UNDERGROUND
Tchad Lemay
Profile and significance
Tchad Lemay is a Québec-born freeski athlete and street filmmaker whose work sits at the heart of Canada’s urban skiing renaissance. Based out of the Centre-du-Québec corridor and active across Mauricie and the Québec City area, he leans into hand-built features, real-world spots, and a DIY filming ethos. In 2024 he released “Timeless,” a short that distilled a season of street missions into a tight, watchable cut, and followed up with “Peacefully,” a project framed around practicing urban skiing with respect for neighborhoods and passersby. The same year he took part in the B-Dog “Off The Leash” Video Edition—an invitational street showcase that draws many of Québec’s most creative park and urban skiers—and saw his work screen in the iF3 Montréal Urban program. While he isn’t chasing World Cup podiums, Lemay’s steady output of clean, well-edited street footage and appearances at core gatherings have made him a recognizable name in the province’s scene.
Competitive arc and key venues
Lemay’s calendar revolves less around bib numbers and more around edits, community events, and rider-driven contests. The iF3 selection for “Timeless” placed his film alongside a slate of independent street projects, while the “Off The Leash” Video Edition connected him directly to the community shaped by Philip Casabon’s long-running street legacy. On snow, he mixes Québec street trips with occasional park laps south of the border—most notably at Jay Peak in northern Vermont—where early-season sessions and spring lines help keep jump timing sharp. In his home province, the Urban night at iF3 has ties with the resort at Massif du Sud, and Lemay’s filming often threads through cities like Shawinigan, whose winter streets, stairs, and rails provide the raw canvas for the kind of shots that define his edits. The through line is repetition on real features: shovel, salt, test speed, and roll camera until the trick reads clean from approach to stomp.
How they ski: what to watch for
Lemay’s skiing is all about clarity under constraint. On rails, look for centered stance and quiet shoulders that make spins on and pretzels off feel intentional rather than forced. He favors solid lock-ins on down bars and kinks, quick edge changes to stay online through imperfect run-ins, and exits that preserve speed for the next setup. When he takes to park jumps—whether at home or at Jay Peak—he foregrounds grab duration and axis readability over chaotic spin-to-win attempts. The effect is a style that survives variable speed and bumpy inruns, two constants of real-world urban skiing. Watch the details: early grab placement, full-hand contact through rotation, and landings that finish stacked over the skis.
Resilience, filming, and influence
“Peacefully” telegraphed what matters to Lemay beyond the trick list: a respectful, community-minded approach to street spots. The film’s premise—showing that urban can be practiced with freedom, pleasure, and respect—comes through in the way he and his crews work around pedestrian flow, noise, and cleanup. That mindset isn’t just ethics; it’s practical. When you spend fewer social calories negotiating a spot, you have more left for the mental reps that make a hard trick possible. Lemay’s Off The Leash involvement further tied him into Québec’s street lineage, placing him in rooms and on group sessions with riders whose influence extends from classic DVD sections to today’s social-era edits. The net effect is a skier using film work not just to showcase skills, but to contribute to the culture around how urban is done.
Geography that built the toolkit
Québec’s winters shape Lemay’s toolkit. Reliable cold, frequent freeze–thaw cycles, and cityscapes dense with rails and ledges create ideal conditions for street lines. In Mauricie and Centre-du-Québec, smaller cities provide lower-traffic zones where crews can build without constant resets. Trips to Massif du Sud add big-snow days and varied terrain within a few hours’ drive, while border hops to Jay Peak supply park mileage to keep air awareness tuned. That mix—urban texture at home and clean park lines on travel days—explains why his edits read both creative and composed.
Equipment and partners: practical takeaways
Lemay’s projects don’t revolve around headline sponsorships, but the setup principles behind his skiing are clear. A modern twin-tip park ski mounted near true center supports both-way spins and keeps swing weight predictable for quick corrections on kinked rails. Edges are detuned at contact points to reduce hang-ups without dulling pop for lip-on tricks. Boots with supportive—but progressive—forward flex help maintain stacked landings on rough snow, and bindings are set for consistent release values that balance urban impacts with confidence on jump days. For progressing skiers, the lesson is simple: build a neutral, repeatable setup you trust from the first test hit to the make, then keep the tune consistent so your tricks read the same from spot to spot.
Why fans and progressing skiers care
Lemay represents an accessible pathway into the sport’s creative core. You don’t need a World Cup bib to matter in freeski; you need a point of view, clean execution, and edits that hold up to repeat viewing. His films and event appearances offer exactly that: trick choices that favor clarity, spot use that respects surroundings, and a willingness to show the process as much as the make. For viewers, he’s a dependable watch when the iF3 Urban slate rolls around or when Off The Leash highlights circulate. For skiers trying to level up, he’s a case study in how to turn local winters into meaningful projects—plan the spot, respect the space, and let the skiing speak.
Alaska
Overview and significance
Alaska is the world’s archetype for big-mountain skiing—a place where steep, glaciated faces and ocean-fed snowpacks create the freeride lines that fill film segments and athlete highlight reels. From the Chugach above Girdwood and Valdez to the spine fields near Haines and Juneau, the state’s mountains have shaped modern freeskiing’s idea of scale, exposure, and flow. Lift-served laps center on Alyeska Resort in Girdwood, while helicopter and touring programs unlock vast terrain across coastal and interior ranges. For freeski culture, Alaska is more than a destination—it’s a rite of passage. The Freeride World Tour’s return to Haines in 2026 underscores that status, bringing the sport’s best back onto Alaska’s dramatic, technical spines. On skipowd.tv, the state already stands as a cornerstone location; see the growing archive at Alaska for a sense of how often the cameras point north.
Terrain, snow, and seasons
Coastal Alaska sits under a maritime snow climate that tends to lay down deep, cohesive snow with fewer but larger storm events than many continental regions. In the Chugach near Girdwood and Valdez, that translates to thick storm slabs, powerful wind transport, and, when conditions align, confidence-inspiring powder that sticks to angles most skiers only dream about riding. The hallmark features are long fall-line panels, fluted ribs, and knife-edge spines broken by hanging ramps and glaciated benches. Interior and northern zones trend colder and drier, with clearer spells between systems, but the classic heli windows along Prince William Sound and the northern Inside Passage are what many visitors plan around.
At the lift-served core, Alyeska’s metrics tell a clear story: roughly 2,500 feet of vertical rise, seven lifts including a 40-passenger aerial tram, and a long-standing reputation for “steep and deep.” The resort reports well over six hundred inches of annual snowfall at upper elevations in strong winters, and its high-speed chairs and tram make quick work of laps when visibility and control work cooperate. Spring brings larger corn cycles on south aspects and longer, stable windows on northerly faces; midwinter serves most of the cold powder. Above and beyond the ropes, the Thompson Pass area outside Valdez is one of the snowiest road corridors in the state, and the Haines backcountry presents a concentration of spine walls that ride as cleanly as they look when the snowpack bonds.
Park infrastructure and events
Alaska is not a classic terrain-park destination; the draw is big-mountain riding. That said, Alyeska typically builds small to medium parks for progression, and in-season it supports night laps on illuminated terrain where features like Pump Station 3 and the Refinery Park open when conditions and staffing permit. Girdwood’s club scene contributes to athlete pipelines through organized freeride and alpine programs, keeping local stoke high through the dark months. Historically, Alaska has hosted major freeride moments—from Valdez’s extreme competitions of the 1990s to multiple Haines stops on the sport’s top tour—and the planned 2026 return of the Freeride World Tour reaffirms the state’s position on the global stage. In Valdez, rider-run outfits such as Black Ops Valdez appear frequently in film credits and video parts, reflecting how guiding culture and media production interlock here.
Access, logistics, and on-mountain flow
Most trips route through Anchorage’s Ted Stevens International Airport for Girdwood and the broader Chugach. From there, it’s an easy, scenic forty-mile drive along the All-American Road–designated Seward Highway to reach the resort base. Alyeska’s “Getting Here” guidance confirms the short highway transfer and common transit options if you’re not renting a vehicle; see Alyeska Resort for details. For heli venues, Haines is accessed via Juneau by air and ferry combinations, or overland via the Haines Highway through Canada, while Valdez has a regional airport and road access over Thompson Pass when conditions allow.
On the hill at Alyeska, the tram and high-speed quads are your backbone for storm-day tree skiing and, when patrol drops ropes up high, for steep north-facing panels. Weather and avalanche control drive openings; set expectations accordingly and build flexibility into your itinerary. On heli programs, plan for down days and have a backup like resort laps, touring on the Turnagain Arm sidecountry with a guide, or avalanche coursework. The logistics rhythm is simple: watch the forecast, be ready to mobilize when ceilings lift, and stay patient when winds and precip pin operations down.
Local culture, safety, and etiquette
Alaska’s winter community blends hard-earned local knowledge with a welcoming, small-town cadence. Respect for avalanche work, land use rules, and weather realities is non-negotiable. Before any backcountry day, check regional bulletins from the Alaska Avalanche Information Center and the dedicated Hatcher Pass Avalanche Center, and remember that hazard varies dramatically with elevation, aspect, and wind. Glaciated terrain adds crevasse and serac exposure; rope travel, glacier partners, and guide supervision are essential where blue ice and bridges complicate route finding. In heli zones like Haines, permitted areas, seasonal operating windows, and community noise considerations are codified by the borough; consult current updates via official channels such as the Haines Borough’s heliski pages to understand where and when commercial skiing is allowed.
Etiquette follows a few clear lines. Give ski patrol wide berth during control, respect closures, and yield to locals working lines they’ve waited on all season. In guided contexts, speak up about comfort levels, stay tight on radios and transitions, and treat pilots’ and guides’ calls as final. Wildlife considerations—especially along Turnagain Arm and coastal inlets—also matter; don’t crowd animals from roadsides or flight paths, and leave-no-trace at pullouts and skin tracks.
Best time to go and how to plan
For heli-skiing, the prime window is late winter into spring—February through April—when daylight expands, storm cadence eases, and aviation conditions are more cooperative. The state tourism board’s overview of ski options aligns with that reality and highlights core heli hubs in Valdez, Cordova, Girdwood, Haines, and Juneau. Lift-served travelers will find Alyeska spinning from early winter into April, with night operations scheduled in peak season during many winters. If parks are part of your plan, track resort updates to know when features are live.
Build redundancy into travel logistics. Book cancellable stays for the front and back end of heli weeks, carry a rental car reservation you can drop if weather strands you, and pack for true maritime winter: durable shells, high-loft midlayers for static time on ridgelines, multiple glove systems, and goggles for flat light and storm snow. If touring, formal avalanche education and rescue practice are baseline. Before driving any of the main corridors, check current road conditions and avalanche advisories; coastal highways like the Seward and Richardson can close during major cycles. If your trip centers on Girdwood, base yourself near the tram to make the most of short weather windows and quick rope drops.
Why freeskiers care
Alaska is where freeride dreams meet the physics of real snow. The angles, the scale, and the clean panels deliver a sensation you can’t simulate elsewhere: long, top-to-bottom lines on terrain that rewards composure and precise speed control. Alyeska gives you a reliable, lift-served anchor with serious snowfall and enough pitch to feel the state’s character under your feet. Haines and Valdez provide the spines and ramps that define the aesthetic of modern big-mountain skiing, and the Freeride World Tour’s Haines stop puts that terrain back under the sport’s brightest lights. Whether you’re linking tram laps under the northern lights, stepping into glaciated zones with a rope and a guide, or finally ticking off that first spine run, Alaska sets the bar. Start by studying Alaska segments on skipowd.tv, then build a plan anchored to Alyeska Resort, validated by avalanche centers, and, if your skills and budget align, capped with a heli window. This is the reference point for big-mountain freeskiing, and it belongs on every dedicated rider’s map.
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