"The search begins in the gray, smoky light of early morning. Josh Daiek is hunched over Google Earth like an old school cartographer charting a risky path across the sea. He zooms, scrolls, tilts the computer screen, hunting for "any little bump and whatever on Google Earth that we could go ski." What he is looking for isn't obvious-it's rarely a named peak or a marked line. Instead, he is after textures, imperfections, scraps of terrain that most skiers would never see, much less chase."
"This kind of work is monastic in its attention and childlike in its wonder. It has become a defining habit for Daiek, now four decades deep into life and more than 10 years into his still-escalating professional skiing career. In the ski industry he's often jokingly refereed to as "Your favorite pro skier's favorite pro skier," charging consequential no-fall terrain in ways most pros wouldn't dare."
Josh Daiek spends predawn hours scanning Google Earth for small terrain features, seeking textures and imperfections that indicate skiable lines rather than named peaks. That search practice is meticulous and reverent, described as both monastic and childlike, and has driven a professional career spanning more than a decade with decades of skiing experience. Industry peers regard him as an elite skier's skier for charging technical, no-fall terrain at high speed. Early skiing in suburban Michigan on short vertical and icy, crusty conditions formed his instinctual, fearless style and taught him to value marginal snow and obscure lines.
Read at SnowBrains
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