A Conversation with Tanner: Part One

Red Bull Skiing recently had the chance to sit down with Tanner, in his Park City home, and talk with him about the season thus far. Tanner can talk for hours about skiing with little prompting, so the standard interview format doesn't always work out. Fortunately what we are left with is the man himself, uncut and uncensored.

In this first installment Tanner discusses striking out in St. Anton, coming home to Utah, and what lies ahead for the remainder of his winter. Make sure to check back for the continuation of this conversation with Tanner. Enjoy.

Tanner Hall:  We got to St. Anton with high expectations. I’ve been there a couple times before: the place is off the meat rack with features and just a bunch of cool stuff that lets you get a bunch of work done. I was super stoked, got off the plane and talked with a couple kids in Munich that had just been to St. Anton. They said it wasn’t looking so good, so right from the beginning we weren’t hearing what we wanted to hear about the conditions. CP (Tanner’s filmer) got in a hour after me. Met up, drove up, and of course it sucked, but you gotta deal with it. We tried to go out anyway, tried to get a couple things done. Callum ended up launching a 70-footer, sent it to the flats. It was probably a solid 25-foot drop, but he just took too much speed and launched. It was super sick. Me a Sean tried to do a little thing and it just didn’t really work out. We were about to pull the plug, but I saw a nice natural feature. I wanted to ski into it switch, try a cab 5. No stepping it out, no doing nothing to it. Got into it, skied in, started picking up a lot speed and launched a cab 5. I went way further than I thought, kind of over rotated and backslapped. I ragdolled through the gnarliest, nastiest, wind-crusted, sugary, crappy snow. Just the worst conditions possible. I ended up slamming my ski in the snow and twisting my ankle. I came to a dead stop and knew my ankle was super jacked. It felt like a high and low sprain, and I was in pretty insane pain, so we pulled the plug and came home.

The last few days I’ve just trying to heal up: icing my ankle and going to physical therapy as much as possible, just trying to get healthy. I’ve got a couple of big trips coming up. We’re going up to Terrace, B.C. in a week and then going up to AK. I want to be super healthy for those trips and I want to be ready to push the limits when I get in the heli. I want to ski some stuff that is going to open some eyes and just charge. My confidence is super high right now in my skiing ability and it’s been going really well. Since I’ve been icing my ankle things have been all good.

Right now we have Sean Pettit, Callum Pettit, and Ian Provo out here getting it done. They’ve gone out to sled zones in the Uintas and done some really cool, unique, and pretty crazy stuff. Ian really stepped it up this week and it was pretty sick, man. He’s coming off I-80 in Tahoe where he had a face rip out on him and then coming back here and basically putting a hurting on some lines. He’s been in his element. That kid is one of the skiers out there that could be pushing the top limits and creating a style of his own if we put him in his element. We finally did that and I was super stoked that he got it done. It was also super cool to see the Pettit brothers rally in and it was cool crew. We had everything working out in our favor, we had good snow, good sun, good weather, good everything. “Massive” might have some sunny shots in it this year.

I went out yesterday and tried to get a couple things done. My ankle is still pretty sore, but I got one shot. I did a kind of corked up backflip off this little pillow, all natural style and I was stoked. I went up and tried again in the sunny light and crashed. I ragdolled and kind of tweaked my ankle again, so I’m back off my skis for the next week. I’m icing again and going to physical therapy. This is just the name of the game, this is what we do. It’s part of the job. I’m just thankful I didn’t take out a knee or break my ankle again, so that’s how I’m looking on the bright side. It could be a whole lot worse than it really is and I’m just super stoked to get healthy and get back up in the heli.

I’m going up to Terrace with Ian McIntosh. As you know I’m usually riding with Seth out there, but he’s on a different program this year and I’m super stoked for him. I hope he’s killing it. I’ve heard he’s just been murdering it out there. But I’m switching it up a bit this year and going out with another super crazy skier who likes to step it up in the bigger mountains. Ian McIntosh, with the lines I’ve seen him ride, is definitely one of the most powerful skiers I’ve seen riding the bigger stuff. I’m really excited to get out there and have my confidence brought up, because I know when I’m skiing with somebody like that everything gets up to a whole new level and I’m super stoked.

Up to AK right after that with Dana Flahr. He’s just another righteous big mountain shredder. We both have kind of similar styles in skiing. We both love all around stuff. It’ll be nice to go up to AK and if we want to build a jump and pull the doors off the heli we can get some sick shots. We’ll ski spines, we’ll ski big lines and if all goes well in AK with the budget we have—having our own chopper—I think it’s a recipe for making one of the best segments ever. The way the stuff has been going this year it’s been really insane. I couldn’t be more proud of everyone that’s been involved with the new movie and we’re gonna keep it going. The season’s halfway done and now the second half starts and this is the most intense part of the season. Getting up in the heli is a lot different that going to a contest and a halfpipe and doing what we do all the time. I’m going out there and I’m basically gonna be risking my life, but this is what I want for my life. I want to do what I want to do and fulfill the goals I have set for myself. Hopefully, I can give the people what they want to see in the new movie. I’m just gonna keep pushing it out there. The sky is the limit.

*Part Two