Cody Townsend is well on his way to finishing his mission to ski the fifty classic ski descents of North America. Ticking off number 44 of 50, Split Mountain was a line that took patience and perseverance. I don't want to ruin the story for you all, so go pop a bowl of popcorn and load Cody's latest video on Split Mountain. It's a good one!
Q&A with Cody Townsend
Q: You had a quote in the film: "It's hard to tell the difference between my gut and nerves," could you elaborate on how to tell the difference?
A: I probably still don’t have a solid answer for that question. But ultimately, when you can distinguish between rational fear and irrational fear, that’s the beginning of being able to understand the difference between the intuition of something being off and the nerves that naturally build up when doing something scary. In that moment on Split, I realized I actually didn’t have much fear, nothing about looking down that couloir actually scared me once we got going. So when it became apparent that something inside me didn’t want to proceed, I asked myself over and over, “Why?” Ultimately coming to the conclusion that we didn’t have enough time for a series of complex rappels along with the margin of error being shrunken by the early sunset, the extreme cold and the hardpack conditions.
Q: Would you have shown up three times in one year for this line if it wasn't for the 50 project? Why/why not?
A: No. Well, unless I really really really wanted that line. But, that’s the good and bad of the FIFTY. I like that it pushes me to test my persistence, my patience and my will. Also, in the process of trying the line over and over, I learned a ton about the Sierra snowpack, weather patterns and knowledge of that area. At the same time, going back to the same place over and over and over for one line takes you away from other opportunities, goes against my philosophy of skiing what the mountains let you ski and drives ya a little crazy. So it’s a yin-yang sort of relationship with a specific objective.
Q: I've found people who spend a lot of time in the mountains reflect deeper than most, would you agree with this?
A: I think the mountains show you who you are. You have to be incredibly self-aware when challenging yourself in the mountains and the process of learning, exploring and surviving gives you insight into your true self like no other medium I’ve found. Plus, humans are meant to be in the wildness. Civilization is a relatively new phenomenon for humans. So, I think just being out there, among nature, listening to its lessons makes you feel natural, alive, a part of this world. It becomes philosophical the more time you’re out there.
Q: How do you process overcoming adversity in the mountains after a climb?
A: Everyone is different but I’m a pretty positive person. So, I take any time spent in the mountains as a blessing. Adversity is almost half the reason we go into the mountains, to challenge ourselves, to learn from the mountains and to overcome obstacles we may not have believed we could overcome.
Q: Do you think Split is safely ski-able without a 300% year?
A: [Split] will be safely skiable even on a snow year not as miraculous as 2023, but it will just require way more rope work, rappelling and time spent in the couloir. Unfortunately it’s a line that isn’t skiable very often anymore. But that just makes it sweeter when it does happen.
