![It comes from hard work. You need to figure out new ways to do things. I present my sponsors with alternatives that go beyond the status quo—you need to be more than the guy who did some contests, got sponsored, and moved on to photo and film shoots. That’s what all the top pros do but it can be a short career. To succeed long-term, you need to make yourself a personality and a brand. In 2005, I was bored and jaded and thought about retiring. I was sick of doing whatever other skiers were doing. I thought about how I could separate myself from the pack and came up with skiing the fourteeners. I turned to ski mountaineering because I love it but also because few people are exposed to it. Now my career is going better than I ever imagined. —Chris Davenport One More Thing from Chris Davenport:“I keep a case of Red Bull in my car. When resorts want to charge me $20 to park, I flip the guy four cans and he lets me park free.” [Editor’s note: Another secret to Dav’s longevity: plugging his sponsors whenever possible.]](https://www.skimag.com/.image/ar_16:9%2Cc_fill%2Ccs_srgb%2Cfl_progressive%2Cg_faces:center%2Cq_auto:good%2Cw_620/MTQzNTgzMzYyMTUwNzcwMDY0/how-to-stay-sponsored.jpg)
Get up in super-deep snow, how to find a free, and warm, place to sleep in a ski town, and 17 other skiing tips.
Pro skiers Ingrid Backstrom and Jessica Sobolowski share tips during their recent freeskiing camp at Squaw Valley to teach women how to tackle big-mountain skiing, from scouting lines to self-arrests. By Olivia Dwyer
Squaw Valley's Erik Roner shows you how to handle exposed terrain.
The Colorado Mountain School's Mike Alkaitis shares tips on how to de-ice skins while backcountry skiing.
Because you don't want to send a ski torpedoing down the slope getting first tracks without you.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cold and flu season peaks in either January or February, which happens to coincide with the best skiing. To avoid missing out on a powder day, here are three tips to start implementing now.
I thought I knew about going fast on ice. I’ve skied the east, after all. But when Audi invited me to go to Austria to drive their cars on ice, I realized I had a lot to learn. Here are some driving tips I picked up while spinning donuts on Austrian ice. —Niall Bouzon
