Next Level Skiing S5, E5 | Stephen Casimiro: Apprentice to the Mountains

by Wagner Skis / Feb 06, 2023

S5, E5 – Stephen Casimiro: Apprentice to the Mountains

Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, American skiing was in trouble. Super-cool snowboarders were taking over. Resorts started peddling condos as much as turns. Skiing's glory days from the 1970s were fading fast. Then Stephen Casimiro came along and helped right skiing’s listing ship. In the late 1980s Casimiro took the reins at Powder magazine and shepherded a new generation of skiers with his inspirational intros. I was among those skiers, a one-week-a-year Texan exploring 120-day seasons and the ski bum life in Vail in the early 90s. Stephen’s intros were like sermons. He was able to put in words the intimate connections we build and foster with both the physical act of skiing as well as our ski buddies.

His stoke for skiing remains high today as he continues to share the unrivaled bliss of outdoor play as the founder and editor of Adventure Journal, an online and quarterly outdoor adventure magazine. Tune in and hear Stephen talk about the unwavering thrill of skiing, expanding the potential of skiing and the universal gifts of adventure.

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Topics

[2:10] Olin Mark 3s and jeans on his first-ever ski day at West Virginia’s Canaan Valley
[4:10] It still all comes back to that one moment
[5:30] Taking the helm at Powder, look at where skiing had been and where it was going
[6:40] Ski resorts were selling condos, sucking the soul out of the sport
[7:40] Skiing was getting its teeth taken out, the mood was flagging
[9:20] Remembering the things that are always rad about skiing: steeps, powder and out-of-bounds
[12:20] A new generation of big-mountain skiers
[13:40] The headline “Extreme. No really.”
[14:40] Expanding the vision of the potential of skiing
[15:30] A new frontier was opening up
[18:00] An apprentice to the mountains
[19:30] A lasting tip from Doug Coombs
[24:00] Maintaining and open-hearted and generous approach to skiing
[28:10] The outdoor industry’s focus on getting more people outdoors
[29:30] Turning the corner from promotion to education
[30:10] Acknowledging the sacred stoke of skiing
[36:00] Why are there so many angry people in ski towns?
[38:40] The us-versus-them vibe in skiing
[44:00] Struggling to balance critical issues with uplifting work in media
[47:40] The universal gifts we get from recreation
[51:00] Measuring time with media as much as dollars