A WEEK IN TORONTO | Tom Wallisch & Evan McEachran

Profile and significance

Evan McEachran is a Canadian freeski slopestyle and big air specialist known for elite contest longevity and one of the most technical rail games in the field. Born March 6, 1997, in Oakville, Ontario, he grew up lapping the small hill at Glen Eden before moving to Craigleith Ski Club, where repetition, fast laps, and a strong park scene built the timing and board-feel that define his skiing today. He reached a broad audience as a finalist in the men’s slopestyle event at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games, finishing sixth, then returned at Beijing 2022 to make the inaugural men’s freeski big air final and place ninth. Along the way he stacked World Cup podiums across Europe and North America, including a statement win at the 2023–24 season opener in Stubai, and earned multiple X Games medals in Aspen.

McEachran matters because he bridges eras: a rider who helped set early benchmarks for switch and natural direction diversity on rails, and who continues to contend in the modern scoring era where execution, mirrored spin families, and clean grabs are weighted heavily. He owns X Games slopestyle silver and bronze from Aspen, sits on a résumé with numerous FIS World Cup podiums, and regularly features in brand projects that showcase a polished, contest-ready style translated to natural terrain and bigger features.

Competitive arc and key venues

The early arc reads like a classic Ontario-to-world story. After outgrowing local setups at Glen Eden and Craigleith, McEachran entered provincial and national team pipelines, then logged his first World Cup starts as a teenager. The breakthrough stretch included the 2018 Olympic slopestyle final in South Korea, where a clean first run secured sixth. He continued to refine under pressure, qualifying into the Beijing 2022 big air final and closing ninth—key experience as big air matured into a fully codified Olympic discipline.

His World Cup consistency is anchored by venues that reward speed control and variety. The spring finale above Lake Silvaplana at Corvatsch Park has produced multiple podiums for McEachran and functions as a measuring stick for slopestyle form. Mammoth’s jump line at Mammoth Mountain has been another productive stop, reflecting his ability to carry speed in variable wind and build difficulty across a run. The Austrian glacier setup in Stubai provided a marquee win to open the 2023–24 season and showcased his readiness right out of the gate. Under the lights at Aspen’s Buttermilk Mountain, he converted years of starts into X Games hardware, cementing his status as a reliable finals closer as well as a qualifier.

How they ski: what to watch for

McEachran skis with tall posture into the lip, minimal arm noise, and late—sometimes very late—rotation initiation. That timing keeps his tips calm and the axis interior clean, which helps judges read spin direction and grab integrity. On rails, he is a systems thinker: fast edge changes, precise feet, and linkable features that conserve speed. You’ll see him blend switch and forward approaches, mixing on- and off-axis rotations with natural and unnatural directions so each segment of the run builds scoring variety. He is particularly adept at using long rail pads and redirect features to set up the next hit, preserving momentum for finals-day upgrades.

In big air, McEachran differentiates with silhouette management. He will hold a safety or lead tail long enough to reshape how a triple or a high, flat-spinning double reads to cameras and judges. When the field is chasing degrees, he leans on cleanliness and axis discipline—clear takeoff, stable core mid-flight, and bolts landings—to separate tricks of similar difficulty. The cumulative effect is skiing that looks unhurried even at maximum rotation counts.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Contest life demands both volume and restraint; McEachran has managed that balance across multiple quads. He has weathered the inevitable injuries and schedule resets and still returned with refined versions of his core trick families. In parallel, he contributes to team films and brand projects, translating a contest-polished approach to backcountry booters and natural transitions. Those appearances emphasize the same values seen in his runs—grab standards, mirrored direction competence, and clean speed control—offering a template for younger skiers on how to take park fundamentals into larger environments without losing identity.

His influence is especially visible among athletes from smaller or lower-elevation programs. McEachran’s story—small hill laps yielding world-class technique—reinforces that repetition and intent can offset lack of vertical. For developing riders, the lesson is that deliberate practice on modest features can build world-stage timing if you respect line selection and grab discipline.

Geography that built the toolkit

Ontario’s compact hills created the base: fast cycles, rail density, and the chance to repeat approaches dozens of times per session at Glen Eden and Craigleith Ski Club. The North American circuit added altitude and exposure through Mammoth Mountain, while Europe contributed glacial light and long in-runs at Corvatsch Park and early-season consistency at Stubai. Aspen’s Buttermilk Mountain tied those experiences together on an invitational stage that forces clarity in line choice and trick identity. The geography thread explains the look of his skiing: compact, precise, and ready to scale to bigger features without wasted movement.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

McEachran rides for HEAD, a program that supports his park and big air focus with skis built for predictable pop and edge durability, paired with binding packages that preserve natural flex underfoot. Energy support from Monster Energy has backed his long contest calendar, and his helmet/goggle choices have historically reflected an emphasis on unobstructed peripheral vision—useful on compact rail decks and busy slopestyle approaches. The actionable lesson for progressing skiers is to prioritize a lively yet stable park ski, mount close to true center for mirrored spin confidence, and tune consistently so speed reads are identical from training to finals.

Venue selection functions like equipment. Long, repeatable lanes—Corvatsch in spring, Stubai in early winter—let you rehearse the micro-beats of approach speed, pop timing, and grab contact. Smaller local hills can be equally valuable if you treat every lap as a deliberate rep. That philosophy underpins McEachran’s career and remains a scalable model for riders outside major mountain regions.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Evan McEachran checks the boxes that signal top-tier relevance without needing an Olympic medal to validate the résumé. He’s a two-time Olympian with a slopestyle final in 2018 and a big air final in 2022, a multiple X Games medalist in Aspen, and a World Cup winner and frequent podium presence. More importantly, he wins and medals with runs that read clearly to both judges and audiences: tall, calm takeoffs; mirrored directions; grabs that stay pinned; and rail sections that conserve speed for the closer. If you’re watching live, expect clean first-runs that set a base and finals-day upgrades that respect form. If you’re learning, study how he sequences rails to arrive at the final jump with options and how he uses grab choice to differentiate tricks that share rotation counts. McEachran’s career—rooted in repetition, refined by variety—remains a blueprint for sustainable success in modern slopestyle and big air.

Profile and significance

Tom Wallisch is one of the defining figures of modern freeskiing. The Pittsburgh-born slopestyle and urban innovator turned early internet fame into sustained major-event results, winning two X Games gold medals, the 2013 FIS World Championship in slopestyle, and the 2012 Dew Tour overall title. He also set a Guinness World Record in 2016 for the longest rail slide on skis, a 424-foot grind completed at Seven Springs—the resort where he grew up lapping terrain parks. Wallisch’s career bridged two eras: the forum-and-DVD generation that discovered him through breakout edits, and the broadcast era where he posted one of the highest slopestyle scores in X Games history under the lights at Aspen. Along the way, he helped codify the aesthetic of park skiing—clean axes, held grabs, composed landings—and pushed urban/street skiing to larger audiences through compact, high-impact film parts.

Competitive arc and key venues

Wallisch’s rise began with a pivotal video-contest win in 2007 that vaulted him from online phenom to traveling pro. On the contest side, his breakthrough stretch included gold at Winter X Games Europe in Tignes in 2010 and a dominant 2011–2012 campaign capped by slopestyle gold at Aspen with a record-setting score. He paired that with multiple Dew Tour wins and the 2012 overall Dew Cup, then added the ultimate federation accolade by winning slopestyle at the 2013 FIS World Championships in Norway. Those results secured his place at the top of slopestyle during the discipline’s formative years on major circuits.

Venues tell the story of his toolkit. Aspen’s Buttermilk jump line at Aspen Snowmass showcased his ability to deliver under prime-time pressure. Breckenridge and Snowbasin on the Dew Tour provided big-stage repetitions across changing park designs. European X Games builds at Tignes rewarded his rail fluency and course reading. Even his world-title moment reflected adaptability, converting consistency into gold on the championship features. Outside contests, he split time between laps at Seven Springs and the larger canvases around Park City Mountain, a mix that sharpened both his technical polish and his comfort on headline jump lines.

How they ski: what to watch for

Wallisch’s skiing is built on clarity and repeatability. On jumps, he emphasizes readable axes, extended grab time, and landings that finish clean—traits that judges reward and fans can easily parse. The hallmark is control: speed management into takeoffs, square shoulders through rotation, and a finish that looks as composed as the initiation. He frequently uses both-way spin direction to open run design without sacrificing landing quality, and he places grabs early, holding them long enough to turn big tricks into unmistakable statements.

On rails, he is a technician. Expect centered stance, decisive edge engagement, and pretzel variations that look natural rather than forced. His approach angles are conservative but intentional, minimizing washouts on kinked and gap features. When he increases difficulty, it’s more often through cleaner lock-ins, longer slides, and trick-to-trick continuity than through chaotic risk. That philosophy carries across slopestyle: keep the rail deck tidy to preserve speed, then cash in on jumps with execution that leaves no doubt.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Wallisch’s influence extends far beyond podium photos. He is a standard-bearer for urban/street skiing, translating park precision to handrails, ledges, and creative transitions in cities. His solo short film “The Wallisch Project” condensed a season of premium action into a tight, rewatchable hit, and later Good Company projects continued to foreground line choice and trick selection over run-of-the-mill stunts. In 2016 he set a Guinness-verified world record rail slide at Seven Springs, an achievement that fused childhood environment, professional craft, and media savvy into a single, widely watched milestone.

He also navigated the setbacks common to a long contest career—most notably injuries during the first Olympic qualifying cycle—by shifting emphasis toward filming and progression blocks without losing competitive sharpness. That willingness to recalibrate sustained his relevance: edits fed creativity and cultural impact, while selective contest starts maintained the scoring chops to win on demand.

Geography that built the toolkit

The East-to-Utah pathway explains much of Wallisch’s style. Early years at Seven Springs meant dense terrain-park mileage on firm snow, night laps, and a rail program that rewards accuracy over flash. Relocating to the Wasatch opened access to bigger jump lines and longer slopestyle courses at Park City Mountain, where speed, light, and altitude demand precise timing. European stints at Tignes introduced different course rhythms and weather variables, while Aspen’s televised build at Aspen Snowmass put a premium on composure when the lights are on. That geographic mix—tight, technical parks and expansive, high-speed venues—underpins a style that travels well from urban film spots to world stages.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Wallisch’s long-term partners map cleanly to his skiing. He rides Line Skis, with a signature park model tuned for a centered stance and predictable swing weight. On the boot side, the three-piece heritage he helped popularize lives on in K2’s FL3X line, emphasizing smooth flex and easy ankle articulation for rails and heavy grabs. Outerwear support from The North Face and energy partnership with Monster Energy have anchored project work and travel-heavy seasons. For progressing skiers, the takeaway isn’t just brand logos; it’s setup principles. A true-twin park ski mounted near center supports both-way spins and switch landings. Consistent edge tune with thoughtful detune at contact points reduces hang-ups on rails without dulling pop for takeoffs. Boots that permit smooth forward flex while keeping heel hold locked help preserve landing position on bigger tricks. Gear, in other words, should serve the style: predictable, balanced, and repeatable.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Wallisch matters because he connects dots across the sport. He is a major-event winner with two X Games golds and a World Championship title; a culture-shaping filmmaker whose projects distilled what stylish urban and park skiing could look like; and a technician whose jump and rail decisions make slopestyle easier to “read.” Watch how he sequences rails to conserve speed, how he commits to full-duration grabs that keep axes obvious for judges and viewers, and how he keeps the finish of each trick as clean as the takeoff. The 424-foot rail at Seven Springs wasn’t just a stunt—it was an expression of stance discipline, edge control, and mental repetition, the same ingredients that underpin a high-scoring slopestyle run at Aspen Snowmass or a finals day at Tignes. For fans, he offers a decade-plus highlight reel and a living reference for style. For skiers learning the craft, he offers a blueprint: build fundamentals until they read clean at any speed, on any feature, in any venue.