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Cody Townsend's Project takes a Turn

Alexzn

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@CalG Look carefully, there is A LOT of skills required to do what he did. There is a turn in the middle to line up for the Chute, and there are critical line adjustments right before the crux. All going at at Mach-schnell speeds with zero margin for error. That line takes mad skills. Cody is a REALLY good skier. I've seen him free-ski at Squaw, he rips.
 

Rostapher

All Praise Ullr
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As for Cody not being the best skier... well...here is an example:
Pretty elite skiing skills in my book, AND balls of steel.
+1
I must have watched this "line of the year" 10 or more times when it came out, just trying to figure out how he didn't die! If anyone has a better line please post because I want to see something crazier than this!
 

Primoz

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As for Cody not being the best skier... well...here is an example:.
Thing is, in this sort of skiing, it's hard to classify what's good and who is best. He's definitely one of best out of those who film. But there's whole bunch of people out there that just ski for fun and never shoot a single frame. And some of those guys ski incredible stuff, better and more demanding that anything that was shoot and is available on Youtube, yet out of those few friends who know them, noone ever heard of them. That's why I wrote, that maybe someone skiing that line might not be suicide but just business as usual, that accidentally got wrong. Without knowing skiing abilities of that guy is hard to judge him for skiing that.
 

CalG

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@CalG Look carefully, there is A LOT of skills required to do what he did. There is a turn in the middle to line up for the Chute, and there are critical line adjustments right before the crux. All going at at Mach-schnell speeds with zero margin for error. That line takes mad skills. Cody is a REALLY good skier. I've seen him free-ski at Squaw, he rips.

Alexzn

Look Carefully at my post.

Note the emoticon !

;-)
 

neonorchid

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Thing is, in this sort of skiing, it's hard to classify what's good and who is best. He's definitely one of best out of those who film. But there's whole bunch of people out there that just ski for fun and never shoot a single frame. And some of those guys ski incredible stuff, better and more demanding that anything that was shoot and is available on Youtube, yet out of those few friends who know them, noone ever heard of them. That's why I wrote, that maybe someone skiing that line might not be suicide but just business as usual, that accidentally got wrong. Without knowing skiing abilities of that guy is hard to judge him for skiing that.
:nono::nono::nono::nono::nono:
 

Alexzn

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Thing is, in this sort of skiing, it's hard to classify what's good and who is best. He's definitely one of best out of those who film. But there's whole bunch of people out there that just ski for fun and never shoot a single frame. And some of those guys ski incredible stuff, better and more demanding that anything that was shoot and is available on Youtube, yet out of those few friends who know them, noone ever heard of them. That's why I wrote, that maybe someone skiing that line might not be suicide but just business as usual, that accidentally got wrong. Without knowing skiing abilities of that guy is hard to judge him for skiing that.

@Primoz Yes, but... The freeride community is small, word always gets out. This particular guy's skills may have been incredible, but you don't need much skill to tomahauk down a mountain, and at least his decision making was clearly in question judging from the eventual outcome. I ski the mountain that is teeming with local talent (Squawllywood!), incredible skiers who regularly slay insane lines in full view of the lift. But I noticed that real pros are a cut above. I remember a miserable, overcast, cold, super icy day at Squaw many years ago where everyone just bided their time on groomers, except a lonely figure that kept lapping Fingers (a cliff band that is home to the huckfest on the powder days). Who was that? Shane McConkey. Nobody else got near Fingers that day. Eagles Nest on KT-22 gets skied often in good snow. The guy who nailed it in bad snow? Travis Ganong )who you probably know well). Many people can ski incredible lines, but what separates a real pro from the pack is consistency. The heli with a camera crew is up in the air (at $1,000+/hour), and you need to nail the line and give them usable footage.

As an aside, I see a huge democratization of the ski movie genre because of the advent of the affordable drones that can shoot very high quality footage. The affordability of that technology really gives people a lot of room for trial and errors. Or the difficulty will ratchet up a notch yet again. Given what you do for a living, I am curious what your thoughts on that subject would be.
 

Primoz

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@Alexzn I admit I don't really know much about "freeride community", and certainly not about US one. I know few guys and girls who are or were riding FWT, and maybe once or twice a year we go skiing together, but that's about it about my "freeride community" knowledge or "insider info" :) Other then this, I don't really have much connection with this, so I don't have any idea how things go around etc. But I believe you if you say so.
Otherwise I totally agree with you about what's difference between pros and non-pros. Any good skier can ski pretty much everything if conditions are perfect (ok let's exclude some crazy shit here), but when conditions are not perfect, most of people are not able to ski that.
Now to off topic stuff... I honestly don't have any idea about drones, as for this what I do, they are forbidden. Most of sporting events don't allow drones in airspace around competition venue. FIS in particular allowed them for TV production but since that Hirscher thing in Madonna few years ago, they are forbidden completely. So while they look fascinating for me, and provide amazing footage, I never used them or even think about them much (few $1000 is too expensive for me to have them just for fooling around). But I guess it goes same as with everything else in this business, starting with digital photography. Before with film, there were few photographers that did their business. When digital cameras started to get cheap(er) all of a sudden number of photographers (or "photographers") on World cup doubled or tripled. Everyone and their dog were all of a sudden photographer, and there were times, when number that FIS set for max number of photographers on course (40) were reached and photo boss needed to make decision who will get course access and who won't. With drones I think things will go, or already go same way. Before there were few guys who were able to afford heli and camera crew, now everyone and their dog flies drones and get footage. But I'm not really sure if difficulty will go up or not. Maybe it will for a little bit, but main thing is, quality of production will go down, and amount of crap stuff will rise sky high. And amount of injuries and deaths will rise for sure, as what if Cody can ski that, and it looks real simple, I can do it too. I know how to make down blue run, so no big deal to get down some huge almost vertical face. Everything for crappy shot or video on faacebook or instagram :) But in this huge pool of crap, there will be some noname guys and girls riding good lines and now you will be able to see them, as before you wouldn't as there's no chance they would have money for proper production. And these noname guys will probably push current stars doing even harder and more dangerous things. Sorry for long off topic :)
 

Slim

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I’d say, let’s back off on the judgements. It really doesn’t help keep yourself safer, and we know very little about the situation.

What I think is useful in a video like this is thinking about what we need to to to make an accident have better outcomes. Things I took away from this video:
  • Bring more insulation. Bjarne gave the victim all his warm layers, so then Bjarne himself was getting cold, and the victim could still use more warmth. I have known this before, but this video drives home the point even more. How many backcountry users go out there with just a super light down jacket as a warm layer? This victim was upright but most will not be, so I carry a small sit pad. Someone sitting in snow will lose a lot of heat through melting snow underneath them. It also makes for a nice tool for lunch breaks, and it actually helps organize my pack(I cut it to fit my pack exactly). I also swapped out my bivysack for a slightly heavier but breathable one. I know that even with a breathable bivy sack you get a lot of condensation inside, so I feel that if you plan to use any insulation inside, the standard emergency bivies wont be useful for very long in winter. I started carrying some ultralight down or synthetic mittens, and at least one extra hat. Most of the time I will bring some ultralight down pants too. All this in addition to the “standard” down jacket that everyone brings. I also opt for the thicker down jacket more than I did in the the past.
  • Get more first aid training.
  • Have the tools and a plan to contact rescue.
 

Slim

Making fresh tracks
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BTW, Netflix has a series called “The Horn” that shows the Air Zermat helicopter rescue company.
 

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