How long have you been skiing?

I didn't ski a lot growing up but I started skiing when I was in grade school. My uncle took me my first few times. So my first time was in like 4th or 5th grade. Up until college I only skied around 30-40 times, then I moved to Whistler after 2 years of college and started skiing all the time.

You grew up in Seattle?

No, I grew up in a little town in Oregon, Roseburg Oregon and then I moved to Seattle for college.

University of Washington?

Seattle Pacific, I went everywhere but that's where I was going at the time.

Sponsors?

K2, Smith, Pow gloves, Bern Helmets, Summit at Snoqualmie, and Evo Gear



Films?
Heavy Hitting Films "Volume 1" (Dark Classic from the Whistler days)
Wink "Respect"
Warren Miller "Off The Grid"
Rush HD "Nomads" - Shows from Argentina, AK and Japa
Levitation Project (www.thelevitationproject.com)
Nimbus Independant "Huntin Yeti" to be released this coming year Nimbus Independent

You were just on a trip. Where were you?

This year I'm working with Nimbus with Eric Pollard, Pep Fujas, Andy Mahre and their crew. We've been filming with North Cascade Heli and then we're going to film up in the Mt. Waddington area after that. It looks like were going to be filming in Austria later in March...in Krippenstein where Pep and I were a couple years ago with Warren Miller. It's a mellow group of guys, great athletes, but also super natural and it's super fun to hang with them. I'm going back up to North Cascade Heli tommorow to ski and we're hoping to get sun Tuesday and Wednesday. I've already spent 6 days flying with North Cascade Heli this year and hopefully it will be 8 or 9 by the end of it.

Given the knowledge and experience it takes to be a big mountain skier, is it hard to stay on top of your skiing while running 2 other businesses?

Yeah, absolutely. It's super hard. At this point in time I feel like I am competitive with myself because I feel I have an ability to do certain things and I don't want to not achieve those things, but you do have to be really on top of it to get there. Skiing bigger lines and bigger venues, you need to be strong and on your skis and be super aware of everything that is going on, there's nothing better than mileage, so it's definitely a challenge, it's a challenge whether you have all this other stuff going on or not, you know. It takes a lot of time out there so yeah, it's tough.

What other projects are you working on besides Evo?

I own a company called Evo Properties so I've got a partner in that and we basically do different kinds of real estate projects. I really enjoy that, for me it's super fun figuring out how to put different deals together. And then I also have a project called the Greenwood Collective that is basically a space that my friend and I started. It's for independent businesses to have space and it's also for events, you can check it out at www.greenwoodcollective.com.

How did you get into real estate?

For some reason I was attracted to it at a young age. When I was 20 and in college I bought my first house (laugh). I just loved putting together deals and figuring out how to make things work.

Is there anything you do to help manage your time between skiing and running businesses?

It's being able to juggle and keep a lot of balls in the air, you know. I thrive on having a lot of stuff going on but I knew when I started EvoGear.com and when I was skiing that there was no way I would do one without the other and so I had to figure out a way to balance both of them and make sure both of them were going to move forward at full speed. As far as the skiing side of it, I do things to make sure I'm ready, like staying in shape especially, doing crossfit is huge and then making sure things are set up so I can get the days in that I need just to be on it. It's all about putting your days in and I don't ski as many days as a lot of other people but I get a lot of days. I've also learned that it's all about pacing yourself into things, I don't feel any pressure by the people I'm sponsored by so I don't try and push too hard too early, it's all about being natural about it. It's been cool because this season I've been filming and my first filming trip was for a tv show, pretty basic stuff but fun and good skiing. The next trip has been with Nimbus, and now were filming and getting a little more aggressive and it looks like we'll be stepping into some bigger lines over the next couple of days. By the end of the season I'll be in Alaska or in BC in the bigger venues. I'm going to europe a couple times before that with some friends and I just don't feel pressure to do something that I'm not ready to do. I've learned to stay healthy and make better decisions so that when the time is right I can push it harder. If you try to force it your going to get hurt or your not going to do it well anyways, so it's not worth it. I feel very at peace when it comes to all that. I think a lot of people feel like, 'oh I have to do this or that to hold on to my career,' and I don't feel that kind of pressure because I'm really happy with the value I add for the people I ski for and the fun that I have when I do it. So now if I'm on a trip or I'm putting together a trip it's gotta be something that I really want to do personally.






To me it seems that Evo is really an extension or a platform for you to deliver or express your ideal lifestyle and to share it with others?

I want people to be super excited about what Evo is about, like the essence of the brand and it is really about not being just a ski bum or a business person but about balancing both of those and people really have embraced that. I mean, we work with 50 people that charge, they get after it, they're up in the mountains all the time, but they're also ambitious and they want to see stuff happen on the business side. I think that will really resonate with tons of people because they aspire to that, and they are trying to figure out how to achieve it and get on the mountain 3-4 days a week or whatever it may be. So yeah, if we can get that out to the world, letting them know what we're about, and part of it has to do with what I'm about, then I think we will make strong connections with customers and it will be good for business and good for the company culture.

Yeah, you're not really just selling ski stuff, your selling a whole lifestyle and identity. A real brand that means something, unlike most brands out there.

That's the idea, yeah. That's definitely the concept, we want to create a brand. We're not building this company to sell it in 2 years and make a bunch of money, we're doing it because we hope that it will be around for a long long time.

Since you're doing stuff with both real estate and snow sports are you going to try and start a riders hotel like MFM?

(laughs) ahaah. You know it's funny you ask. It won't be The Block but what I really love is creating things that are based around lifestyle and healthier and fun lifestyles. I love to create things where people are going to have fun whether it be a party or a development or whatever it may be. So we've definitely got some crazy scheming going on behind the scenes. But no, I don't need to be in the limelight like MFM and posing for the cameras all tough in front of my hotel. That's not exactly my goal, but in regards to development, I love design and the right kind of responsible development and I know there are some amazing opportunities and we are actually working on some right now. <

So back to skiing. Was the 80's chute line at Alpental one of the scariest lines you've done so far?

By far. I figure it was like 1500 ft. I guess it's been skied before but patrol said there was tons more snow at that time. It was definitely one of those things where I took it for granted thinking it was going to be a straightforward line. It was so steep for so long and then got rock hard and exposed. It was an amazing thing to do but also not something you do every day.

Is there anything you want to accomplish in skiing that you haven't?

That's a good question. I've had some really good highlights over the last couple years like skiing in europe and everything working out right but I still feel like I'm due to have the ulitmate big mountain heli trip. I've been on a bunch of them now and I've had some good ones and some bad ones but I haven't had the ultimate one. When I say ultimate it means stepping into bigger and bigger terrain and having that one week where you look back shaking your head thinking to yourself, 'I can't believe that just went down.' Every day...feeling more and more comfortable, skiing faster, skiing bigger stuff more confidently, bigger sluffs, and just really getting dialed picking big lines out of the heli. A lot of these trips, a lot of the films you see, you can piece stuff together and make it look rad and that's cool and all, but to truly progress in a big way in those kind of mountains is a really difficult thing to time, it's so freakin' hard. The last 2 years I've been in some serious avalanche conditions and had some really close calls and I just feel like I'm due and that's what I really want. It's not for a magazine shoot or a movie thing, it's really just for me looking back and thinking, holy shit I was able to accomplish that level of skiing in that kind of spot and I haven't had that and I feel that it's missing. I'm really ready for it and I want that so bad. It'll happen because I'm not going to stop doing it until I get that.