TPM Episode 311: Lhotse Merriam Hawk, IFSA Co-founder
The Powell Movement
Mike Powell
4.9 • 860 Ratings
🗓️ 2 January 2023
⏱️ 70 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Lhotse Merriam Hawk's huge role in organizing the sport of big mountain skiing and beyond cannot be ignored or understated. As the Vice President of the International Freeskiers Association, an organization she helped co-found with Shane McConkey, she was a 1-woman band creating the infrastructure for the future of ski contests outside of what fell under FIS control. And go figure, this year, the crown jewel of big mountain freeride competitions, FIS, purchased the Freeride World Tour. Lhotse helps break down what this means and shares some stories about Shane McConkey, Seth Morrison, Tony Hawk, and more.
Lhotse Merriam Hawk Show Notes:
5:00: Banksy Museum, the name Lhotse, backstage at Dead shows for the food, other hippy experiences, trouble, and skiing
11:00: UC Santa Cruz, a road trip ends in Crested Butte, dating Seth Morrison, state of the industry when she was at CB
21:45: Best Day Brewing: All of the flavor of your favorite IPA or Kolsch, without the alcohol, the calories, and sugar.
Puffin Drinkwear: Be the hit of every party and gathering with the coolest and cutest drink accessory ever created
Elan Skis: Over 75 years of innovation that makes you better
24:45: Meeting McConkey, Extreme events, secret meetings, and reasons for creating an athlete association
33:00: The forming of the IFSA, becoming the VP, risking it all for the sport, money,
41:00: Stanley: Get 30% off sitewide with the code drinkfast
Outdoor Research: The best outerwear ever built just got better; get 25% off all OR
Peter Glenn Ski and Sports: Over 60 years of getting you out there
44:30: How many events fall under the IFSA, losing slope and pipe, and the Dinner Roll
51:00: Event challenges, leaving the IFSA, Tony Hawk, acting Peak Experience and FIS buys the FWT
64:00: Inappropriate Questions with anonymous
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 happy New Year to everyone out there. |
| 0:21.1 | I'm so happy that 2022 is behind us. |
| 0:24.0 | It's been a really bad one for me and my family. |
| 0:26.5 | It started out with a broken thumb and torn ligaments |
| 0:29.0 | and then my wife almost died and now is going through chemotherapy. |
| 0:32.7 | And while there was some good in 2022, |
| 0:35.1 | I can't really think of anything off the top of my head worthy of bringing |
| 0:37.8 | up. But I'm sure you've heard the old saying, bad things come in threes, and with a week left in the |
| 0:42.8 | year, I did something I told myself I would stay away from, the terrain park. As I get older, |
| 0:48.0 | I seem to always hurt myself somehow because I go for it when I shouldn't. But my kid and his friend had wanted to hit boxes the other day, and I was game. |
| 0:55.7 | We lapped the park about five times, and then on the last box on what turned out to be my last |
| 1:00.8 | run, I came off a little early, and the tip of my ski caught the snow, bent the ski tip |
| 1:06.0 | back, and I felt an awkward little twins in my knee. |
| 1:09.3 | When I get up, I have a new knee pain. Fuck me. I was able |
| 1:13.1 | to ski the rest of the day, and now that I'm four days out, it's not as swollen and it feels a |
| 1:17.5 | little bit better. So I'm going to give the knee about two weeks, go ski again, and then I'll |
| 1:21.4 | reevaluate everything. If I have an issue that needs to be fixed, Well, it shouldn't be too bad, as I guarantee that we're going to max out our insurance deductible in 2022 and in 2023. And while I'm recording this intro in 2022, |
| 1:33.7 | you're going to hear it in the future in 2023, which means I need to get back to podcasting. |
| 1:38.3 | And a huge story in the ski and snowboard world right now is that the FIS, the Federation |
| 1:43.5 | International Ski, or whatever the |
| 1:45.2 | fuck they're called, bought the free ride world tour. What does this mean? Well, a whole lot. Could it be |
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