​Stoke the Fire Athlete Edits: Ian McIntosh

TGR OG Ian Mcintosh is constantly looking for ways to evolve as an athlete. At this point, it might seem like he’s done it all, but that’s just part of the magic of watching him ski. This year, the North Face and Volkl athlete kept it simple, taking advantage of historic conditions to tee up some big mountain lines in British Columbia with his friends Christina Lustenberger and Nick Mcnutt. Two of those were first descents of iconic peaks. But it’s not all just about pushing the limits for Mac - in fact this season was also one of redemption and friendship as he re-connected with his friend Mcnutt after an avalanche nearly took his life last year. We caught up with Mac during his season filming for Stoke the Fire, and heard what he had to say about his stellar year.

When did you decide you wanted to ski for the rest of your life?

I don't know if I ever made the decision that I wanted to ski for the rest of my life. But I just think it was a natural progression of falling in love with the sport. I think anyone who falls in love with skiing or any sport, like skiing. That is in the outdoors, and connects you with nature, and gives you all these amazing experiences, and allows you to travel the world. Is something that you're going to want to do for life. So it was pretty natural. I don't know when that happened. But I think maybe when I was a little kid, I knew I was going to do this forever. And yeah, it just came naturally.

Mac in his happy place. | Bruno Long photo.

What would you have done if you hadn't pursued this path?

I think I'd still be skiing a lot. I'd probably be working my butt off in the summers, like I did before I ever became a professional. I work a ton in the off season. And then ski all winter. And I'd probably either still be doing that or finding a way to just ski a lot more than just on the weekends. Because the weekends are busy, and the mountains are unpredictable. Mother nature is unpredictable. If you want to ski in good conditions, you have to be flexible. So I guess if I wasn't doing this as a living, I'd have to have some sort of flexible job that would allow me to go skiing whenever I wanted.

What characteristics does a ski bum have?

I think a ski bum is just simply someone that doesn't really care about... what's the word I'm looking for? They don't really care about materialistic things, ski bums. They're not living their life so that they can have a big fancy house or a nice car, whatever it may be. They want to live their life rich and full. And in the mountains, and on the snow, and having a good time. A ski bum is just simply someone who wants to have fun as much as possible. And ski as much as possible. And they're willing to sacrifice pretty much anything to do that. And often, ski bums are the reason it's called bum, is because typically ski bums don't make a lot of money. They're too busy skiing and yeah, so, it really just comes down to the fact that you don't want to do anything else and you just want to be 100 percent focused on skiing all the time. And yeah, like I said, materialistic things aren't important.

What is stoke to you and how do you stoke your fire?

I mean, stoke it's being fired up. It's being super happy and excited. And it's hard to define stoke without using the word stoke. But yeah, I mean, it's about being fired up and really happy doing what you're doing. And being perfectly in the moment and not thinking about anything else and completely elated. Yeah. I mean, what stokes my fire is doing the things I love, and pushing myself, and seeing what I'm capable of, and having the best time. And being in those moments where you're not thinking about all the other BS of life. You're just thinking about the moment where you are, what you're doing and having as much fun as possible.

Checking out the goods at Mica Heli. | Bruno Long photo.

Let's shift gears to last ski season. What was the standout line of your trip to Mica?

Well, I mean, pretty funny that the stand out line for me on this trip, was the first line that we did on the trip. We showed up here. It's me and Christina Lustenberger and Nick McNutt. Were reunited a year later after McNutt's accident. We haven't really been in the mountains as a three pack. It was a bluebird day, that first morning. Stability was good. Snow quality was good on certain aspects that hadn't seen a lot of wind or sun. And yeah, we went out and did one free run. And then flew out to check out some terrain. And notice that this one line called Wildcat was looking really good. The snow quality on it was looking really good. And it was in the light. We knew the stability was good. And so someone probably needed to ski it. I was really excited to ski it. But at the same time, you're here with a whole group. So you don't want to divert all the group's energy towards one objective that you want to do. Where there's nothing else for anyone else to do. So I was concerned about the group dynamics. But Christina alleviated that when she was like, "Yeah, no, you got to go ski that line." And basically told me that, yeah, I've got to go do that. So I was pretty pumped that she was fired up for me to do it. And McNutt was also stoked for me to give it a go. And next thing you know, first run to the trip. I hadn't skied in a week. I'd been home with my family, nursing a toe injury.

So it was my second run of the trip. And I'm dropping into this pretty full on exposed, spined out fall. You're probably going to die or be in a pretty bad place. So really no-fall-zone kind of line. And it was super fun. Got to rip it. The snow quality was really good. Tons of slough pouring off the cliffs below me. And I wanted to ski it in a way that was flash top to bottom. And I knew it was going to be a bit of a race to beat my slough, when the whole line turned a corner into the shade. And my biggest concern was the run-out, it had a lot of chunder and chunks in it and stuff like that. But I did see on the skiers right side, it looked pretty smooth.

So as I started straight lining, I was setting myself up to just be straightlining out the bottom through that smoothest part of it. And yeah, it just felt so good to just show up here. Run number two, we've only done a warm-up run on some mellow terrain.

Tell us a little bit more about that zone.

Well, the whole zone is the creek that runs out of that valley is called Molson. And so a lot of the lines and mountains in there are named after different beers. And it's Canadian. So a lot of Canadian beers. And Wildcat is a very strong beer in Canada. And so I'm pretty sure that's why that mountain got the name the Wildcat.

Ian's mantra of "I like to ski cool things in good snow" pretty much sums up this photo. | Bruno Long photo.

How about the crew? The three of you have gotten to know each other quite well in the mountains.

My crew is Nick McNutt and Christina Lustenberger. And yeah, they're both completely different skiers in a lot of ways. But they're both incredibly talented. Christina comes from a really heavy racing background. She made it to the World Cup Team for Canada. She was dealing with a lot of knee injuries, so she dropped out of that scene. Went down the guiding route. Became an ACMG mountain guide. And then ACMG ski guide. And then found herself in this freeride world. For Christina, she's not really focused on skiing in the trees or powder or anything like that. She wants to ski big alpine lines. That's always her goal. I love that about her. As we get along really well in the mountains, because of that reason. I'm very much geared the same way in a lot of circumstances. But yeah, she's an amazing person. Not only an incredible female skier, but an inspirational skier to anyone in any walk of life, in the sport. She's so talented, she's so strong and she really pushes it. But make smart decisions in the mountains. And so she's really fun to have on a trip like this. Because she's always pushing to go for the bigger objective.

And then on the other side, you got Nick McNutt. And he's coming from more of a freestyle background. He loves to jib in the woods and throw tricks and ski backwards and all these other things. But he's also an incredibly talented skier and capable of anything. So he can really mix it up. He's skied big lines. He can make the tiniest little feature in the woods look magical. But also he can ski a big rowdy line.

And then you've got me, rounding out the dynamic. And it actually works really well for all of us together. Because no matter what mother nature throws at us, we've always got someone in the group that's really stoked on that particular medium of skiing. And we can get to work. And that person, whoever it may be. Can be the driving force for the whole crew's vibe. And it works really well. Whether we're in the Alpine in Bluebird stable, or we're stuck in the trees, or we're skiing Pow, or whatever it may be. This crew really works well together. And it's funny, because we're all different in a lot of ways. But we're all the same in a lot of ways too.

Tell us a little bit about the significance of skiing Mount Nelson, and specifically the first decent you and Lusti got.

Well, Mount Nelson is not only one of the most aesthetic peaks in the area, but it's one of the highest and it sticks above everything else. Like I say, it's beautiful. You can see it from town, it's right across from Panorama Resort. You're always just looking at it, no matter what. As a freerider, and as I started getting into free riding, I started looking at it as like, "That would be cool to ski one day if it was in the right condition." And yeah, I think Christina was thinking the same thing. And for the last few years we've been talking about it together about trying to one day get after it.

How did Mcnutt’s accident last year affect you and your relationship with the crew?

Well, I think with McNutt's incident last year, it's really only affected our relationship in a positive way. It's made our bond even tighter, with all of us. And when you have a close call in the mountains or in any walk of life. I think that's a natural thing that happens, is that it makes your bonds stronger. We learned from the experience too. The mountains are always teaching you new incredible things that you thought you knew. Just when you think you know everything. The mountains teach you new stuff. And it's constant. My approach to the mountains is just like, “Okay, I'm a little bit smarter hopefully than I was a year ago. I've learned a little bit more. Hopefully in these circumstances, I can avoid them in the future.” Or if these things happen, I know what to do, just that much better. But at the end of the day, it hasn't really affected my desire to go out in the mountains and push what I can do in the mountains or anything like that. And I don't think it's done that with McNutt or Christina or any of us. We've just learned from the experience and we're psyched to go out. And hopefully avoid having to ever deal with something like that ever again.

Mica Heli base with Mcnutt. | Bruno Long photo.

How was the vibe? The three of you, first day back in the helicopter looking for what to do next?

I think the first day back, I mean, obviously we're super stoked to all see each other and get together, and go play in the mountains together again. Because we all get along really well. And we jive really well in the mountains. It's just really cool to be able to be sharing these experiences together. And to be back together as a team. And going out on day one, Bluebird. It's like, "All right, let's go." It's almost like you don't even skip a beat. And yeah, sure. It's been a year since we were filming for a ski movie together. But it seems like it was just yesterday that we were all working together. So it almost feels like it hasn't been that long at all. And yeah, the vibe was so good and it always is with these two. So yeah, it's just nothing but positive energy. And great to get back on the mountains. And get back on it and working together.

You guys skied another first descent, Mt. Dunkirk. How did that come about and get on the radar in this trip?

I understand that we have three different personalities. We're all looking at the mountains in three different ways, a lot of the time. And that's part of the magic of our crew is that, between the three of us we're not going to miss much out in the mountains. Of what's possible or what's capable or what we can do. And Christina is always looking at the bigger line. She doesn't really care about snow quality. She just wants to ski the biggest thing. And I'm more focused on skiing big lines. But I like to ski powder or have them in good snow quality too. And then you have McNutt and he can just make magic in anything. So, pretty cool to be able to go up there with those two. And have that adventure together. And ski a mountain that's an iconic peak for this area. It's the biggest thing you see from the lodge. It's the mountain that everyone sees from the lodge. And the line that we ski, just so happens to be the line that you can see right from the lodge. There were people at the lodge watching it through binoculars and it was pretty exciting. You walk around the lodge, there's paintings of that mountain everywhere. There's photos of that mountain everywhere. And this is a heliski operation. That's been here for a long time and yet nobody's ever skied it. So pretty cool that we got the opportunity to go do it.

First and foremost, it's pretty easy to ski a first descent when you've got a helicopter. Gets you up there real quick. Now getting out of the helicopter on that ridgetop, with a cornice off the backside. And it's almost sheer for about 5,000 feet off the backside. So pretty hair-raising little spot to get out of the helicopter. But once we were out, we're pretty stoked. We had to get through some rime ice and we knew it wasn't going to be the best skiing. And then made our way over to the gnar, that was on the skiers right side of the mountain.

More pillowy goodness. | Bruno Long photo.

And the first pitch of skiing was pretty bad snow like breakable crust. But it quickly improved after that the next pitch was slightly better. And then the middle of the line was quite good snow. Obviously, there had been a lot of wet slide activity through the gnar. So we are stuck against the rocks on the left side, where the good snow was. And trying to avoid these huge frozen chunks of debris that were everywhere. But, again, skiing a mountain like that, it's about the adventure. It's about being able to come back down here at the lodge. And be like, "Yeah, we skied that." And it's about doing it together as a crew and sharing that experience together. And it's a really rich experience, skiing big mountains like that. It's not so much about the ski quality. But it's really about the adventure and being able to share it together. So often when we film high action ski film lines. Everyone has their own line and their own experience. But it's pretty cool when you do a big line like that. And you're doing it together, we share the same experience. And we're leapfrogging each other on the way down the mountain. And yeah, and then when you get to the bottom, it's nothing but high fives and big hugs. And yeah, it's special to be able to share that with other people.