Advanced data points have recently informed the POWDER staff that against all odds, when I spray my opinions on the internet about stuff like cool ski top sheets or deep pow days at my home mountain, people read it.
Trust me that no one is more shocked than me, except maybe every person who has ever regretted getting on a chairlift next to me and asking about any piece of gear I have on. But who am I to deny folks what they want?
So, here are six random things in skiing, or the ski industry, or the ski world, or the black hole that is my brain, that I won’t shut up about these days.
Photo: Izzy Lidsky
1. The Hoji Holes
I promised Matt I wouldn’t spray too much about 4FRNT in my opinion pieces, but I lied. I have an opinion and it’s that I love 4FRNT. Specifically, a little piece of technology on Eric Hjorleifson’s line of skis that are unofficially called the Hoji Holes.
I have the sense of humor of a 15-year-old boy and I think they’re hilarious, but more than that, I actually love the technology, and will not shut up about it (ask my friends).
The Hoji Hole is a little hole in the back of the ski that you thread the end piece of the skins that come with the skis through, eliminating the need for tail clips all together. They make your skins a little lighter and have a fun name.
As someone who has a whole lot of back problems from flat landings, I resonate deeply with the words of Hoji himself when he says: “Instead of hurting my back bending over to fix your skins, I’m skiing uphill and hurting my back on flat landings.”
Photo: AzmanL/Getty Images
2. Ski Conditioning
I’m not a gym person. At all. I’ve always been a ‘do the thing to get in shape for the thing’ kind of person. Then a couple years ago, I got super injured (see above re: hurting my back on flat landings) and had to do a bunch of physical therapy every day for a long time to be able to ski and walk, but it also got me in better ski shape than I’d ever been in.
At the start of this winter, I was pitching a project and realized I might have to ski pow for five straight days with a camera bag and some really good skiers and I got scared, so I found a ski fit class at a gym near me. Maybe this isn’t news to other people, but starting the ski season feeling really, really good, was like, really, really cool.
A lot of ski town gyms have some kind of ski conditioning class. So, if you’re as late to the game as I am on this, I 10/10 recommend finding one and going into your ski season not feeling like you’re gonna blow your knee if you crash.
Also, a big shoutout to Travis who runs the gym I went to. He put up with me being way too competitive during our workouts.
Photo: Brie Cooper/ US Ski & Snowboard Team
3. Black & White Ski Photos
One of my favorite things about working in sports media is looking at photos. I used to manage the photo library for a ski film production company and getting image folders from photographers was like Christmas morning.
I got some assets from the US Ski and Snowboard Team a few weeks ago for a piece on the U.S. Grand Prix Half Pipe finals and some of the images I got that were shot by Brie Cooper have been living rent-free in my brain. I love a black and white image, but sometimes I worry about using it too much, so I’ve been trying to notice when it really enhances the image.
Max Draeger posted some of Konstantin Ottner recently that were dynamic and contrasty, but didn’t feel like they were trying too hard to be those things. Stephen Shelesky also shot a lot of b+w’s last winter that I’ve been thinking about. The photos use light colors to create some contrast, but are really about texture and shapes.
4. Wolf Like Me by TV On the Radio
This song is in Mark Abma’s opening segment from MSP’s 2007 flick Seven Sunny Days. It was one of Abma’s first big segments and showed just how versatile a skier he was super early on in his epic career. Seven Sunny Days is also by far one of my all-time favorite films.
While it might rank a tiny bit behind Attack of La Ninã (2011) in terms of being top to bottom iconic, it’s got segments like Abma’s, Sammy C’s breakout MSP segment with that sick DL Incognito song, Colby West & TJ Schiller’s crazy follow cam segment at Mt. Hood, the McConkey/James Bond bit, the Whistler jump sunset sesh with Toccata and Fugue In D Minor…. I could go on.
Wolf Like Me has long been a song I associate with ski films, but lately, I feel like I’ve been hearing it everywhere. TV on the Radio played it on a Tiny Desk Concert with NPR Music just a few weeks ago even though they haven’t released a new album since 2014. I heard it while playing pool in a random bar in Bend last month, and it got used in Kai Jones’ new film with Red Bull that just came out. Whatever reason it is that this song is suddenly everywhere again, and I’m not mad about it at all. It’s a banger.
Photo: Matteo Challe/ Getty Images
5. Baggy Ski Steeze
Speaking of early 2000’s skiing and also Kai Jones, I ran into him last winter in front of the Jackson Hole tram on his first day back at the village and noticed he was sporting a pretty XL fit. We ended up chatting about it and how (despite the fact that Kai is almost 10 years younger than me), we’re both stoked that it seems like the XL park steeze of the early 2000’s is kind of making a comeback in ski style.
At Mt. Bachelor, there are all these groms in full on parachute pants and I love it. Is there any practical application to your pants being that baggy? Absolutely not. Does it look super cool even when the only trick you can do is a shifty? 100%.
It also seems like brands are catching onto the resurrection of this trend and specifically for women, making outerwear that has a bit more of a ‘freeride fit,’ rather than every jacket tapering at the waist and flaring out again. I love it, I’m here for it, you do you Bachelor groms in your parachute pants.
My ski jacket comes almost down to my knees these days -I still wear my goggles over my helmet, but who knows how long that will last.
Photo: Izzy Lidsky
6. Hyping Up Your Homies
100% my favorite part of working in sports media is having the platform as a photographer or writer to hype up my friends who are doing cool stuff. Maybe it’s the collective existential dread a lot of us feel these days, but it seems like a lot of other folks across the media and athlete space are feeling the same way lately.
It can be a tough world out there for athletes and creatives in a market that’s a bit saturated with both. It makes me happy to see athletes sharing each other’s projects and collaborating, folks on the brand or publication ends hiring new people to create content, and so on.
At the end of the day, skiing is a lot about community and nothing warms my rain-chilled PNW bones like getting to uplift other people who are doing things I look up to and believe in. There’s gotta be enough room in the industry for everyone and the more we work together, the more cool stuff can happen!
Related: The 6 Coolest Ski Top Sheets of 2024
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