“Josh Madsen delves into where telemark skiing began in his follow up to “The Freeheel Life.” Taking you back to what dropping knees looked like in Morgedal, Norway in the 1860s to when it reemerged in the United States in the early 1970s. The scenery and skiing range from some of the first American telemark skiers, like Tom Carter and Doug Robinson, to their modern day protégés like Weston Deutschlander and Ty Dayberry. Get ready to sit back and enjoy some of today’s most progressive moves on freeheel gear, both on and off-piste. It is a journey through the lives of some of the sport’s Hippies, Punx, & Misfits that you won’t want to miss.

Shot on location in Norway, Utah, Alaska & California

Starring: Weston Deutschlander, Shaun Raskin, Ty Dayberry, Zeph Hallowell, Conor Davis, JT Robinson, Candy Froerer, Dan Ruppel, Josh Madsen, Cody Smith, and Alex Paul” -Telemark Skier Magazine

“The Freeheel Life 2: Hippies Punx & Misfits” Official Trailer from Telemark Skier Magazine on Vimeo.

Yesterday my friend, North Parker, and I woke up at 5am to ski a sick couloir on Hyndamn peak. With our skis and boots strapped to our packs, we started the 5mile approach to the base of the mountain. After crossing a river in the basin we scrambled our way to a small dwindling snow field, and started our 5000ft climb. About halfway up it became too steep to continue skinning, and we started an epic boot pack. The ski down was really fun and I’d like to ski it again in the winter, but the trek back to the car left us exhausted. All in all, it was a good time on one of Idaho’s most famous peaks.

The pictures below are from my cell phone, not the best quality but pretty good:

My good friend and fellow telemark skier, Kjell Ellefson, put out a self edit last night. He was out of commission last season due an injury, but I think it’s safe to say that he was back this year charging harder than ever! Personally, I think that he is one of the most talented and progressive telemark skiers out there today. Please watch the video below to see what I’m talking about:

Kjell Ellefson Self Edit 09-10 from Kjell Ellefson on Vimeo.

My ski season is over, but that doesn’t mean that the adventures have stopped. The past week I’ve been accompanying, and joining my little brother with his senior project, Learning to Paraglide in Santa Barbara! We’ve been flying for four days now, and we have already gotten our P1 (beginner) licenses! So far we have 35 flights on the training hill, and things are getting easier and easier.

Check out my little Bro’s first flight below, and follow his Sr. project blog at: www.tdparagliding.blogspot.com

The last day of the season is always Gaper Day, and with a group that reached 60+ people this Gaperday was truly epic! What is a gaper you might ask?

If you live in a ski town, you deal with them everyday. If you own a season pass, they’re destined to get in your way. And, if you only ride a few times a year, you might be among their ranks.
They’re the people in neon one-piece suits and rear-entry boots standing in the middle of the run, taking pictures of the resort. They’re the people who refuse to buy fat skis and Gor-Tex-enhanced clothing. To you they might be known as Uncle Phil and Aunt Bunny, but to most people they’re known as gapers. -Powder Mag

The Picture Gallery below describes the epic-ness i can’t quite put into words:
Pictures by Reta Flynt

I’ve been physically back in Sun Valley for a few days now, but I think I’m mentally  still in Alaska. Even today as I got ready to ski at the resort, I put on my beacon and my avy-pack with out even thinking, then I remembered, and felt like a a dork as I walked back to the condo to take them off… Then, even though the mountain was empty and the snow was awesome, the skiing felt droll, nothing felt steep or exciting… Oh well, I’ll get back into the swing of things eventually…

Here are some Pictures form the last two days of the trip:

Also make sure you SUBSCRIBE to my feed to get all the new updates!

The last two days in Alaska were amazing! We had beautiful blue bird days and the snow pack stabilized, giving us a green light to ski on some steeper and more exposed slopes. I ended up finishing my Alaskan adventure skiing an awesome knife-edge ridge that seemed to go forever which left me exhausted and adrenaline filled at the bottom! Now, after a not so nice red eye flight from Anchorage to Salt Lake, and a tired drive from Utah back to Idaho, I’m finally back in Sun Valley… time for real life again.

My trip was amazing and I have a bunch of people to thank for helping me, be sure to check out all of their websites!!!

Sun Valley Resort:
Thanks for giving me a place to ski and train all winter, couldn’t have done it with out a world-class home mountain!

Sun Valley Ski Patrol:
Thank you for the financial help, I wouldn’t have been able to have this amazing experience with out help from all of you guys and girls!

Chums/Beyond Coastal Sun Care:
Thanks for all the great products that helped me keep my face from frying, and thanks for helping me out financially.

Black Diamond Equipment:
Thanks for making such awesome and reliable gear!

Thanks to Penelope’s Café for feeding me, and for supporting my skiing all winter!

Pictures form the last days of the trip are on my latest post: CLICK HERE

Also make sure you SUBSCRIBE to my feed to get all the new updates!

I haven’t had time to write/post the last few days so here is a crash-course of my week:

April 1^st Filmed on resort
April 2^nd Amazing tour, summited and skied Pastoral Peak (tour only took 10hours haha)
April 3^rd Sled Skiing on Seattle Ridge, the snowmobile side of Turnagain Pass, SICK!
(Huge natural avalanche ripped out on other side the ridge while we were filming)
April 4^th Weather Day (poached some hot tubs)
April 5^th Snowed 30in skied/filmed at Alyeska Resort (Candy and Cody left)
April 6^th Went touring with avalanche forecaster Matt Murphy and learned a lot!!!

So far today we slept in till 11, stalked a moose, i got attacked by a dog(ish), and we’ve been in a coffee shop for 5hours going threw pictures and doing internet stuff…Oh and another high note, my eyes are getting less black, which is awesome! We are planning on putting in some 12hr days Thursday and Friday pushing to make the last frames of our AK trip really sick.

There are lots of sick pictures in the gallery below please check them out:
Also make sure you SUBSCRIBE to my feed to get all the new updates!

So after a nice relaxing day after lying in bed yesterday, I finally got my broken body out of the yurt and into the mountains. We got an early start, but ended up waiting for avalanche debris to be cleared from the highway, then Josh remembered that he’d forgotten his boots/skis, so we finally got going around ten. We did a really mellow tour on a mountain called “Sun Burst.” The snow wasn’t super stable and it was a little crusty, so Corky Still and I ended up doing some sweet powder-8’s for the camera. Then the group mobbed (snow plowed) through the lower death crust to the cars.

On our way back to the yurt we stopped on the side of the road to play in the mud to get some sweet “lifestyle” shots. Having not acted like a 4-year-old in at least a week, I jumped on the opportunity:

Also make sure you SUBSCRIBE to my feed to get all the new updates!

I’ve been in Alaska for three days now, the skiing has been good, but this morning we woke up to a foot of new snow up top. After a great breakfast, Jake Sakson, Paul Kimbrough (Who drove their modified ski-bum ambulance form Colorado) and I went to go shred Alyeska resort. We met up with the rest of the Tele Crew: Paige Brady, Corky Still, Candy Froerer, Dave Magoffin, etc… The snow got to be a little heavy down low but we still had a sick day! Comp Run tomorrow morning and we’re all super stoked to ski some AK mountain niceness.

Jake Sakson's ski-bum ambulance, it runs on grease!!!

Also make sure you SUBSCRIBE to my feed to get all the new updates!