Most extreme line ever, or media hype?

It seems Cody Townsend's line is making free skiing a mainstream sport. I have now seen his line strewed across several social media sites, ESPN, and he even has people from various network channels asking him for interviews on his Facebook page. What is it about his line that is potentially going to make him a household name. It seems like I have seen many more lines much more difficult even by some posters on TAY. Was it the speed? Is it the aesthetics of the line?

Impressive? Yes. More worthy of gaining mainstream media attention, fame, and money? Personally, I think the footage from the first video I will post a link to is far more impressive than the second link, Cody Townsend's line. For one, the skier in the first video is essentially skiing exposed terrain on icy conditions!



Now the the video for the most extreme line?

It's the controversy that a pair of snowboarders might have ridden in first that's piqued my interest:
www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.p...=4374208#post4374208

Well, that and the fact that the line is straight down through a col barely wider than his shoulders...

extreme, like almost any word, is a signifier. To pinpoint what exactly the signified is can be a bit subjective...

Not to mention "most extreme" which sounds more like a copy editor's idea of how to get more hits than any grounding in reality.

And since you mention mainstream, it seems to me that if a line veers towards powder and aesthetics it's going to have a lot more appeal than ice and rocks.

I mean what would you rather ski?

I'd go for that powdery tubed line over ice and rocks any day, extreme be damned.

Call it whatever you like, but I think we can all agree: that line, at that speed, took balls of steel.

Edit: watched the OP's first video. Right there are some more steely balls. Wow!

A combination of things...
First, it's content generation, planed by the athlete and sponsors with the hopeful intention of going viral. Then it's the way it was captured. It doesn't mater if it has been skied or ridden before (except perhaps to those who did it). It's impressive none the less...
Donnelly, we need to ski together again, it's been what, 10 years or something?

media hype.
I was an extreme line caught on camera. Oh, and with a helicopter. Still insane.

There are more extreme lines skied without capturing it on a camera.

It's an impressive piece of skiing that took incredible balls (and skill).

A combination of things...
First, it's content generation, planed by the athlete and sponsors with the hopeful intention of going viral. Then it's the way it was captured. It doesn't mater if it has been skied or ridden before (except perhaps to those who did it). It's impressive none the less...
Donnelly, we need to ski together again, it's been what, 10 years or something?

he was right behind us one afternoon on the traverse last winter, then right on past.

I mean to call Cody's line the most 'extreme' line in skiing is  a bit ambiguous. Maybe to a general public that isn't aware of the 'extremes' that can be involved in skiing, but come on guys. How about Bryce's line on the 80's chute/ Eat shit and die? Is this more or less extreme then Cody's?

I mean to call Cody's line the most 'extreme' line in skiing is  a bit ambiguous. Maybe to a general public that isn't aware of the 'extremes' that can be involved in skiing, but come on guys. How about Bryce's line on the 80's chute/ Eat shit and die? Is this more or less extreme then Cody's?

Cody's line was extreme, and how he did it made it look even more so.  I'm  sure there are some skiers/riders who given the chance to ski the line would try and turn or side step as much as they could until they reached the narrowest spot and then just figure 11 the rest of it.  I think there's much more exposure and risk of severe injury or death on the 80s chute.  Even if someone decided to make a speed run out of the 80's chute, they'd be trees at the bottom to contend with; whereas, in Alaska it's mostly wide open run outs.  I did watch someone ski the 80's chute on rental equipment in 99, but it was no where near as smooth as the way Bryce did it.  Personally my vote for one of the most extreme lines ever ridden is the group that skied the variation of Thermogenesis, i think called Cyrogenesis, off of Liberty Ridge.

In reply to skiing Alpental.  I mostly do only ski touring as I have decided to use the money I would have spent on a pass to take ski lessons or attend a race camp.

I mean to call Cody's line the most 'extreme' line in skiing is  a bit ambiguous. Maybe to a general public that isn't aware of the 'extremes' that can be involved in skiing, but come on guys. How about Bryce's line on the 80's chute/ Eat shit and die? Is this more or less extreme then Cody's?

IDK it feels subjective to me.
I wouldn't compare the two, mostly because I know the terrain Bryce skied and respect what he did. The difference in my mind is that Cody's run was captured and published in a way that really captures the moment.

We've all seen footage of a big lines skied by competent skiers both on the little screen and big. There are also those here who have stood on top of a big line at one point in their lives or another and know what it is to be gripped on top of something that is steep and exposed with little margin for error (some more than others).

After a while we get a little jaded and used to seeing this stuff...
Then a piece of content like this comes along that pushes the edge a little further out (like this did for me personally). Is it extreme, IDK, did it get my attention? You bet.

I mostly do only ski touring as I have decided to use the money I would have spent on a pass to take ski lessons or attend a race camp.

This made me laugh...

Personally my vote for one of the most extreme lines ever ridden is the group that skied the variation of Thermogenesis, i think called Cyrogenesis, off of Liberty Ridge.

Yow - I'd missed that news. Intimidating place to be.

TR: county5.blogspot.com/2012/06/liberty-ridge.html
Video:
Lowell's compendium: www.alpenglow.org/ski-history/topos/mt-rainier.html

I think Cody's line is billed as "The Red Bull 2014 line of the year". As a marketing device for Red Bull it is excellent. I just hope that the numbers of young folks stoked by such visuals that get mamed as a result is few.

Certainly impressive.

One of the things that's easy to miss is the fact that he was able to scrub speed on the upper part of the descent by smearing on the skier's left side of the slot. During that time, he was going fast, but I think he was actually in pretty good ski-control.

It was only in the lower part of the slot that he was forced to run straight. Still, very impressive.

Viewed through old-school eyes, it really shows the benefit of fat, rockered skis. You can't smear like that in soft snow on narrow skis.

Certainly impressive.

One of the things that's easy to miss is the fact that he was able to scrub speed on the upper part of the descent by smearing on the skier's left side of the slot. During that time, he was going fast, but I think he was actually in pretty good ski-control.

It was only in the lower part of the slot that he was forced to run straight. Still, very impressive.

Viewed through old-school eyes, it really shows the benefit of fat, rockered skis. You can't smear like that in soft snow on narrow skis.

This is exactly what I thought, you are not pulling that shit off w/o fat rockered skis. What made it even more obvious was that I had just recently watched Steep and McConkey. No lands jumps back in the 80s and 90s due to skinny skis. They were just too twitchy.

Now surely it was a ballsy ski. Woohoo!

Kinda of funny all the hype around Cody doing it when T. Rice did it before him, check out the interview between the two;

snowboarding.transworld.net/news/travis-...ode-line-year-first/