Featured Image: Bjarne Salen
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.
In this special two-for-one episode, Cody Townsend and crew visit two of Colorado’s most famous 14,000-foot peaks to check-off lines 15 and 16 in Townsend’s pursuit to ski all 50 of North America’s Classic Ski Descents. Calling on a few Aspen locals to help the crew summit North Maroon Peak—the most photographed mountain in Colorado—Townsend and Salen are joined by Pete Gaston and Anton Sponar for a successful mission into the Maroon Bells, located just a 20 minute drive from Aspen.
After a successful and energizing first mission, the boys feel inclined to beat out the weather and book it to Minturn, Colorado, to bag Mount of the Holy Cross before the near-perfect spring conditions disappear. Townsend, with Gaston, another Aspen local, Greg Strokes, and Salen in tow, push through exhaustion to the 14,003-foot peak for some of the hardest-won turns of the project, thus far.
