Cody Townsend’s The Fifty, Episode 38 – 7 Steps to Heaven, Young’s Peak, British Columbia.
Mountainwatch | Video
In this episode of The Fifty, Cody Townsend’s project to climb and ski all of the lines named in the book The 50 Classic Ski Descents of North America, Cody and filmer Bjarne Salen are back in British Columbia.
The line is called 7 Steps to Paradise, a regularly-skied backcountry line on Young’s Peak, just outside Revelstoke. It is line 37 of The Fifty and Cody is joined by his wife Elyse Saugstad, Revelstoke-based photographer Zoya Lynch and local legend and guide Greg Hill. 7 Steps to Paradise is one of the mellower lines listed in the book and, unusually for this series, the access to the line isn’t a multi-day bush-bashing “sufferfest”, the climb is long but not especially dangerous and the ski down is fun.
Cody has talked in the past about the crux of a line – “the hardest part of a journey that puts up the biggest obstacle to a line’s completion” – and in this episode the crux of 7 Steps to Paradise isn’t on the mountain. No, the crux of this mission is Cody and Elyse being new parents and dealing with the challenges that come with it, particularly as professional skiers.
Having a six-month-old son as lead to restricted training, skiing and travel opportunities and Elyse joins Cody on this mission, their first together since becoming parents and from the hoots they share while skiing the powder on the way down, you can see it was a good day.
The Fifty documents Cody Townsend’s journeys, travels, challenges and each line and mountain listed in the book, The 50 Classic Ski Descents of North America. It’s a journey through the most majestic mountains and ski lines in North America along with a unique insight into how skiers make decisions in the backcountry, how they plan, navigate and safely move through the mountains and the people that dedicate their lives to the mountains. Stay up to date on Cody and filmmaker Bjarne Salen’s progress on The Fifty website Instagram page.
