Dean Cummings went full-bore crazy

[El Kanone]

This whole thing is pretty weird for me. I’ve had some of my most fun, wild, amazing, radical and crazy ski experiences thanks to Deano.
I’ve known Dean since 1990 in Telluride. I was a lead guide for H2O in Valdez for many years starting in 1996. I look back on those times as the glory years. We were all in our primes and we were thriving. Especially Dean. Amazing how far he has fallen and yet, honestly, not entirely surprising. This is a story 100% deserving of book length telling. Dean was (is) a person very difficult to deal with and like life or snow crystals, many faceted.
Things aren’t always so cut and dry. I’m sure he pissed a lot of people off, but he also showed a lot of people some of the best days of their lives. I can tell you he genuinely loved showing people the mountains. I’ve seen him more stoked after a day of guiding some random intermediate level skiers than after a sick day of filming with MSP. He truly loved teaching kids especially “at risk” kids.
From those youtube videos , it is clear to me he was suffering from some form of progressive mental illness and delusional paranoia.
It’s all pretty crazy. Dean was the most driven person I have ever experienced. I never once saw him kick back and relax. He always had 10 or more things going at once. He basically had personal assistants following him around working as scribes. They would literally take dictation and send 100’s of emails a day, dealing with sponsorship, filming, permits, helicopter rental, and much more simultaneously.
For some people there really is a fine line between genius and insanity. Deano had no real avalanche training and yet he was some kind of savant when it came to the snowpack. We would laugh behind his back when he talked about two finger or three finger snow, but his judgment was almost always right.
I know he loved to catch salmon in the summer and loved to cook it on the grill and share it with his guests. That was very real genuine kindness and stoke. But I also know he pissed a lot of people off. He basically burned every bridge he ever crossed.
At the same time he excelled at surrounding himself with amazing people. Some of the best people I have ever met were through H2O.
Anyway I guess what I’m saying is this is just really sad for all involved. Dean was a really amazing person with some real demons, but not all bad. I have had no contact with him for the past 12 years and he has obviously gone progressively downhill. I’m sure losing his family and business really drove him over the edge. No excuses for him, just some observations.
Pretty classic human tragedy story. I’m thankful I got to do some really sick shit with him and because of him. Sad for his family and the family of the guy he killed.
One last thought, I really don’t see Dean lasting in the New Mexico State Pen. It is more likely that he kills himself or gets killed by some hardened criminal.
Crazy.





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[splat]

Made for TV movie tragedy with Deano's steep skiing footie as a backdrop.
Would make for some great viewing with a surpise letdown at the end

[warthog]

Next Krakauer book- Descent Into Madness (tm- if you're reading Jon)

[El Kanone]

Next Krakauer book- Descent Into Madness (tm- if you're reading Jon)

I agree it really has the makings of a Krakauer book. He is exactly who I had in mind.

[splat]

Ah, c'mon, you know it has to be 1st Descent Into Madness. heh.

[mcski]

I hope someone writes about this tragedy, but preferably not HackKrauer.

[ill-advised strategy]

Ah, c'mon, you know it has to be 1st Descent Into Madness. heh.

Last Descent (?)

[meter-man]

Here's a record from the Sandoval jail:

Attachment 319346

Damn Lupolicious. What is your axe to grind with Dean? You obviously are a bit obsessed, having started this thread, and then posting every thing you can to make him look as bad as possible. Not that he didn't have some problems, but seriously, what's your deal?

El Kanone, thanks for the story and perspective.

[LHutz Esq]

Has anyone done a concussion/cte study on skiers?


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[rbtree]

Slightly updated info from Utah. Guess there were other people that witnessed what went down. Especially since 15 minutes elapsed between the witness calling 911 and Dean calling 911.

https://kjzz.com/news/local/former-u...ed-with-murder

Usually you mean business when you walk in a room with an AR-15...

Day'um. THAT does not bode well for Dean, sad to say...

My first post here in way too long. Carl Skoog and I hit up Valdez during and after the 1996 WESC, along with a woman friend of mine and about six rippin' Mt. Baker Hard Corp fellas. We took a few heli rides, toured, shot pics, and skied multiple road shots below Thompson Pass, while it was snowing for days on end. On the last day, we flew with Valdez H2O... and frolicked in four feet of fresh, bomber safe pow. My models were the US Extreme champ, Peter Bowers, the French champ Yan Andre, the one and only Scott Kennett, and Jessica Nolan, who later married Peter. We had two amazing runs, while Carl, God rest his soul, skied with and shot my friend Maria, and Dean Collins, the leader of the Mt. Baker Hard Corps--the rest of the gang had gone home....Dean was awesome. He'd had a slight injury if I recall correctly, so didn't win. Chris Davenport won his first, and Wendy Fisher, fresh off the US Ski Team, took home the women's "gold". Among the best two runs of my life, even if I was wielding a camera....

[rbtree]

This whole situation saddens me more and more as I think about it. I feel like there are more sad endings than happy ones to have emerged from that generation of big mountain skiers. McConkey, Meiners and Coombs are dead, there's this shit with Dean, Nobis had his run-ins with the law, etc. Seems like Seth and Dean Conway are among the few who are still around and getting after it. I know I'm forgetting some people, but the point stands.

^ This.....

Sad, to say the least..

[rbtree]

This whole thing is pretty weird for me. I’ve had some of my most fun, wild, amazing, radical and crazy ski experiences thanks to Deano.
I’ve known Dean since 1990 in Telluride. I was a lead guide for H2O in Valdez for many years starting in 1996. I look back on those times as the glory years. We were all in our primes and we were thriving. Especially Dean. Amazing how far he has fallen and yet, honestly, not entirely surprising. This is a story 100% deserving of book length telling. Dean was (is) a person very difficult to deal with and like life or snow crystals, many faceted.
Things aren’t always so cut and dry. I’m sure he pissed a lot of people off, but he also showed a lot of people some of the best days of their lives. I can tell you he genuinely loved showing people the mountains. I’ve seen him more stoked after a day of guiding some random intermediate level skiers than after a sick day of filming with MSP. He truly loved teaching kids especially “at risk” kids.
From those youtube videos , it is clear to me he was suffering from some form of progressive mental illness and delusional paranoia.
It’s all pretty crazy. Dean was the most driven person I have ever experienced. I never once saw him kick back and relax. He always had 10 or more things going at once. He basically had personal assistants following him around working as scribes. They would literally take dictation and send 100’s of emails a day, dealing with sponsorship, filming, permits, helicopter rental, and much more simultaneously.
For some people there really is a fine line between genius and insanity. Deano had no real avalanche training and yet he was some kind of savant when it came to the snowpack. We would laugh behind his back when he talked about two finger or three finger snow, but his judgment was almost always right.
I know he loved to catch salmon in the summer and loved to cook it on the grill and share it with his guests. That was very real genuine kindness and stoke. But I also know he pissed a lot of people off. He basically burned every bridge he ever crossed.
At the same time he excelled at surrounding himself with amazing people. Some of the best people I have ever met were through H2O.
Anyway I guess what I’m saying is this is just really sad for all involved. Dean was a really amazing person with some real demons, but not all bad. I have had no contact with him for the past 12 years and he has obviously gone progressively downhill. I’m sure losing his family and business really drove him over the edge. No excuses for him, just some observations.
Pretty classic human tragedy story. I’m thankful I got to do some really sick shit with him and because of him. Sad for his family and the family of the guy he killed.
One last thought, I really don’t see Dean lasting in the New Mexico State Pen. It is more likely that he kills himself or gets killed by some hardened criminal.
Crazy.





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Thanks for that.... Read two posts up... My guess is, you were our guide on that amazing 4/96 day! I think Python was one of the two runs we skied...
Hope you don't mind but I copied your post to my FB page.....
Reckon you know Scott Kennett? Tell him Roger says hi! And Dav....

[rbtree]

Cool. Always liked his turns the best

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No doubt! Great great skier! Skied with and photographed Mike and his bro Tim...at Crystal. Way way back in the day!

[warthog]

Last Descent (?)

Last Descent Meal????

[xyz]

Wouldn't be surprised if he hung himself in jail.

Wouldn’t surprise me either. To spend a lifetime in big alpine environments to suddenly locked in a cage. But he should go out with like Bohdi from Point Break...getting avied off the raddest line on the planet.

Seriously tho, sad all around.

[ill-advised strategy]

Has anyone done a concussion/cte study on skiers?

My brain is supposed to go to the Boston University study.

[xyz]

I don't know a lot of these guys but I can assure that Hattrup and Pehota are doing just fine....

Pehota seems to be doing great. Lives up the street from me. Chatted with him and his wife on the lift last year. Super friendly normal dude. His dog is another story tho. It hates mountain bikers and he lives right by the trail head.

[plugboots]

Pehota seems to be doing great. Lives up the street from me. Chatted with him and his wife on the lift last year. Super friendly normal dude. His dog is another story tho. It hates mountain bikers and he lives right by the trail head.

The ski world is really a small world isn’t it? I was skiing Taos 1000 years ago and a good skier was right below the lift and the other guy on the chair seemed to know him, he said: “Oh that’s Dean, local guy.” I met a bunch of the Mahre’s on top of Washington Pass, skied in La Grave with Doug and Chad, talked with Mike Hattrup checking our bags leaving Jackson, etc.

[MMMSKI]

Totally nuts and a assault weapon

[GoldMember]

Pehota seems to be doing great. Lives up the street from me. Chatted with him and his wife on the lift last year. Super friendly normal dude. His dog is another story tho. It hates mountain bikers and he lives right by the trail head.

Sampson? Ah, just an overgrown puppy or so I was told...

[Big E]

I rarely post on here these days, though I still check in semi-frequently, and it saddens me that the last 2 threads I've posted in are now this one and the one about Robb Gaffney's cancer.

I never had any contact with Dean other than seeing him on film and in the magazines, so I've nothing to add to this story other than it's depressing to read all this and equally depressing to know that some decent mental health care might have saved both Dean and his victim.

Pehota seems to be doing great. Lives up the street from me. Chatted with him and his wife on the lift last year. Super friendly normal dude. His dog is another story tho. It hates mountain bikers and he lives right by the trail head.

On a positive note, yeah, from what I can tell Pehota remains the MAN. I met him like 10 years ago at the Kootenay Coldsmoke Festival at WH2O where he was coaching/guiding. I of course had signed up for his clinic the one day. That night at the Coldsmoke buffet (Buff-eh I think) he and his 2 buddies that he brought along - Webby and ... can't remember the other one - randomly sat down next to my gf and I. A few hours later, my face literally hurt from laughing so hard the entire night listening to Eric and Webby tell stories and rib each other. Webby was an ice-road trucker in the Northern Territory part of the year, so yeah, he had some stories.

About 3 years later gf and I were in Whistler, went into the Roundhouse for some lunch, randomly grabbed a few empty seats, and turned around to see Eric and one of his sons sitting a few tables away brown-bagging it. Walked over, said hello, said we'd met at Coldsmoke, and he even remembered my name. Talked for a good 15 minutes, then I said "good seeing you" or something and went back to my table. Another 15 minutes later, he walked back to my table (opposite the direction of the door) and was like good seeing you, hope you have a good trip, let's make some turns if you see me on the hill, etc.

Nothing but respect for Eric. His kids are pretty good skiers too.

[romeo tango]

.
john waterman
chris mccandless
timothy treadwell
now dean cummings ....

if you're close to the edge,
alaska can send you over

.

[Skidog]

Living on the "edge" seems to be a common theme.

I wish Dean the best. Never did me wrong. Quirky comes with that territory sometimes, hell most times.

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[Dee Hubbs]

Podcast from July 2019 w Dean.
I have not listed to it yet, maybe during an hour and half ride on the trainer?

[covert]

Clearly you have never been compelled to listen to Dean for 1.5 hours.