diverse and equitable outdoor industry.

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Colorado-based active lifestyle publisher Pocket Outdoor MediaÌęannounced today that its rapidly growing team has gained two new members:ÌęMicah Abrams and Sierra Shafer, formerly ofÌęA360 Media.

Abrams—who joins Pocket to supervise editorial strategy for Warren Miller Entertainment and SKI magazine—oversaw content strategy for șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Sports Network,ÌęA360’s sports and fitness portfolio, for the last four years, a role that included management of Powder, Surfer, and Bike magazines, among others.ÌęShafer, who will become the new editor-in-chief of SKI, served as Powder‘s editor-in-chief for the last two years.

The move comes as several prominent titles underÌęA360 Media, including Powder, face an uncertain future. This fall,ÌęPowder, along with sister publications Snowboarder,ÌęSurfer, and Bike,Ìępaused productionÌęandÌęfurloughed all staff indefinitely without pay. Many have questioned whether the titles are gone for good.

“The playing field for enthusiast media is an entirely different game than it was even five years ago,” said AbramsÌęin a release published today. “POM is moving in all the right directions by putting audiences at the center of both its growth and its revenue strategies, and I couldn’t be more excited to join their team. It’s an incredible privilege to come back to Warren Miller Entertainment and to help reimagine SKI, one of outdoor media’s most venerable titles.”

Pocket CEO Robin Thurston said that hiring Abrams and Shafer “furthers [the company’s] commitment to artful storytelling as our north star.”

Abrams and Shafer will be instrumental in growing membership for Active Pass, Pocket’sÌęsubscription membership program that includes benefits like event registrations, training plans, and premium content.

In January, theÌęSKIÌęmagazine website will relaunch on a new platform and join the Active Pass program.

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