8.6 Mike Douglas

The Avalanche Hour Podcast

Known as the ‘Godfather Of Freeskiing’, Mike Douglas is consistently listed by media outlets as one of the most influential skiers of all time. He began his career as a mogul skier on the Canadian Freestyle Ski Team in the early 1990s. In 1997, he developed the first high-performance twin-tip ski, the Salomon Teneighty, and his freeskiing career was launched. Dubbed the New Canadian Air Force, Mike and his crew of Canadians revolutionized the sport with their tricks at ski resorts across the globe. He even has a signature tick - the D Spin. Mike has appeared in more than 50 ski films, was named Powder Magazine’s ‘Male Skier Of The Year’ in 2003, and was the voice of skiing at the X Games for 14 years. In 2004, Mike founded Switchback Entertainment - a video production company specializing in outdoor adventure films and commercials. He launched the groundbreaking web series, Salomon TV, in 2007 and has produced/directed more than a dozen award-winning films including The Freedom Chair, Tempting Fear, Eclipse, Snowman, Guilt Trip and Fountain Of Youth. From 1997-2017 his role as a marketing consultant and ambassador for Whistler Blackcomb helped propel the organization to the top of the ski resort rankings. He has been named ‘Favourite Whistlerite’ 7 times by the readers of Whistler’s local newspaper, Pique Newsmagazine. Today, Mike is a married father of two, and splits his time between raising his family, skiing professionally, producing/directing films and commercials at Switchback Entertainment, and environmental advocacy work. He is the former Board Chair for Protect Our Winters Canada - an environmental group focused on fighting climate change. He is also on the Board of Directors for the Whistler Blackcomb Foundation. You can find him on social media at: Instagram: @mikedski Twitter: @mikedski Facebook.com/mikedouglas Music for this episode by Gravy @gravy.tunes www.switchbackentertainment.com Sam and Me – Overcoming Climate Anxiety https://youtu.be/itPEPpiMojc?si=E5pLii2ZitxllkDW www.protectourwinters.ca www.protectourwinters.org www.wyssenavalanche.com www.gordini.com www.sixpointeng.com