The Backcountry Magazine Podcast

When Craig Kelly died in 2003, the world of snowboarding was devastated. Twenty years later, New York Times best-selling author Eric Blehm returned to the site of Kelly’s death, to uncover the true story of what happened in the avalanche that killed the legendary snowboarder and six backcountry skiers in British Columbia’s Selkirk Mountains.

Blehm’s roots in snowboarding run deep. He started riding during the sport’s infancy, and after college became an editor at Transworld SNOWboarding Magazine. Years later, he was in a lift line when a fellow rider saw the “Craig Kelly is my Co-Pilot” sticker on his board, and asked Blehm: “Who is Craig Kelly?” He was floored by the notion that there were snowboarders out there who didn’t know who Craig was. And this inspired him to write The Darkest White.

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Buy Eric Blehm’s The Darkest White

In the skiing universe, Chris Davenport is a household name. His notoriety is due in part to the many facets of the sport upon which he’s had a lasting impact. He raced for New Hampshire’s Holderness Academy and the University of Colorado before transitioning to freeskiing and winning world championships in 1996 and 2001. He became one of the first American Red Bull athletes and found his way into more than 30 ski films. And that just scratches the surface of Dav’s decades of dominance.

He eventually moved on from competitive freeskiing to focus on high-profile backcountry objectives like skiing all of Colorado’s 54 14,000-foot peaks in less than a year, then skiing the 100 highest peaks in the state. He authored a book about the 14ers project and co-authored Fifty Classic Ski Descents of North America.

Today, Dav applies his decades of experience and passion for skiing in a multitude of ways. He’s a ski guide, television host and announcer, and ski entrepreneur. Most recently, he’s taken on a role at Peak Skis alongside Bode Miller, bringing decades in the industry to his focus on design and innovation.

This episode of the Backcountry Podcast is brought to you by Arva.

Tlingit skier Ellen Bradley is an advocate, athlete, scientist and storyteller. Fierce and thoughtful, she defies the narrative that wild Alaska is there only to be conquered by heli operations and other extractive industries. She loves to slide on snow and wants more Indigenous people to share in her joy.

Born and raised in the Seattle area, Bradley started skiing Stevens Pass at age 4. For her, skiing has always been a source of connection to both the land and her ancestors, especially because she grew up away from her traditional homelands in Southeast Alaska. 

Today, she’s working with tribal organizations and the greater ski community to make the sport more accessible for native kids. That resulted in a partnership between Ikon Pass and Natives Outdoors for the 2023-24 season, in which 30 scholarships have been awarded to Indigenous people who receive passes, rentals and lessons.

In this episode, Bradley speaks about how her background in science and passion for skiing complement each other. She reflects on the challenges of growing up away from her Alaska homeland and why we should let Indigenous peoples tell their own stories.

This episode of the Backcountry Podcast is brought to you by Arva.

From a distance, Jeremy Jones’s career looks impossible. He is, after all, a pro snowboarder, entrepreneur, activist, filmmaker and author. Does he ever sleep? Nevermind that he’s also a husband, father and active community member in Truckee, California. 

Somehow, he still manages to snowboard around 200 days a year. The founder of Jones Snowboards has stayed true to his passions while owning and operating one of the most innovative brands in the sport. At any given time, you might find him on a Tahoe skintrack or in Washington, D.C., advocating for the planet on behalf of Protect Our Winters, an organization he founded in 2007. 

In this episode, Jeremy reflects on the impact of the life of the late Craig Kelly, whose untimely death while training to become a guide set the sport of backcountry snowboarding back a decade. Jeremy also speaks about his own personal journey, from being the first certified snowboarder at Mt. Mansfield in Stowe, Vermont, to riding some of the raddest lines on the planet and the pure joy he finds in powsurfing.

This episode of the Backcountry Podcast is brought to you by Arva.

Jordan Campbell’s relationship with Backcountry spans more than two decades. He published his first story in the magazine—about a ski expedition to Eastern Tibet—in 2002.  

Throughout the course of his career, Campbell has worked for some of the biggest names in the outdoor industry, including Jagged Edge, The North Face and Marmot. During that time, he found himself increasingly drawn to humanitarian causes around the globe. It was also during this time that I found myself chasing him around the mountains of Chamonix and Norway.

In recent years, his focus has shifted away from working on behalf of brands into something more profound. Campbell founded Ramro Global – a documentary film production and media company – to shine a light on humanitarian crises in places like Iraq, Africa and Ukraine. He’s currently working on a film about the war in Ukraine called “Ukraine Under Fire.” 

In this episode, Jordan reflects on his career in the outdoor industry and how it led him to dedicate his life to humanitarian causes. He talks about his recent trips to Ukraine, and the people who inspire him to risk his life in order to tell their story. 

This episode of the Backcountry Podcast is brought to you by Gordini.

Jeffrey Bergeron, AKA Biff America, has spent the last 50 years living in the mountains, mainly in Breckenridge, Colorado. And yet his signature accent and brash personality—rooted in the South Shore of Massachusetts—is as rich as it was the day he moved West.

Likewise, his sharp and self-deprecating sense of humor is evident through his writing and, as you’ll hear, in this episode. In addition to his columns which have been published in Backcountry since 1994, he’s also published two books under the Backcountry flag. Biff’s colorful career has spanned stints on the radio and television, politics, and even a spell as a stand-up comedian.

At the core of it all is skiing and mountain biking. Biff has logged 100-plus days on snow per season for the better part of five decades. Nowadays he spends most of his time skiing the backcountry, away from crowds and Breck’s six-pack chairlifts. He finds inspiration for his writing in the skin track, and simply by “paying attention” to the little things that make up his daily life. He travels the country in a camper with his mate Ellen, chasing snow and singletrack and stories to share. 

We caught up with Biff in between adventures to learn where the “Biff America” moniker came from and much more.

This episode of the Backcountry Podcast is brought to you by Gordini.

Illustration by Tim Love

Hadley Hammer might just have the best name in backcountry skiing. Despite growing up in Jackson Hole, however, her path to becoming a professional skier did not follow a linear track. She dabbled in ski racing, figure skating, cross country skiing and other sports before deciding to pursue competitive freeskiing.

Her career got off to a rocky start with a last-place finish at a Freeride World Tour event in Argentina. But Hadley is nothing if not determined and, as she says, stubborn. And so she dedicated her life to improving her skiing, whether in the gym or following heavy hitters around Jackson Hole’s legendary terrain. She learned through osmosis, absorbing the skills and tactics they used to navigate the steep and deep.

She lived the classic ski bum lifestyle, working as much as possible during the off season to then fully dedicate herself to skiing in the winter months. That ultimately led to sponsorships and eventually being able to support herself through her skiing career.

When the love of her life, alpinist David Lama, died in an avalanche in 2019, Hammer withdrew and moved to Innsbruck to mourn his passing. She lived in David’s apartment and grieved. She struggled to eat and sleep, spending most of her time in solitude. Eventually, she left the loneliness of Innsbruck for Chamonix, where she had a community of friends on which to lean.

Today, love, loss and reflection has led Hadley to reexamine her path. Her skiing speaks for itself, but she’s now using her platform and writing skills to have an impact that reaches far beyond the skin track.

This episode of the Backcountry Podcast is brought to you by Gordini.

For more than 40 years, Voile has broken trail in the backcountry. The storied Utah brand develops and manufactures its products in the Wasatch, and innovates year in and year out. 

From developing tele bindings and skis to splitboards and the eponymous Voile strap, the inventors at Voile work at the edges. Their skis show up at our annual Utah ski test quite literally fresh out of the press as they tinker up to the last possible moment on a new model.  

While many associate Voile with characters like founder Wally Wariakois and Brett “Cowboy” Kobernick, Partner and General Manager Dave Grissom has been the wizard behind the curtain for more than two decades. Like any small business owner and operator, Grissom wears many hats as he helps keep Voile on track and with an eye to the future.

In this episode, Grissom speaks to the importance of independent retail shops, and the advantages of manufacturing in the U.S. He walks us through Voile’s humble beginnings and its rich history in backcountry skiing and snowboarding. We talk about weathering the pandemic, and what the new normal might look like as the boom in demand for outdoor equipment tapers. 

This episode of the Backcountry Podcast is brought to you by Minus33.

Backcountry first caught a glimpse of Will’s prototype splitboard bindings in 2008. A brief writeup in the magazine that year was the precursor to inclusion in every Backcountry Gear Guide since. 

While they lacked polish in the early days the bindings showed promise. And that first generation of Spark clamps would lay the foundation for that elusive “better mousetrap.”

Word of Spark’s bindings spread like wildfire in the close-knit backcountry snowboard community, and the company has grown every year since its garage-band inception. Spark is now synonymous with splitboarding, and its ascent has mirrored the progression and increase in popularity of the sport.

Today, Spark R&D employs 120 people and operates 24/7 in the company’s Bozeman, Montana facilities. They manufacture nearly every ingredient in their products, from baseplates to straps and highbacks. 

Will tours us through the evolution of the company, and shares what it feels like to have the idols of his youth riding his setup. He speaks to his connection to the backcountry snowboarding community, and his 15-year pursuit of building a better backcountry snowboard binding.

This episode of the Backcountry Podcast is brought to you by Minus33.

If you’ve been to a mountain town in the past decade you’ve seen the proliferation of Skida hats and neckies. They’re part and parcel now to global ski culture.

But what about the founder of Skida? That’s 31 year old Corinne Prevot. What began for Corinne as a means of self expression in high school has blossomed into a business with 20 employees under the age of 30. Most of them are women.

Based in Burlington, Vermont, Skida hats and neckwear are renowned for their eclectic patterns and athletic designs. Patterns like plaid, pastel, and fields of flowers reflect Corinne’s passion for art and nature. She’s also got a passion for ripping big faces in the backcountry, Nordic skiing and, recently, winning a couple amateur Enduro World Cup races on her mountain bike. I first got to know her when she jumped onto my 24-hour mountain bike racing team after a last minute scratch. In short, she’s got game.

In this episode Corinne reflects on the loss of friends and family, and how she can only hope to match their passion and drive in her own life and work. And, we talk about legacy and how it feels to be breaking trail for the next generation.

This episode of the Backcountry Podcast is brought to you by Minus33.

We recently sat down with intrepid explorer Lani Bruntz, soon after she arrived home from a bikepacking trip in Mexico. Prior to that adventure, she was skiing and guiding in Chile. If there’s one thing we learned about Bruntz during our interview, it’s that she’s almost always on the move. 

Whether exploring her Crested Butte, Colorado backyard, or remote mountain regions around the globe, Bruntz feels most at home in wild places. She came up as a Nordic ski racer, before discovering a passion for the more vertical world beyond the groomed track.

Today she’s a mountain guide, sponsored athlete, and a professional writer. Her most recent work entitled “Stepping Out” appears in the January issue of Backcountry. The story documents a trip to Alaska where remote terrain and an unforgiving winter environment provided immense challenges at nearly every turn.

Like so many who make a life in the backcountry, Bruntz knows firsthand what the mountains provide, and what they can take away. She’s endured her own personal loss to avalanche. Still, she can’t imagine spending her life doing anything else.

This episode of the Backcountry Podcast is brought to you by Taos Ski Valley.

In this episode, we have a conversation with backcountry snowboarder Nick Russell. Like so many of today’s top snowboarders, Nick cut his teeth riding freestyle out East. He grew up in Connecticut before making his way to Vermont’s Stratton Mountain School. The longtime home to the US OPEN, Stratton has produced snowboarding legends like Ross Powers and Danny Davis.

Once he realized he wasn’t destined for freestyle greatness, Russell migrated West. He eventually discovered splitboarding and began venturing deeper and deeper into the backcountry.

With sponsors like Red Bull and WNDR Alpine, Russell is breaking new ground as a backcountry snowboarder. He talks about his passion for expedition snowboarding and exploratory freeriding, including a recent trip to Nepal. He puts his tech hat on and explains the science behind WNDR’s sustainable materials, and the role he plays in product development. 

Russell then reflects on the path that brought him to where he is today, and his lifelong love of snowboarding. 

This episode of the Backcountry Podcast is brought to you by Taos Ski Valley.

In this episode, photographer and Backcountry contributor Jason Hummel shares his passion for exploring far-flung places in his home range and beyond. 

Jason grew up backcountry skiing on Washington’s glaciers and in the surrounding wild country, including his first multi day winter traverse of Mt. Rainier at just 10 years old. 

Fast forward a few decades, and a lifetime of exploring Washington’s wildest winter places has inspired Jason to become a student and avid researcher of Washington’s glacial history, while documenting his own journeys along the way.

This episode of the Backcountry Podcast is brought to you by Taos Ski Valley.