Outdoor Retailer PreShow - 2020 - 26

FEATURE

where he says he gets to blend
"Austrian know-how with American freeski passion."
"No country is more ski-crazed
than Austria," Hattrup says. "It's
the pinnacle of the sport, and it's
great when I share with them
something that I think will make
the boots or skis better, and they're
gracious enough to listen."

Scot Schmidt
skiing for the
camera in La
Flégère

PASSION PROJECT

a lady in a one-piece suit with
an old pair of Rossignol 3Gs.
There was this air of calm and
confidence about her. It seems
like every day you're out there,
there's something rewarding."

LAYING THE FREE-HEEL
FOUNDATION

For his part, Hattrup very well
may have been the most significant
factor in the explosion of telemark

26

skiing in America. At K2, where
he was put in charge of the brand's
free-heel collection-"I wasn't in
the room to defend myself at the
time"-Hattrup introduced skis
with laugh-out-loud names like
the "Piste Off," "World Piste," and
"Piste Stinx," backed up by T-shirts
with slogans like, "Randonnée, it's
French for can't telemark."
"I think we really turned the
industry around," Hattrup says. "It

/ OUTDOOR + SNOW SHOW 2020

was all leather and granola, and
we came out with skis with muscle
car graphics like flames, and great
names, and shaped and rocker
designs. Our unwritten motto was
to take the sport seriously, but not
ourselves. It was a cool period, and
it was certainly fun to shape the
whole thing."
Today, Hattrup is a certified
mountain guide and U.S. Alpine
Product Manager for Fischer Skis,

Despite the different paths these
iconic skiers have taken since the
first screening of The Blizzard of
AAHHH's, two things the three
share are a deep passion for the
sport and an unending willingness
to bring that passion-and their
time-to anyone.
On a personal note, all three
were among the first people who
agreed to sit for interviews when I
was just getting started as a journalist in this industry, and over
the past 20-plus years, they have
always been generous in sharing
their insights and observations.
In 2011, at Interski, the international snowsports instructors
congress in St. Anton, Austria, I
left the hotel together with Plake
and his wife, Kimberly, to walk to
the demonstration slope. It took
me five minutes to get there. Glen
and Kimberly didn't arrive for
another hour and a half, because
along the way, they stopped to
talk to anyone who recognized the
legendary skier.
"It's simple," Plake says. "We're
skiers. Lots of other people do this
sport and understand it, and we
can do it with them. You can't say
that about a professional baseball
or football player. The three of us
might have been given the golden ticket in terms of ski jobs, but
there are lots of other paid ski jobs
to be had. It's up to everyone to
make their own map. That's what
Mike, Scot, and I have been doing
all along. That and just being in
love with skiing."
Peter Kray is the author of The
God of Skiing and worked as the
long-time editor in chief of the
Ski Press Snow Show Daily.
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