THE JOURNAL
Mr Aaron Anderson
The internationally renowned ski resort of Aspen, Colorado, isn’t all soft powder and schnapps. For the local ski and snowboard pros who make the winter sports their whole life – for half the year, at least – it’s no holiday. Done day in and out, the surprisingly heavy demands of the disciplines can take a hefty toll on your body and mind. On the other hand, if you can buffer the load and negotiate the necessary seasonality, the payoff is that you do get to do a heck of a lot of skiing or snowboarding. And, yes, sometimes even a bit of après-ski. MR PORTER spoke to four mountain men to find out how they maintain peak performance, wellness and happiness all while going downhill fast.
Mr Colter Hinchcliffe
Aspen native Mr Colter Hinchcliffe creates content for action sports media company Teton Gravity Research and his own socials, does gigs like this and just enjoys the season.
What’s your typical day?
It’s very condition dependent. If the conditions are good – if it’s snowing a lot, or it has snowed and it’s sunny – I’m up a lot earlier, working a lot harder, skiing all day long, doing film stuff and then usually getting home just in time to dry things out and rest enough to do it again the next day. I try to throw a little morning stretching in first thing, eat bacon and eggs, drink coffee and get out there. I usually have a big breakfast and just eat snacks – a lot of jerky – while I’m out there, and then come home to a big dinner.
How do you manage the impact on your body?
If I ski really hard for three or four days I need a day off, and then I’ll do it again for three or four days. I usually have admin to do, life maintenance. I have a snowmobile and that always needs something done to it, or the truck. Maybe I’ll go to the rec centre and hit the sauna and the hot tub if I have time.
Do you do any gym work?
I pretty much just stay in shape by doing my sports. In the summer I rock climb a lot, so that’s sort of my cross training. But I’m so exhausted from skiing and climbing that I don’t really have enough energy to do anything else. It probably would benefit me a little to do a bit of strengthening in my legs before the ski season, but I just don’t have the motivation.
Mr Colter Hinchcliffe
Where’s your favourite spot to ski?
Aspen is my favourite of the four mountains. We’ve got kind of a circuit that we like skiing: Face to Six to The Dumps is a great start to the day. And then I love to get over into 1A area, an old classic chairlift, skiing right above town, nice and steep. It’s one of my favourite places to be. We did some stuff with MR PORTER over on that chairlift as well.
Do you use any products to protect your skin from the cold and sun?
I use sunscreen quite a bit – it definitely helps. And then chapstick with SPF in it. I even use zinc on my lips sometimes.
You must know the Aspen après scene well. Any recommendations?
Yeah, so I worked at a bar called Pie. It’s a decent place to operate; you get pretty good deep-dish pizza, it’s a very open environment, big windows, a lot of sunlight. And then also W at the bottom of the mountain is a classic spot. And honestly, we don’t have that much of an après scene, odd as that is. A lot of our partying takes place on-hill, and then it seems like late night is more of a thing here.
Is the partying more for tourists than locals?
Oh no, everyone in Aspen parties quite a bit, to be honest. And I enjoy the après-ing because you can have a good time and still be home fairly early so you can get a good night’s sleep and wake up and ski again the next day. I often just hang out in the back of my favourite ski shop, Surefoot, with my buddies and drink a few beers. That’s my après routine.
Mr Jake Pates
Currently not competing due to post-concussion syndrome, Boulder-born US Olympic boarder Mr Jake Pates is improving head injury protocols via his Happy Healthy Brain Foundation.
What issues have you experienced?
I developed persistent post-concussion syndrome because I had repeated head injuries before my brain had healed. And the symptoms I developed were mood swings, severe anxiety, depression, headaches, vertigo – a variety of different issues.
Has all of that changed how you feel about snowboarding?
Obviously, there’s pros and cons, but overall, I’m blessed to have had the opportunity to be a professional snowboarder and be functionally healthy. Part of the reason I started my non-profit was I’ve had friends die by suicide because of concussion-derived mental health issues. I love the actual act of snowboarding itself; the competitive side has become very, very dangerous. And it’s not a sport like football in the UK or the US where you’re making millions of dollars. You’re lucky if you're making a wage, you can live off as a professional snowboarder, an Olympian, which is surprising given the risks. Which also is part of why I’ve had to re-evaluate what I’m doing.
Will you ever compete again?
Eventually over these next couple of years I’ll probably try out some of the modified events that are more style oriented. But in terms of traditional half-pipe competition, I think I’m done.
How often do you snowboard now?
This is the first year that I’ve only been up, I think, eight or nine times so far. Which is crazy because aside from this year, if you go way back, like, since when I was eight years old, I’ve been up 100-plus times per year. I still love to get into the half-pipe, get onto the jumps and rails. I do love to cruise on the groomers [normal runs] as well. I still love doing tricks, but I don’t do the tricks where I’m really putting myself at risk.
Where’s your favourite spot to snowboard?
We’re so lucky, we have the best mountains all around us. So, I love Copper Mountain: they have a great terrain park and halfpipe. I love Vail Mountain itself. Beaver Creek is really fun for family days and groomers and stuff. And then obviously up in Aspen: Aspen Mountain (Ajax), Buttermilk, Snowmass. It's all so fun. Hard to pick one.
And you listen to music when snowboarding?
I listen to a lot of hip-hop and rap, and I also mix in some more mellow stuff. And then every once in a while, I throw it back to some classic rock.
What’s your preferred set-up?
Burton Custom x 156cm. It’s their stiffest snowboard and that really helps me get the snap I need off the lips of jumps or in the half-pipe and also land without slipping out or bending the snowboard too much. Then I like the Burton SLX boots: they’re the comfiest ones. For the bindings, I stick to the Malavitas. For the outerwear, I usually stick with Oakley. So, I’ll rock an Oakley jacket, pants, neck gaiter, goggles – obviously. And then I rock the Anon WaveCel helmet because it’s a new technology that’s supposed to reduce the severity of concussions up to 80 per cent in some cases.
Do you do any gym work?
You have to stay really fit when you’re doing stuff, especially when you’re competing. But nowadays it’s tough. I’m also dealing with a disc injury in my neck. I have a knee injury that I’ve been dealing with for five-plus years. And the back is not doing that well, from the impacts I’ve taken. I need to start going to PT, because every time I work out I just feel frail.
Remind us how old you are?
I’m 23. Same thing with a lot of my friends now: we’re all pretty young, we’re all pretty battered up.
What advice would you give a newcomer to snowboarding?
Start by getting a helmet. The main piece of advice I’d give someone just learning is to be patient and make sure you’re really enjoying it. Because that’s the whole point: to have fun. My girlfriend’s just starting out and she’s had her fair share of slams. But now she’s cruising and she loves it.
Mr Aaron Anderson
Mr Aaron Anderson and Mr Colter Hinchcliffe
A retired freeskiing coach (and, in Hinchcliffe’s words, “a bit of a mentor”), Philadelphia transplant Mr Aaron Anderson is a ski instructor at the Aspen Snowmass resort.
How often do you ski?
I ski every day. I do all kinds of skiing. Either I’ll telemark ski, I'll do backcountry, I’ll do cross-country or I’ll be on the hill Alpine skiing. So one of those four. I like backcountry skiing more than anything right now.
Presumably your house is full of skiing equipment.
Definitely. I have four different pairs of boots, along with the skis and stuff. And then you have the backcountry gear: the beacon, shovel, probe... It’s a lot of gear.
What do you wear on the slopes?
I wear Patagonia all the time, all black. I used to know the CEO of Patagonia, but that wasn’t the reason why I wore it. They always are very good with taking care of you. If anything happens to my stuff, they either fix it or give you a credit, like, right away. They’re not into wasting.
With all this skiing, do you need to do any gym work?
I like to do a lot of cross-training. For instance, I like to rock-hop down rivers, or play soccer, or tennis. I love tennis. I’m not really big into getting into the gym and doing specific stuff, all this gimmicky stuff. I coach some of my kids like that, but I personally prefer to just keep it fun.
How do you manage the impact on your body?
I’m using a Theragun today at work after our shoot two days ago. Yeah, you get sore. You feel like you got hit by a bus or you played a football game or something. And so, you got to get sleep and eat whatever your body likes. And then also I go to the chiropractors. I do this, the yoga, massages, hot springs, everything. I think my head is probably taking the most trauma. I’ve dealt with maybe seven concussions from racing and then freeskiing, half-pipe and slopestyle, I’ve dealt with seven concussions: four from racing, one from freeskiing and two from soccer. So, brain health is really important to me.
Do you take any supplements?
I like to take CBD. I use this one called CV Sciences, the capsules that they have. It helps me stay really focused and not be as distracted, which is amazing. It keeps my mind super-clear. And then it’s preventative, I think I probably would even be sorer now if didn’t take it. And then after I’m sore, it helps me heal a little bit faster, too.
Do you watch what you eat?
I’m a cancer survivor, which is crazy. I had intestinal cancer, so I had a piece of my stomach removed. And then I went through really intense radiation and chemotherapy to where, like, I thought I was going to die. And, well, I felt like I died and then came back. I have a smaller tract of intestines, which is why I eat oatmeal in the morning. I can’t eat bacon and eggs or French toast and stuff like that. I eat rice, meat – steak and chicken – and vegetables, beans, but I can’t eat a lot of sauces or anything fried or sweet, or any fast food. It’s a very limited diet, but it’s pretty good.
What advice would you give a newcomer to skiing?
I would try to have either someone else learn with me or, if you have a friend or someone that does it, reach out to them. It’s kind of boring skiing by yourself, honestly. And then also the family component. What can you do with your family that’s more fun than chasing each other around the mountain, through the trees and in the terrain park or on jumps?
Where’s your favourite spot to ski?
Dang, it’s hard to pick one place… I would just say Colorado is the spot. I mean, Colorado in general. Just come to Colorado. It’s so good. I mean, it’s sunny right now and you can still find fresh powder, so you can ski in powder on sunny days more often here than anywhere else.
Mr Matt Ladley
Mr Matt Ladley and Mr Jake Pates
A gold medal winner at the 2016 X-Games in the snowboard superpipe discipline, Mr Matt Ladley was born in the Midwest but moved to Steamboat Springs, Colorado at the age of 11 to pursue a career in snowboarding. No longer riding competitively, he now works as a director at Icon Source, a sports marketing agency based in Denver, but still finds time to regularly hit the mountains.
What does a typical day look like?
These days it’s a little different. While it used to be morning yoga and exercise before getting up on the hill, now it’s an early morning with a quick healthy breakfast before getting to work. The transition from competing to working has been interesting, but I am really enjoying my new day-to-day. I get to apply the same level of passion and ambition to my role at Icon Source, all without the risk of injury.
How do you manage the impact on your body?
Oh, good question. Now that I don’t compete and train like I did, it is a lot of maintenance. I certainly don’t put the same level of stress on my body that I used to, but it doesn’t mean it’s not catching up to me. It starts with staying hydrated and taking some supplements and Chinese herbs for a good foundation. It sounds simple but hydration makes a huge difference to joint pain. Over the years of personal training and physical therapy I have learnt a lot of techniques for corrective exercises so I apply those a few times a week. I also do acupuncture. When things are really tensing up and hurting, this is the last stop, and always makes a huge difference.
How do you wind down after a day in the mountains?
Sauna. Big sauna guy. Anytime I can find a sauna I am there every day. For one, the health benefits are pretty much unlimited. I have also been trying to get better at meditation, and the heat helps me stay present and practise my mindfulness. Follow it up with an ice cold sauna and you feel like Superman. I’m actually looking forward to building one in my home in the next few months.
Do you use any products to protect your skin from the elements?
Sunscreen in the summer and a face mask when I am snowboarding.
What does Aspen mean to you?
The X Games in Aspen is the pinnacle of action sports events and is the one place that represents snowboarding really well. It’s the event we all looked up to when we were younger. I can’t tell you what it means to have competed here every year for 10 years since I was 17. There are few places that I have spent as much time in as Aspen, and I’ve gotten to know the people in town, the restaurant owners. It’s like a second home.
Any favourite spots in town?
Campo – make sure to say hi to Oli. And Mawa’s kitchen for breakfast and brunch. It’s a little hidden gem, and not downtown, but everything I have had here is amazing.