Words Jeff Galbraith Photos and Captions Flip McCririck one of skiing’s all-time prolific shooters, Flip McCririck not only helped define and capture an entire generation of skiers, but his work and aesthetic also continues to hold skiing to a higher standard. As more photographers reach for the remote control of a buzz-ing drone and set it all to auto, Flip holds fast to that which ultimately makes a photographer’s work unique and relevant: His own vision. Beginning as another East Coast transplant gone west for col-lege, Flip graduated from Colorado’s Western State in 1984 before making the final leap to the Pacific and Pasadena, CA’s reputable ArtCenter College of Design. After graduating in 1989, he went on to work as an art director in advertising before eventually heading back to Colorado. “I didn’t like the art director job—which I worked so hard to get—very much,” he says. “Long days, up to 16 hours, and schlocky regional advertising was not all that. Even though I was fresh out of too much school, going to photography full time just seemed the right path.” A friend who was living in Vail at the time invited Flip to shoot the Pro Mogul tour stop. He came, he shot and he submitted his images. The tour’s organizers were impressed enough to invite him back to the next event in Aspen. After the weekend, a photographer hired by the tour was caught selling his comped lift ticket. He was summarily fired, and Mr. Philips McCririck picked up the gig. “Lesson learned: Never sell a free ski pass,” Flip says. “I never have.” On the Pro Mogul Tour in the early 1990s, Flip befriended the next generation of skiing royalty, a group that was about to upend everything about ski culture. Shane McConkey, Brad Holmes, Seth Morrison, Dean Cummings, Kent Kreitler and other now-legendary names all shared hotel floor space, keg cups and luggage carts from Telluride to Tignes to Thomp-son Pass, in a frenzied several years that changed the game fundamentally. While snowboarding had gone on to stratospheric cultural heights, featured on MTV as the chosen new sport of rock stars and Hollywood, skiing was sucking industry wind. Years of the same approach, the same gear and the same ideas had stifled a once sexy and vibrant activity. Skiing had gone from outlaw cool a la Downhill Racer , to a sanitized yuppie sport based on condo sales. Together, Flip and friends managed to blow this all up. From the emerging mohawks, piercings and parties of the Pro Mogul tour, skiing’s new punk paradigm was going beyond the competition course. The crew poached snowboarding’s halfpipes, parks and traditional haunts. They journeyed to Alaska, pioneering an entirely different scale of terrain. With every first descent and fresh trick, they began to reclaim and redefine skiing for the better. And for the future. Giving voice to this movement was a relatively short-lived publication produced by Oceanside, CA’s TransWorld Media. Titled FREEZE , the magazine was led by a group of one time Colorado University dorm-mates including Kreitler, McCon-key and eventual editor Mike Jaquet. Flip became the photo editor, and it was on. For several years, FREEZE , along with the emerging vid-eographers it sponsored, disrupted skiing like never before. Now on cultural par with their snowboard brethren, the magazine breathed life back into the industry. Skiing took off again and has never looked back. When it came time for The Ski Journal to name a successor to Grant Gunderson, our initial photo editor, Gunderson’s nomination was reflexive. “Flip should do it,” he said without hesitation. “He knows skiing, he loves skiing, and he gets it.” For several seasons, Flip served that role with us, working with old friends and new ones to develop our imagery. And Grant was right—there is perhaps no one who sincerely loves skiing and skiers as much as McCririck. Alongside spending time with his wife LiAnne and their three maturing children, Flip showed tremendous commitment as he continued to AS 080 The Ski Journal
The Ski Journal Volume Eleven, Issue Two: Page 80
