Featured Image: Bjarne Salén
Cody Townsend is one of the most recognizable names in skiing at the moment. He’s been a regular in Matchstick Productions’ annual flicks since 2005’s The Hit List, has wowed mass audiences with his fast, fluid approach to big-mountain skiing and won over the hearts of ski enthusiasts the world over with his low-key demeanor and charisma. Last season, he announced his most ambitious project to date, the goal to ski all fifty lines in the beloved book, 50 Classic Ski Descents of North America, by Chris Davenport, Art Burrows and Penn Newhard.
What happens when you put one professional skier and one professional surfer on Mt. Rainier in Washington? Episode 20 of Cody Townsend’s The FIFTY. To tick line 20, the Fuhrer Finger, off of his list, Townsend is joined by videographer Bjarne Salén and big-wave surfer Ian Walsh. With the goal of climbing and riding Denali in Alaska, Walsh takes a crash course in mountaineering from Townsend’s school of “ropes, spiky stuff and dangly things.” Considered by many the perfect warm-up to Denali, Mt. Rainier in late May comes with a bevy of valuable lessons in ski mountaineering.
Between concerning weather, massive crevasses, intimidating snow bridges and extreme altitude, the Fuhrer Finger line requires serious consideration from Townsend and team whether or not it’s worth going up an unfamiliar glacier with avalanche activity in a whiteout. The group decides to listen to the message from the mountain: not today. Although some may consider this a defeat, Townsend maintains a positive outlook, “That’s the beauty of skiing. You may fail on your objective but you still get to go skiing. That doesn’t suck!” While the team didn’t summit Mt. Rainier, the three professionals are more than happy to return to their cars safe and sound because mountaineering is as much about turning around as it is about peaking.
