Sam Smoothy is one of the world's toughest skiers

Anyone who has skied hard and long has come away with an injury. Some are far luckier than others but, if you roll the dice enough, those odds of injury are undoubtedly going to cruise upwards. Sam Smoothy knows this better than most. The 34-year-old New Zealand rippah from down undah cut it about as close as possible during his 2019 season. Any sane person would question their career path after two near-fatal plummets down the side of a mountain, and that’s just what Sam did: Took some time, recouped, and reinvigorated his joy for sliding on snow. Heading to the home of his long time friends at Teton Gravity Research, Sam found refuge in Jackson, Wyoming. In the Tetons, he found a 2020 storm cycle so bountiful you would have thought Ullr fell asleep on the “DUMP SNOW” button. Sometimes it takes getting back to the roots of what you love to really fall back in love, and that appears to be exactly what smooth riding Smoothy did. Nothing but love and respect to a guy who’s been through all that he has and still retains the same passion and motivation.