POTM DECEMBER: TAYLOR CLARK

21|22 December Pro of the Month : Taylor Clark

Our Pro of the Month column celebrates the remarkable individuals within The Pro Collective. Enjoy inspirational stories shared by your fellow mountain professionals and see how Faction Skis allow them to thrive on the front lines. To be featured as a Pro of the Month, fill out the form linked here.

Our December Pro of the Month is Taylor Clark, ski patroller and avalanche researcher based in Red Mountain Resort, BC, Canada. Passionate about skiing and his research, Taylor shares his experiences on the job and insights into his research projects.

I’m a professional ski patroller. Our job is to ensure the mountain is safe for skiers and riders. We do everything from setting up rope lines, performing first aid and evacuating injured guests to performing avalanche mitigation. I’m also an avalanche researcher, so I spend a lot of time digging and nerding out looking at snow. Oh yeah, and skiing - lots of skiing.

HOW DID YOU GET INTO THIS PROFESSION?

I first got into the ski industry during my undergraduate degree. I was taking a course in hydrology taught by a professor who had spent much of his academic career studying avalanches in BC and the Karakoram in Pakistan. His stories and photos showing massive avalanches got me interested in researching avalanches. During that first year of research, I was just starting to venture out into backcountry and found that I was seeing exactly what I was researching and learning about. Since then, I have completed numerous research projects and a master’s degree at Simon Fraser University with the SFU Avalanche Research Program.

Oh man, so many. In my role, it’s awesome to see a patient that you evacuated come back to the mountain and start skiing again. Also, seeing and hearing riders slash and enjoy the pow after an early avalanche control morning. It means that I’ve done my job to ensure that no one will get buried while getting face shots.

In terms of the industry, I’m stoked to be in a role that combines theory, practice and being outside. I’ve definitely gone down the rabbit hole on the research side of things. There’s so much to learn about avalanches, snow and how humans assess and analyze the risks of skiing in hazardous terrain. It’s really cool to chat with other professionals about the research I’ve done and how it helps them approach the dynamic problems of recreating in the backcountry.

So many! So many memories of early mornings on the skin track, mountain summits and powder laps with friends and family.

One story that sticks out is my first avalanche control mission. It was 5:30 am in January when I got a call to come in early and told that we were doing control work. The storm that had lingered the previous day had shifted, hitting us with a SW wind and over 40 cm’s of snow. We suited up in the locker room then headed to the chair where I rode to the top of Granite Mountain solo. It was so quiet, dark and fogged in, only hearing the bump of the chair going over the pulley wheels on at each tower. We were given our routes and our shots just as the sun started to rise over the clouds covering the valley. My partner and I skied our route down to the spot where we were going to throw our first shot - the snow was so deeeeep. I pulled the shot out of my backpack and tied it off to 20 m of rope to make sure it got to where we wanted it. I pulled the ignitor, made sure it was lit and tossed it right into the sweet spot of the slope. We retreated into the trees a safe distance away and waited. It was a long two minutes looking at the spot where we threw the shot, waiting for it to detonate but eventually a boom echoed and shook us as the blast went off. The snow flew through the air and caused a decent size avalanche that ran to the bottom of the path. My partner and I high fived and shredded waist deep powder, down to the next path to do it all over again.

Prodigy 4.0 179 - It’s a sweet ski for everything and the smaller size really excels in the tight, technical terrain we have at Red. I’m a huge fan of the surfy, playfulness of the ski, and that it remains supportive when charging.

I like consistency - I use a Prodigy 4.0 in a 186.

When I’m not at work you can find me in the backcountry. I’m hunting for pow, couloirs, new zones, all while looking at the snow and trying to reach the summit of something.

WHAT DO YOU DO FOR WORK DURING THE OFF-SEASON?

In the off season, I’m still thinking about avalanches and the environment. Over the last year I’ve been researching and developing methods to use UAV technology to map and develop computer visualizations of avalanche terrain. I’m also using and researching UAVs as a method to monitor and evaluate environmental systems. When I’m not at my computer I’ve been working at a bike shop, building bikes.

LASTLY WHAT SUMMER SPORTS ARE YOU PASSIONATE ABOUT?

Biking has become a huge part of my life in the past few years. There’s so much overlap between skiing and biking. It’s much like ski touring where going uphill is a means to get back down as fast as possible while floating over the earth.

Have your own story to share with The Pro Collective? Apply to be featured as our next Pro of the Month!