Tatum's Time: How the Alberta native takes opportunity by the horns

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Tatum Monod is your 2014 Skier of the Year — Riders’ Choice award winner

How it worked: We called upon the sport’s biggest names and asked them to rank the 10 skiers they felt had the best 2013-14 season. We left the definition of “best season” open to interpretation but asked the pros to consider all factors from film parts, to contest results, online edits and overall impact. More than 100 top-name pros cast their votes, securing this award as one of the greatest distinctions in skiing.

Announcement: The 2014 Skier of the Year winners are…

“Like a deep powder turn?” I ask.
“More like a big drop,” says Tatum Monod.

I can’t imagine the adrenaline that stems from catching a fish can match that of dropping a 30-foot cliff or stomping a lofty double backflip into deep powder—standard fare for Monod.

“It’s such a rush,” she exclaims with such gusto, I forget we’re talking fishing. “That electricity on the end of your line … that feeling of something alive. It’s just so thrilling.”

It’s not a sentiment shared by many 23-year-old females who listen to Beyoncé and study fashion design (to be fair, it’s with an emphasis on technical apparel), but Monod’s version of fly fishing is far from the sedentary hobby beloved by retirees. If she’s in a drift boat, she rarely drops anchor, and on shore, she’s covering ground. “I need to be moving,” she says. “That’s the best way to catch a fish.”

Monod would know. At 8 years old, she dropped her first line off a dock on Lake Temagami in northern Ontario, where her grandparents had a cottage. She hooked a smallmouth bass right away. These days, Monod practices the art of the cast. Whether she’s floating her home river, the Bow, with her dad or hiking seven hours to an alpine lake with her boyfriend, skier Wiley Miller, Monod fishes as much as her schedule allows.

The trout catching, double backflipping, snowmobile rallying, cliff jumping, horseback riding Tatum Monod is a product of her environment. Her last name is among the most well-known in her hometown of Banff, Alberta. It’s displayed at 129 Banff Avenue, above the iconic 65-year-old family-owned outdoor store here Monod grew up working. Her grandfather John Monod, a Swiss mountain guide, brought his specialty ski shop from Chamonix to Banff during World War II. As a ski racer, Tatum’s father, Peter, won the Canada Championships and the US Championships, and excelled at the Europa Cup and World Cup levels—all by the age of 22. Her cousin won the steer-wrestling event at last year’s Calgary Stampede. But now, as a Level 1 athlete with an award-winning segment and a brand new contract with Red Bull, it’s Tatum who’s in the spotlight.

She shocked the judges and crowd when she straight-aired a 15 footer and then, without hesitating, hit a booter and laid out a huge backflip to win qualifiers…

She skis fast and loose yet with incredible ability and control,” says Parker White, who voted for Monod for Skier of the Year. “She’s one of very few girls incorporating big tricks into her backcountry skiing. She filmed all year without a big budget or any emphasis on her sex. Raw talent, raw skiing and no bullshit—that’s why Tatum stands out.”

“Her Level 1 segment and her season edit blew my mind,” says Joss Christensen, who also voted for Monod. “She skis fast and makes it look effortless. She can keep up with the boys, but she still has this feminine style.”

Monod spent a lot of her preteen life in gymnastics and on horseback, riding through the Sound of Music-pretty Canadian Rockies. She wasn’t interested in joining her family on the ski hill until she was 10, and even then, she wanted to snowboard. Peter told her if she didn’t want the ski gear in the back of the truck, she’d have to go to the rental shop and get set up on her own.

“I assumed that would be the end of that, but an hour later we glanced over to the Poma lift and there was Tatum riding up on her own,” remembers Peter. “No need for mum or dad, no instruction, no lift ticket and god only knows how a 10-year-old convinced the rental shop to set her up with snowboard gear. We watched her get off the lift, buckle in and slide down to the bottom. If Tatum wants to do it, it will be done.”

She finally discovered ski racing—on her own, of course—at the age of 12, and by 15 she joined the prestigious Alberta Alpine Ski Team. To her family’s surprise, she just couldn’t get enough. “I’ve been around skiers and skiing all my life, and I’ve never met someone who’s so keen to ski,” says Peter.

In 2009, after a few years on the NorAm circuit, Monod was offered a ski-racing scholarship to the University of Alaska Anchorage. She packed her bags but couldn’t shake a feeling of dread. She wanted to ski powder, not train gates. She followed her heart, swapped out her skis and hopped on a westbound bus to Revelstoke, BC, without money or a plan. When the Freeskiing World Tour came to town, Monod didn’t expect to qualify for the first day of the comp. She shocked the judges and crowd when she straight-aired a 15 footer and then, without hesitating, hit a booter and laid out a huge backflip to win qualifiers (she placed second overall). Monod followed the Tour to the States, placing in the top 10 at Crested Butte and Kirkwood. “She’s more competitive than any girl I’ve met,” says Nic Monod, Tatum’s brother. “She just goes and sends it. She’s so athletic. And her personality is very determined for what she’s passionate about. Nothing gets in her way.”

Orage team manager, Mike Nick, had heard of Monod when he invited her on an Orage team trip to Retallack in the spring of 2011, but he had never met her in person.

“I could tell she was just out of the pressure cooker,” remembers Nick. “It was her first time skiing with JP Auclair, Charley Ager and Banks Gilberti, and it was kind of like a tryout. She jumped out of her truck, hopped in the cat and her first line was: ‘Banks Gilberti is the hottest girl in freeskiing.’ Everyone cracked up, and right then I knew it was going to work out. She was charging from the get-go, dropping into pillow lines and stomping everything.”

Long before Monod’s segment in less became a reality, she knew she wanted to film with Level 1. She asked director Freedle Coty what it would take. Experience and persistence, he told her.

Based in Whistler, she filmed with Orage, Sherpas Cinema and also for Lynsey Dyer’s Pretty Faces.

Watch: Monod’s 2013-14 edit.

She asked Nick to put in the good word with Level 1 founder Josh Berman. And then she called Berman herself. The man is admittedly leery of working with new skiers—the dynamic of the crew is a delicate balance—but after hearing rave reviews from Nick, Coty and Level 1 athletes, he decided to roll the dice last season by partnering with only the third girl the production house has ever filmed.

When it started dumping in Montana, Monod joined Miller on a trip to Montana with Level 1, where it snowed almost every day for a month. The trip was as challenging as it was productive. Monod was learning to ride a snowmobile in the deepest conditions she’d ever been in. She spent hours digging her machine out of trouble. During her time in there, Monod met just one other girl.

“She worked at the gas station,” Monod explains. “I got to know her, and we’d bake together.”

Throughout the trip, Monod gained confidence on her sled and in the air. She built her own jump and landed a 7. She stomped a 270 on a hip. She spent an entire day trying to clean a 360 off a cliff and took many, many hits; she gave up for a couple of days before finally nailing it. In late April, during her second stint in Montana, Monod set off a miniature avalanche on a rowdy face and went over a double ice cliff. She landed headfirst in a pocket and was fully buried. She was shaken up after, and she took a moment to think about what happened, but she didn’t head back to the truck.

“That kind of showed her grit,” says Coty, who along with Darren Rayner, filmed Monod in Montana. “Tatum has it all—she’s confident, she can pick out lines on her own and she’s a great skier. She also has the personality—that’s huge when you’re hanging with someone for weeks at a time. She’s awesome, funny and fun. She doesn’t have an ego, and she looks out and cares for everyone around her.”

Miller first met Monod in 2011 at Camp of Champions in Whistler. Monod hadn’t ridden much park, and Miller could tell she was out of her element. When Monod told him she wanted to hit the double-kink rail, he recommended she learn the down-bar first. She ignored his advice and nailed it on her third try.

“She has an incredible sense of balance,” says Miller. “She’s super good on slacklines. I can barely stand on one, and she’s doing backflips off.”

In 2013, Monod showed him some of her favorite lines and jumps around Whistler. It was the first time he’d been shown around a mountain by a girl. “I was in love with her immediately,” he says. Monod and Miller spent most of last winter together. “She’s a really good big-mountain skier, and she has a drive to incorporate more freestyle into her skiing,” Miller says. “She wants to slide rails and wants to spin and hit jumps.”

When high pressure plagued the Wasatch early last season, Monod spent a solid month skiing park every day at Park City Mountain Resort. She worked on her 5s, 7s and even hit some street rails. It was humbling, but she says it was one of the best things she’s done for her skiing.

The video clip of the first female skier to throw a double back in the backcountry turned a lot of heads and arguably kicked off Tatum’s ski career. This season, Monod plans to work on her switch tricks and nailing her grabs.

With her gymnastics background, flipping comes easier than spinning for Monod. Back in 2012, on her second trip to Retallack with Orage, Auclair, Ager and Gilberti built a large jump and Monod mentioned she might try a double backflip. Auclair suggested trying a couple singles first. She watched him land a seemingly effortless double before he offered some advice that stuck: rather than starting high and ditching speed, start lower and really work the in-run.

“He literally walked me through every step,” says Monod. “He hiked up the in-run and told me where to start. He described the feeling of getting into the second flip, and he even raked the jump before I went.”

It took three tries before Monod put one to her feet. “It was the best feeling,” she says. “It’s definitely a trick I wouldn’t have tried if I didn’t have JP there.”

The video clip of the first female skier to throw a double back in the backcountry turned a lot of heads and arguably kicked off Tatum’s ski career. This season, Monod plans to work on her switch tricks and nailing her grabs.

Monod stomps the first ever double backflip by a woman in the backountry.

“She’s not afraid to fall and eat shit,” says Izzy Lynch who skis with Monod in Revelstoke and filmed with her for Pretty Faces. “She crashes hard, gets back up and tries again.” Lynch says she sees Monod’s career skyrocketing.

“I hope to one day push myself and women’s skiing as far as I possibly can,” Monod declares.

This season, Level 1 hopes to bring Monod to some bigger terrain. There are talks of some heli trips—Whistler, Terrace … possibly Alaska.

“I don’t think we’ve even scratched the surface of her potential,” says Berman. “We’re really excited to put more time and energy into working with her. She has a perfect combination of skills, attitude, work ethic and fearlessness. It’s going to put her in a good position for a long, prosperous career.”

Related: Speak softly and carry a big medal: Joss Christensen’s humble rise to recognition

Note: This article appears in FREESKIER magazine Volume 17.6. The issue is available via iTunes Newsstand. Subscribe to FREESKIER magazine.