Today we interview Jacob Smith, an up and coming young athlete in the world of freeride skiing. He learned to ski when he was very little. But at the age of 8, that joy was taken away when a tumor was discovered in his brain. It took away most of his vision. After 4 years of treatment and the all clear from doctors, he was 12 and wanted to get back into skiing. Today he’s 16 (actually 17 in a few weeks) and tries lives a normal life, he goes to school, work on his family farm, fixes cars, and despite his near blindness he puts himself into the kind of terrain best described as black diamonds or double-black. His biggest achiement in this realm so far has been the Big Couloir on Lone Pine Peak in Montana. The Big-C they call it and it’s one of the steepest and longest inbound runs in the US. It drops 1400 vertical feet down the face of Lone Pine Peak. It’s on the bucket list for adventure skiers and they travel from all over the world for a chance at this iconic line. What advice can a teenager offer those of us with many more years under our belts? Stick around and find out.
https://www.instagram.com/jake.skis/
VIDEO: Invisible Mountains: Jacob Smith, Blind Skier (Skiing the Big Couloir)