Skiing
Why bike and ski across 3 mountains in 5 and a half weeks? Why not?
The Mountain Why short film documents two pro skiers reaching the ultimate level of exhaustion as they bike tour to climb and ski three classic lines in year like no other.
It was late spring 2020, when pro skiers and long-time friends Michelle Parker and Cody Townsend started dreaming of an expedition. Townsend was in the middle of a multi-year project called The Fifty, to try and ski all of the lines in the 2010 book, 50 Classic Ski Descents of North America. He was telling Parker about his idea for a bike-touring trip to ride from their mutual hometown of Tahoe City, California, to the Pacific Northwest to ski a few of the lines in the book, once travel restrictions were lifted. Before he could finish, Parker jumped in: “Can I come with you?”
So, the two of them, along with filmmaker Bjarne Salén, who drove his van and carried the food supplies, set off on a five-and-a-half-week journey, covering 1,662km and 14,260m of elevation on their bikes, plus another 6,100m elevation on skis. They successfully climbed and skied three iconic routes: the Newton Clark Headwall on Oregon’s 3,429m Mount Hood, and in Washington, the Führer Finger on 4,392m Mount Rainier and 2,703m Eldorado Peak in the North Cascades. Their efforts are documented in the new short film, The Mountain Why.
We spoke to Parker about towing a 45kg trailer, travelling during a pandemic and the beauty of cheese puffs.
Parker and Townsend averaged around 110km of cycling per day
© Bjarne Salén
You’re a road cyclist normally, right? So, how hard was the biking for you on this trip?
What was that first day of towing all that weight like?
It took a minute to get used to the bike set-up. It was really wobbly. The first day, we ended up on some dirt roads that were steep and bumpy. I was thinking, there’s no way we are going to be able to do this. In the beginning, Cody had thought that we’d ride 80 to 100 miles a day. I was a bit more realistic. I was like, 60 would be great. We ended up averaging around 70 miles per day [112km].
Hiking up Eldorado Peak in the North Cascades
© Bjarne Salén
It must have felt good to finally step into your skis after all those miles.
I didn’t really ski during the early parts of Covid, so that first day back on skis on Mount Hood felt so good. We rode there, camped at the base of Mt Hood Meadows, woke up early and climbed to the top. I remember those first few turns so well. We were down by eight or nine in the morning, so we just got back on our bikes and kept riding.
It sounds like there wasn’t much down time.
I was envisioning us stopping at a river to wash our clothes or have a snack, but all of a sudden, we were pinning it and not stopping. There was no rest. It was cool to see how well my body adapted. I got into the flow of it. At the same time, you’re always hungry. You’re always thirsty. You’re always tired.
A well-earned rest
© Bjarne Salén
Hopefully you had good snacks.
Cody is gluten-free and Bjarne is vegan and gluten-free. Occasionally, I would sneak a snack into the van that I could eat all by myself, like cheese puffs.
How did you pull this trip off during a pandemic, when most people weren’t leaving their houses?
We kept to ourselves. We camped. We wanted to keep it pure and carry our gear, which we did, but we had Bjarne carry our food, so we didn’t have to stop frequently for supplies. On the mountains, I felt really confident and comfortable with our decision making. That’s one of the beautiful things about having good partners in the mountains. Cody is one of my best ski partners and our communication is rock solid.
Camping on Mount Rainier
© Bjarne Salén
You were also riding in the early summer months during the protests. Were you seeing signs of that from the road?
We had 10 hours on the bike each day, listening to podcasts and we were having these intense conversations about everything that was happening. During a period of rain, I went to Portland and got to march. I wanted to look back on this moment in time and know that I was a part of what I consider to be the right side of that movement. We ended up in Seattle the day after skiing Rainier and we intentionally went to the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. Cody and Bjarne hadn’t gotten to experience that side of the uprising. We felt that energy. The mood of the trip was altered from then on. Politically and navigating the pandemic, it became far more in depth than we had anticipated.
"Cody is one of my best ski partners and our communication is rock solid"
© Bjarne Salén
How did the political atmosphere affect the way you were feeling?
It altered my entire reality. I remember one video confessional while we were riding through the most beautiful road that was closed to cars. I was listening to these podcasts. I remember thinking, this is such a cool trip. We’re doing it human powered and I’m really proud of the effort. But then all of a sudden, it felt like it didn’t matter. It was such a privileged thing to be doing. It flipped my entire reality. When I’m processing stuff like that, the way that I know how to do it is to be out in the wilderness and walking in the mountains. I was able to do that, grinding it out on the bike, but it was a really unique way to process it. It was a privilege to be able to dedicate that much time and energy to learning.
Climbing Mount Hood
© Bjarne Salén
Explain the title of the film, The Mountain Why.
We were trying to figure out why. Why do we do these things? Why do we put ourselves through so much suffering? To me, the answer is when you challenge yourself with a goal that you don’t know you can accomplish, a really audacious goal, that’s when you grow. It’s character-building, because every day is unknown and you’re pushing through these subconscious limits that you may have put on yourself. It feels really powerful to break down perceived barriers and limits that we put on ourselves – that’s where the magic happens. In the end, I discovered that the why isn’t something that needs to be answered. The why is what perpetually moves you forward.
