$6.9

9

2014OCTOBER

P G . 80I N A M E R I C A

The Most Important Ski Area

SKI MOUNTAINEERING IN AL ASK A’S WILDES T R ANGE  P G . 92

ELYSE SAUGS TAD’S CONS TANT FIGHT  P G . 6 4

SurvivalTH

E SKIER’S M

AG

AZIN

E4

3.2PO

WD

ER.C

OM

ABEN

AKI(

|(SLO

TTERHO

USE(

|(A

PPAREL G

UID

E(|(

PAN

CA

KE

2015 APPAREL GUIDE: JACKETS AND PANTS FOR DAYS

But if you ask Hadley, it’s her brother, Max, 26, who’s the natural athlete in her family.

“I’m still trying to perfect my skiing,” Hadley, 28, says. “But for Max, he’s been skiing competitively since he was a kid. He is defi-nitely the gifted one athletically in our family.”

Last spring, Max, along with Griffin Post, Angel Collinson, and photogra-pher Mark Fisher, spent four days on Mount Moran in Grand Teton National Park. Max was the only one to ski the triple threat of Skillet Glacier, East Horn, and the Sickle Cou-loir, a consequential line even for the most experienced ski mountaineers.

“Typically these lines have been skied in a ski mountaineering style, with lots of short, controlled turns,” says Fisher. “But Max approached these lines with a freeride style—big turns at high speeds. He’s able to bring his skills from his race background and big-mountain skiing to ski mountaineering

lines and he’s incredibly strong on the up and the down. This is just the tip of the iceberg for Max in terms of where he’s taking his skiing.”

The two siblings, plus eldest brother Michael, who’s also a great skier, grew up in Jackson, Wyoming, children of a mother who

worked in education and a father who did develop-ment for hotels. As kids, Hadley was a figure skater and Nordic skier, while Max got into ski racing.

At 14, doctors diag-nosed Max with rheuma-toid arthritis, a lifelong autoimmune disease that

causes painfully inflamed joints. While under-going treatment, he eventually made the U.S. Ski Team’s development roster and then raced for Dartmouth College, where he studied studio arts, film, and animation.

Meanwhile, Hadley enrolled at the University of New Hampshire, and after graduating, went to work in the wine indus-try in Washington, D.C. At age 23, she moved

Two of the most talented and unknown skiers happen to be brother and sister

Hammers and Nails

HADLEY HAMMER MADE HER DEBUT on the Freeride World Tour last winter, finish-ing sixth overall. She earned a reputation on tour as a tiny figure (she’s only 5-foot, 3-inches tall) who’s not afraid to launch big cliffs, and already she’s being called a promis-ing contender for a future overall title.

F A L L L I N E

B Y M E G A N M I C H E L S O N

P O W D E R M A G A Z I N E   |   O C T O B E R 2 0 1 4

Down by the river with the Hammers.P H O T O : M A R K F I S H E R

Both of them became known for skiing smooth, fast, and completely under the radar.

C O N T I N U E D ►

THINGS TO YOUTUBE:MA X HAMMER’S INBOUNDS SKIING AT JACKSON HOLE

F A L L L I N E

back to Jackson, burnt out on the fast pace of life in the nation’s capital. A year later, Max moved home after earning his Dartmouth diploma and coached Jackson Hole’s race team.

Together, the duo picked up a few sponsors. Max garnered small film parts with KGB Productions and Teton Gravity Research—he’ll appear in a segment shot in the Tetons in TGR’s fall 2014 release, Almost Ablaze. Both of them became known for skiing smooth, fast, and com-pletely under the radar.

When Freeskiing World Tour competi-tor and childhood friend Crystal Wright suggested Hadley sign up for a big-mountain contest, Hadley booked a flight to La Parva, Chile, in 2012 for her first big-mountain contest. Through a series of qualifiers—in which Hadley would either crash or place high, thanks to her robust line choices—she earned a spot on the 2014 Freeride World Tour.

“I have never seen anyone progress so much and work so hard as Hadley. She is going to continue to be a force to be reck-oned with,” says Wright. “Max just makes everything look easy. I think they both have a huge future in skiing if this is what they choose to do.”

And that is perhaps the biggest ques-tion: Despite their immense talent, will Max and Hadley continue to pursue a ca-reer in skiing? Both have life plans beyond the sport—Hadley would like to own a restaurant one day but for now is washing windows and working for a caterer; Max, who doesn’t make any money from skiing, has a business selling soap.

Says Max, “I think skiing is a silly thing to do, but I figure I might as well put my all into it because it’s so much fun.”

Max Hammer pounds another beauty turn in Jackson Hole.P H O T O : M A R K F I S H E R

Hammers and Nails(C O N T IN U ED)