Next Level Skiing

Welcome back to the Next Level Skiing podcast, brought to you by Wagner Skis. Brody Leven doesn’t dabble. He’s an all-in type of skier. When he decided he was done with park skiing, he moved from 100 days of high-flying park time every season to 100 days of climbing and skiing mountains. And now it’s been 10 years since the Fischer Ski-sponsored athlete has ridden a chairlift. He’s never eaten meat. During the pandemic, he started exercising outside every day. Now he’s more than four years in without missing a single day. He’s a lifelong vegetarian, a vehement climate advocate, and, as he says, “obsessed with ideas and doing things that are hard.” Tune in and hear Brody talk about growing up skiing in Ohio, his pursuit of untracked sno,w and his evolution into one of the world’s top ski mountaineers who considers his skiing outside the traditional definitions used by both pro skiers and ski mountaineers.  

Topics: 

1:10: An after-school ski program in Ohio. 

4:00: Moving to Salt Lake City in 2005 for the skiing 

12:10: Going from 100 days in the park to 100 days in the backcountry. 

14:20: Ten years without riding lifts. 

15:40: Principled skiing. 

24:00: Perfecting turns without ever skiing on a groomer. 

28:30: Climbing and skiing peaks in Uganda, Romania and Georgia. 

30:10: The “thief of credibility” in the culture of ski mountaineering. 

36:00: The light and fast ethos in ski mountaineering. 

41:00: Jumping into exercising outside every day 

49:00: Tackling climate change is like coming to a mountain with lots of little steps. 

Quotes: 

“When you're back there, you're listening to what the mountains are telling you and what your intuition is telling you and the frequency with which you do it, you know, getting out there so regularly and, you know, kind of higher risk terrain, you develop that fluency, right? And you push yourself to a spot where you have an intuitive fluency.” Jason Blevins 

“I'm not like a woo-woo person, I'm very logical. And so when I say the essence of skiing, I do not mean that in any sort of woo-woo way. I mean, literally, it's how you move around the mountain on skis.” Brody Leven 

“There's this culture of doing cool things and being quiet about it but secretly hoping other people hype you up in the parking lots. And like that's, it's just so weird for me. It's uncomfortable for me. I don't know. So I hype it up myself because I get back and I'm proud of it that part of my job is letting people know what I've done.” Brody Leven 

“In hindsight, I didn't know it at the time, but I think in hindsight, finding that consistency was some way of having control over such an otherwise out-of-our-control situation. And so much of my life seems to lack that control.” Brody Leven 

Resources: 

brodyleven.com 

Wagner Custom Skis 

Welcome back to the Next Level Skiing podcast, brought to you by Wagner Skis. Unless you live in Crested Butte, you likely haven’t heard about Rob Dickinson. He’s a former big mountain competitor who moves like a ninja through the Butte’s scary steps. You really only catch glimpses of Rob … a flash in the trees, a splash of snow on a rocky face, a blur beneath impeccable tracks. He’s coming up on 20 years skiing Crested Butte and is one of the mountain’s handful of inspirational soul skiers.  

Rob doesn’t have a sponsor. He runs his own painting business. But he’s got skills and style for miles. Tune in and hear the 45-year-old Rob riff on how CBMR has honed his skiing, how to ride the clutch in technical terrain, and why you should never drop your uphill hand in gnarly steeps. 

Topics: 

2:20: From upstate New York to New Hampshire to Steamboat 

4:15: Crested Butte keeps you honest 

7:10: Ride the clutch to stay fluid in technical terrain 

11:10: Competing in big mountain comps from 2009 through 2014 with a CB shred posse 

18:30: Injuries, replacing body parts, and shifting your mindset  

24:15: How steep creek kayaking hones ski skills, risk assessment 

26:10: Taking vanity out of the equation. 

28:00: Check in with yourself 

31:00: Finding happiness in healthy, sustainable places 

33:00: Gear adjustments and added protection for steep skiing 

36:30: Don’t change anything on race day 

37:30: Play, don’t work, in the ski industry 

Photo credit: Garrett Grove 

Quotes: 

“All I did was chase skiing and kind of got the feeling that maybe I was chasing skiing from too far away.” - Rob Dickinson 

“Trying to get better and trying to pull better results at, at freeskiing competitions, like, you just learn how to, I always say, ride the clutch, learn how to instead of like jamming on the brakes to see what's coming next.” - Rob Dickinson 

“Crosstraining is really, really valuable.” - Rob Dickinson 

“You have to steel  your mind and  you have to make yourself present and you have to check in with yourself.” - Rob Dickinson 

Resources: 

Precise Painting CB 

Wagner Custom Skis 

Welcome back to the Next Level Skiing podcast, brought to you by Wagner Skis. Lou Dawson is a ski pioneer who has been setting the skintrack for countless skiers for decades. Since he arrived in the Roaring Fork Valley as a teenager in the mid-1960s, Dawson has helped shape backcountry skiing. From being the first person to ski all of Colorado’s 14ers — finishing in the early 1990s — to meticulously documenting nearly every technological advancement in ski gear, Dawson has shepherded backcountry skiing from its nascent roots in the 1970s to today’s global juggernaut. His recent memoir, Avalanche Dreams, traces his life from a hard-charging skier to a thoughtful father, husband, and alpinist.  

Tune in to hear Lou talk about his first ski tour, the 1982 avalanche that nearly killed him, leaning on his spirituality, penning more than 3,000 posts at his WildSnow.com site, the evolution of touring gear, and the art of setting a skintrack. Topics: 

2:30: Life in Aspen in the 60s as a teenager with hippie parents. 

7:40: First-ever touring up to Conundrum Hot Springs at age 16. 

9:40: The “radical sensibility” of progressive adventurers in Colorado 

10:50: The 1982 avalanche in Aspen Highlands Bowl. 

13:40: The Peter Pan Syndrome challenges many ski town men.  

16:10: The spiritual awakening after the avalanche. 

19:00: Finishing all the Colorado 14ers in 1991. 

20:40: Writing posts for Wild Snow, tinkering and modifying backcountry gear. 

24:50: The role of alpine tech bindings in ski mountaineering. 

26:40: How gear and improved education have helped protect backcountry skiers. 

35:40: North American versus European skin tracks. 

36:40: “A beautiful combination of technology and athletic ability and a mystical awareness of the environments and the mountains.” 

40:40: The fun of low-angle touring 

Photo credit: Lou Dawson skis Long's Peak in 1990. Photo by Glenn Randall 

Quotes: 

“I started on wooden Bonna skis without edges and I literally would take those up and go powder skiing on those things back behind Aspen Mountain and places like that.” - Lou Dawson 

“The difference between the 60-something millimeter skis we were skiing back in the 1970s and 80s with these with say an 80-millimeter ski or a 90-millimeter ski is like night and day.” - Lou Dawson 

“In a lot of ski posses, people would look at you and think, ‘Well, I wish he or she had taken an avalanche course.’ And, you know, the avalanche course might not serve you to be able to predict whether a slope is safe or not, but it just makes you more aware of the danger.” - Lou Dawson 

“I've always applied my craft to just anything I do. And I think one of the crafts of ski touring is the skin track. It's how you create it.” - Lou Dawson 

Resources: 

Avalanche Dreams 

WildSnow.com 

Wagner Custom Skis 

Welcome back to the Next Level Skiing podcast, brought to you by Wagner Skis. Mike Hattrup has moved from bump skiing boss, to ski movie star to gear designer, covering smooch ground on snow that his work has touched just about every skier in the sport. From chasing his four siblings on the slopes of Alpental to winning mogul medals to hanging with Stump, Schmidt, and Blake in the seminal “Blizzards of Aahhh’s” to building backcountry skis and gear for top ski shops, Hattrup’s career has covered a lot of ground. Today, he’s the director of skiing for Eleven Experience, helping folks plunder powder in Alaska, British Columbia, Chile, Colorado, France, and Iceland. Listen in as Mike traces his extraordinary career from pro skier to guide to gear builder. 

Topics: 

3:05: Growing up skiing during the freestyle rage of the 1970s 

4:00: Athleticism of mogul skiing 

6:30: Training for mogul competitions 

10:00 Filming with Greg Stump in “Time Waits for Snowman” in 1985 

11:20: Filming “Blizzard of Aahhh’s” in Europe 

14:00: Why “Blizzard” resonated so deeply with skiers 

16:00: Moving over to K2, helping the company transition from race 

22:50: The emergence of the transformative K2 Four 

26:00: Moving into telemark ski design, flexible ski boots, and backcountry gear 

34:00: Working at Kastle, Fisher, Black Diamond, Marmot 

40:30: AMGA guiding on Mount Rainier 

46:00: Improving through technique as we age 

Quotes: 

“I never thought that skiing was a career. Not like now, I mean, you can go be a film skier, right? But back then it really wasn't an option.” - Maike Hattrup 

“We'll for sure look back on that era from early to mid-90s to the mid-2000s as the golden era of ski design.” - Maike Hattrup 

“I learned to tele purely from a touring standpoint.” - Maike Hattrup 

“In terms of fitness, that certainly becomes more of a challenge as you get older and I think you just gotta find a way to, I mean, find a way to keep training and make it fun.” - Maike Hattrup 

Resources: 

Maike Hattrup, LinkedIn 

Maike Hattrup, Instagram 

Eleven 

Wagner Custom Skis 

Welcome back to the Next Level Skiing podcast, brought to you by Wagner Skis. Amie Engerbretson grew up ripping Palisades Tahoe, the daughter of a pro skier and filmmaker. She has starred in dozens of ski movies, highlighting a grace and flow honed from years of training as a dancer. Now she’s making her own movies, advocating for climate action, and helping women hone confidence on and off snow. Tune in and hear Amie about how dancing influences her skiing, how films can reveal the emotional challenges and rewards of skiing, and how to foster confidence for improving our time on snow.  

Topics: 

1:20: Pro skiing is the family business. 

6:10: Grace, rhythm, and flow. 

7:20: Years of competitive dance influencing skiing. 

10:00: Dance, skiing, and filmmaking as performance art 

11:00: “Hypocrite” and “Blue Hour” ski films revealing “the full gamut of emotions in the human experience.” 

12:20: The changing business of ski films as storytelling. 

13:10: Advocacy work with Protect Our Winters. 

14:20: “Knowing it’s OK to be scared and do something anyway because it’s important.” 

17:00: Life happens in the in-between; savoring the moment of transition between turns. 

19:40: How skiing changes as we grow. 

21:30: Being mindful of the choices you make as an individual. 

23:00: The wisdom of Roy Kent in “Ted Lasso.” 

26:10: The power of the ski community. 

29:30: The importance of recovery days in training regimens. 

30:00: Ski camps for women at Palisades Tahoe 

31:00: Growing confidence through mind-body connections 

Quotes: 

“I was super into dance and ballet also when I was younger and both ski racing and ballet became quite serious and intensive to the point where they kind of have to become your only thing at some point.” - Amie Engerbretson 

“What I'm doing is telling stories, trying to somehow communicate the joy and the ineffable awesomeness of skiing to people through a screen or through a photo or something like that. That's my job is, in a way, it is like a performance, like a ski performance, like a film strip is performing, I think.” - Amie Engerbretson 

“What I do as an individual absolutely matters, but the most important thing I can do as an individual is be part of a collective. To change the system so that then all of us as individuals can make better choices in that system.” - Amie Engerbretson 

“What I've learned as an athlete is to understand my fear, understand when it's rational, irrational, all those things, but also know that it's okay to be scared and do something way because it's important and you want it.” - Amie Engerbretson 

Resources: 

Amie Engerbretson Official Website 

Wagner Custom Skis