Zack Giffin

USA

I spent the first 20 years of my life living in Gold Hill, Colorado, a small town 12 miles west of Boulder. I started skiing at Lake Eldora Ski Area with my elementary ski program. In high school I started spending every winter weekend traveling to the larger ski areas, mostly Vail.

We had a friend who lived in Avon and worked at Domino's. I'd seriously take off for days with like ten bucks for gas and a plan to eat nothing but ramen and free pizza.  Somewhere around '97 I started getting into the park and mostly skied at Breckenridge for a few years unless it was a pow day and then it was back to Vail.   My older brother Jeff went to Durango for college. When visiting him, I first started exploring real backcountry in places like Red Mountain pass and Wolf Creek. In his sophomore year I joined him and some friends for an epic two month ski trip where we toured all through Wyoming, Montana, British Columbia, and Washington. It turned out to be the best winter ever and climaxed with a two-week non-stop storm at Mt. Baker, Washington. That was part of their 1,140" record-setting season. A close call with a category 4 avalanche on Valentine's Day ended the trip and sent us home with our tails between our legs.

That trip started a series of yearly adventures to Canada and the northwest. It was not long before I decided to make the move. My younger brother Sam and I scored jobs in the Mt. Baker terrain park and moved to Glacier in the 2002-03 season. I did the terrain park for two years and then was on patrol for one year after that. I made the move to professional ski bum in 2006 and have never looked back.

Now I split my time on seasonal lines. I'm a full time carpenter in the summer and full time skier in the winter. I play guitar and like to paint and draw. Recently I've been super stoked on swingbikes and building them is my new main hobby. I've built many bikes at this point and have even gone past two wheeled bikes to larger multi-person vehicles like the semi famous picnic table bike. I was very proud to have three of my creations displayed last October in the Smith-Klein Gallery in Boulder.

Birthday? April 19, 1980

Year you first started skiing? 1984

Three skiing achievements you are most proud of? Helping produce my brother's film "Return of the Nina," hitting new gaps and lines at Mt. Baker, skiing from almost every summit in the Indian Peaks where I grew up.

Memory/story of the first time you ever went skiing? One of my first memories I was cross-country skiing on an elementary school field trip. At one point the trail came close enough to the resort and I could see through the trees people riding the chairlift and going fast. Things were all downhill from there.

Favorite skiing area and why? I have made Mt. Baker my home for the past eight winters because of three things: huge amounts of snow every year, combined with terrain that gives you the opportunity to get as radical as you want every run. And possibly most important a coastal maritime snow pack that sticks to steep angles, pows out landings and makes accurate avalanche forecasting much more possible.

Best skiing experience? A trip to British Columbia, I took with both my brothers and few great friends on the winter of  '99.

Worst skiing experience? All the close calls I've ever had with avalanches compete with each other for that title.  Some ended up worse than others.

What's your dream trip? Where? With who? It would have to be in Alaska. I think there would have to be the triple threat in effect, which is snow, stability and sun. I think that helicopters would have to be involved or if not helicopters maybe some other form of flying mechanism such as a hydrogen powered jet pack. My brothers and my girlfriend or actually my entire family and all my good homies from Baker would all be sessioning with me. It would probably climax with me about to drop into the glory line and having it snaked by Mikey P, Tokala, James and Allen leaving only the super gnar line to the side. Which turns into the overlooked gem with the secret entrance to fluted spine chute madness.

Guilty pleasure? I like to slide rails with pow skis and skin on rocks.

BD gear you use every time you go skiing? AvaLung pack, Factors, Megawatts, FlickLock poles, Ascension skins, Icon headlamp.

Something that annoys you while skiing? People unwilling to acknowledge danger. I don't mind exposing myself and taking risks, but you have to be realistic about the risk you are taking. People who have never seen things really go down, don't want to believe how close we come to the edge all the time.

What/who inspires you in skiing? Die Hard Ski Bums

Favorite après-ski meal? Last night's leftovers burrito

Favorite skiing flick? Global Storming, MSP '99

What's in your iPod? I need to get on that program. But, I would fill it to the brim with the Tarek-stafari boom selection.

Strangest place you've ever woken up? The floor of a Bu-Jutsu dojo.  After being straight dropped.

Strangest person you've ever woken up with? Crackheads that wandered into my brother's house in Bellingham.

Three things you'd never road trip without? Good music, a good reason to burn mad gas, safety supplies.

Superstitions? I think karma is real.

What's your dream job? Owner - Mt. Baker Ski Area

How are you training when you are not skiing? Swing Biking everywhere! Transversifying my abdominals.

If you could steal one thing and not get caught, what would it be? Sadly, it would probably be just a bunch of money, well maybe gold because it's shinier.

If you could have dinner with three people (dead or alive) who would they be? My Grandma Barbra Neal before she had Alzheimer's, so I could thank her which I never got to do. My father's father Rusty, who I never got to meet. My mother's father Bruce because I know he would love to hear about the mountains I've seen.

Do you have any tattoos or piercings? Scars? Does that count?