Ian Greenwood

“How’s the snow?” I wondered. Our new chairlift buddy didn’t deliver a sermon. “Terrible,” he said, chuckling. Matt, my editor, and I weren’t surprised. When you blast a snowy mountainside with solar energy for a few days and then turn the ambient temperature down, ice tends to appear—it’s basic physics. The boilerplate conditions wouldn’t last too long, though.By mid-afternoon, a gusty storm had enveloped Mammoth Mountain, California. The wind howled, the open chairlifts swayed through the pier...

The helicopter cruised through brisk Alaskan air towards the landing zone. Two guides were the first to get out, followed by a few professional skiers, including Duncan Adams. The guides quickly busied themselves with unloading gear—they had a ski movie to make, after all. As another member of the team exited the bird, the cornice on which they were standing broke. Adams and fellow pro Stefan Thomas fell uncontrollably, traveling hundreds of feet. They swam through a current of moving snow, even...

Shielded in icy armor, Aoraki/Mt. Cook looms 12,218 feet above New Zealand.The mountain is dangerous, inspirational, and home to the Caroline Face, a glaciated wall that has refuted several steep skiing attempts. A Red Bull team purportedly tried to ski it and failed. In 2013, Magnus Kastengren, a renowned Swedish extreme skier, tragically fell to his death while traveling from the summit ridge of Aoraki/Mt. Cook to the Caroline Face. It wasn't until 2017 that a team consisting of Enrico Mosetti...