Chris Davenport: Ambassador of Big Mountain Skiing
Athlete Profile, Winter 2011-12
Published in SnoWorld, magazine of the 62nd Warren Miller film tour
WHAT DO YOU DO after a week of filming for WME in New Hampshire? If you’re Dav, you climb Everest … then look for bigger challenges.
Seven days after summiting Everest, Chris Davenport was home in Aspen. He admits that after such adventures, “the list of objectives to ski and climb just gets longer rather than shorter.” Raising a family, reaching his fifth decade, and having already checked off enough bucket-list achievements to fill a swimming pool, Dav’s career actually seems to be accelerating.
When you’ve bagged as many peaks and first descents as Davenport, bragging rights become less important than genuine adventure. That’s why for so long he dreamed of a film expedition on Mount Washington. This is where, at age 16, Dav had one of the largest crashes of his life—a blown landing that cartwheeled him all the way to the bottom of the ravine.
Cameraman Tom Day, originally a Vermonter, describes Tuckerman Ravine as the East Coast’s gateway to big mountain skiing. It’s where guys like Day and Davenport went to experience all that the world’s toughest peaks might offer, including some very sketchy weather.
“When we arrived at the base of Tuckerman there were rain runnels on the slopes: terrible for filming. But things turned around and we ended up having an awesome shoot—and really fun skiing. Never give up on something in the mountains unless you have no other choice.” – Dav
Day says it’s not coincidental that Davenport finally got his Tuckerman shoot—just four days before heading for Everest: “I think it meant a lot to him to have that kind of experience to take over to the Himalayas.”