People talk to radio phones, helicopter pilots start their engines, film crew performs final equipment check.. A big mountain skier looks down the line he is about to ski. Few minutes are needed to focus and prepare, and then he drops in.. Rockered skis dive deep in the fresh powder as the skier charges the huge mountain face in Haines, Alaska. After dozen turns he sees a little jump, turns his course towards it, and sticks a front flip. He continues skiing fluently towards the next jump. It all looks so easy, at least for him. The skier is Seth Morrison, a famous big mountain skier. One of the best.

They say Seth Morrison is a quiet and may be a bit shy man, but I believe Seth is just a humble dude who doesn’t want to make too much noise of himself. We bombarded Seth with a truckload of questions hoping that he would open the doors to his life, but no. It’s not that easy. Seth provided short, sharp and direct answers with no emotional blah blah. What else could you actually expect from a man who sticks 60 foot cliffs at the high Alaskan mountains? You must be sharp, focused and effective up there, and Seth is just like that.

Good morning Seth Morrison. Going to work again?

Seth Morrison skis about 170 days a year, and he goes off the Calendar Year. Skiing almost every second day might sound much, but how often do we regular people go to work? Skiing is Seth’s profession, his job. Although it doesn’t feel like a job for Seth, the fact is that he does skiing for living.

Photo by Adam Clark and Black Diamond

Being in Seth Morrison’s boots is probably a big dream for many kids out there, and some might consider that he is living in the spotlight. Seth disagrees and doesn’t think that that’s the case. Seth is not a typical celebrity-type person, and that’s probably one of the reasons he’s so well-liked.

The difference between Seth Morrison and regular people is that for Seth his work doesn’t feel like work, while for a lot for us it does. Regular people need to take time off from work, but Seth wants to “stay at work” in the mountains.

“Taking time off is pretty much like retiring. Once you miss a season at what we do, you’re that much farther behind.”

Photo by Adam Clark and Black Diamond

When Seth Morrison takes a day off from “work” he actually goes back to “the office”.

“During my dream day of skiing I would be in the backcountry touring skiing over the head powder with good friends. We get to do this a few days a season.”

Life is life – also for Seth Morrison

Seth has survived avalanches, a helicopter crash and mountain faces most of us would never even try to ski. He has traveled across the world and has experienced things many of us only dream of. Although Seth is in his “best age”, one day it is his turn to leave the snowy playground, but he doesn’t take aging too seriously. When asking about his “retirement plans”, Seth replies by saying “Don’t know, age is what you make of it”.

Seth uses Oakley’s goggles

Life in the mountains can be dangerous and deadly. Bill Briggs, the godfather of American backcountry skiing, has said “if there is no risk, there is no reward”. Late Trevor Petersen wrote in his notebook “There comes a time when one must risk something, or sit forever with one’s dreams”. Seth Morrison says “fear is your only enemy, and even that you can overcome”.

Doug Coombs and Shane McConkey knew the risks, but for some reason they had to go. Although many great and well known skiers have passed away during the years, Shane McConkey’s death stopped us thinking about the risk and rewards of big mountain skiing. During his early years Seth Morrison learned much about big mountain skiing from people like Dean Conway and Kreitler, but also Doug and Shane.

“Beyond being well know skiers they were cool guys that I enjoyed skiing with. I learned a lot from both of them about being a person and a skier.”

Life can be difficult. Anyhow, the sport keeps on developing. Seth Morrison has lived in the world of skiing longer than many of us, and he is recognized from pushing the sport into new direction. Now we’ve already seen skiers ripping gigantic mountain faces, newschoolers spinning huge amount of degrees and ski baser jumpers doing some crazy stuff. What next?

“Faster, bigger, more technical tricks in the Big mountain arena”, says Seth Morrison.

We can’t wait to see.

Photo by Adam Clark and Black Diamond

Shaun White has figured out totally new snowboarding tricks in the backwoods of the Silverton mountain, and we are about to see those new tricks during this season, but how about skiing? When do we see something totally new? While “freestyle skiing” was the trend back in the 80s, and “newschool” was the trend in 2000, what is the next trend?

Although we might have to wait until 2020 to see the new trend, one thing is clear. We think that nobody is going to try to break Fred Syversen’s world record on cliff dropping. Although it was an accident, 107 meters is so much that it would be totally crazy to try bigger. Seth Morrison agrees.

“Jamie’s jump was a few years back and Fred’s was an accident. Not many people are going super big anymore, but more people are working on their tricks of cliffs, more rodeos and 720′s. People’s fear is the only limitation; you need to have perfect conditions to do jumps like that. It just doesn’t happen every day.”

So you wanna stick a backflip?

Most of us here in Homeboy Headquarter are old Chamonix skibums, and we have skied many steep and gnarly couloirs, but not many of us stick a backflip just like Seth Morrison. How could aging office-guys like us start sticking the backflip? Is it actually totally hopeless for a 36 year old guy that gets to ski some 30-40 days a year? Nope, if you listen to Seth.

Photo by Adam Clark and Black Diamond

“Learn on a trampoline, then try them off cliffs into water or water ramps if you can do that. They are pretty easy once you figure it out.”

Oh boy, we actually DO have some hope. It is actually not reasonable to think that learning new tricks in thirties is hopeless. I guess the real problem is to find time and place for practicing, as most of us are married with job and family. We asked Seth Morrison what are his top 3 concrete tips for an aspiring “beginner” or “advanced” freerider who wants to become a better at the sport and evolve into a better skier (in terms of improving skiing technique), and again the reply was typical for Seth; quick, direct and obvious.

“Go skiing every day, be in shape, and ski on rockered skis.”

So, what are you waiting for?

Tools must be the best for the smith

Seth Morrison has his own Seth Morrison Pro model, which includes for example the Full Tilt ski boot. If you have seen the boot, you know it looks different. It gives a clear signal of “punk rock attitude”. The art for the second Seth Pistol ski model was done by Josh Malay who passed away in a snowboard accident in Andorra five years ago. As a tribute to him we used his art work for Full Tilt ski boot the way it was intended to be used on the skis.

Photo by Oakley

“Only some of the art was used on the Seth Pistols from a giant 3 ski collage, so we used the full cover on the boot 6 years later.”

Ski industry has taken big steps during the past 10 years, and new gear has opened up some new possibilities in the sport. According to Seth Morrison, rocker will be the main trend in ski design the next few years. In the October Powder issue Micah Abrams even stated that the current revolution in ski design (rocker shape and its variations) and the way it lets us ski are bigger improvements than twin-tips and fat skis ever were in the first place. Does Seth agree with this?

“No, I don’t agree since if skis didn’t get fatter or have twin tip then think about skiing on a skinny rocker ski with a straight tail. Doesn’t sound appealing if you ever skied what there is today. Funny coming from a guy that lives near the beach.”

So, wazzup this season, Seth Morrison?

As mentioned above, Seth Morrison skis 170 days a year, which means every second day on average. For example this autumn Seth has already skied many mountains while most of us are just planning ski service.

Seth trusts on Black Diamond’s SethPlaid Bandit Avalung backpack

Photo by Adam Clark

In his recent blog post Seth Morrison wrote about his trip to Las Lenas. People got sick in the plane and puked and so on, which doesn’t sound like much fun, but how does Seth find the skiing in Las Lenas during the northern hemisphere summer?

“It is one of the best places I have been in the Summer. Very technical mountain, lots of touring and fun night life.”

Seth Morrison doesn’t have a full plan for the season, but at least he will be seen filming with TGR in Alaska. Seth has been in a number of ski films, which are all good stuff, but one is always above others.

“Under the Influence by TGR is the best. It includes one of my best segments in years, and I had good conditions and great people to ski with. Fun times.”

Is the new film going to beat Under the Influence? Only time will show, but we hope so. Watching Seth Morrison charging the big mountains is always a good way to spend nights at home.

Seth Morrison is a professional big mountain skier who uses K2 ObSethed (189) skis and Full Tilt Seth Morrison Pro model ski boots. His sponsors include Oakley, K2, Fulltilt, Hestra, Black Diamond, Backcountry.com, Purl Wax, and Salomon for bindings. Seth has his own Pro Model of skis, boots, gloves, back pack and goggles. Seth Morrison is known from his interest in punk rock music, but he also enjoys listening to Bob Dylan, Tree, Metric, Vader, as an example.

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