TPM Episode 279: Wendy Fisher, Legendary Skier
The Powell Movement
Mike Powell
4.9 • 860 Ratings
🗓️ 23 May 2022
⏱️ 70 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Wendy Fisher changed the game as one of the pioneering women in the big mountains, but that's only part of her story. In part 1 with Wendy, we talk about growing up in Tahoe, losing her brother young, racing with McConkey, going to Burke Mountain Academy, making the US Ski Team at 15, and the problems with the US Ski Team, mental health and more. It's an open and honest chat with a legend. Lhotse Hawk asks the Inappropriate Questions.
Wendy Fisher Show Notes:
3:30: Dean Cummings, action sports interventions, weekend warriors, and then moving to Tahoe when she was young
10:00: Having a weekend dad because of his commute, fires, hanging with her brothers' ski race team, losing her brother skiing at a young age, and thinking a lot about death
21:30: Stanley: Get 30% off sitewide with the code drinkfast
Peter Glenn Ski and Sports: Over 60 years of getting you out there
10 Barrel Brewery: Buy their beers; they support action sports more than anyone
23:30: Not as competitive as you would think that one time she had more confidence than ever at the start of an event, other skiers that she grew up with, and McConkey stories
33:00: Winning every race one season, work ethic, training with the Sacramento Kings, Burke Mountain Academy doesn't think she can make it, and moving away from home young
42:00: Rollerblade: Ski season may be over, but that feeling lasts all year with inline skating
Elan Skis: Over 75 years of innovation that makes you better
42:30: How did she do with the structure of boarding school, making the US Ski Team, making money in ski racing, finding her confidence, being a head case, and making the Olympic Team
56:00: The strange dynamic of the US Ski Team, what sucks about it, Olympic crash, crappy A team coaching, what does the end of the US Ski Team look like
67:00: Inappropriate Questions with Lhotse Hawk
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Have a seat on your porcelain throne. It's time to talk some shit on the Powell movement. |
| 0:13.5 | Welcome to the Powell movement. I'm your host Mike Powell, and this week it seems like it's still |
| 0:20.1 | dumping everywhere. While I called the season a couple of weeks ago, I'm jealous host Mike Powell, and this week it seems like it's still dumping everywhere. |
| 0:21.1 | While I called the season a couple of weeks ago, I'm jealous of all the pow days that are still in my feed. |
| 0:27.2 | And it makes me think back to when I had Glenn Plake on the podcast, and he said long ago |
| 0:31.3 | that ski season doesn't start or end because ski media tells you it starts or ends. |
| 0:35.9 | It starts and ends because of snow. And right now, |
| 0:38.8 | there's a lot of it. The funny thing is that we get our ski and snowboard mags in August, and then they |
| 0:43.8 | stop coming in around December or January, it feels like. And that's when the season is just getting |
| 0:48.6 | going. This is a minor problem in the grand scheme of things, because the snow world doesn't |
| 0:52.7 | revolve around print media. |
| 0:59.9 | No one does these days. But it would be awesome if the norm was to start later and end later based on snow, like Plake said. And while that's advice from one legend, it's time to get into a podcast |
| 1:05.6 | with another living legend, a pioneer in the big mountains I'm talking about the incredible Wendy Fisher. And when I |
| 1:12.4 | started doing my research on Wendy, I started thinking, man, this podcast is going to be very |
| 1:17.2 | similar to the Jeremy Nobis podcast as the outline is very similar. She was a badass racer who |
| 1:23.0 | didn't do as well on the US ski team and she wasn't really stoked on the U.S. ski team and then she |
| 1:27.7 | moved on to be a pioneer in the big mountains. That's kind of Jeremy's story. But Wendy's story |
| 1:32.8 | is so much different than Jeremy's and I guess that's my job to ensure that without forcing it, |
| 1:38.4 | all of the podcasts tell a different story. And after doing my homework on Wendy, I realized that |
| 1:43.5 | her story is similar, but it's also |
| 1:45.3 | totally different and totally awesome. And before we get into it, I want to ask you to tell a friend |
| 1:50.0 | about the podcast, and if someone asked for a podcast recommendation on social media, please |
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