Allow me a bit of philosophy here... We started tele skiing as a rebellion against rules.
For me, being able to go anywhere you want, with an element of precision and control, has been the goal.
Challenging snow is one of my favorite kinds of skiing, and I like being able to switch techniques at liberty.
One item on my agenda is simply planning trips, setting them as goals, something to look forward to.
The best indication is that I still love to ski on most anything, from skating gear to heavy metal.
There are many skiers who have chosen tele for a more compact, streamlined skiing system.
We have to be careful about creating more rules.
I wanted to feel that precision and control and then try to apply it to tele. That's what I've looked for in my gear development through the years, and today, tele is very precise, very high-performance.
Feeling a part of that community is my greatest reward.
What will reinvent Alpine is if we create too many rules, create too much of a scene that obscures the value of a very cool, elegant, free sport.
We are a bunch of passionate people, passionate about our sport, and it's human nature, too, to want to think that our way is the right way.
Even as the sport evolves into different kinds of riders in different environments, there still seems to be a common thread that makes us a community.
In each of these companies I do whatever needs to be done, whether it's ideas, testing, marketing, catalog copy-writing, or dishes.
By alpine I mean that the gear is viable for ski mountaineering and touring in mountains as rugged as the Alps, or Alaska, or Canada.
Some will say that tele has lost its soul with the new gear. My feeling is that if people don't want to use the big stuff, they don't have to.
Come winter, I'm up at 5am every morning just because it's out there. Waiting for it to get light. There is so much to do on skis.