20 Questions
Favorite areas or descents:
There are so many great places to ski in the world. In North America I love the Elk Mountains around Aspen/Snowmass, the Wasatch (Timpanogos is badass), the Tetons, the Coast Range in B.C. And of course any and all mountains in Alaska, especially in the Alaska Range, the Chugach, the Wrangalls, and the St. Elias Mountains. I visit the Alps every year because they were built for glisse, and I’ll always love skiing in the Andes, mainly Argentina and Chile. The Southern Alps of New Zealand are awesome as well. One of my favorite single descents had to be Mt. Sopris, Colorado, which is practically in my back yard.

Describe your skiing background:
I grew up skiing in New Hampshire and ski raced from a very young age, getting to a national level before going on to race for the University of Colorado. But in college I became jaded by ski racing and began just skiing in the backcountry and climbing mountains to ski them. Right around this time, like 1994, extreme skiing competitions were becoming big and a few friends told me that I might really enjoy them. So I showed up in Crested Butte in ‘94 for the U.S. Extreme Skiing Championships and realized that I still loved being in the starting gate, and loved the focus and intensity that comes with competition. So I kept doing these contests, never thinking it would lead to anything but a whole lot of fun, until I won the World Championship in ‘96, at which point I realized that I had just created a career/business for myself.

Describe a skiing experience when things got out of hand:
I was guiding some clients in Bella Coola this past winter and we had a pretty bad avalanche cycle in the mountains. We were out heli skiing some mellow terrain but one of my clients, who was the fourth skier on the slope, released a big slide from above and it took him down onto the glacier (which thankfully was not open with crevasses). He was completely buried and we did an excellent search and located him with the beacons in two minutes, probed him right on the head, and had him dug out in two and a half. He was fine but definitely shaken up. We flew back to the lodge at that point and called it a day.

What are you up to when you’re not skiing?
I love hanging out with my kids no. We ski a lot together and in the summer we camp and bike. On my own I’m pretty well addicted to riding my road and mountain bikes. I did over 5000 miles this summer, and spent a month in Europe on two different trips riding in Italy, France and Spain. I also love climbing and paragliding. From a business perspective, my company imports and distributes KASK headwear from Sweden, so that keeps us busy, and I’m looking into starting a super high-end carbon road bike frame company, so there is always something going on here.

Any training advice or suggestions?
Depending on your goal training can be either great or horrible. In general, I try and stay super flexible by stretching or doing yoga most days. I think flexibility will allow people to be active much later in their lives. I love the cross training aspects that come with winter versus summer sports. Skiing is all about power and quick recoveries between runs, while cycling is all aerobic. I love being 10 pounds heavier in the winter for the ski season, and then watching all that come off as the miles build up in your legs.

Who or what inspires you?
I take inspiration from anyone who takes calculated risks to further the evolution of their sport. My all time great hero is Reinhold Messner because he proved so many people wrong when it came to soloing, without O2 in the biggest mountains of the world, and then went on to write wonderful books about it. I love what the Red Bull Air Force guys are doing with BASE-jumping, paragliding, and hang gliding.

How do you see skiing evolving in the next five years?
Well, we have come so far in the last five years, with huge developments in ski equipment, apparel, terrain parks, and films, that I see less change in the next five. But I do think people will get back into ski mountaineering and discover the backcountry more as a way to escape the ski areas. I personally will be trying to inspire people to get out and climb and ski peaks with my “Ski The 14ers” project.

Do you think the best skiers today are better than the best skiers twenty years ago?
Not at all. The best skiers 20 years ago did amazing things on poorly designed equipment. People climbed and skied 8000-meter peaks wearing wool shirts and nylon windbreakers. People hucked big cliffs on 210 cm straight skis. They made the most of what they had. I do think however that minds are far more open now a days to the endless possibilities of skiing.

How does fear affect your skiing?
It is certainly good and responsible to have a healthy dose of respect when you are I the mountains, especially the big ones. But fear is a relative thing. If I’m scared of something I don’t go there. If I’m standing on a peak or face getting ready to drop in and I have fear, I don’t go. You can’t perform when you’re shaking in your boots. But respect of Mother Nature and her power is what it’s all about. Never be too confident, always keep your guard up, and fight fear with education.

Do you have any vices that you would like to share?
Swedish snus is sooo good!

Ever been caught speeding or ever been arrested?
Duh, I was a ski racer! Arrested, ah, maybe.

Any tattoos or body piercings?
No holes or ink at the moment. I landed on a rock last winter and got a pretty good body piercing with that one....20 stitches.

Any near death experiences?
Yes, when I was 16 I was leading some chossy 5.10 in New Hampshire and took a huge whipper on shitty gear. We were on the second pitch and I ripped all my gear except some old pin and would have maybe hit the deck had I not landed in the top of a tree.

Are you a fan of skiing history? Explain?
I am a huge fan of the history and tradition behind the sport of skiing. To be a true follower of the sport I think you should know how we got here and who the people were that made the sport what it is today. I love reading books about skiing from the 10th Mountain division guys, and the tradition and literary history in the Alps is amazing. Old, defunct ski areas that used to have skiers swarming all over them but now lie dormant also fascinate me.

What are your future plans or goals in skiing?
Well, I have a really cool project for this winter that I am incredibly psyched about. I am trying to climb and ski all the 54 14,000 peaks in Colorado in one season. These are (mostly) awesome mountains that have only been skied by one person, Lou Dawson, and he took 13 years to do it. This project will be a big challenge and I’m not sure if I can pull it off. But if Mother Nature cooperates with good snow and not too much wind, I might have a chance. I will be writing a book about the project, as well as producing a documentary film. We also have a cool website up called www.skithe14ers.com where you can follow my progress on the peaks and log in your email address to receive updates every time I ski a new peak.

He did it! To order Chris's new book, Ski the 14ers, go to www.wolverinepublishing.com.