Name: Dave Hatchett
Alias: Chachie, Hatchhetress, Flatchetress, Davey Boy, Big Chief, Hatchhetter, Axe Man
Current Occupation: Author of climbing guidebooks
Home: Homewood, California U.S.A.
Sorry ladies: Married to Melinda with two kids, Rowan and Mary Jane
Songs written about him: One that I know of…. “Hatchhettress Hatchhettress burning in the night, Hatchhetress Hatchhetress up before first light. Hatchetrress Hatchhetress Mike sets up the shot, Hatchhettess Hatchettress Dave sits on the cornice smoking Paaaaahhhhhht. He reaches for a biner [carabiner], his chalk bag is dry, ascending a tower to the sky.” (sung very heavy metal) — Shawn Farmer, circa early 90’s
Lingo: Bill: short for ballistic = good. Staunchy: derived from a Stauchwall or the lower boundary of an avalanche = bad. Duff McKagan = good snow. Hot Pow = Powder just about to turn to crap or already turned to crap

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With the descent of Mendenhall Towers in Alaska, Dave Hatchett had snowboarding in the palm of his hand. Illustration: Mark Kowalchuk

“Its time to go off, off the Richter scale that is!” His twin brother Mike Hatchett pointed the camera at Dave as they landed at the Juneau Airport in southern Alaska and those words just came out. Little did he know that in a few days he would change the way the world would look at riding big mountains. They were there filming for TB3: Coming Down the Mountain (The first movie was called Totally Board under the name Fusion Films). For TB2: A New Way of Thinking, Mike Hatchett teamed up with Mike McEntire (Dawger of Mack Dawg Productions) and Standard Films was born. McEntire’s freestyle influence (Riders on the Twok and Hard, Hungry and the Homeless) and Mike’s lust for big mountains created the best snowboard films in history TB2TB4, but that’s a different story…

“Dave is one of the most influential snowboarders of all time. Seeing the footage of him on Mendenhall towers changed many people’s lives. I was blown away seeing a man ride a mountain that steep and big. Seeing this moment gave me focus, direction, goals and inspiration that is still a part of snowboarding for me to this day!” — Chris Coulter: Pro snowboarder, guide for Silverton Mountain in Colorado and SEABA out of Haines, Alaska. Pretty much an all around badass.

Heli riding in Alaska at that time was still in its infant stages. The King of the Hill contest was going on and Valdez was starting to get on the map as a must-do for any powder junkies that wanted to prove themselves. “Loose” would be an understatement as to protocol and safety during these early days, a true testament to the overall stability of maritime snow packs. It still baffles me that even though I have lost some really close friends up there that more people don’t get smoked in AK. Anyway, some impressive descents had gone down but the bigger, steeper and spined-out lines might as well have been on the Moon because nobody even thought they were possible. When I say that, I mean they were completely out of the question. No skiers or snowboarders were hitting the giants, mountaineers were climbing the big mountains but they wanted nothing to do with these massive spiny avalanche-prone curtains that Alaska is now famous for. It seriously boggles the mind that snow will even stick to the sides of those mountains. Can it even handle the weight of a human dancing around on them?

Fact: Dave did the first backside 270 to board slide in hard boots in Totally Board. Yep that’s right, watch it!

Dave moved from San Diego to Tahoe in high school, found snowboarding and quickly made the backcountry of Mt. Rose and Donner Summit his playground. An avid climber with his first climb up El Capitan while still in his teenage years, Dave had the summers to climb and the winter to shred… Heaven! His first sponsor was Avalanche Snowboards with guys like Damien Sanders who pushed him to go bigger and ride steeper. However, Avalanche couldn’t find the checkbook and with his sights on bigger things, Burton got a phone call. He would finish his career on the world team with them.

“Dave Hatchett taught me a lot about riding lines in the backcountry. Dave was filming me, but he really helped out with giving me his knowledge and helping this Big Bear, jibber kid from So. Cal. get into riding the real deal. He was also a great partner for doing recon on new zones in the Sierra Nevadas while we were filming the TB series in the 90’s.” — Dave Downing: Pro shredder forever and a better surfer than probably anybody that will read this.

Climbing experience had taught him the importance of aesthetics in lines. In watching his parts you will notice it’s the line that should be done, not necessarily the hardest or forced line. This makes for a person who looks good on film. In my opinion, this is what separates good riders from great riders in filming big mountains. I can’t stress how important this really is. “Flowing” a line is an art form and is something you are either born with or have to work really hard on. I think in Dave’s case it came easy because it was just rock climbing in reverse. He has an exceptional eye for lines and later in his career as a filmer for Standard Films, he helped other people into the right line in an efficient, safe manner. You might only get one shot at a line per season or even in three, four, or five seasons. Or maybe it’s the only time ever that the stars aligned where the wind blew the right way, the snow was stable, it had sun on it and nobody was too hungover to get up after sitting around for ten days waiting for the weather to clear.

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Dave was ahead of his time in snowboarding. White Wolf, Tahoe backcounty, photo: Aaron Sedway

Dave is a master at orchestrating a plan and executing that plan. This is very important in a backcountry filming environment. Many people owe a lot of their careers to Dave for being the filmer/backcountry caddy. I owe a lot personally to him from backcountry awareness, safety, line choice, weather, snow conditions, and efficiency. This experience speaks volumes and really sped up the learning curve for me, I’m not the only one either.

Dave is one of the most genuine people I have ever met. When I first came to the USA to film with Standard Films in 2003 he invited me to stay at his place and showed me all the goods that Tahoe had to offer for snowboarding. I definitely wouldn’t have made it this far without his and Mike’s help. I owe them big time! – Eero Ettala