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00:03:01	John Muir said it really beautifully.
00:03:03	He said, "Go to the mountains
00:03:07	What he meant is
00:03:11	that you can receive from that environment.
00:03:15	We receive these amazing feelings
00:03:17	and we feel so strong and
00:03:23	And it's special.
00:03:30	I'm not sure what that is right there.
00:03:32	Ice or rock or something. Yeah.
00:03:34	Nice though. I like the deep of it.
00:03:38	Magical.
00:03:42	It's got a nice start.
00:03:45	You know, not too steep.
00:03:48	before we drop into this thing.
00:03:51	I didn't choose my life in the mountains.
00:03:56	I tried to become a normal person
00:04:02	As soon as I got out of jail, I went skiing.
00:04:05	As soon as I got out of broken legs,
00:04:08	That's where I had to go
00:04:12	The rest of the world is total chaos.
00:04:16	We're mountain people. This is what we do.
00:04:22	The risks are very high.
00:04:25	But I think most of us have decided
00:04:32	For me, as soon as the winter stops,
00:04:35	I'll start dreaming about skiing.
00:04:40	This concept of just strapping
00:04:45	You know, if you actually sit down and think
00:04:49	You know, that's great.
00:04:51	A couple of 2" x 4"s on your feet,
00:04:54	You know, how much fun is that?
00:05:39	The idea is simple.
00:05:42	Ski where no one thought to ski before.
00:05:45	Ski the backcountry, away from the resorts
00:05:49	and the rules and restraints
00:05:52	Ski where the sport of skiing
00:05:58	A simple idea, but 35 years ago,
00:06:01	only a handful of people saw
00:06:06	One of the first who did was Bill Briggs.
00:06:15	Skis are appropriate on mountain sides
00:06:21	and all kinds of mountainsides.
00:06:27	In June 1971, Briggs,
00:06:30	a skier and mountain guide
00:06:34	became the first person to ski
00:06:36	from the summit of one of
00:06:43	The idea wasn't, for me,
00:06:46	that I would be the only one
00:06:50	My idea was everybody
00:06:55	At the time nobody was,
00:07:01	It's too much fun to pass up.
00:07:08	The Grand Teton,
00:07:13	You drive into Jackson Hole
00:07:15	that gigantic, jagged thing
00:07:18	and it looks like it would be
00:07:22	And in 1971, the concept of skiing
00:07:26	was very far from even
00:07:30	There's nobody out there with signs.
00:07:32	There's no ropes. There's no signs.
00:07:35	There's nobody, like,
00:07:38	It's not a ski area. You"re on your own.
00:07:41	You know,
00:07:46	Bill Briggs skiing the Grand Teton
00:07:50	No one had even come across the idea that,
00:07:55	"with a little bit of snow on it
00:08:00	What Bill Briggs did
00:08:06	People in Jackson told Bill
00:08:11	There were avalanches and falling rock.
00:08:14	Sections were too steep.
00:08:16	He would have to ski along cliffs
00:08:20	The smallest misstep could be fatal.
00:08:24	And Briggs was climbing and skiing
00:08:29	that caused him to limp when he walked.
00:08:33	If there's no risk, there's no adventure.
00:08:36	I think adventure is a great part of life.
00:08:41	For me it's, "Why am I living?" You know?
00:08:45	Gee, it's to have some adventure.
00:08:49	Before dawn on June 16th,
00:08:52	Briggs, and three friends he had convinced
00:08:56	left their camp at 11, 000 feet
00:09:03	The route Briggs planned would
00:09:09	up the avalanche-prone snowfield
00:09:13	along the Petzoldt Ridge
00:09:16	and then the last few hundred feet
00:09:24	I expected those guys to break trail for me.
00:09:29	Breaking trail is physically exhausting.
00:09:34	So I get up to the top of the Couloir
00:09:38	and I find they are all right there
00:09:45	Oh, that means I have to do it.
00:09:51	They took one look at the top of the Couloir
00:09:58	And that was just too much.
00:10:03	Well, at that point I didn't want to quit.
00:10:07	At least I was going to see
00:10:13	I think the biggest thing
00:10:16	You have this internal dialog
00:10:19	You don't have your friend to talk to.
00:10:21	"You think we should go around
00:10:23	Or, "Boy, it's getting steep now. "
00:10:27	You can't relay it to anyone else.
00:10:30	And it's fall-you-die terrain.
00:10:36	It's tough when you're alone.
00:10:39	His friends watched Bill pull himself up
00:10:42	onto the steep, snow-covered east face
00:10:46	and disappear from view.
00:11:00	No one saw Bill Briggs
00:11:04	No one saw him begin his ski descent.
00:11:07	No one saw him fall
00:11:11	or ski the high snowfields.
00:11:17	Hours after he left them,
00:11:21	witnessed an avalanche tear past them.
00:11:27	They are sure that I was in it
00:11:32	down a thousand feet.
00:11:33	"Well, that's Briggs
00:11:37	Well, I drew a big turn
00:11:40	and I ski right up to my friends.
00:11:44	And they turn around and,
00:11:50	They didn't see me come through that at all.
00:11:53	They figured I was dead anyway.
00:12:01	Bill descended more than 6,000 feet on skis.
00:12:06	It took him almost five hours
00:12:13	When I got to the bottom, I'm really tired.
00:12:22	and...
00:12:25	Overjoyed.
00:12:28	I did it. Okay?
00:12:31	Man. This is...
00:12:36	This is the biggest
00:12:43	There were no witnesses
00:12:47	But the next day the proof was still etched
00:12:52	The editor of the local paper flew
00:12:58	She took four photographs.
00:13:00	And one of them was just a classic.
00:13:04	The beauty of the mountain,
00:13:07	enhanced a bit by human contact.
00:13:11	It was fabulous.
00:13:15	I don't know.
00:13:17	You dream up
00:13:22	what you want to accomplish
00:13:26	in your life and...
00:13:29	I don't know that many people get a chance
00:13:34	to fulfill that.
00:13:37	What that was...
00:13:44	Totally.
00:13:52	I knew that someone had skied the Grand,
00:13:55	but I didn't know
00:13:57	So it just sort of, "Oh, yeah,
00:13:59	And it was, you know, big news.
00:14:01	But I didn't really know what it was.
00:14:05	Doug Coombs was a teenager
00:14:09	when Bill Briggs skied the Grand.
00:14:12	The quote in his high school yearbook said,
00:14:14	"There is no such thing as too much snow. "
00:14:21	Even when I was just a little tiny kid,
00:14:26	And where I live I could even
00:14:29	My parents would flick the light on
00:14:32	You know, I could just go down
00:14:35	It was flat as a pancake,
00:14:38	And I would just skate like a fiend
00:14:41	and then come down
00:14:43	and by the time I got to my house
00:14:50	No one ever said to me,
00:14:56	We were off-piste skiing
00:14:59	I just didn't think of it as that. I just thought
00:15:03	And then we'd go down riverbeds
00:15:07	I just thought it was normal.
00:15:11	I grew up skiing maple trees in Vermont,
00:15:19	Sometimes we weren't even on the ground.
00:15:20	We were skiing branches
00:15:24	We weren't even touching the snow.
00:15:27	You're not skiing the ground,
00:15:34	If someone said you have to ski
00:15:37	Well, I could maybe do that when I'm 80,
00:16:38	Every mountaineer and every skier
00:16:40	realizes the mountains are
00:16:45	Where's that chalk? Breathe.
00:16:48	When they're not happy, or just pissed off,
00:16:55	You can't just say, "I'm gonna do this, "
00:17:01	That's when you get in trouble.
00:17:03	Being able to feel what the mountains
00:17:09	They're alive. You know, they're totally alive
00:17:14	You know, or they'll make you dead,
00:17:18	You know, there's always bad luck,
00:17:22	where bad luck comes in,
00:17:40	When you're always in that element,
00:17:43	either skiing or climbing,
00:17:47	not just being in them,
00:17:50	and with the mountains, you're only a guest.
00:17:53	And you don't know
00:17:58	I'm just a cheater. I've been out there
00:18:01	and I just keep doing it
00:18:13	When I go out, I become more alive.
00:18:16	And that's probably the endorphins
00:18:19	And I guess the more you produce,
00:18:25	And so I think I have been
00:18:28	'cause I want them all the time.
00:18:31	I just love skiing.
00:19:07	It's not a natural motion for the human body
00:19:16	When you ski steep terrain,
00:19:20	to just launch into space is
00:19:25	And if you pop off that snow,
00:19:28	down the hill with very little effort.
00:19:32	You can almost get a feeling of flying.
00:19:47	You get up to the 50-degree range
00:19:49	and it starts to become
00:19:56	There's so much gravity pulling you down
00:19:59	that you get to a point
00:20:07	But anything that produces
00:20:11	is worth a certain amount of risk,
00:20:17	But how much risk it's worth
00:20:25	Nowhere in the world are
00:20:28	in the mountains revealed more clearly
00:20:35	Chamonix is the birthplace of alpinism.
00:20:39	In the "70s and "80s,
00:20:42	this shining, larger-than-life destination.
00:20:46	It was like, "Oh, Cham, Chamonix. "
00:20:52	You would aspire someday
00:20:58	The mountains are big. They're wild.
00:21:02	There are spires everywhere.
00:21:05	I mean, you cannot go there, whether you're
00:21:09	and not be inspired by the landscape.
00:21:12	It will just blow your mind.
00:21:24	You know, in Chamonix,
00:21:27	They come here
00:21:29	American, Swedish,
00:21:34	There's a lot of very good extreme skiers
00:21:39	And they come here for the same things.
00:21:42	You can see if you go in the bar after 6:.00,
00:21:48	After a powder day or something, it's...
00:21:51	It's... You can feel the energy.
00:21:55	They have the same spirit.
00:22:02	When you're skiing in America,
00:22:03	you're skiing in little,
00:22:06	And everywhere is safe. You go
00:22:10	And in Europe, the ski areas are
00:22:15	I mean, they put lifts,
00:22:18	They wanted to put a lift
00:22:20	So you get into a whole different level of
00:22:24	trouble over there.
00:22:30	Chamonix is one of those places
00:22:35	where every time you go there,
00:22:38	there is some chance
00:22:43	So this makes it
00:22:45	a little bit higher-intensity spot
00:22:52	It's the place.
00:22:55	you've skied Chamonix.
00:22:59	In the valley, you know,
00:23:03	When you are in the mountains,
00:23:07	You have to do something right.
00:23:09	There is no way to do something wrong
00:23:15	You know it's very risky, but you go,
00:23:19	because it's every day a new adventure,
00:23:30	In the 1970s and "80s,
00:23:34	here in these mountains
00:23:40	Europeans watched films of men
00:23:45	as they climbed and then skied
00:23:47	some of the steepest,
00:23:51	Patrick and I were more than friends.
00:23:58	We were always in control.
00:24:03	Yeah, what can I say?
00:24:07	And this is how the first viewers
00:24:14	They thought we were insane.
00:24:20	Of course, we were always
00:24:25	The one who's not afraid is crazy.
00:24:30	But we never panicked.
00:24:34	Like Jean-Marc Boivin
00:24:37	you can either live your
00:24:40	or live your life like a lion.
00:24:42	We have a choice in life.
00:24:46	There was no shortage of
00:24:58	There were many skiers
00:25:02	they appeared almost suicidal.
00:25:06	They were the early visionaries.
00:25:09	They were the people who were showing us
00:25:15	In the States,
00:25:17	sort of the singular, crystallizing moment
00:25:22	But there were dozens of people
00:25:27	A whole series of people who were,
00:25:31	This whole string of people
00:25:35	and bigger and bigger.
00:25:38	You had people who were living and playing
00:25:40	in these mountains kind of
00:25:42	"Well, what else can I do on skis?"
00:25:49	Even the deaths of men
00:25:53	did little to slow the pursuit
00:25:59	Extreme skiing is a way of life.
00:26:02	It was my way to become a man.
00:26:08	Stefano de Benedetti, like the others,
00:26:11	was drawn into the unskied world
00:26:17	During the 1980s, de Benedetti made
00:26:19	some of the most extreme ski descents
00:26:23	Some so dangerous,
00:26:28	When you live in touch with the mountain,
00:26:31	when you spend most of
00:26:34	your vision changes completely.
00:26:37	And after three or four years,
00:26:40	I could see the possibility to ski
00:26:45	where nobody saw it.
00:26:53	In 1984, a film was made
00:26:57	to ski the east face of the Aiguille Blanche
00:27:02	A face so steep that it held snow
00:27:08	Imagine the line. The simple pen
00:27:14	It makes for an
00:27:17	Perhaps only in these
00:27:21	that this is my mode of
00:27:24	That this is my mode of speaking
00:27:40	When I was sure it was the right moment,
00:27:42	it was the beginning of June.
00:27:45	I started from the bivouac
00:27:50	And I climbed all over the mountain.
00:27:55	When you wake up at midnight
00:28:01	in the black and you start climbing
00:28:05	with avalanches, with seracs,
00:28:08	you feel you are a very little thing
00:28:34	When I reached the top, I knew
00:28:39	I knew that that day
00:28:45	And I did it.
00:29:03	In the perfect moment
00:29:08	there was no space for other thoughts.
00:29:16	When you want to make a turn
00:29:18	and you are at the top
00:29:23	I mean, when you are in the situation
00:29:28	everything changes.
00:29:31	You think very much about turning.
00:29:35	You think very much about where to turn.
00:29:40	And you do all this in a very special way.
00:29:46	You act like a different person.
00:29:50	You act with all yourself.
00:29:57	You are making
00:30:02	and in some way
00:30:07	This is the magic of the mountain.
00:30:11	You can accept to die for this.
00:30:15	But to live so close
00:30:22	you understand
00:30:27	And this makes you a better person.
00:30:33	It's probably the highest moment
00:30:37	of my life because in the perfect moment
00:30:42	I was, or I felt to be, a little Superman.
00:31:12	Let's go into this clearing here.
00:31:20	In the mid-1980s, extreme skiing,
00:31:24	the way of life that emerged
00:31:28	found a follower in a young skier
00:31:36	You know, back then I didn't have kids.
00:31:38	It was me, me, I, I, me, me, right?
00:31:41	You know, you just keep stepping it up.
00:31:44	You just wanted to keep pushing it
00:31:49	without killing yourself.
00:31:53	You can see the log and slosh
00:31:55	Yeah.
00:31:57	It's the ultimate paradox,
00:31:58	the closer you come to dying,
00:32:01	And that's so true.
00:32:03	You know, if you just sit around
00:32:06	How can you appreciate that cold beer,
00:32:08	or that nice, big, hearty steak
00:32:11	But you eat soup, and live in a cold,
00:32:15	and, man, you get back,
00:32:19	you've ever had in your life
00:32:22	that beer could be piss warm,
00:32:23	and it'll be the nicest beer
00:32:26	I tell you that right now.
00:32:30	Can't breathe, eh?
00:32:33	Okay.
00:32:35	It's my life, right. You know,
00:32:38	And I pass it on to my kids.
00:32:41	Pehota, like Vallencant,
00:32:46	risked skiing
00:32:52	During the 1980s,
00:32:55	in the coast range of British Columbia,
00:32:58	including the first ski descent
00:33:02	Mount Waddington.
00:33:06	I've lost a few friends,
00:33:10	almost like blood brother-type friends,
00:33:12	in this kind of life
00:33:18	But, you know,
00:33:22	When you ski big mountains
00:33:26	and on a full-time basis,
00:33:28	and you may succumb to it yourself, right?
00:33:34	Pehota's closest friend
00:33:37	was a skateboarder and skier
00:33:42	Petersen died in an avalanche
00:33:46	But in the 1980s, he and Eric were inspired
00:33:49	by the partnership of Patrick Vallencant
00:33:55	Trevor Petersen was a big influence
00:33:58	He had a really magical psyche
00:34:02	And he had this gift of just getting me
00:34:08	Trevor knew quite a bit of background
00:34:13	He had a book.
00:34:17	on first descents in the French Alps.
00:34:21	And Trev started filling me in
00:34:24	I was just awestruck
00:34:27	and I said, "I want to do that. "
00:34:46	In the "80s, Trevor and Eric
00:34:47	basically pioneered ski mountaineering
00:34:50	They were the guys who put down
00:34:55	who taught an entire generation
00:34:58	what could be done in their backyard.
00:35:01	They just got after it in ways more so
00:35:04	and created a body of ski work
00:35:11	Me and Trevor always kind of had
00:35:14	We seemed to focus on the same thing
00:35:18	the big peak and the big run.
00:35:20	Maybe not the raddest run in the range,
00:35:29	We were both driven to do that.
00:35:30	I think that's kind of how
00:35:34	To share that moment with somebody
00:35:37	a goal and then achieve that goal.
00:35:39	And to actually share that
00:35:42	a feeling that, you know,
00:35:45	It's just such a great feeling, really.
00:35:51	In the early 1980s,
00:35:55	of the kind of skiing taking place
00:35:59	Most American skiers
00:36:04	In 1988, that began to change.
00:36:12	Steep skiing in big mountains
00:36:17	His name was Glen Plake.
00:36:22	I grew up in South Lake Tahoe,
00:36:25	of a place to be a snow skier.
00:36:29	You know, I was definitely an oddball.
00:36:33	Like anybody else, you grow up raising Cain
00:36:42	Few people would have guessed
00:36:45	with a criminal record would become
00:36:51	Everything I have in my life is
00:36:55	Every dollar I've ever earned is
00:36:59	That's it. It's what I do.
00:37:02	Glen Plake's star began to rise
00:37:06	in an unconventional,
00:37:09	The Blizzard of AAHHH's.
00:37:12	Okay, if you thought skiing was skiing
00:37:16	I suggest you buckle your breakfast seatbelt
00:37:19	is something called extreme skiing.
00:37:21	It lacks only a disclaimer
00:37:25	We assume your sense of
00:37:28	Extreme skiing is virtually outlawed
00:37:30	where insurance companies
00:37:33	So these days extreme skiing
00:37:36	where the concept of recovery
00:37:40	Out-of-bound skiers have
00:37:43	but most arguments advance
00:37:47	Lately, though, he is being challenged
00:37:49	by newcomer Glen Plake,
00:37:52	He now lives in France
00:37:54	by wearing a point-of-view camera
00:37:58	It's called The Blizzard of AAHHH's.
00:38:02	Glen Plake, Scot Schmidt,
00:38:04	- Morning, Bryant.
00:38:05	I'm not going to let this pass
00:38:09	- Yeah.
00:38:11	- Did it for my country.
00:38:12	Oh, okay. So, talk to me
00:38:15	I mean, how many
00:38:17	I've had three broken legs.
00:38:18	Broken when I was five,
00:38:21	and then just broke one again
00:38:23	Before you started
00:38:25	No, I've been doing
00:38:29	- Do you do everything to extreme?
00:38:33	The Blizzard of AAHHH's was
00:38:37	Stump was unhappy
00:38:41	They wouldn't let us film in America.
00:38:43	We had been kicked out of every ski resort
00:38:46	and skiing out of bounds.
00:38:49	And we were like, "Screw it.
00:38:50	"Let's go to France
00:38:53	"where they've got better mountains. "
00:38:55	So we just all booted it to Europe.
00:39:01	Glen Plake joined skiers
00:39:06	in what would become the most influential
00:39:13	They came to Chamonix,
00:39:19	But The Blizzard of AAHHH's
00:39:21	to the extreme ski films
00:39:24	The skiers in Blizzard
00:39:30	We were just having a good time, you know.
00:39:33	We were making a ski film and skiing hot.
00:39:36	We were just good skiers
00:39:38	And I think it showed. You know?
00:39:40	It looked like these guys were having
00:39:53	The skiers in Blizzard were having fun.
00:40:03	I had never seen a glacier before.
00:40:07	lifts that took us
00:40:11	You know, I mean, I knew what
00:40:14	You know. I'm from South Lake Tahoe.
00:40:23	Yikes, this is kind of wild.
00:40:36	It was our introduction
00:40:40	It was awe-inspiring
00:40:45	And that was all captured on film.
00:40:51	One run in Blizzard
00:40:53	that the European extremists were doing
00:40:57	from the top of the Aiguille du Midi.
00:41:00	This one here is called
00:41:02	It's about 47, 50 degrees.
00:41:07	- Scott, you want to try to ski it?
00:41:11	Two, one...
00:41:24	Steep.
00:41:37	Blizzard really made skiing seem
00:41:41	more like surfing than golf, for instance.
00:41:44	I mean, you know,
00:41:50	There's doubt there.
00:41:53	If you do something wrong,
00:41:58	It was just light years away from the typical
00:42:12	People went berserk
00:42:16	You know, you ask people where they were
00:42:17	when they first saw Blizzard of AAHHH"s
00:42:19	and most people can tell you
00:42:20	It's like JFK getting shot
00:42:22	I mean, obviously not
00:42:25	But, for a skier, the people that are fans,
00:42:27	they'll tell you where they were,
00:42:31	what they were doing, how old they were.
00:42:32	They know right where they were.
00:42:34	I was at my high school living room
00:42:38	and that movie had a real big impact on me,
00:42:44	From that moment on, I focused
00:42:49	And, you know,
00:42:52	that I'm gonna go be in ski movies.
00:42:54	And he's like, "You're out of your mind. "
00:42:57	You're just on the edge of your seat,
00:43:01	And then they get to go to Chamonix.
00:43:04	that nobody has ever seen before.
00:43:05	At least none of my friends,
00:43:09	It was just so eye-opening
00:43:20	I've probably watched it over
00:43:23	I think we burned through
00:43:25	when that came out
00:43:34	Blizzard was the first ski movie to come out
00:43:38	And so it was the first ski movie
00:43:45	It brought Chamonix into your living room.
00:43:48	It brought Chamonix to you
00:44:00	American skiers were looking
00:44:03	a place to create
00:44:13	In 1991, the port town of Valdez, Alaska
00:44:19	the massive oil spill
00:44:26	But one feature of Valdez was overlooked.
00:44:29	Valdez is the gateway
00:44:32	A vast, uninhabited wilderness
00:44:35	as 80 feet of snow a year.
00:44:39	The mountains are
00:44:44	In 1991, the town got the idea
00:44:49	as a helicopter skiing destination
00:44:52	by staging an annual event called WESC,
00:45:03	One of my sponsors had read
00:45:08	and said, "We'd like to send you there. "
00:45:10	And I said, "Sure, I'm in.
00:45:13	And they said if you don't win, though,
00:45:16	and paint the building.
00:45:18	And I didn't realize they were just joking
00:45:22	"I don't want to paint that building. "
00:45:25	Yeah. Coombsy.
00:45:28	So at WESC in 1991 you have the best skiers
00:45:34	- What's this guy's name?
00:45:37	Doug Coombs comes in, he's got this gleam
00:45:42	And he skis everything
00:45:46	Stronger, cleaner, crisper,
00:45:50	There was just absolutely
00:45:55	- What do you have to say, Doug?
00:45:58	Thanks, Valdez.
00:46:00	Doug won WESC in 1991 and again in 1993.
00:46:07	But it wasn't the competition
00:46:10	back to Alaska year after year.
00:46:15	Well, when he came back,
00:46:17	"You got to go to Alaska.
00:46:19	He was just, you know, on fire about Alaska.
00:46:26	We'd all sort of found
00:46:30	that we'd all dreamed about,
00:46:33	I mean, I had never imagined any places
00:46:39	Just the vastness
00:46:43	That's what attracted me the most.
00:46:45	It looked like a lifetime to ski.
00:46:53	It truly is, I think,
00:46:58	And I can't believe it
00:47:01	Like, why didn't someone find that
00:47:04	It was like this gold field
00:47:06	for hundreds of years,
00:47:15	The snow in Alaska is unique.
00:47:20	In the Chugach,
00:47:26	Then cold, dry air comes in from the north,
00:47:33	What's left is light, soft powder
00:47:41	The velvety texture of snow in Alaska is...
00:47:49	Alaska's all about the velvet, that feeling,
00:47:52	the way it feels brushing up against
00:47:56	You don't get that
00:48:02	In the Chugach, the light surface snow
00:48:12	It's like being on a giant wave at the ocean
00:48:14	and the thing's just tickling your back,
00:48:18	You know,
00:48:20	but if you keep skiing hard
00:48:23	it's going to be there,
00:48:27	And that to me is the ultimate.
00:48:33	Doug was really one of the people
00:48:35	who pioneered literally
00:48:39	And to think that you could actually ski
00:48:42	you know, before anybody had done it,
00:48:46	because they are really steep.
00:48:50	Doug found the place
00:48:53	It was the place that he had been...
00:48:56	but had been looking for his whole life.
00:48:59	It was the right place,
00:49:13	The helicopter pilot who took Doug
00:49:17	was a Vietnam veteran
00:49:21	I'd strap on my pistol,
00:49:25	and go out into the wild unknown.
00:49:30	Things like this haven't happened
00:49:33	I mean, you know,
00:49:35	and go out and fight some Indians.
00:49:37	Well, I'd go out and fight some mountains.
00:49:39	You know, when you start skiing in
00:49:42	you've got to have some sort of,
00:49:45	Maybe it's a little bit of chemical
00:49:49	All of us had that.
00:49:58	He had a great eye for ski lines.
00:50:02	He would be flying up and he"d say,
00:50:04	"I don't know why you guys haven't tried
00:50:06	And we'd look at it
00:50:09	And then we'd look at him
00:50:12	And you knew you were going to ski it.
00:50:16	Chet was a Vietnam vet pilot
00:50:22	and he would come into these LZs,
00:50:27	and he would kind of look at you and say,
00:50:30	"You know, I'm not nervous at all. "
00:50:37	We were the first, like, the pioneers,
00:50:44	Nobody had been to these peaks.
00:50:47	Nobody even thought about it yet.
00:50:49	That first run I took in Alaska
00:50:57	I've never been more scared than the time
00:51:00	of the summit and I'm looking at this
00:51:05	"Wow, we're going to ski this?
00:51:10	I just thought, "Well,
00:51:12	"because it's going to avalanche,
00:51:15	"So I'm just going to do it.
00:51:20	And I skied down and it was just effortless
00:51:23	and just got to the bottom and it was like,
00:51:28	"You know,
00:51:31	So we did.
00:51:36	No one could tell me where I could ski,
00:51:41	Any of those rules, thrown out the window.
00:51:45	That was a really big freedom
00:51:46	and I think that freedom led
00:51:50	You know? There was nobody
00:51:57	We made it happen because we couldn't
00:52:02	The combination of endless lines
00:52:06	and just the adventure in this great snow.
00:52:09	It's where the craziest times
00:52:18	In 1995, Doug and Emily launched
00:52:24	and together began taking
00:52:31	The goal was just to keep skiing
00:52:33	And that's the only reason that we did it.
00:52:37	I mean, that was our plan,
00:52:40	so we could go skiing
00:52:48	We just started out really bare bones
00:52:51	of being able to go skiing
00:52:54	and to share the terrain with each other.
00:52:58	She knew how I thought
00:53:03	Somehow we had some kind of
00:53:07	I don't know what it was,
00:53:10	I just felt very comfortable
00:53:12	that was where we were together.
00:53:17	That was what I fell in love with,
00:53:24	Skiers from all over the world came to be
00:53:29	They took them to the tops of mountains
00:53:36	You've gotten out of the helicopter,
00:53:40	to even stand there because it"s
00:53:45	And there's Doug, you know,
00:53:49	It's just completely crazy. Completely crazy.
00:53:58	We took heli-skiing to the extreme level.
00:54:01	It was amazing because we had the funds
00:54:05	from our clients to go further
00:54:10	It was big-game hunting,
00:54:16	Everybody has to ski Valdez once.
00:54:20	When you have a guy
00:54:23	in perfect snow,
00:54:27	He'll never forget that
00:54:37	Valdez became the North Shore of skiing.
00:54:44	You go there when you're
00:54:48	It's the total Mecca.
00:54:54	I can still visualize almost every
00:54:58	If you just transported me there
00:55:02	I would tell you exactly where we were.
00:55:05	That's how vivid the memories are.
00:55:11	Doug Coombs put
00:55:15	Like Chamonix a generation earlier,
00:55:29	Showing up in Alaska for the first time,
00:55:32	everybody says
00:55:34	it's an eye opener, all that stuff.
00:55:36	And it truly is,
00:55:39	and skiing, you know, 1,000 vertical.
00:55:46	And it's real.
00:55:52	Shane McConkey became
00:55:55	performing for the cameras in Alaska.
00:55:59	Standing on top of those peaks in Alaska is,
00:56:02	to me, one of the coolest feelings
00:56:07	It's all up to you at that point to,
00:56:11	And it's a pretty cool feeling,
00:56:13	knowing you're about to do
00:56:15	and about to drop in.
00:56:17	It's... It's really addictive.
00:56:23	Guys like Shane McConkey started
00:56:28	that they couldn't do anywhere else.
00:56:29	You couldn't ski the backcountry
00:56:33	You couldn't ski Aspen that way
00:56:36	It's too short. You don't have enough room
00:56:41	But in Alaska, all of a sudden your canvas
00:56:45	and the snow is better
00:56:53	Alaska expanded the idea
00:56:57	And a new generation of skiers,
00:57:02	are coming here to make
00:57:09	Ski films nowadays
00:57:12	huge air, showmanship,
00:57:16	You know, just taking it to the mountain.
00:57:20	Chris Davenport won the World Extreme
00:57:25	and has been performing
00:57:30	The ski filmmaker wants
00:57:33	and show off their skiing for the camera.
00:57:40	And when I'm in a ski film,
00:57:41	I'm trying to make as few turns as possible,
00:57:43	because I want to make it look
00:57:45	I want to make it look exciting
00:57:47	and I want to make it look like somebody
00:57:50	and I'm trying to get down
00:57:58	When you get up on top of a ridge,
00:57:59	and you've got a perfectly
00:58:02	almost like a shower curtain
00:58:05	or a flute of snow,
00:58:10	Hopping from one side
00:58:12	or on a pillow or catching a small air.
00:58:16	You know, your slough's going to the right.
00:58:18	I'm going to cross underneath
00:58:21	And you're just kind
00:58:23	"How can I choreograph this run
00:58:33	When somebody makes it look fun on film,
00:58:36	That's what I want to do.
00:58:52	Ingrid Backstrom was discovered
00:58:56	by filmmaker Scott Gaffney.
00:58:59	Ingrid is special in that she's a guy
00:59:09	I saw this woman ripping Squaw
00:59:11	and you'd be sitting on a chair
00:59:13	"Wow, that guy rips. "
00:59:17	And then I just kind of sit there like,
00:59:27	Ingrid's very first run
00:59:32	She traveled with Matchstick Productions
00:59:36	with skiers Shane McConkey
00:59:42	The first line of the day was... Hugo said,
00:59:45	"Oh, I skied this line last year,
00:59:47	"I wanna go back to the Harrison Motel
00:59:56	The first thing that happens is
01:00:00	you know, probably five times.
01:00:01	And all I can see is Hugo
01:00:12	So I'm up there all by myself kind of like,
01:00:15	"just took the hardest crash
01:00:19	And, you know,
01:00:24	I could see the helicopter
01:00:27	and just really supercharged energy.
01:00:32	The helicopter gets closer and they give
01:00:36	that says, "We're ready. "
01:00:37	And at that point I don't even know,
01:00:41	and I just dropped in and went for it.
01:00:54	This is what you dream about skiing.
01:00:58	I just remember skiing out the bottom
01:01:03	But it was
01:01:08	She comes charging off the ridge,
01:01:12	and like four turns down to the bottom
01:01:18	I caught maybe the first turn from the heli.
01:01:21	And then we were sitting up there
01:01:26	We were just like, "All right,
01:01:28	"the next big mountain skier chick
01:01:34	She's good.
01:02:13	For me,
01:02:15	I'm just like everybody else.
01:02:17	I'm at the mountain hiking for my turns.
01:02:20	But then, you know, the film season
01:02:25	and it's off to heli-land.
01:02:42	Seth Morrison has made the big mountains
01:02:44	his place to explore
01:02:53	Seth Morrison is a cat.
01:02:56	He can control his body in the air
01:03:09	He is a light wiry guy
01:03:13	incredibly athletic, could probably excel
01:03:18	but he's a skier.
01:03:25	He has redefined what's possible on skis,
01:03:33	He is a legend.
01:03:37	No one can stick a landing exactly
01:03:54	You take these risks
01:03:57	It's all about the powder
01:03:59	and just the experience
01:04:03	Flying in the helicopter
01:04:06	Getting dropped off on some crazy peak
01:04:09	where the heli
01:04:13	and just stop and hover and let you out.
01:04:17	That's like the best landing ever
01:04:19	when it's just room enough
01:04:30	Deep powder.
01:04:32	That's all that matters.
01:04:34	When you get one of those runs
01:04:38	where you ski the steep fresh pow
01:04:41	and everything is perfect,
01:04:43	you know, like nothing's better, you know,
01:05:09	We're always looking for that next thing.
01:05:11	We're always looking for something new.
01:05:13	And at this day and age,
01:05:16	But they're still out there.
01:05:26	Right on. You guys ready?
01:05:27	- I am, yeah.
01:05:31	Dude, what trick are you gonna do?
01:05:33	I'm not sure. Still thinking about that one.
01:05:37	You'll figure it out
01:05:42	It's a beautiful day.
01:05:45	Good wind.
01:05:47	I don't think I'm an adrenaline junkie,
01:05:49	but I sure do love those kind of things
01:05:52	What are you gonna do?
01:05:54	Possibly a flying squirrel of some type.
01:05:56	For me, it's all about trying new things,
01:05:59	something I haven't tried before
01:06:02	"Hey, what if we do it?" "Hey, totally, dude,
01:06:05	- All right.
01:06:08	- Yeah.
01:06:10	Awesome.
01:06:12	Triple gainer, yeah?
01:06:14	It's all about getting creative and original
01:06:21	Everyone else is going, "You're crazy.
01:06:26	But I don't see it that way.
01:06:29	- Yeah, Shane, nice one.
01:06:31	Watch out for that porcupine
01:06:33	See you.
01:07:57	With the addition of a parachute
01:08:00	I'm looking at these mountains with totally
01:08:07	There's a lot of lines that are really
01:08:11	that you can't do
01:08:14	Well, if you throw a parachute on your back
01:08:18	you can totally ski those lines.
01:08:35	For most of us it's a stunt.
01:08:37	It's completely crazy and kooky,
01:08:40	I mean, if you have that ability
01:08:43	and you have the ability to ski some
01:08:48	putting the two of those together
01:08:52	It makes total sense. Why not?
01:08:55	I got to ski a line a couple years ago
01:08:57	that was a big, open powder field,
01:09:01	that came, that rolled over
01:09:02	and then came down into this choke
01:09:07	and then it opened up again
01:09:11	that ended in a massive cliff.
01:09:23	Above that ramp was
01:09:27	You know, I got to ski that powder field
01:09:30	and then boom, off the kicker.
01:09:34	And that was amazing.
01:09:59	Complacency is what gets everybody.
01:10:03	Accidents, deaths, problems,
01:10:08	And I find myself getting
01:10:11	Like when I was in Alaska
01:10:14	I was setting off class three avalanches,
01:10:18	four-foot fractures,
01:10:21	Oh, darn it! Too bad I ruined the mountain.
01:10:24	You know, let's go on to the next slope,
01:10:27	you're looking down there at 50, 60 feet
01:10:30	And it's like I almost got numb to it.
01:10:36	Something in the back of my mind just said,
01:10:38	"Why don't you just step back
01:10:41	And so I left Alaska.
01:10:51	La Meije is the peak that looms over
01:10:57	La Grave is like Chamonix 50 years ago,
01:11:01	a wild, alpine world
01:11:07	It's where Doug Coombs and his family
01:11:14	Well, we fell in love with France
01:11:17	and the red wine,
01:11:20	The power of the mountain
01:11:24	And we were just drawn to it.
01:11:26	It's very raw and wild and it has moods,
01:11:32	Everyone said it was
01:11:36	You know, it's ski sauvage, as they say.
01:11:40	I instantly felt like I belong there.
01:11:47	That was fun.
01:11:56	Okay, let's go to town,
01:11:59	We'll go buy some bread.
01:12:09	You can instantly get off the lift here
01:12:11	and get in the most amazing,
01:12:15	You can go from sipping a nice cafe au lait
01:12:21	I mean, to be able to have that freedom
01:12:25	and getting into this wild spot right away.
01:12:28	You know, right from the restaurant,
01:12:36	One, two, three, four, five.
01:12:41	Ten.
01:12:43	- Eleven.
01:12:46	Fourteen.
01:12:47	- Fifteen.
01:12:49	Seventeen.
01:12:51	I haven't been slowing down very much.
01:12:56	I don't know how Emily puts up with me.
01:12:59	I think my wife is super tolerant.
01:13:04	She always calls me that. But I don't know,
01:13:07	I think she's the most tolerant person
01:13:14	And to make me stop doing something
01:13:42	On April 3, 2006,
01:13:45	Doug Coombs died in a skiing accident
01:13:53	He fell to his death
01:13:56	who had slipped and fallen off a cliff
01:14:08	We never questioned our life.
01:14:10	The other people might have, but we knew
01:14:14	was worth every bit of it.
01:14:18	He knew and I knew,
01:14:21	Mountains have always had the last say.
01:14:28	Mostly they give,
01:14:29	mostly the mountains just give you
01:14:32	And sometimes they swallow you up.
01:14:38	I just can't imagine a better way
01:14:41	even if it was too soon.
01:14:51	You know what they say
01:14:54	all the birds, all the blackbirds,
01:14:59	And there's a lot of birds
01:15:02	And they're all blackbirds.
01:15:05	That's their spirits flying around.
01:15:11	And there are a lot of deaths here,
01:15:14	They're so gnarly, they"re so big,
01:15:16	and they can be so friendly one day
01:15:24	I remember being really shocked
01:15:28	And then the next friend died skiing.
01:15:31	And you're like, I don't know what it is,
01:15:37	It's still terrible, and you don't like it,
01:15:45	I hate seeing people that I know die,
01:15:51	I think that's just part of it.
01:15:54	It's like saying you know someone
01:15:58	You know, what's worse, a car accident,
01:16:03	I don't know,
01:16:06	At least when they're falling off the
01:16:31	I was just getting ready to tell him,
01:16:36	to steer clear of us.
01:16:38	Let's jump right in to that real quick
01:16:39	and take a phone call from Andrew McLean
01:16:44	- Good morning, Andrew.
01:16:48	Top of the morning to you, sir.
01:16:50	Well, the weather in Iceland is a lot
01:16:54	I woke up and I wasn't really sure
01:16:56	It's dumping snow, a total white-out,
01:17:00	It's kind of like deja vu.
01:17:02	I'm kind of wondering
01:17:05	Okay, Andrew,
01:17:08	you were up here doing a little skiing
01:17:10	and decided Iceland had not been skied
01:17:14	so it was a great place to take off to.
01:17:16	Yup, so the skiing terrain up here
01:17:20	What we're doing is called
01:17:23	And that's where you hike up
01:17:25	And we're specifically looking
01:17:29	like couloirs and slopes
01:17:33	And there's no shortage of them up here.
01:17:35	We can't see them at the moment,
01:17:40	But just kind of reading some big,
01:17:58	Andrew McLean is a throwback.
01:18:01	He calls himself a "ski mountaineer. "
01:18:05	Like Bill Briggs, like the first
01:18:09	his passion is simply to climb
01:18:16	No helicopters,
01:18:21	Just Andrew and friends exploring
01:18:30	I've never really taken
01:18:34	I've always just looked at it
01:18:36	I'm going to get a real job and a real career,
01:18:42	But what always happens is, you know,
01:18:44	I'll have the opportunity
01:18:46	and then there will be like a ski trip.
01:18:50	And it will be like, well, you know,
01:18:53	and then, you know,
01:18:58	You know, 20 years later, you know,
01:19:02	over getting with the program.
01:19:08	At some point you just have to realize like,
01:19:11	you know, more of a full-time thing,
01:19:16	It's my destiny.
01:19:30	Ski mountaineering, I look at it
01:19:36	All these mountains,
01:19:39	They've never been skied.
01:19:43	You can be a modern-day explorer.
01:19:45	And it may not be as significant as going
01:19:49	but from just a common standpoint
01:19:53	to get out and explore the world.
01:20:01	Andrew McLean has explored
01:20:07	This is the peninsula of the Giants
01:20:12	This is where Andrew and two friends,
01:20:17	have come to climb and ski.
01:20:28	I like doing steep skiing
01:20:33	and I like doing
01:20:36	which could also be considered
01:20:40	It doesn't seem that dangerous when
01:20:44	It seems almost commonplace.
01:20:46	But taking a dangerous situation
01:20:48	and kind of figuring out how to
01:20:55	Andrew McLean,
01:21:04	He's going on these trips
01:21:09	You're skiing 55-degree slopes.
01:21:12	You slip up, there's nothing there
01:21:22	There's not very many people out there
01:21:26	because many of the people
01:21:31	they're not with us anymore.
01:21:35	Andrew McLean continues that tradition
01:22:00	Having friends die and seeing friends die
01:22:05	definitely does give me pause.
01:22:09	When I was involved in my first
01:22:12	"That's it, I'm not skiing anymore. "
01:22:15	But I think I'm a slow learner.
01:22:18	I have what's called
01:22:21	I always think,
01:22:24	It happened because
01:22:27	and those won't happen again.
01:22:34	This was Andrew's 15th day
01:22:43	Holy crap.
01:23:05	- Dylan, you okay?
01:23:08	- Andrew, Dylan.
01:23:12	- Dylan, you okay?
01:23:14	Holy...
01:23:17	Holy shit!
01:23:20	Oh, my God.
01:23:27	Oh, my gosh.
01:23:35	Wow.
01:23:42	I'm very glad to be alive.
01:23:46	Glad you're all right, Dyl.
01:23:52	There, Dylan.
01:23:56	- That was cool. Full value, huh?
01:24:05	If I really want to avoid being caught
01:24:10	it's not the idea ofjust scaling back
01:24:14	It's more completely stopping.
01:24:19	I know it's dangerous, but if I give it up,
01:24:24	Is it just going to
01:24:27	You know, you need to figure that
01:24:30	Where are you going
01:24:32	or same excitement out of your life?
01:24:40	It's just something about mountains
01:24:42	that really appeals to me
01:24:47	I'm just a mountain person.
01:25:00	Those of us that want the risk
01:25:04	are going to do it one way or another,
01:25:08	whether it's in the mountains
01:25:11	or floating down the river.
01:25:16	This should be a common thing
01:25:21	I think we get a little bit too safe
01:25:29	I had a romantic vision of the mountains.
01:25:35	The mountains represented something
01:25:41	To me the mountains were the possibility
01:25:51	It's a different world.
01:25:53	It's extreme. You risk your life.
01:25:58	But if we decide to live this way,
01:26:01	it can give you
01:26:04	And that's what you need in your life.
01:26:10	I'd be lying if I said
01:26:14	you know, I think the
01:26:19	Gliding down a slope with such peaceful
01:26:27	Something I've done all my life
01:26:28	and I want to continue to do
01:26:31	SiNCRONiZACiON POR

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