LEFT TOP • Birds of a feather ski powder together. Chris and wife Kimmy Fasani enjoy another magical powder day on Hokkaido. Photo: Christian Pondella LEFT BOTTOM • “There are moments when being a pro skier is as glorious as the general public perceives it to be, and this trip to the Adamants Lodge near Golden, BC was one of them. Chris and I got wined and dined, flew in helicopters and skied bottomless powder. I even snapped a few pictures.” Photo: Christian Pondella RIGHT • Chris Benchetler on the top pitch of the Third Pillar of Dana, a classic alpine climb in the Eastern Sierra, while Kimmy Fasani belays from below. Photo: Jeff Fox “SOMEONE TOLD ME ONCE THAT IT’S BETTER TO BE IN THE MOUNTAINS THINKING ABOUT GOD OR THE CREATOR AND BEING THANKFUL, THAN INSIDE OF A CHURCH THINKING ABOUT THE MOUNTAINS.” —CHRIS BENCHETLER What’s next? What’s on the horizon? Well, there’s one big adventure coming up: Kimmy and I are going to have a child. We’re due in March. We’re psyched. I’m going to be staying home this year—I obviously don’t want her to be shoveling 40 feet of snow as a pregnant woman. It was an obvious step; we’ve been together so long, and the people we’ve told have been thrilled and just told us, “It’s about time!” She wants to stay active in snowboarding, and has a clear and cool vision of what that can look like, granted we have a healthy kid and there’s no complications. We have no expectations, but if everything goes as planned, her and I want to do a multi-year video project together. We’ve never really done anything like that, and she’s clearly one of the best snowboarders out there. I think she has an incredible story, and she’s had a lot of challenges in her life and in her career. It’d be interesting to explain all of that, show what she does, and have some depth to it. That’s my plan, to start working toward that. Then I’m going to do a piece with Atomic about the 10 th version of my ski. I have another concept in mind with Rob Machado as well—he’s in the market for a new van, and we’d like to do something around that. But my main focus for this next season is to stay close to home as much as possible, and film around Mammoth and California. That, and be a dad. Chris Benchetler 067
The Ski Journal Volume Eleven, Issue Four: Page 67
