Eternal- A Tanner Hall Short Film (2020)

05:41 min • 27/10/2020

When Tanner wasn't on the Freeride World Tour, he spent the 2019/20 season doing mind bending tricks in the streets and in the backcountry. This is 'Eternal' Music by Dillon Cooper

Athletes

Tanner Hall

Locations

Colorado

Tanner Hall

Profile and significance

Tanner Hall—universally known as the “Ski Boss”—is one of freeskiing’s defining figures. Raised in Montana and forged in Utah park culture, he turned the early-2000s twin-tip revolution into a permanent shift in how slopestyle, big air, halfpipe and backcountry segments are skied and filmed. Hall’s competitive résumé is unmatched in its era: 11 Winter X Games medals with golds across superpipe, slopestyle and big air, a haul celebrated even by his longtime ski partner Armada. He co-founded Armada Skis in 2002 alongside JP Auclair and a core crew, codifying the rider-run brand model that many teams still emulate. After his early contest peak, he extended his reach with influential movie parts and later brought his power and feel to freeride venues, taking a podium in Japan while competing on the Freeride World Tour.

Hall’s significance goes beyond medals. He helped define park and pipe amplitude, he changed what counted as “clean” style in urban/street skiing and backcountry, and he became an archetype for longevity: comebacks from devastating injuries, followed by a second act of heavy edits and freeride results. For skiers who judge by both scoreboards and film parts, Hall is a cornerstone reference.

Competitive arc and key venues

Hall’s rise runs from Montana to Utah to Aspen. He learned to ski at Whitefish Mountain Resort, moved in his mid-teens to Park City for structured training and then began collecting major results while progressing tricks that read clearly at speed. His early X Games wins in big air and slopestyle set the pace; the superpipe three-peat era established his signature amplitude. Aspen’s Snowmass and Buttermilk venues became recurring theaters for those runs. After injuries reset the trajectory, he rebuilt through filming blocks and selective contests, then stepped into big-mountain inspection with the Freeride World Tour, where he earned second place at Hakuba in 2019 and later returned on a 2023 event wildcard.

Two places explain the durability of his career. Park City Mountain gave him long seasons, world-class halfpipe shaping and the repetition to make amplitude look easy. In British Columbia, Hall invested time and energy around Retallack, where storm snow and sustained pitches turned his pop and edge control into stacked backcountry lines. The mix—contest-shaped parks and authentic powder terrain—lets his skiing translate everywhere from a floodlit pipe to glaciated pillows.

How they ski: what to watch for

Hall’s style is built on timing, power and definition. Into takeoffs he stays tall, sets late and locks grabs early enough that the axis reads from the lip. In superpipe, watch the way he organizes his edges and hips before the wall—he loads the ski so the release is explosive rather than frantic, which is why his height out of the pipe has long been a benchmark. On rails and in street, he favors square entries and presses held just long enough to be unambiguous, with swaps that look inevitable rather than improvised. In backcountry, he carries the same discipline into natural features: ankles and hips start the butter, shoulders stay quiet, and landings arrive stacked over the feet.

The common thread is clarity. You can slow a Hall clip and still read the idea: patient pop, honest grab definition, centered landings. That legibility is part of why his runs aged well and why his segments—park, street or powder—became study material for a generation.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Hall’s resilience is central to his legend. In 2005 he famously shattered both ankles overshooting Chad’s Gap in Utah; in 2009 a filming crash in Washington destroyed both knees. He rebuilt twice, returning to X Games podium contention and then retooling his career around heavy parts and freeride competition. Through it all he kept filming: Poor Boyz Productions classics, the Inspired era he launched with Eric Iberg, and a steady stream of late-career projects that proved power and style survive long after most pros retire. When X Games took freeskiing to video with Real Ski, Hall’s entries and later Real Ski 2021 appearance showed how his approach meshes with modern, edit-first formats.

Influence also flows through equipment culture. As a founder of Armada, he helped shift the center of gravity toward athlete-led design and storytelling. That brand’s presence in parks, urban parts and powder edits—along with projects honoring JP Auclair—kept Hall’s technical choices and aesthetic priorities visible for young riders learning the craft.

Geography that built the toolkit

Place explains the method. Whitefish Mountain Resort gave Hall his first laps and an all-terrain foundation. Park City provided length of season, high-caliber halfpipe construction and contest-ready slopestyle lines—the training ground for his medal years. Aspen’s Snowmass/Buttermilk complex hosted many of the runs that cemented his X Games legacy. North of the border, Retallack brought sustained fall-line snow and real-world decision-making, producing backcountry parts that matched the authority of his park clips. Thread those venues together and you see why his skiing reads the same whether the stage is a perfect pipe wall or a wind-affected pillow stack.

Later, freeride stops from Japan to the Rockies gave Hall new canvases, but the fingerprints remained consistent: measured speed, stacked landings, and choices that keep flow intact for what comes next.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Hall’s name is inseparable from Armada Skis. Over two decades he’s ridden and influenced platforms that span park icons to deep-snow shapes—tools chosen to pop predictably, press cleanly and stay stable at his trademark amplitudes. For skiers trying to borrow the feel, the hardware lesson is principle-based. A true twin with a balanced, medium-stiff flex will let you load the lip without folding and still hold presses on steel. A light detune at the contact points reduces rail bite while preserving trustworthy grip for pipe walls and jump takeoffs. A near-center mount keeps switch landings neutral and presses level. Binding ramp that’s too aggressive pushes you into the backseat; aim to stack hips over feet so you can release power on demand instead of rescuing landings.

Equally important is process. Film the lap, compare shoulder alignment and hip-to-ankle stack against a short checklist, and repeat until patient pop and early grab definition become automatic. That workflow—visible across his edits and Real Ski entry—is the part any motivated skier can copy.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Tanner Hall because he merged progression with clarity and then proved it lasts. The medals at Aspen, the segments from Park City to British Columbia, the later freeride results in Hakuba—each chapter shows the same readable language: calm into the lip, explosive but organized release, and landings that keep the line moving. Progressing riders care because those choices scale to ordinary parks and real snowpacks. You don’t need a contest bib to apply the blueprint—just patience at the takeoff, early grab definition, square exits from rails and stacked landings that set up the next hit. Two decades after he helped design the culture around athlete-led brands and film-driven skiing, the Ski Boss remains a living checklist for how modern freeskiing should look and feel.

Colorado

Overview and significance

Colorado is a global benchmark for freeskiing and freestyle, mixing very high-elevation mountains, dependable midwinter cold, and an event calendar that consistently shapes the sport. The state’s ski identity is built on variety: Aspen Snowmass blends elite venues with vibrant town energy; Copper Mountain doubles as a public resort and a high-performance training hub; Breckenridge, Keystone and Winter Park deliver deep terrain-park lineups; Vail, Steamboat and Telluride add mileage and classic bowls; Arapahoe Basin and Loveland keep the season long with early openings and late-spring steeps. Layer in a mature avalanche-forecast system, strong transit links along the I-70 corridor, and a culture that values both park progression and real-mountain craft, and Colorado stands out as a complete destination for storm chasers, film crews and park riders alike.

Terrain, snow, and seasons

Colorado’s height is its superpower. Many base areas sit between roughly 2,700 and 3,000 meters, with upper lifts climbing well above that, keeping surfaces cold and chalky long after storms. The snow climate is continental: lighter, drier powder on average than maritime regions, with wind events that sculpt supportive chalk on high ridges and fill gullies and lee bowls. Expect days of preserved quality on north and east aspects after a storm, firm-and-fast mornings on groomed steeps during clear cold spells, and classic corn cycles on solar slopes as spring arrives. Storm tracks vary by region. Along the I-70 spine (Copper, Breckenridge, Vail, Keystone, Arapahoe Basin, Loveland), consistent winter systems and upslope events stack coverage; farther northwest, Steamboat’s aspen and pine glades capture frequent refreshes; to the south, Telluride and Crested Butte reward timing when San Juan storms hit.

Seasonality is a strength. Early openings are common at Arapahoe Basin and Loveland when temperatures allow snowmaking and the first natural cycles. The core window for cold, midwinter snow runs January through February, with March often delivering the best balance of daylight, periodic resets, and full park builds. Spring extends the party: high-elevation venues keep winter snow on north aspects while corn ripens on solar faces, and in good years, laps can run into May at select mountains. The takeaway for planners is simple—Colorado supports both high-volume training blocks and destination weeks without sacrificing snow quality.

Park infrastructure and events

Colorado’s park pedigree is deep and varied. Copper Mountain is a centerpiece thanks to its on-hill public parks and the Woodward Copper training ecosystem, giving riders progression pathways from small lines to advanced jump and rail features; the mountain regularly hosts elite slopestyle and halfpipe weeks alongside development circuits. Breckenridge maintains a robust park tradition with multiple lanes tuned for different levels, while Keystone’s A51 Terrain Park is built for repetition—long lines, smart flow, and efficient chair laps. Winter Park’s park program layers creative rails and jump lines into a resort that also skis big on storm days. Steamboat typically pairs tree-skiing credentials with a well-built park under reliable midwinter cold.

Event heritage reinforces the state’s status. Aspen Snowmass has hosted world-stage freeski and snowboard competitions for decades and remains one of the sport’s most visible venues each winter. Copper Mountain frequently stages U.S. Grand Prix and World Cup-level halfpipe and slopestyle stops, plus the U.S. Revolution Tour and national team training; Winter Park, Breck and Keystone round out the calendar with regional series and grassroots contests that keep crews progressing. Racing culture is strong, too—Vail/Beaver Creek’s alpine pedigree, Copper’s early-season speed center, and Aspen’s World Cup weeks all contribute to the rhythm of winter in Colorado.

Access, logistics, and on-mountain flow

Denver International Airport is the main gateway for the I-70 corridor, with rental cars and shuttles feeding Summit and Eagle counties. For Aspen Snowmass, Aspen/Pitkin County Airport sits minutes from the slopes, with Grand Junction and Eagle County Regional Airport as practical backups; Steamboat aligns with the Hayden/Yampa Valley airport; Telluride connects via Montrose. Winter travel on Colorado passes is serious—plan for chain/traction laws and rolling storm closures, and monitor real-time conditions before you drive. Inbounds, transit can dramatically improve your day. Summit County and Vail Valley bus networks link towns to base areas, and many resorts run free shuttles between villages and lifts, making car-free weeks realistic and efficient when snow is falling.

Daily flow rewards smart zoning. In storms, treeline pods and mid-mountain glades ski best—think Breckenridge’s lower Peak 9/10 areas, Keystone’s windows below the ridge, Copper’s Union and Timberline trees, and Winter Park’s sheltered faces. As visibility improves, step to alpine bowls and ridge lines, respecting staged openings as patrol completes control work. Park sessions slot naturally into calm, clear windows: at Copper, build volume by locking into a two- or three-feature circuit; at Keystone’s A51, stack laps by line; at Breck, progress across lanes as the shapers bring sets online. For marathon days, save long traverses and looker’s-right bowls for the afternoon when legs and light are dialed.

Local culture, safety, and etiquette

Colorado blends polished resort ops with a backcountry-aware community. The Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC) publishes daily forecasts for multiple zones and aggregates real-time observations. If you plan to exit groomed corridors or resort boundaries, bring beacon, shovel and probe, practice rescue skills with partners, and make conservative terrain choices when winds and temperature gradients spike avalanche hazard. Inside the ropes, closures and “routes” matter—many marked routes are ungroomed and can involve exposure. Deep-snow tree wells are a recurring hazard in conifer forests; ski with a visible partner, carry a whistle, and avoid solo laps in storm cycles. In parks statewide, Smart Style keeps flow safe: call your drop, hold a predictable line, and clear landings and knuckles immediately.

Etiquette extends to the road. On I-70, respect traction and chain requirements, leave extra time for weather and weekend traffic, and favor shuttles or buses during active storm cycles to avoid chain-up queues. Mountain towns are welcoming but compact; park where designated, keep noise down late, and support local shops that keep the scene running—tuning, bootfitting, and cafés are part of the ecosystem that makes high-frequency skiing possible here.

Best time to go and how to plan

For cold powder and preserved surfaces, target January and February across most ranges, with a hedge toward the northern and central mountains during quieter midweeks. March is the all-rounder—fully built parks, more daylight, and frequent high-pressure windows that open alpine bowls between resets. Spring keeps the season alive at altitude; north aspects hold chalk while solar slopes offer reliable corn laps through late morning. If you’re event-chasing, align a Copper or Aspen week with major halfpipe/slopestyle blocks, and keep an eye on each resort’s operations page for wind holds and staged rope drops. For passes, Colorado is heavily represented on multi-resort products—consider Ikon Pass access windows for Aspen Snowmass, Winter Park and Steamboat, and Epic Pass for Vail, Breckenridge, Keystone and Crested Butte if you’re building a statewide itinerary.

Planning is easiest if you pick a base by intent. Summit County works for park-first trips that bounce among Copper, Keystone and Breck with minimal transit. Aspen is a self-contained valley with four distinct mountains and frequent buses. Steamboat offers consistent tree skiing and a lively town within one ticket. For a steeper, more remote feel, Telluride’s box canyon and Crested Butte’s technical terrain reward strong legs and good timing when storms hit the San Juans. Regardless of base, start each morning with the resort’s lift and terrain status, then adjust by aspect and elevation as light and weather shift through the day.

Why freeskiers care

Because Colorado lets you develop and showcase every part of modern skiing without leaving one state. You can lap a world-class slopestyle line or halfpipe in the morning, follow patrol into alpine bowls as ropes drop, and still find preserved chalk or soft trees days after a storm. The safety ecosystem is mature and accessible, the transit network makes car-free days realistic, and the culture rewards etiquette and craft. Whether you’re stacking reps toward a trick list, chasing storm cycles, or filming in big-mountain terrain, Colorado remains a definitive target.

Brand overview and significance

Armada is widely recognized as skiing’s pioneering athlete-founded brand. Launched in 2002 by a crew of influential freeskiers and creatives, it set out to build equipment around how modern skiers actually ride—park, powder, streets, and big, natural terrain—rather than filtering innovation through traditional race heritage. The brand’s identity has remained anchored in rider input and film culture, with a product line that mirrors the creative, playful approach that reshaped freeskiing in the 2000s and beyond. In March 2017, Amer Sports acquired Armada, bringing the label into the same winter portfolio as other major ski manufacturers while preserving its athlete-led philosophy and distinct design language.

Armada operates from the Wasatch and the Alps, with day-to-day brand life connected to Park City Mountain in Utah and a European hub near Innsbruck. That cross-Atlantic footprint helps shape a catalog that feels at home in North American freeride zones and on the varied snowpacks and park scenes of the Tyrol. Culturally, Armada remains closely tied to athlete films, creative web series, and team projects—touchstones that communicate the skis’ intended feel as much as spec sheets do.

Product lines and key technologies

Armada’s lineup is organized by intent, not marketing buzzwords. The ARV/ARW family represents the brand’s all-mountain freestyle DNA; Declivity and Reliance (directional all-mountain) serve resort skiers who want confidence at speed and on edge; Locator targets fast-and-light touring; and signature freeride shapes such as the Whitewalker translate film-segment creativity to deep snow and mixed terrain. Within those families, Armada refines behavior with a set of in-house technologies that have become calling cards.

Two construction ideas stand out. First, rocker/camber profiles like AR Freestyle Rocker and EST Freeride Rocker blend long, forgiving rockered zones with positive camber underfoot to preserve edge hold. Second, base and sidewall details tune how the ski releases and smears: Smear Tech adds subtle 3D beveling in the tips and tails for drift, pivot, and catch-free butters, while AR75/AR100 sidewalls and tailored cores (including lightweight Caruba in touring models) balance mass reduction with damping and strength. Together these choices explain why Armada skis often feel both lively and composed—easy to pivot yet trustworthy when speed comes up or the snow gets choppy.

Ride feel: who it’s for (terrains & use-cases)

If you like your all-mountain laps to include side-hits, switch landings, and a bit of exploration off the groomer, Armada’s ARV/ARW models are designed for you. They’re energetic, smearable, and predictable in variable resort snow, with enough camber to carve cleanly back to the lift. Resort chargers who prioritize directional stability and precise edge feel will gravitate toward Declivity and Reliance: more metal and more length options yield a calmer ride on hardpack, while still keeping the Armada “surf” in soft conditions. For backcountry skiers who want to keep the uphill efficient without giving up fun on the way down, the Locator series blends low weight with real-snow suspension. And on storm days and film-project lines, signature freeride shapes like Whitewalker are aimed at powder, pillows, and wind-affected steeps where you want loose, pivotable tips, supportive platforms, and confident landings.

Team presence, competitions, and reputation

Armada’s reputation rides on the shoulders of its athletes as much as its skis. Over the years, names like Henrik Harlaut, Phil Casabon, and Sammy Carlson have defined the brand’s look and feel—style-first skiing that still handles real-mountain speed and impact. That visibility spans major events like the X Games and high-profile film releases, reinforcing Armada’s role as a tastemaker for park, street, and backcountry-freestyle aesthetics. The roster’s breadth—from urban icons to big-mountain specialists—helps keep the catalog honest: new designs trace back to specific needs revealed in segments, contests, and long-day resort laps.

Geography and hubs (heritage, testing, venues)

Armada’s U.S. presence is tied to the Wasatch—easy access to long season mileage, park laps, and storm cycles near Park City Mountain and the Cottonwood canyons. In the Alps, the scene around Innsbruck gives the team fast access to varied venues like Axamer Lizum and the Golden Roof Park, useful for repeatable park testing and quick condition changes. Historic filming staples like Mammoth Mountain continue to influence sizing, rocker lines, and the playful-but-capable feel that many skiers now expect from all-mountain freestyle shapes.

Construction, durability, and sustainability

Armada pairs wood cores and fiberglass/carbon laminates with sidewall constructions that vary by intent. All-mountain freestyle models use thicker edges and reinforcement underfoot to handle rails and landing zones; directional models lean into torsional stiffness and damping for edge fidelity; touring models deploy Caruba cores, strategic rubber/titanal binding mats, and lighter edges to keep mass down without making the ride nervous. On the softgoods side, the brand publishes “Honest Social Responsibility” notes outlining material choices in apparel and gear. For hardgoods, a two-year warranty applies to skis and most equipment, a standard that signals baseline confidence in materials and build. While any ski can be damaged by rails, rocks, or improper mounts, Armada’s construction playbook is tuned for the mix of freestyle creativity and resort mileage its audience demands.

How to choose within the lineup

Start with where and how you ski most. If your days blend carving with side-hits, trees, and the occasional lap through the park, look to the all-mountain freestyle family with waist widths in the upper-80s to mid-90s for a balanced daily driver. If you spend more time at speed on firm snow, directional all-mountain models with metal reinforcement and slightly longer radii will feel calmer and more confidence-inspiring on edge. If you tour, match Locator widths to your snowpack and objectives: narrower for long approaches and mixed conditions; wider for soft-snow zones and mid-winter storm cycles. Powder-first skiers who still like to trick and slash should consider signature freeride shapes with loose, rockered tips/tails and sturdy platforms underfoot. Size for your intent: freestyle-oriented riders often pick slightly shorter for maneuverability; directional and touring skiers typically size to nose/forehead or longer for stability and float.

Why riders care

Armada matters because it helped define what “modern” skiing feels like—and continues to translate that feel into products that make sense for real resort laps, backcountry tours, and deep days. The brand still reads like a dialogue between athletes and engineers: skis that pivot and smear when you want, yet bite and track when you need; graphics and shapes that look the part in a park edit but stand up to chunder at 3 p.m. Whether you arrive through contest clips, a team movie, or a storm cycle backcountry mission, the through-line is the same: creative expression backed by functional engineering. That combination keeps the label relevant to skiers who value both style and substance, from first chair corduroy to last-light pillow stacks—and it’s why Armada has a lasting footprint across freeski culture as well as everyday resort skiing.

Eternal- A Tanner Hall Short Film (2020)

Athletes

Locations

Sponsors

Tanner Hall

Colorado

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