Benni Solomon

Telluride, Colorado | Active public archive: 2013-present | Known for: Recess, Tellurium, Telluride creative skiing, former mogul competition | Current: Wagner Custom Skis, Flylow Gear, Blackstrap project support

Telluride After The Lifts Went Quiet

The frontside of Telluride sat empty after closing time, spring snow softening under late Colorado light. Benni Solomon and a small crew still had work to do: shape a continuous line, test speed, link takeoffs, and make the whole mountain feel like one long feature.

That idea became Recess, Solomon’s first ski film and the clearest entry point into his creative profile. Instead of chasing a contest bib, he built a line on his home resort after the lifts stopped spinning. The project took two days to build, test and shoot, turning local knowledge into a short film built around motion, timing and Telluride terrain.

Telluride Bumps Before The Camera

Solomon’s official FIS profile lists him as a United States freestyle skier with Telluride Ski and Snowboard Club, FIS code 2530759, born in 1997 and now marked inactive. His visible FIS record runs through moguls and dual moguls, not slopestyle, big air or halfpipe.

That background matters because it explains the precision in his later skiing. Moguls reward fast feet, absorption, edge control, compact takeoffs and the ability to stay centered while terrain changes underneath every turn. Solomon told Wagner that he competed in moguls from age six to seventeen, then discovered more freedom in hidden spots, side hits, shaped features and hike-to terrain around Telluride.

Deer Valley And Valmalenco On The Mogul Sheet

The strongest competition markers in Solomon’s FIS record came before his film direction. In 2014, he placed eighth in dual moguls at the U.S. National Championships at Deer Valley. In January 2015, he finished fifth in dual moguls at the Deer Valley Nor-Am, then later raced the Junior World Ski Championships in Chiesa in Valmalenco, Italy.

At those Junior Worlds, Solomon finished 11th in moguls and 12th in dual moguls. The results did not create a senior World Cup career, but they give his profile a solid technical base. He was not simply a local skier who started filming later. He had already trained inside a formal mogul pathway before moving toward freer and more visual skiing.

Recess And The Continuous Line

Recess was completed in April 2023 as a three-minute short. FilmFreeway lists Solomon as director and key cast, with Orion Willits on photography and Cedar Palmer handling filming and editing. Newschoolers lists the location as Telluride, Colorado, with support from Wagner Custom Skis, Flylow Gear, Blackstrap, Color Telluride and Telluride Ski Resort.

The concept is simple but specific: one continuous line down the frontside of the mountain. That demands a different kind of skiing than a normal edit. Each hit has to feed the next one. Speed cannot die. Landings have to point forward. The skier has to think like a park builder, mogul skier and freerider at the same time.

How Solomon Turns Home Terrain Into Features

Solomon’s skiing is shaped by Telluride’s mix of steep bump runs, hike-to terrain, natural hits and resort-side transitions. He does not fit neatly into a modern street skier category, and he is not a current FIS mogul specialist. His best public work sits between creative freeride, resort backcountry, natural jibbing and line building.

The technical details to watch are speed management, absorption, takeoff timing, pole plants, edge pressure and how he links features without making the line feel interrupted. A mogul background gives him fast lower-body control. Telluride gives him steep terrain and hidden options. The films show what happens when those two tools are used for a camera instead of a judging panel.

Wagner Skis And The San Juan Graphic

Wagner Custom Skis gives Solomon his clearest equipment thread. In the brand’s 2023 interview, he described joining the Wagner team and creating custom topsheets that paid homage to Telluride, the Wilsons and Lizard Head. Wagner’s own Sherwood Smith turned his rough concept into the final design.

That detail fits the way Solomon’s page should be written. His ski identity is not separated from place. The mountains around Telluride appear in the graphics, the films, the terrain choices and the story. Wagner’s local custom-ski context also matches a skier who cares about specific snow, specific lines and equipment that can handle chop, speed, bumps and playful hits.

Tellurium Across The San Juans

Tellurium expanded the same local idea beyond one resort line. Teton Gravity Research described the film as Solomon’s tribute to the San Juan Mountains and Telluride’s ski culture, with attention to Colorado’s Gold Rush-era mining relics scattered through the peaks.

Newschoolers lists Tellurium as shot around Telluride and Silverton, Colorado, with Amon Barker on drone, Peter Brown, Cedar Palmer, Griffin Glendinning on 16mm and Brett Schreckengost on the cover image. The film’s strongest value is geographic: San Juan ridges, mining history, local crews, steep snow and a skier trying to connect personal terrain with a larger mountain story.

Shoulder Pain And A Nine-To-Five Winter

The Tellurium story also carries a more grounded detail. Teton Gravity Research wrote that Solomon balanced a demanding 9-to-5 job at Telluride Ski Resort while pushing through a painful shoulder injury during the project. That context separates the film from a fully funded pro production.

For an emerging creative skier, that matters. The work happens around real life: job hours, weather windows, injury management, friend availability and the short periods when snow and light line up. Solomon’s archive is built from persistence rather than a large production machine, which gives the edits a local and personal tone.

Chile With Brown And Ranalter

A more recent public marker places Solomon outside Colorado. The North Face’s Early Season Chile video lists Denis Ranalter, Bobby Brown and Benni Solomon skiing between Valle Nevado and La Parva during a storm cycle. That is a different setting from Recess or Tellurium: South American winter, heavy snow, long days and freeride-focused terrain.

The clip matters because of the company. Bobby Brown carries a major freeski legacy, and Ranalter is known for one of the smoothest styles in modern freeskiing. Solomon appearing in that context shows that his visibility is moving beyond a purely Telluride-local archive, even if his strongest identity still comes from the San Juans.

Where His Archive Should Sit

The strongest skipowd.tv tags for Benni Solomon are Telluride, San Juan Mountains, Silverton, Recess, Tellurium, Wagner Custom Skis, Flylow Gear, Blackstrap, moguls, creative freeride, resort lines, natural features and Early Season Chile. His page should not be filed as a park contest profile.

The safest current endpoint is clear: a former Telluride mogul competitor who turned local terrain into Recess, then widened the story with Tellurium across the San Juans and a Chile clip beside Bobby Brown and Denis Ranalter. Future updates should track new films, confirmed sponsor pages, Telluride projects and any larger backcountry or resort-line edits that continue that creative direction.