Matt Heffernan is no stranger to the Utah ski scene.
Got to ski the hallway in Days fork with 19 inches of untouched, that was insane.
Every line I skied this year, once I got on dynafit’s was sick.
Felt strong at the top every time, but lots of good lines this year.
Hard to pick just one.
photo john lykins
Whats in your backpack on a touring mission?
Down coat scrunched up at the bottom, gets chilly on the top.
All the necessities, shovel, probe ect.
Its always the best getting home and checking it out again.
Give us a little background on yourself, where did you grow up skiing?
From a suburb of Ohio, I rode boston mills and brandywine.
It actually felt like a huge scene at the time.
Then I moved out west for college.
How did coming from the midwest affect you as a skier, pro’s?
you might get rusty when it comes to hitting jumps.
Bad things about the midwest?
Its not too bad, a real good handrail scene for sure.
There are definitely kids who grew up out west who are just as hungry, look at Jonah Williams.
I have always had a PC pass.
You just cant beat riding with all your buddies and hitting that jump line.
He got me riding with a bunch of the brighton locals, Eric Balken and all those homies.
It makes the winter pretty unique.
did you have anyone in particular who helped show you the ropes out there?
Jose Urrutia, he’s the one who got me stoked on touring and getting out there.
But you wont find me going by any big shit when conditions are bad.
Then I saw him out here touring around, definitely gained a lot of inspiration from him.
How did you get linked up with the hood crew kids?
Whats the appeal of skiing, filming and hanging with those bums?
I saw them all at Hood that spring and skied with them and started hanging with them.
Its always super fun and positive, never too serious.
boy what are you lookin at… Got out here and just had a bunch of fun and learned a bunch of stuff.
You sustained a number of injuries over the course of the last 4 years.
Take us through your broken ankle and femur.
Yeah, Sophmore year we got some snow, it was like the record snow year for Utah.
I had eleven pow days before thanksgiving, we were just up at Brighton and touring around.
I get to the top, run into some homies and we go further east towards silver fork.
They drop into silver fork and I still plan on dropping into Little Cottonwood.
Then I run into Brody Leven and Tim Jones and we ski these runnels called the Emma ridges.
The first runnel skied sick, super deep.
Turned out to be a rock wall and that was the femur.
It definitly makes you think a little bit more about things before you hit them.
You are always trying to hit smart features and assess the risk a little more.
You dont want to do it to much to the point where your syking yourself out.
But I stepped away from a few features this year because the bennefit didnt outweigh the cost.
It just makes you hungrier because you see all of your homies out there.
Thats also the nice thing about touring, riding the mountain.
You dont need to come back and start murdering the park.
you’re free to go tour and enjoy and rehab a lot.
I think its just the hunger, I love skiing.
what is the appeal to you of filming and taking pictures as well as editing?
Especially when you are going touring.
Just time on the couch, time to do school.
you oughta keep the mind busy and school is the perfect outlet for that.
How did you get linked up with fischer?
They have always made super solid skis, been independent since 1924 which is pretty cool.
They make a park ski, the Fischer night stick.
Their touring ski, The Ranger.
I’m riding a 186, has a flat tail, soft, early rise shovel, camber underfoot.
were you trying to accomplish with the blog?
What inspired that though was I’m not competing, I don’t really plan on competing.
Its a really effective, efficient, easy way to get stuff out there.
Last summer was your first full summer at Mt.
Hood, what was your job position out there?
take us through an average day out there
I worked on the salt crew.
Alarm usually went off at 445 AM.
Usually made a sausage and cheese bagel for the lift and ate cereal while that was cooking.
Cruise up to the mountain, me and Meeks usually bumped pretty hard on the way up.
Then your off around 1230 and we just lap Windells till close.
Shoutout to Jeff Curry and Chase the head digger.
What brings you back this spring and summer?
Probably the women of government camp.
Are you feeling pressure to join the work force or continue school?
