Mom always said never judge a book by its cover. But she’d never seen this cover before. Hitting newsstands this week, the November 2005 issue of Powder greets skiers with a cover shot that gives a new meaning to the term “damn I wish I were as good as those dudes.”
The Adam Clark photograph shows Zach Crist three turns into a gut-churning descent off a monster peak near Haines, Alaska. Waiting for his chance at the top is Kent Kreitler. “I’m definitely stoked on the Powder cover—especially being on there with Kent,” says Crist, noting his relationship with Kreitler. “We've been skiing together since we were little kids; I think around 12 years old or so.”
So how did they decide who got to dive in first? As Kreitler says, it’s a classic example of logic trumping the romantic image of grown boys playing a game of rock, paper, scissors. “Who goes first is usually up to the camera guys,” he says. “Basically, whoever can go without disrupting or putting tracks or slough in the other guy’s line, or without putting tracks where they would appear in the other images.”
Even so, Crist says for this particular shot, it was simply his turn to take first dibs. “It’s always great knowing you’ve got a veteran head and a close friend up top to back you up,” he says.
Kreitler points out that going second is a bit of a Catch-22: On one hand you get a report on the conditions, but on the other you’ve got more time to think about the run. “On the majority of these lines, you really can't watch your buddy from the top because he disappears from view off the rollover at the peak pretty quickly, and you're usually just left up there sitting by yourself waiting for your turn to schralp it,” says Kreitler. “It's great when you can watch but the best views are usually from the bottom at the guys dropping in after you. On top of that, you've already executed your line and you don't have anything to think about for a while. When you're at the top, you have a lot to think about.”
Once you get past this cover image, you’ll find November’s guts to be just as strong. Among pages filled with the world’s finest ski photography, you’ll read about what Mark Abma, Chris Davenport, and Daron Rahlves have to say about each other after skiing together in British Columbia. Powder also enlists the help of Scot Schmidt and others to pay homage to the seven wonders of the ski world, and another feature sheds light on the heavy toll exacted by avalanches on backcountry skiers. You’ll also discover Chugach Powder Guides’ new terrain, a shop that sells guns next to its skis, drinking games in Austria, and how Candide Thovex ascended to prominence. Plus, the Car continues its cross-country journey; on Leg Four from Jackson Hole to Big Sky the driver re-learns what it means to be a skier in the booming West.