Our first of three issues is out! Spencer O’Brien scores the cover of the Personalities Issue with over 20+ rider interviews and plenty more. It will be hitting shelves soon!

TRUE STORY, the photo of Spencer O’Brien shot by Tyler Ravelle is the reason we did wrap covers for this volume. It needed more room than just the front page so we decided to just give it the whole outside of the magazine and then figured why not do that with the rest of the issues. Something different from years past. Another difference, this photo was taken with a drone. We assumed Tyler was hanging out of a helicopter when he snapped this one but he was actually hanging about a kilometer away with a different angle. His tech savvy fooled us. Just wait until drones get big enough to lift riders to the tops of the peaks themselves. We were all worried about split boarders getting in over their heads in the backcountry, but imagine what will happen when anyone can order an Amazon drone to pick them up in Haines and take them to a remote peak in pursuit of their online presence. Sorry, that could be dark. We will move on to happier thoughts and just let Tyler tell you about the day. — MARK CLAVIN

“This one was on the fourth or fifth day of our trip. Expectations of getting on anything like this was low since they had a decent storm and everything was sliding. But like some Alaskan miracle, we went out on a scope this day and everything turned bombproof. The crew was Mary Rand, Hana Beaman, and Spencer O’Brien. She lost the roshambo the days before so the girls decided to let her take the first drop…and I’m sure the girls are a little bummed on that now, haha. This face was called “Wedding Dress” and she crushed the whole line. They are going to be filming for Full Moon 2 next year and might save that footage for the trip, but to already have a cover before the production even officially started is pretty sick! Congrats, Spencer!”
— TYLER RAVELLE