Nick DeVore Progressive Telemark Skier

Every year at this time the mountains are closed, and yet the snow still comes providing for pristine, untracked acres of powder. For many, this is the season they wait for, a time where they can enjoy skiing in the quiet of their beloved mountains without vying for their line. But with the spring comes drastically changing temperatures and the avalanche danger increases. Newspapers are ridden with reports of casualties occurring in the back country.

I once had a love for skiing in the back country but peeps and shovels and what they represent petrify me more now that I have a family, as does the prospect of searching frantically for a friend buried in an avalanche. I will never feel equipped enough to save a friend, no matter what gear I am carrying.

When I heard that Nick DeVore, one of Aspen’s beloved progressive telemark skiers, had been caught in an avalanche, I gave him a call. I worked for Nick’s father, a National Geographic photographer, and I remembered Nick as a young energetic boy with tousled red hair and a whole lot of personality. I had been hearing a lot about Nick and his friends in these past few years, magnetic, big mountain skiers who have been getting after it. Having three boys of my own who are beginning to push their limits, I felt compelled to meet Nick, again, and get a better understanding of the passion that drives these dynamic skiers further and further into the wild.