Frenchie Does Backcountry: Episode 7

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Avalanche! and more Avalanche!!

As every listener by now knows Randy and I had humble beginnings as front side snowboarders before changing our evil ways. Although we do get out on splitboards several times a year we have lost touch with our steeze and wanted to bring in some new perspective. Angus Morrison is one dude who has never lost his stoke for snowboarding, in fact, its stronger than ever. Angus has been a friend of the shop since the beginning, a Cripple Creek backup bench tech for the past couple years, and an avid backcountry snowboarder for 2 decades. Our plan was to get him on Totally Deep Podcast to plead his case and defend splitboards everywhere against our taunting.

Angus tuning splitboards

Angus behind the bench at the shop working on his splitboard

If you know Angus at all he is a true wild man. So what could be the harm in having another major FOSJaques "Frenchie" Houot on the show at the same time to liven things up. Frenchie really is podcast gold and at almost 80 he can still be found skiing and riding his bike almost every day. We had long dreamed about him being on the show, but we had no idea how much he would run away with it. Oh and did I mentioned that our producer and the glue that keeps Randy and I from falling apart, Chris Kalous was off climbing in Spain?

As predicted the wheels got pretty wobbly on this episode and I was embarrassed to send the file, which was recorded on our iPhones to Spain for Kalous to edit and publish. At best I was hoping for some awesome sound clips that could be spliced sporadically into future episodes on a running gag called "Frenchie's Corner". What I could have never predicted was Kalous messaging me laughing every minute that he listened to the podcast, or the fact that it quickly became our most downloaded episode with over three times the downloads of either of the ski mountaineering legends Chris Davenport our Lou Dawson.

Frenchie and Doug out for his 80th Bday. At 80 Jacques is still ripping up the slopes.

For anyone that meets him Jaques is a legend in his own mind and a fixture to the Roaring Fork Valley and Aspen. I believe that this sound clip captures a piece of that last 50 years of ski and backcountry ski culture in our valley. Not to mention if you listened to Totally Deep to get a taste of what its like to hang out in a backcountry only ski shop deep in the mountains of Colorado with 6 beers on tap, you should know that never a day goes by with out Frenchie coming in to tell one of these 5 stories again as if it was the first time. There are times when we have been frustrated that no work is getting done, but separated by the time and space of a podcast he is certainly entertaining. Enjoy Jaques taking over Totally Deep and for those splitboarders we haven't offended into unsubscribing and deleting all of these episodes, we promise to have Angus on again to drop some knowledge.

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Episode 7 direct download:

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