The helicopter cruised through brisk Alaskan air towards the landing zone. Two guides were the first to get out, followed by a few professional skiers, including Duncan Adams. The guides quickly busied themselves with unloading gear—they had a ski movie to make, after all. As another member of the team exited the bird, the cornice on which they were standing broke. Adams and fellow pro Stefan Thomas fell uncontrollably, traveling hundreds of feet.
They swam through a current of moving snow, eventually coming to rest above a large crevasse. Adams was 16. It was his first time skiing in Alaska. Later in the trip, Adams would snag footage for Level 1’s 2009 film Refresh and a POWDER cover photo.
For the teenaged Stowe, Vermont, native, the adventure marked one hell of an introduction to big mountain terrain, and a flash of major media visibility. However, as Adams’ career and skills progressed, he remained largely in the shadows despite standout movie appearances. Freeskiing has a long lineage of colorful, highly visible characters. Adams, who’s existed as a quiet, powerful undercurrent within the sport for well over a decade, is not one of them. I wanted to know why.
Photo: Rocko Menzyk
Given his low profile, Adams was surprisingly easy to reach—if seemingly confused about the reason for my call. “I’ve never really done any interviews, so this is a new one for me,” he told me in a gruff voice over the phone. Now in his early 30s, Adams is no longer a professional athlete after departing from his longtime sponsor, Faction, last fall—but he isn’t quitting skiing.
THE TOWN OF STOWE ISN’T A BAD PLACE TO GROW UP AS A BURGEONING SKIER—having parents deeply embedded in the snowsports scene doesn’t hurt, either. Adams’ father worked for Dynastar. His mother was a talented alpine racer, a member of the U.S. Ski Team, and a coach. “It was kind of just natural to fall into it,” said Adams of skiing. For Level 1 filmmaker Freedle Coty, one memory of Adams at a rail jam in the early 2000s stands out. Coty, also from Stowe and several years older than Adams, saw a shy kid with an undeniable knack for skiing. “That was the initial sign where I felt like he was gonna thrive,” said Coty.
Those skills progressed as the family moved to Colorado to, in part, be closer to Adams’ grandmother. Adams took advantage of the once famed Breckenridge terrain parks, where the massive booters of Freeway helped him build comfort in the air. While maintaining speed for the jumps was hard when he was younger and smaller, Adams wasn’t very intimidated as a youngster—he was hungry. People took notice. At 15, he appeared in a group park segment for Level 1’s 2008 film Turbo, riding alongside the likes of Mike Riddle and Adam Delorme.
Teenagers aren’t usually known for being cool headed, but Adams, Coty explained, was mature despite his age. “His presence has never felt like a little kid is tagging along or something,” said Coty. When it came time to select skiers for the Level 1 Alaska trip the season after Turbo, one of the scheduled athletes was injured. Adams had begun to earn money as a halfpipe competitor, and was able to contribute to the helicopter fund. He filled the empty spot.
Then, the cornice fell. Adams was concerned about another accident, particularly while getting out of the helicopters, but once he was strapped into his skis, he felt okay. Still, the enormous, open faces of Alaska marked a significant departure from his home turf. He was used to skiing tight trees out East. “That was a crazy leap from not filming any backcountry ever to suddenly being in a helicopter in Alaska,” Adams said.
Photo: Jeff Cricco
The greenhorn hung in there, though, producing enough footage to round out a group segment with Stefan Thomas and Wiley Miller. “The fact that he was engaging in it alone was already such a huge advancement,” said Coty of Adams’ foray into the backcountry. That same season, Adams took third at the inaugural Dew Tour halfpipe event in Breckenridge, which, he said, marked the first time he could tap into the professional skiing lifestyle.
Adams competed in halfpipe for several years alongside his growing interest in the backcountry. As a competitor, he was notable, in part, for his switch-to-switch zero spins—a terrifying prospect in an iced-up superpipe. Speaking with ESPN, Olympian and freeskier Gus Kenworthy said, “To go big on a zero air, like Duncan Adams, is crazy. It’s completely blind from the switch takeoff to the switch landing, and he’s landing high up on the wall.”
That pipe career was cut short in 2012 in Tignes, France, during the European X Games. Adams was comfortable in practice thanks to a slushy pipe. However, the qualifier was held late enough at night that the temperature dropped and the snow froze. During the last hit of one of his runs, he didn’t pop on a switch alley-oop 720, colliding with the deck. “I thought I broke my boot. It sure wasn’t the boot,” he said. Adams’ ankle was trashed, and, at 19, he wasn’t sure if his professional skiing career would persist. Halfpipe, certainly, was out of the question.
ADAMS DESCRIBES HIMSELF AS AN INTROVERT, but his old friend and fellow skier Parker White offered a slightly different take. “I wouldn’t even say he’s introverted,” said White. “He doesn’t fill up the space with words… Duncan talks when he has something to say.”
Photo: Jeff Cricco
As he grew into his talents as a backcountry freestyler, Adams’ skiing sufficed when noise and flashiness didn’t. The 2012 ankle injury may have altered his trajectory, but it didn’t prevent him from pursuing a successful, film-focused career.
After recovering, Adams appeared in a solo segment for Level 1’s 2014 film Less. The difference between his performance in Refresh five years earlier is stark. Once more tentative, Adams seems in control in Less, blasting through fresh snow as a fully-formed, freestyle-oriented backcountry skier.
White’s been around the world’s best freeskiers. Adams stood out amongst this crowd, but sometimes proved difficult to track down. “He’s a pretty elusive dude,” said White. Whenever Adams showed up to work with White on a video, though, White knew they’d be able to release something good. As they skied together while creating a web series called The Big Picture, White spent considerable time watching Adams ride firsthand. “They’re on a completely different level,” White noted, describing skiers like Adams.
In the mid 2010s, Adams officially became a mainstay on the Faction Skis film program, traveling to mountainous locales like British Columbia and Chile. Etienne Mérel, the company’s longtime filmer, first met Adams during a video shoot, encountering someone a bit different from the other riders. Adams drove an old truck, had a deep voice, and was reserved. Merel enjoyed hanging out with him and now, years later, refers to him as “Dunc” in a French accent.
Photo: Rocko Menzyk
The two would work together across numerous projects, and Mérel explained that Adams made producing ski videos easy. He possessed a distinct vision for the footage he wanted to get as an athlete, but Mérel noted that, like some other skiers he encountered, Adams wasn’t concerned with playing the career “game”—as in juggling sponsors and social media demands. In Mérel’s words, these characters aren’t “businessmen.”
“He’s super talented, but because he doesn’t really care about all that, it feels like he’s a little bit left behind. And I’m sure he’s happy with that,” said Mérel of Adams. “But because he’s my friend, I want him to have more, you know?”
White, who’s a current member of the Rossignol team, called himself and his fellow professional skiers “billboards.” An athlete’s ability—and willingness—to pull eyeballs may be even more important than their on-snow skills when it comes to retaining sponsors, particularly in the age of followers and likes. Attracting attention, however, was never Adams’ forte. Once, when he had the opportunity to film with a production company that didn’t align with his interests, Adams declined. He fits a certain archetype that appears sometimes in our shared sport—exceptionally skilled, but quiet and only willing to engage with skiing on their own terms.
ADAMS SEEMS SATISFIED WITH THE PATH HE’S TAKEN, while acknowledging that tapping into the more lucrative side of skiing may have extended his career. “I was way more psyched on, you know, going and skiing with The Big Picture boys—and then going on Faction trips,” he explained, adding that he looks up to skiers who step aside from self-promotion. When we spoke, Adams noted that he had no regrets about how things worked out, and recalled the time he spent traveling the world with Faction fondly.
Other parts of Adams’ life have become equally important as the ski hustle, too. True to character, he lives on an off-the-grid homestead in Colorado without electricity or running water. He accesses the homestead by snowmobile during the winter. There, Adams is joined by his girlfriend and their dogs, cats, and birds. Leaving that lifestyle behind to hit the road and film has become a tougher sell.
Photo: Jeff Cricco
Still, he loves skiing, and perhaps because of his gentler approach to the business side of the equation, doesn’t feel burnt out and is content with enjoying the sport for himself. At his local hill, he works as a coach, helping the next generation of skiers, and this winter, I last reached him over email while he was on a ski trip to Japan with his girlfriend and some others.
Adams told me that the trip marked one of the only ski vacations he’s undergone purely for fun. “It’s nice not having any pressure to get shots. Removing that stress allows you to soak in the total experience,” he wrote. But should an opportunity to film arise again, Adams confirmed that he’ll take it. With up-and-coming, social-media-wise skiers competing for their slice of the sponsorship pie, though, those openings may be difficult to come by.
Related: This Women-Made Abstract Ski Film Deserves Your Time
Be the first to read breaking ski news with POWDER. Subscribe to our newsletter and stay connected with the latest happenings in the world of skiing. From ski resort news to profiles of the world’s best skiers, we are committed to keeping you informed.
