One More Line EP 1: Tristan Brown

There's a particular species of skier who treats weather apps like a lifeline. Who refreshes forecasts with the devotion most people reserve for checking if their ex viewed their story. Tristan Brown is that species. Based in Jackson Hole, he currently has three locations pulled up on his phone: home base, Revelstoke's pillow terrain, and a lift-accessed backcountry zone in Hokkaido that gets biblical amounts of snow. He checks this app twice daily, minimum. Not because the weather's going to change, but because the ritual of checking is part of the addiction itself.

This is someone who studies other skiers' airs off famous cliffs for years before attempting them. Who discovers unnamed couloirs deep in Wyoming's backcountry and then spends months obsessing over whether conditions will ever align perfectly enough to ski them. Who gets genuinely excited when rain hits the resort because it means walkon tram access and nobody else stupid enough to be out there. The math doesn't make sense to anyone outside ski culture, but to anyone inside it, it's the only math that matters.

We caught up with Tristan to talk about commitment, and what it means to organize your entire existence around storm cycles. 

T.B. — I've got three locations pulled up. Jackson Hole, my home base and where I'll be skiing the next couple weeks. Then two locations I'm eyeing for a film trip. Revelstoke, BC, which has had a killer start to the season and some awesome cliff and pillow terrain. And Asahidake Japan, which gets some of the most snow in Hokkaido and is an awesome liftaccessed backcountry ski resort. I look at this app at least twice daily to stay tuned in to what's happening in some of the most exciting places on earth. 

T.B. — It snowed five inches overnight at Jackson Hole and was unfortunately pretty warm, as it has been much of this season, and was raining at the bottom. Silver lining though, the rain deterred many people from coming out and skiing. So a group of friends and I were able to get walk-on tram, no line, and hike up to one of our favorite sidecountry zones to get two laps of untouched wet, surfy powder. 

T.B. — Pucker Face, Jackson Hole. I had been in my hometown of Sun Valley for Christmas visiting family and doing a bunch of skiing there, but I was really looking forward to getting back to Jackson. The coverage was finally enough to go ski in the high alpine and there was a high pressure system headed our way. I got to Jackson a few days after the storm and headed up to Cody Peak hoping to find some good lines that hadn't been tracked up yet. I was pleased to find the north end of Pucker Face untouched. Being early season, it's much rockier than the left side of the face, which is why no one had skied it, but I saw a line that I could ski that weaved through the rocks. So I studied it for a while, then hiked up and skied it. The line had technical aspects of avoiding rocks and the adrenaline nature of straightlining out. I was fired up after I got down and felt that the ski season was finally in full swing. 

T.B. — Smart Bastard, Jackson Hole. This one was hard to choose but I think it's gotta go to Smart Bastard. It's the definition of committing. Super high consequence with a massive cliff below that you have to turn above to get your direction for the cliff. You have to have just the right amount of speed to hit the sweet spot of the landing. And to top it off, the takeoff is slightly downhill so gauging the rotation of the trick is tricky. But it's a famous cliff at Jackson Hole and I studied other people's airs off it in years past, so I was ready. My first time hitting it, and thanks to the preparation I put into it, I stomped it clean. 

T.B. — This line is something my friend and I discovered while snowmobiling deep in the Wyoming backcountry. I was immediately mesmerized by the look of it. It's a couloir that's wide enough for some wide open super G turns, and then it gets tight with rocks in the chute that you have to avoid, and it kind of funnels you into a tight exit with a sharp right turn at the end. That wall at the end makes it very high consequence, so I'm not sure if I'll ski it or not yet. It would have to be the perfect day to ski it how I want to. But I plan to sled out to that zone a handful of times this year to check up on it, see how it's filled in, and make a decision if I can do it safely. I hope to make it happen. 

T.B. — The ice caves in Alaska are an incredible experience. We spent hours in there just for kicks, filming what we thought was awesome b-roll. We didn't use much of it, but we had a blast. One moment that stands out is my buddy Shugz shooting an ice stalactite with a slingshot on a down day. Then there's the bungee jumping. My first time. My plan was to do a superman front flip, which I sort of did, but I didn't realize how freaked out I was going to get. You can hear me curse and wave my hands around wildly because I was so freaked out. That was a rush.

T.B. — Slap 112my go-tos. My PICs. My wizard staffs. I love how much I can accomplish, and get away with, with these skis on my feet. They're super floaty, agile and playful. Exactly what I need when there's five or more inches of fresh snow.

This interview is part of One More Line, a mini-series produced by ZAG, following skiers driven by obsession, documenting how their addiction to the mountains makes them feel alive.