Video: Cody Townsend is Back with a New Series – The Fifty+ (plus).

November 1st, 2024

Mountainwatch | Video

“What I want to do is take what we built with the Fifty and take it to newer lines and new adventures.” – Cody Townsend

Cody has moved on from The Fifty, his project to climb and ski all the lines names in the book, the 50 Classic Ski Descents of North America, where he and filmer Bjarne Salen knocked off 46 of the 50 lines. The other four may or may not be completed sometime in the future.

His is new project is the Fifty+ (Plus) where he and a variety if guests will climb and ski a bunch of backcountry lines and mountain, each episode answering the question – “Is it a Classic, or not?”

In this first episode Cody and his wife Elyse Saugstad head to Elyse’s home town, Girdwood Alaska, the goal being the nearby Northstar Couloir, a line off a mountain called A1 Peak. They are joined by a new filmer and Alaskan local, Dmitry Surnin.

This episode is a multi-day adventure that includes Elyse’s first ever overnight camping trip in the snow, a ling hike and two attempts due to an unstable snow pack. However, they do score some good snow and conditions and the skiing looks fun, but is it a Classic ……?

Cody Townsend on The Fifty+

“So, in the original 50 quite often I would go into the mountains to check off a line but quite often I would end up ending the day with more lines than, I started with. You know, standing on top of the summit looking off into the horizon just seeing a cool line off in the distance and then another line and another line and another. You get the picture.

Cody dropping into the Northstar Couloir.

“Now it’s off to ski those lines, but I think my real goal with this whole thing is to build my own list of Classics. So, I’m going to going to be going into the mountains and skiing everything from the very popular lines that maybe didn’t make the book to going into the unknown and skiing maybe lines that I’ve never skied before. There are going to be a lot of parameters in how I determine if it’s a classic or not all of which can be found on my website the thefiftyplus.pro, but the meantime they are Aesthetics popularity dream factor, ski quality, climb quality and, of course, bragging rights.”