Eric Pehota | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 17, 1964 |
| Nationality |  Canada |
| Occupation | Alpine Skier and Mountaineer |
| Known for | Extreme skiing, film appearances (including Steep (2007) and Warren Miller films) |
| Spouse(s) | Parveen Pehota |
Eric Pehota (born November 17, 1964) is a Canadian alpine skier, best known for his more than 40 first descents of mountains on skis, [1] and his appearances in a number of ski films, including ski documentary Steep (2007), [2] and a number of Warren Miller films.
Born November 17, 1964, Eric Pehota grew up in Mackenzie, a logging town in British Columbia. Pehota's father and grandfather were loggers. [3]
Pehota rose to fame as a big mountain skier in the early 1990s with his friend and ski partner, Trevor Petersen. [4] The pair met shortly after Pehota graduated from high school, and went on to complete a number of first descents, including Mount Waddington in 1987. The two appeared in ski films, including Cosmic Winter and Tales from the Snow Zone.
Eric Pehota and his wife, Parveen, live in Pemberton, British Columbia, and own and operate a jet-boating company, Whistler Jet Boating. The couple has two sons, Dalton and Logan (both are named after mountain summits). [5] [6] The family of four can all be seen in the film, Warren Miller's Cold Fusion (2001). [7]
Pehota remains a recognisable figure in alpine skiing, appearing in magazine articles and films, such as Steep (2007), and 2009's The Edge of Never, [8] and is a sponsored athlete of Rossignol [9] and Arc’teryx. [10]
While not an exhaustive list, Eric Pehota has been featured in a number of ski films, including:
Alpine skiing, or downhill skiing, is the pastime of sliding down snow-covered slopes on skis with fixed-heel bindings, unlike other types of skiing, which use skis with free-heel bindings. Whether for recreation or for sport, it is typically practiced at ski resorts, which provide such services as ski lifts, artificial snow making, snow grooming, restaurants, and ski patrol.
Whistler Blackcomb is a ski resort located in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. By many measures it is the largest ski resort in North America and has the greatest uphill lift capacity. It features the Peak 2 Peak Gondola for moving between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains at the top. With all of this capacity, Whistler Blackcomb is also often the busiest ski resort, often surpassing 2 million visitors a year.
Whistler is a resort municipality in the southern Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in the unceded territories of Squamish, British Columbia. Approximately 125 km (78 mi) north of Vancouver and 36 km (22 mi) south of Pemberton, it is incorporated as the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW). It has a permanent population of approximately 13,982 (2021), as well as a larger but rotating population of seasonal workers.
Mount Hotham is one of Australia's major ski resorts, located in the Victorian Alps of the Great Dividing Range, in the Australian state of Victoria. The mountain is located approximately 357 kilometres (222 mi) north east of Melbourne, 746 kilometres (464 mi) from Sydney, and 997 kilometres (620 mi) from Adelaide by road. The nearest major road to the mountain is the Great Alpine Road. The mountain is named after Charles Hotham, Governor of Victoria from 1854 to 1855.
Downhill mountain biking (DH) is a style of mountain biking practiced on steep, rough terrain that often features jumps, drops, rock gardens and other obstacles. Jumps can be up to and including 12 meters, and drops can be greater than 3 meters.
Garibaldi Provincial Park, also called Garibaldi Park, is a wilderness park located on the coastal mainland of British Columbia, Canada, 70 kilometres (43.5 mi) north of Vancouver. It was established in 1920 and named a Class A Provincial Park of British Columbia in 1927. The park is a popular destination for outdoor recreation, with over 30,000 overnight campers and over 106,000 day users in the 2017/2018 season.
Glen Plake is a US National Ski Hall of Fame skier. He grew up in Lake Tahoe, skiing Heavenly Valley. He is known for his appearances in ski films such as Greg Stump's The Blizzard of Aahhhs. Plake has been named a pioneer of extreme skiing in America by ESPN. Glen has been the host of RSN program Reel Thrills.
Daron Louis Rahlves is a former American World Cup alpine ski racer and freestyle skier.
Doug Coombs was an American alpine skier and mountaineer who helped to pioneer the sport of extreme skiing, both in North America and worldwide.
Seth Morrison is a professional skier. He has won many competitions and has appeared in a number of ski movies. He is best known for jumping off cliffs from extreme heights.
Scot Schmidt is a professional extreme skier. His on-snow talent has helped shape today’s ski industry, and has inspired many skiers. Scot started skiing professionally in 1983 in Squaw Valley. As of 2021, Scot currently resides in Big Sky, Montana.
A ski film is a motion picture with sequences of expedition, recreation, competition, or acrobatic exhibition on snow skis. These non-fiction action sport films capture the experience of an athletic outdoor snow sporting culture. Ski films typically present one or more techniques, locations, or skiers. Categories include the feature, documentary of competition or other event coverage, instruction or technique demonstration, retrospective history, travel guide showcasing a region, or a short subject. More than 200 such videos debuted in 2006. Notable examples are listed at the Ski and Snowboard Film Institute, or have received awards from the International Ski Film Festival, X-Dance Action Sports Film Festival, IF3 International Freeski Film Festival, Cold Smoke Winter Film, Powder magazine, or similar.
Catherine "Kasha" Rigby is a competitive skier who calls Utah home. She is most noted for her many achievements and first descents as "the pioneer of extreme telemark skiing."
The Whistler Weasel Workers is a volunteer organization of alpine ski race workers that has been active in Whistler, British Columbia(BC), Canada since the 1970s. The Whistler Weasel Workers is a non-profit society dedicated to the advancement of alpine ski racing in British Columbia and Canada. The Weasel Worker's major activity is the preparation and maintenance of ski race courses and the support and organization of ski racing competitions.
Carlo Janka is an alpine ski racer from Switzerland. Born in Obersaxen, in the canton of Graubünden, he had the winter sports facilities right in front of his home. Janka has won gold medals at both the Winter Olympics and the World Championships, as well as one World Cup overall title, one discipline title and also, one unofficial alpine combined title.
Steep is a 2007 documentary about extreme skiing written and directed by Mark Obenhaus. Steep explores the history of extreme and Big Mountain Skiing, starting with its roots in 1960s and 1970s North America and Europe, with Bill Briggs' now famous first descent of the Grand Teton, and progressing through to the current day sport.
Chris Davenport, of Aspen, Colorado, is considered one of the world's most accomplished big-mountain skiers and mountaineers. He has been called "one of North America's top 25 skiers by Skiing Magazine" and is a "two-time extreme skiing world champion"
The Hotham Alpine Resort is an Australian ski resort, known for its exclusivity and upmarket clientele, located in the Alpine region of Victoria. Set on the slopes of Mount Hotham, the ski resort comprises an alpine village, situated at an altitude of 1,750 metres (5,740 ft) AHD, making it the second highest resort village in Australia after Charlotte Pass village, in New South Wales.
"Sick" Rick Armstrong is a professional skier, freeskiing pioneer, mountaineer, paraglider, businessman and serial entrepreneur based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He was a pioneering guide in the early years of Alaska Heli-skiing while working as a lead guide for Valdez Heli-skiing and Doug Coombs as chronicled in the 2007 feature film Steep. He was a member of the ultra-elite group of skiers called the Jackson Hole Airforce who transformed skiing in the 1990s and 2000s. He is known for having skied unskied lines such as his first and unrepeated massive drop into the left side of the notorious Corbet's Couloir at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. He was the first person to have both skied and snowboarded the Grand Teton in Teton National Park. He has many first ski descents in China, Alaska, Europe, Antarctica, South America, and South Georgia Island. He was an athlete in the 1998 and 1999 Winter X-Games in Crested Butte. He was Awarded sponsorships by The North Face and Salomon. He also became an athlete talent scout for The North Face building a world-class ski team by discovering soon to be ski stars such as Sage-Cattabriga-Alosa, Ingrid Backstrom, Kitt Deslauries, Griffen Post, and Hillary Nelson. Armstrong was also a co-founder of the Teton Gravity Research film production company. He served on the board of directors for Intrawest from 2012 to 2017.