Jackson Illuminates Everything about Skiing

Jackson takes you on a quick tour of all that's new in Alpine skis for the coming season. Jackson also explains all the details of how Realskiers.com is covering the Alpine world. This is the first podcast of the new season!

This is a chapter from Snowbird Secrets, the most important ski instruction book ever written (says its co-author with an abundance of modesty). It's an argument against importing music to the mountains, lest it block out the other music the mountain wants you to hear, the music you make when you ski.

As part of the continuing series on my life as a skier, I present the tale of my graduation day from Yale, the springboard to my skiing life. It's not as boring as it sounds...

It's been a year since the pandemic shuttered the ski world. In the face of disaster, the various branches of the skiing family showed their ingenuity and resilience. As a result, 52 weeks later, the ski universe is on track to normalcy.

Everyone likes the idea of trying before buying, but it's not as easy as it sounds. This episode explores the business of demoing skis from all angles.

After finishing Snowbird Secrets, my writing continued to show the effects of the deep dive Secrets required. My mind kept being attracted to big ideas that it would then condense, simplify and distill to make a highly concentrated dose of connected thoughts. On Genius was part of a post-Secrets mind purge that eventually petered out, to be replaced on my docket with hundreds of ski reviews, all of which can be found in the Realskiers.com review archives.

Home and away games are not played by the same rules. It's not just the venues that change when you go on the road; everything changes. I illuminate this point by citing my own experiences during my annual road trip to Snowbird, Utah.

Ok, technically I never won the Hahnenkamm DH, but I did (barely) survive skiing the course during a press/retailer to junket to Austria in the early 1990's. This episode is part one of a two-part tale of the most mismanaged press boondoggle of my journalistic career.

Chapter XII of my autobiographical The Making of a Skier series, Putting Words in the Mouth of God and Other Mid-Life Misadventures summarizes my activities during the first decade of this century then neatly segues to a capsule report on my tenure as Warren Miller's copyrighter, a distinction I believe I share with no one. I also make frequent mention of Paul Hochman, who was my co-host on RSN's Gear Guys and played the role of groom to bride Carrie Sheinberg when I officiated their unofficial wedding ceremony during a ski test at Beaver Creek. (Decorum prevents from shedding any further illumination on this solemn ceremony.)

In this episode, Stump and I finally get around to unearthing the details surrounding the creation of The Blizzard of Aahhh's, arguably the most influential ski movie of all time. (Both the founders of TGR and MSP acknowledge as much in Stump's Legend of Aahhh's.) Stump and I had so much fun doing these interviews that we may continue with this series. There's much to chat about still, including stories of Stump's relationships with Tony Hawk - with whom he shot a Super Bowl commercial - Trevor Horn, Willie Nelson, Seal and Lukas Nelson. But for now, we'll have to make do with this behind-the-scenes look at the making of Blizzard of Aahhh's.

To be a great bootfitter, you can't focus on feet alone. You have to consider everything about this person's relationship to the sport, past, present and future. There are no cookie-cutter solutions.

This polemic was penned so long ago I probably used a quill pen to compose the first draft. Now that it has been elevated to iconic status, its essential premise has become indisputable. This is the first time - and perhaps the last - that it has ever been recorded.

In this episode, I pose the question, is skier turnout in the U.S. actually greater this season because of the pandemic? Judging by the mob that descended on the Sierras just after the last storm, my guess is that it's entirely possible.

In this episode, Stump discusses his early cinematic work that led up to the legendary Blizzard of Aahhh's.

In a stunning upset that in retrospect appears inevitable, Realskiers.com has been awarded The Stump-Bertoni Prize for Excellence for the second year in a row.

This has been a very strange year, no doubt about that, but it hasn't had the devastating impact nearly everyone expected. In this short episode, I explain how the coming year will be much more normal than it may at first appear.

The first of a two-part report, this episode provides a global description of the Big Mountain genre, the particulars of the 2020 model year and reviews of the top models of this season. In part two, I'll cover the remainder of the category in a segment that's considerably longer than this one. If you can't bear to wait, remember all this marvelous content is housed on Realskiers.com under Gear Guide.

In this episode, I complete our coverage of Realskiers.com's 2020 Frontside ski category. This includes the relatively few Finesse skis in this Power-laden genre.

In this episode, Jackson breaks down the price structure of the Alpine ski market, identifying top values along the way.

This brief episode consists of two parts. First, an exploration of the idea of the well-stocked mind left to its own devices, and second, how this exercise applies to skiing. This little thought puzzle is a mere six minutes long, so my Dear Listeners won't lose much of their remaining life force surrendering to its message.

Chapter 14 of Snowbird Secrets is a celebration of the smear, whether it's just a heartbeat between turns or a long, languid glide. Carving may get all the good press, but a properly applied drift is an essential element in all great skiers' repertoires.

This is Chapter 19 from Snowbird Secrets, must reading for any would-be master of Alpine skiing, particularly on big mountains. Snowbird Secrets includes 22 such meditations, each a separate pearl, complete unto itself. This is being posted on Christmas Eve, 2020, as a celebration of mindfulness, community and the grace that comes with gratitude.

The Frontside field is the largest and most diverse on the ski market, for it includes all price points, from the basement to the penthouse. As our focus is on identifying the best in this field, we limit our reviews to the elite of the genre. In this episode, we examine the Frontside category as a group and individually, starting with the our top Power Picks. The Frontside is carving terrain, and all our favorites are masters of this craft.

In Part 1, I provided an overview of the crucial All-Mountain West category, along with reviews of the top 5 Power models. In Part 2, we dissect 4 more Power models and the top 6 Finesse models in the 20/21 field.

This episode includes a rather lengthy introduction to a critical genre along with detailed reviews of 9 All-Mountain West Power models.

The ABC's of boot buying. Nothing you can do to help your skiing matters more than a perfect bootfit. This your guide to getting it right. This is the second episode in a series I call Ski University.

The second half of our reviews of the top All-Mountain East skis of 2021.

Part one of a two-part series detailing the top All-Mountain East skis for 2021.

Snowbird Secrets is a collection of 22 meditations on the metaphysics of skiing. Your authors, Jackson Hogen and "Guru" Dave Powers teach you the most fundamental lessons about the sport from the mountain's perspective. This introduction sets the context in which this remarkable book was created.

Over the last forty years, retail ski sales in the U.S. have been in steady and steep decline. What are the principal causes of this drop? Your esteemed Editor gives his take on the top ten reasons why.

The modern Alpine ski market is divided into seven distinct categories. This podcast takes the big picture look at the entire market so skiers can understand which category will best serve their needs.

We explore the depths of Stump's memories of his youth.

Famed cinematographer Greg Stump speaks with Jackson Hogen about his youth. Part one of a series.

Chapter 16 from Snowbird Secrets, read by the author.