The Cool Police of the world are going to call us out on this one. Twenty-five issues of a magazine over six years doesn’t make up much of a history. Hey, we agree with you. So before you all run to your computer keyboards and spill your mindless drivel on the freezeonline.com forum board, let me pay homage to the and magazines that have come before us and paved the way for FREEZE to be successful. Thank you. By Michael Jaquet and Micah Abrams

? T.R.Youngstrom ’ mcconKey s Boards helicoPTer crash sTraighT run in moTion, inThe helicopterchile crash in the summer of 1998 that took oFBack inPyThon 1996, the fat ski was a tool r.i.P.At the exact same time FREEZE launched in the lives of T.R. Youngstrom (our great friend and photo for the worthless and weak. Real 1996, a rival publication in Tahoe called Boards editor at the time) and the pilot, and temporarily crip- men heaved themselves down steep in Motion was started up by Kent Kreitler, a guy pled MSP's Steve Winter, still haunts many in the lines on 217cm downhill boards that named Senior, and about 20 interns/freeskiers. world today. No compliment in the world required elaborate hip-checks This was the great anti-establishment magazine could describe the greatness that was T.R., and every-

Fred Foto Fred through tight chutes before you got to of the time, and probably helped catapult the body who ever knew him was better for it. Knowing show your stuff with some speed at early success of FREEZE by calling more atten- that he died doing what inspired him most in life–flying the very bottom. That April, Shane tion to the Movement and the need for alterna- to fresh powder snow in a helicopter to capture a McConkey headed up to Alaska–hip- tive ski magazines. We were a team, fighting the moment forever on film–gave us all consolation during check ground zero–with a pair of good fight to rid of spandex, headbands, that time of horrible loss. It was Steve's words of inspi- Volant Chubbs, a ski with a huge fol- skiing in sunglasses, and endless stories about ration during his recovery–to keep on living our lives as The dirTy dozen: lowing among Vermont senior citi- going to Europe and "experiencing great skiing we had before the accident and to love skiing–that zens. Scoping lines on the notorious and meeting kind people." The magazine lasted really helped us get through the tragedy. Seth Morrison andreW shePPard, Python, McConkey found a long, about two seasons. Kreitler would, of course, go was also on that ill-fated flight, suffering minor injuries Where arT Thou?‘The Dirty Dozen’ was one of three original steep, wide-open chute that would back to concentrating on skiing and picking up in the crash. With Steve's encouragement, he would story ideas to come out of the first-ever FREEZE prove perfect for what he was look- women, and the collaborator, Senior, would get back in the helicopter that next season. After all, focus group and edit meeting. Its mission was ing to do: make turning obsolete. move to Alaska and work with Points North Heli T.R. would have wanted him to. Rest in peace, T.R. We to define what the magazine would be about When the photos were published the Operators. (mj) will always remember and love you. (mj) through the athletes that were the biggest following season, powder hippies stars in 1996-97. To this day, the roster still were appalled at what appeared to stands as a list of those who forever changed be the most gratuitous waste of good the sport–McConkey, Kreitler, Morrison, snow in the . But for Holmes, Davenport, Fisher, Cummings, Swany, those with an inclination to deci- and Micah Black, as well as those who ripped mate what was considered possible at the time (Alison Gannet, Rick Armstrong, in big mountain, it was just the

Flip McCririck Flip There is no better skier to attach a youth culture magazine to than Seth Morrison. and Andrew Sheppard). Without these 12 pio- beginning. (ma) seTh morrison neers, most of which were also in the original Freeskiing’s greatest ambassador, Seth has appeared on five covers of FREEZE (three more FREEZE focus group, there’s no telling how gay than anybody else) and has continued to push the limits of big-mountain riding all the while skiing could have become. (mj) pioneering the efforts of putting freestyle in the backcountry (well at least off cliffs). His segment this year in Matchstick’s High Society is as groundbreaking as skiing gets, and without him, skiing would be in a different place. Seth has made hundreds of public appear- ances for FREEZE and has spread the word of the magazine as much as any skier or employ- ee. If he just skied, he would still be a superstar. For everything else he does and represents, he’s freeskiing's ultimate icon. (mj) 2 KAt its peakFreeride in 1998, the K2 Freeride Team Team was a well-oiled marketing machine. With the sport's top dogs (Kreitler, Morrison, and Holmes) JM and a team manager ready to take on the world (Jeff Mechura), the connection between the Team and FREEZE was tight. From "Fa La La La Freeride" (a Christmas postcard series), to the Pro Staff Games (a five-day ski shop vacation program with the Team), to the Calvin Klein rip-off ad in 1999, we all waited with baited breath for what would

happen next. More than anything, the K2 Freeride Team featured DeVre absolutely the strongest personalities and skiers in the world, and for Reid Scott three great years, defined the Movement. (mj) asK BradEvery f--kin’ issue this column is sub- mitted late. And in every issue this is our best content. Brad Holmes could be the funniest and most inventive man slaveIt was a young, Boyshort, and smelly college student alive. Giving him his own column was that wrote us in the spring of 1997 begging for a the best move we ever made, even job that spawned one of the best editorial fea- though it’s always our biggest tures of the magazine, ‘The Adventures of Slave headache. But the man has brought us Boy.’ From his first mission as a Wave Rave- Grab Man, ‘Good Uses for Skiblades,’ hired hand, to washing dishes at the base lodge Few people know that the first editorial meeting and photo edit took reel advenTure Films the ‘Redneck Training Center,’ and, of of Loveland, to escorting two twins from place in the offices of Reel Adventure Films (now Matchstick course, ‘I Saved a Dumb Dying Doggy Sheboygan, Wisconsin on a date, Slave Boy Productions). Our first photo editor was Steve Winter, and our first sen- from Certain Death.’ If Brad didn't still (a.k.a. Micah Abrams) always put the good of the ior editor was Murray Wais. To this day, both hold a very influential role love skiing, he would certainly be mak- magazine before his own personal safety or at FREEZE. Most of the photos you see in FREEZE come from MSP shoots ing millions in Hollywood. It has been humility. Soon Micah took over the much-need- and more than once people have thought that our two companies were his humor and shit-talking ability that ed, do-everything editor position at FREEZE that the same. Steve and Murray deserve a lot of credit for where FREEZE and have kept many in the sport with him. probably, more than anything, brought a new the sport of skiing are today, and their films will forever be the video When snowboarders didn't respect the crew of skiers (Decesare and the Canadians) archives of Skiing's Revolution. (mj) sport of skiing in Squaw, they all closer to the magazine. (mj) respected Brad Holmes. That can never Norehad Dave Joe McBride Joe be underestimated. (mj) DN Stan Evans Stan

sTeinerNo two skiers better and embodied louBeK the plight of the ski town male in the mid-90’s than Dave Steiner and Josh Loubek, and no two skiers lobbied harder to be in the magazine from its very inception. On the endless search for tail and sponsorships, the two were local- Abbott Nate Flip < ly famous—Steiner in Vail and Loubek in Steamboat—for backcountry huckings and tourist < beddings that no other local could touch. By 1998, both were comfortably ensconced on factory freeride FM When FREEZE learned that seven University of California ski clubs teams, although they would experience varying all-cal sKi WeeK were descending on Big Sky, Montana, a hotel room and lift tickets degrees of success as professional skiers. Still, to > Scott Markewitz Scott were hastily arranged, Steiner and Loubek were drafted, and a fea- this day, Loubek manages to pull a paycheck as a ture story was on. A week later, several pairs of had been professional athlete, and Steiner’s huck of Mushroom destroyed on the mountain’s snowless rock faces, Steiner had offi- Rock in East Vail remains the biggest cliff drop pho- cially fallen in love, and the magazine had photos of the All-Cal Ski tographer Chris O’Connell has ever shot. And they Week’s signature event, the dirty dancing contest, that would make a 1997Before the u.s.U.S. Freeskiing exTremes Open was a glim- both always, no matter what the odds, get laid. (ma) mer in FREEZE’s eye, the U.S. sailor blush. Once the story hit newsstands, the sailors weren’t the Championships in Crested Butte was provid- only ones blushing. Nissan, all set to spend a pretty chunk of change ing an annual venue for birthing big moun- with the magazine to help launch its Xterra SUV, abruptly pulled out, tain names like Cummings and Kreitler. In citing the magazine’s poor taste as the primary reason. Steiner’s new 1997, one of the most competitive fields in : ’ girlfriend never called him back, either. (ma) event history gathered during one of the deepest snowfalls in recent memory–it BoBBy FenTon sKiing s unsolved proved to be the most exciting Extremes mysTeryFor a stretch during the 1997-98 season, we came as close to making contact with skiing's ever. Brant Moles made a mockery of all most mysterious personality, Bobby Fenton, as anyone ever has. Up until that season, only things "extreme," laying down unheard of occasional and random encounters were recorded, like Dave Swanwick's sighting in Alaska. moseley’s 360 muTe lines and throwing the biggest double- "I saw Bobby absolutely rip a face deep in the No, it wasn’t the first one ever thrown. It probably wasn’t even the spread ball grab ever recorded. Chugach," says Swanwick. "We hurried down our in nagano 20th one ever thrown. But it was the first one ever thrown before an Sanctimonious new schoolers were quick to run and loaded up the chopper to do a fly-by across audience of a kabillion, and it was the most exciting moment in term the trick "lame," but they missed the the valley, trying to spot him either hiking out or Olympic skiing since the Mahre brothers went to Sarajevo. Moseley’s point. The season before jibbing grabbed a something. Nothing. He just disappeared. I didn't 1998 Gold Medal run was an instructional video to every skier outside hold of the international spotlight, Moles hear anything about him until someone saw him the the freeskiing world on how the sport should look going into the next and the rest of the field gave the definitive following fall on Tuckerman's. He is a total ghost. Rowles Bruce millennium. F.I.S. will probably never get it. Thanks in no small part to display of what skiing outside the terrain But god damn he ripped that face!" Moseley, F.I.S. skiers always will. (ma) park is all about. (ma) It was during that fall on Tuckerman's that we actually made contact with Bobby. It was any eerie experience. We tried to explain to him that we’d be McBide Joe honored to print a shot of him. But as always, he had no interest in publicity and walked off into the woods. We would later end up running a few shots neW canadian that photographers swore were Bobby. A couple of airIf the ‘Dirty Force Dozen’ was FREEZE's inaugural FM them may actually have been shots of this mystery shot across the ski community's bow, then the man. But the chase that season, the search for ‘New Canadian Air Force’ was the magazine's first successful nuclear detonation. The feature story profiling Shane Szocs, J.P. Auclair, Mike Douglas, J.F. Cusson, Vincent Dorion, and Marc MacDonell hit the newsstands in August of 1998 and promptly explained to anyone who hadn't seen State of Mind where the sport of skiing was heading. Between the season lead-

FM ing up to that story and the following spring, the Air Force inno- vated the sport of skiing beyond anything thought possible just

one season before, when skiers were just beginning to tinker Jansson Pelle with terrain parks and halfpipes. They might not be the most influ- ential skiers of all time, but they're certainly the only members of 1998 u.s. skiing's pantheon of greats who can stick 540 mute grabs. (ma) FreesKiingFreeskiing’s coming out party, oPen the inaugural U.S. Freeskiing Open, was complete may- hem. The organizers were unorganized, the course disheveled, and the skiers left still explaining to one another why the daffy was FM the worst thing to ever happen to skiing. Still, sTaTeWhen a copy ofoF State mindof Mind landed in the FREEZE office during the fall of 1997, Slave Boy figured he had a good the event did more than just introduce the excuse to take a long lunch. But he wasn’t halfway through his hot pastrami before he began pestering Jaquet to world to Auclair and Cusson. It established a take a look at what was transpiring on the screen before him. Here, in one tidy little VHS package, was exactly beachhead in the winter, an annual moment With everything that has happened in the past five years, it’s hard to pinpoint THE biggest what the sport of skiing needed. These Canadians—J.P. Auclair, J.F. Cusson, Mike Douglas, Shane Szocs, Vinnie for the best and brightest of the jib nation to run d.m.c. ParTy moment in freeskiing, but one serious contender is the Red Bull/FREEZE party at the SIA Dorion, and Marc MacDonell—seemed to have found the perfect marriage between freestyle and : descend upon Vail, Colorado, and celebrate show in Las Vegas in 1998. Straight outta Hollis Queens, New York, Run D.M.C. was there to , grabs for position, and no daffies. Slave Boy then had to beg Jaquet for the privilege of logging the long why they aren’t bumpers or racers. Each year lay down the rhymes and beats. This was freeskiing's grand entrance, the night where the distance call to the film’s creator, Johnny Decesare. But as the winter of ’97-98 would prove, there was an even seems to produce a new big name, a bigger snowboard world first realized the energy and changes taking place at skiing's core. Club greater marriage in the works. To this day, the New Canadian Air Force, with Decesare documenting their pro- trick, and a record-breaking damage bill Eutopia, on the Vegas Strip, was packed with both skiers and snowboarders, but different gression, continues to define what style means in skiing. (ma) from the host hotel. (ma) from year's past, this was a skier party, thrown by skiers for skiers. It was by far the biggest event of the week, and to this day it rivals any party ever thrown during an SIA show. (mj) ParKasaurusThe snowboarding magazines have been doing giant park shoots for years and the “idea”—to gather all the talent we could in one place for a photo shoot—was something that we can’t believe we didn’t think of sooner. With a manicured park designed by the best in

Schmies the business, Parkasaurus presents an opportunity each year for the top pro skiers from around the globe FM to come to Snow Summit and progress the sport. In the process, they compare style and tricks, thus raising

the level of skiing at each of their collective hoods O’Connell when they return home. Parkasaurus: the concept is TheHe built it,FirsT and they came. high Shane SzocsnorTh opened High North Ski Camp in the by no means revolutionary, but the skiing there is TheBefore Salomon TeneighTy gave in to J.F. Cusson, sKi J.P. summer of 1998, and sold out all three sessions before he officially had a Gettysburg-esque. (mj) Auclair, and Mike Douglas’s incessant ban- staff. By the time the kids, almost exclusively from vert-starved areas like tering for a twin-tip ski, skiing backwards Wisconsin and Vermont, arrived, Szocs had collared Auclair, Cusson, was the province of ballerinas and a few tal- Morrison, and MacDonell into coaching positions, and the first ski camp for ented Kennedy’s. With the ski’s release for freeskiers, by freeskiers, went off without a hitch. The Midwest All-Stars the winter of 1998-99, the terrain park and jib- were just the first of an endless string of famous-on-their-own-hill crews bing movement exploded out of Whistler, that have come to call High North home, and the camp’s glacier compound Freeze’s greaTesT misses Tremblant, and Squaw, giving freeskiing grows by the season. Every pro athlete says he’s doing it for the kids. Szocs something it never had: a global community. actually does. (ma) cu sKi cluB’s 1997 “Welcome The big mountain brotherhood may have BacKAs newly-crowned sKiers” title sponsors ParTy of the University of Colorado’s annual win- crossed international borders, but its limiting ter kick-off bash, FREEZE garnered little more than a lukewarm response factors always remained the same. With the from a crowd made up of mogul pretty boys in bad pants and some girl who advent of the Teneighty, and every other thought Boards in Motion was way cooler. The event finished up with a bang twin-tip that followed, skiers in New at the “Official” party where, all the way from San Diego, Slightly Stoopid England and even the Midwest finally had an O’Connell Chris played a show specifically arranged for an all-ages crowd. At least one out opportunity to participate and contribute to The of the total number of eight kids to show up was under 21. (ma) what they spent seasons reading about in the magazines. The promise of the Teneighty TransWorld was vividly fulfilled at the 1999 U.S. TriPIn the late spring of 1999, the entire Freeskiing Open when the first-ever switch FREEZE staff piled into a 30-foot RV and sTormSlave Boy, photographer chasing Boozy Lozeau, and two unknown locals from backflip was landed in competition by a headed west to Oceanside, California, Derf Crested Butte were sent on a FREEZE mission: find snow, get paid by the inch. Canadian bartender by the name of Philou home of our publishing partners, the The idea was to keep a constant chase on one storm that would pay new div- Poirier. (ma) Transworld Media Group. Up to that TheIn the pre-dawn Train hours ofgaP April 8, 1999, Evan Raps, Shane idends with each morning. Unfortunately, the storm they tracked all the way point, creative contact between Anderson, Jamie Burge, and Skogen Sprang crawled to Washington State petered out somewhere over Montana. Over 1,000 miles FREEZE and the various Transworld magazines had been limited. They through the Donner Pass backcountry outside Lake Tahoe from home, winter precipitation ceased throughout the country and the crew still considered skiing to be a glorified version of Rollerblading, and to the top of a long in-run. At the end of the in-run was a was forced to limp home, blowing out every seal in Slave Boy’s 1988 Subaru FREEZE thought they were dumb for publishing a snowboarding maga- 25-foot kicker over a 40-foot drop where, 80-feet away, a wagon in the process. (ma) zine in sunny southern California. From a marketing standpoint, however, landing ramp had been hacked into a steep slope cov- the two companies needed to work more closely, and FREEZE set off to ered in small trees. At 10:30, a train came chugging JM learn a thing or two about publishing successful adrenaline-sport maga- through the wilderness, heading straight for the gap. TheAfter the ownerdiscovery of Discovery Basin inBasin Montana expressed invasion shock and dismay zines. The result was an inspired lesson in graphic design that took Filmmaker C.P. radioed up to Evan. Evan then proceeded at the launching of the magazine, FREEZE held it’s first reader participation FREEZE from a rinky-dink magazine experiment to the best-damn-looking to drop in. One by one the skiers soared over a very large, contest. With exactly one response to choose from, Chad and Bryce (two for- ski magazine on the market. The staff left Oceanside a better publishing fast moving cargo train. The coveted ending shot for C.P.’s mer Canadian mogul standouts in an RV featuring a permanent Slayer sound- team with a new respect for our one-planking brothers. For their part, the Chapter Three, the culmination of nearly three months of track), were selected as a crack team of commandos to infiltrate the tiny ski Transworld guys admitted that skiers weren’t so bad after all. Well, at work, was nailed. More importantly, the entire concept of area and brainwash the kids into FREEZE subservience. Chad and Bryce least one guy at the surf magazine did, anyway. (ma) was rewritten. (ma) proved more than up to the task, but even they couldn’t contend with the FM resort’s six-inch base. After unloading several pounds of stickers on the bewildered locals and demolishing their backs jumping to blue ice, the liFesTyles Canadians high-tailed it back over the border before the owner was even condomsThere was perhaps no moment more exciting alerted of their presence. (ma) in the FREEZE offices than the day that it easTIn the fall ofcoasT 1999, the idea movie to take Matchstick’s Tour new received 25 boxes of Lifestyles Condoms. As movie and the K2 Freeride Team (Holmes, Morrison, Skiing limped into the 1998 Winter like Frankenstein’s sKiing in The x games the new title sponsor of the U.S. Freeskiing Kreitler, Darian Boyle, and Shane Szocs) on Tour seemed monster: not resembling anything that had been seen before, but holmes and louBeK Travel on Open, part of the deal was for the staff to hand like a solid one. Ten days and a liver transplant later, we big and loud enough to get noticed. With the jib revolution still The two skierssnocore who best personify Tour freeskiing’s wannabe rock star image out more than 30,000 condom samples that now know better. Kreitler’s 50-foot rig threatened to take in its infancy, ESPN relied on the ever-trusty skiercross as its were sent to the East Coast where they had all-access cool guy credentials season. From Ribbed, to Ultra Sensitive, to out overpasses on several occasions, no more than nine made-for-TV event of choice. Freeskiing superstars like Kent to an Everclear-headlined concert tour. The idea was to gather sick East Assorted Colors, to Non-Lubricated, we had people showed up for Kreitler and Dean Cummings found themselves literally rubbing Coast terrain park footage during the day and sick rock and roll groupie hunt- the responsibility of spreading the joy of safe the Hartford show, and elbows with World Cup standouts like Edgar Grosperion and ing during the night. FREEZE even secured the services of a big shot New sex to thousands of horny freeskiers around the magazine lost over Dennis Rey, and most everyone agreed that it had nothing to do York magazine writer to document the debauchery. Debauchery there was, the world. The sponsor romance came crash- $20,000 on the launch. with skiing as they knew it. Still, just basking in the shadow of but it took place mostly in a Howard Johnson motel along I-95 with wait- ing down that spring when ESPN refused to Ahh, but the memories. millionaire snowboarders was progress back then, and the resses from the local diner. The tour organizers were offended by Holmes, a air the Open on the network because of the The Tour lives on today, photo incentive from being on national TV made it all worth it. generally uncooperative Loubek narrowly skirted the bounds of legality with condom banners (the 35-foot inflatable penis and in its third year this Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when Big Air was added the his prey, and the big shot magazine writer sneaked out of a motel room just probably didn’t help either). We have since past fall, over 5,000 following year. (ma) four days into the trip and hitched a ride back to the city. FREEZE had very lit- lost the advertising and sponsorship and have completely stoked kids tle to show for its efforts, other than the first great ‘Overheard.’ “Everclear?!” been unable to come up with a program to its attended. In the end it Holmes sneered after watching the sober band’s set. “They should call them-

FM liking, but Lifestyles will always be the brand was a great idea, selves Snapple.” (ma) of choice in the community, and we still have maybe. (mj) two boxes left. (mj)