GETTING FRESH...With A Big-Mountain Pioneer

Maybe it's just his James Bond fetish, but freeskier Shane McConkey, 36, of Squaw Valley, Calif., approaches life—and every powder-packed backcountry run—with a license to thrill.

LEGO

SHANE McCONKEY, 36, Skier
Base: Squaw Valley, Calif.
Family Man: Wife Sherry; daughter Ayla, 10 months. "We named her after the main character in The Clan of the Cave Bear."
Doll Face: The Shane McConkey "Huck Doll" action figure comes with skis, helmet, goggles and parachute.
Fatten Up: McConkey helped K2 develop the 2007 Pontoon powder skis modeled after water skis.

Nothing's free anymore.
What most people call freestyle skiing is really clone style. There's no freestyle about it. The "freestyle" events in the Olympics, like aerials, are anything but free. What they do is incredibly refined and difficult. But freestyle is skiing your way, with your creativity and originality.

Nothing's out of bounds, either.
About three years ago, I started combining BASE jumping and skiing. There are about 30 of us doing it. We wear a parachute and are able to ski parts of the mountain that were impossible before. We ski a line, jump a cliff and pull the parachute. Then we pack it up and keep skiing. BASE skiing was a huge breakthrough, like we'd discovered the cure for cancer.

Fat skis were pioneered by accident.
In 1996, Volant sent me a pair of fat skis to test. At the time, everyone thought wide skis were for old, fat people. But I rode them and thought, Wow. These aren't crutches or training wheels. I could ski faster, with less effort, in powder. I didn't invent fat skis. But I'm the guy who showed everyone what they could do.

My to-do list is long.
Before I turn 40, I want to BASE jump in Norway; ski in Antarctica, Russia and China; and hold the first BASE ski contest. And I want to build a house in Baja, Mexico.

I'm jealous of the kids.
Nothing keeps me awake, but fear of incompetence and failure motivates me. Every time I watch a ski movie, I'm motivated. I see these kids doing something I can't and wish my bones were still green so I could rush out and learn it.

My top five is tough to crack.
The five best skiers of all time? James Bond. JT Holmes. Mike Douglas. Seth Morrison. Kent Kreitler. Guys who can do it all. I have respect for what Tanner Hall has done for freestyle. But to impress me, you have to be good at all types of skiing. Tanner's young. When he's older, he might make my list.

I don't play by the rules.
In 1993, I was sponsored by Vail and did two things that got me in trouble. I did a backflip, but inverted aerials weren't allowed at ski resorts back then. Then I entered a moguls comp and crashed. So I poached the course—naked—in front of the ESPN cameras. Most people think that's why I had my pass pulled, but I actually lost it for wearing a Whistler hat at a media function. Oops.

Three things never fail to make me smile.
My daughter, BASE jumping—and really offensive jokes.

I'm sleeping with the enemy.
My wife, Sherry, is from South Africa and she's a snowboarder. A good one, too. You know what they say: Snowboard chicks dig skiers.

Man, I miss Doug Coombs.
He was more comfortable in dangerous situations than anyone. You know how you can walk across a beam that's two feet off the ground, but if you raise it to 100 feet, you can't move? Doug would run across that beam. When I found out he died doing the same stuff I do, it was a reality check. I think about him every time I'm in a dangerous situation. It's a reminder: Be careful.

I have more in common with Travis Pastrana than I do with Tanner Hall.
We look at the impossible and make it possible. We want to get as close to the limits as we can without dying. But we're not crazy. Our sports need us. If everyone sat at the bottom of the mountain thinking of things the same way, how would we progress?

My goals are evolving—kind of.
When I was a kid, I wanted to be James Bond. When I was a teenager, I really wanted to be James Bond. Then I wanted to be a stuntman. In my 20s, I wanted to be a skier. Now I want to be a good father. And James Bond.

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