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 Athlete to Athlete Interview
 Greg Child with Megan Pischke The North Face athlete Greg Child uses his unique perspective to get to know the rest of our athlete team - who they are, what inspires them, and what lies ahead. Thirty-year-old snowboarder Megan Pischke had a good year 2000. Making first snowboard descents in the mountains of Greenland, and winning the Quarter Pipe event in the World Cup SnowBoard Contest in Quebec, are just two highlights of her year as a professional boarder. On a mid-December day that seemed to be snowing all over the US, I phoned her as she was driving home from a day on the slopes of Vail Mountain, Colorado. Greg: Tell me about the Warren Miller film in Greenland you participated in last May. Megan: Being a snowboarder who had done a lot of competitions, I was used to boarding in ski resorts and staying in hotels. But Greenland was different. It's a huge mountainous wilderness, in a country that is nearly as big as the US, but with a population of just 50,000. I was in a group that included Jeremy Nobis and we traveled to west central Greenland, which is a world of glaciers. We carried huge backpacks up the rubble for 13 miles and camped on the ice near a 7,000-foot peak called Mount Assasaut. Skiing and boarding that was our main objective. Greg: What kind of mountain was it? Megan: Steep! There was a lot more bare ice on it than we expected so we couldn't make the runs we hoped to make. We would have had to climb some very difficult slopes and we didn't have the gear or mountaineering experience for that. But we made other descents of that peak and on other mountains too. We had some really great runs. One amazing thing about that trip was that we always got the weather when we needed it. It always seemed to be storming the evening before we'd have a plan to try some first descent, and we'd be saying "that's it, if it doesn't clear in the morning we'll have to quit this place." But every time, we'd wake up to a blue bird day. Greg: Whenever I think of the Arctic I think of wind and storms. Megan: We had a really scary storm hit us early one morning when we were boating up a fjord. We were planning to head to our final campsite in Elliott Fjord when we had heard the weather report say that there'd be gale force winds during high tide in the afternoon. The boat trip would be four hours, which meant the storm might hit before we reached camp. About an hour and a half before the camp it started getting a little bumpy. At first we thought it was funny, because some of us were down below in the hold, being bounced around. But when I came up on deck I saw huge waves, and all the guys were gripped! They were silent, staring at four and eight foot waves that were hitting us. The boat driver was a stoic Inuit man about 50 years old. He had handled a lot of rough seas, and he was concentrating really hard. He was piloting the boat through driving sleet that was going straight into his eyes and he didn't have any goggles. The boat was being tossed about, and it sounded like it was going to snap. There were icebergs everywhere. If we had sunk we would have been dead in that cold water! When I get nervous I laugh a lot, but I noticed that I was the only one laughing. All the tough skiers were looking pretty freaked out! It was hair raising. The boatman said it was the worst seas he'd ever been in. Greg: Did you get to know the Inuit people at all? Megan: Yes, I asked a lot of questions and heard a lot of stories from them. One of my favorites was about a particular sea goddess. Frederick, our boatman told me one great legend. I mentioned to him that we must have had a sea god looking over us to make it through that storm and he said that actually there is a sea god. Long ago each of the tribes had shamans who practiced magic and communicated with the spirit world by going into trances. Often these rituals were held to bring on the animals for hunting and they involved the shaman being bound with ropes into a sitting position for days. In their meditation they would go deep under the sea and comb the hair of the goddess of the sea and out of her hair would come all the animals like whales and seals. After I heard that story I bought a beautiful soapstone carving of that sea goddess with the animals coming out of her hair at the market. It sits in my kitchen. Greg: I know you spend a lot of time in the backcountry. In all the boarding you've done have you ever had any avalanche experiences? Megan: I have been caught in sloughs before, and I've been in the "white room," which is a term that we have for when you are deep in the midst of a slough and everything around you goes white, but I have never been in a big, dangerous slide. Though I have cut slabs out from under me and that is a real eye opener. I try to be prepared for the conditions and I'm aware of the danger. I have been gaining an education in snow conditions for a while now. I have had some friends die in avalanches. Greg: Does the threat of avalanche weigh on your mind when you are boarding big slopes in the backcountry? Megan: Yes and no. You get to the point where you have done all your research, you dig your pits, you know the aspects of the slopes, you form an opinion with the other people, but in the end you have to rely on intuition. That can't be taught. It's the sixth sense. But you cannot guess Mother Nature. It is a risk being in the backcountry. She is huge. And we are just specks. Greg: Have you often turned back from doing a run based on instinct? Megan: Yes! I have often dug a pit and said no way. Or just not felt right about it. That is the sad thing these days. SO many people go back there and don't have the education about snow conditions. Greg: What survival tools do you take in the backcountry? Megan: It depends on how long I'll be there. But always you wear a PIEPS. That alone won't save you, you have to know exactly how to use them. We all have shovels and I have recently started carrying a saw that slips into a shovel handle and that helps to cut the snow to dig a pit and see different layers. Water, food, extra goggles, gloves and an extra layer of clothes. We often use snowmobiles to get to the backcountry and then we take bivouac gear. In a snowmobile, you also have huge avalanche danger. Statistically, the death rate in the backcountry is higher for snowmobilers than skiers and boarders. Snowmobiles can weigh up to 700 lbs.! Greg: What kind of snowmobile do you have? Megan: A 600 Arctic Cat. It was a racing machine, and a bit wider for stability. What I really want is a narrower, lighter powder sled that I can throw around. Like a Polaris 700 RMK. That's the machine I want Santa to bring me! Greg: You're well known for getting big air in competitions, and now you are venturing into the mountains. How did your snowboarding career begin? Megan: I started doing it around California and Colorado. I never skied when I was growing up, but when I put a snowboard on I just started going for the air. I've been doing that type of boarding for a while now and I love the feeling when everything is going right, when you are feeling balanced, when you get some air and you land perfectly on your feet. These days I fantasize about flying off big cliffs and doing big mountain runs. Greg: What other comps did you do in 2000, and what are you planning for 2001? Megan: Well, the big event for me in 2000 was winning the Quarter Pipe event in the World Cup in Quebec. The World Cup is a huge event and for me it was special because I didn't feel that I'd be in very good shape for it, as I had just come back from an injury. It was a strange injury, a bruised femur, which I got from a bad landing. I wasn't in a cast but I had to be on crutches for seven weeks. So when I did my event and won I was really pleased. The other fun event in '99 was the X Games and the Boarder Cross event. Greg: Boarder Cross? Is that like Moto-Cross, only on a snowboard? Is it some sort of free-for-all race? Megan: Exactly. You even have to wear Moto-Cross padded clothing and a big crash helmet. It's really fun. You take off in groups of five and do anything you can to get down the slope first. I got fifth place. Greg: And what is in the future for you? Megan: I'm headed to Europe later this winter for a Big Air Contest, and I'll be back in the X Games again, in the Boarder Cross event. But right now I'm just enjoying the start of winter. My favorite days are ones like today: snow dumping and blowing around in the wind, wild and gray. I love it! Greg: I'm curious about the passion you need for all this, to go out day after day, to compete and be in top form. How do you sustain such passion and enthusiasm? Megan: Boarding was the first thing in my life that gave me a focus. I grew up being an athlete, playing softball, soccer, I surfed. I got a college scholarship to be a pitcher. I found with snowboarding that it was the most amazing thing in life. I wouldn't say I am a natural at boarding either, which makes me work at it and that helps. Greg: But you've done so well at boarding, How can you say that? Megan: I don't know what a natural is. Greg: Jimmy Hendrix on guitar-that's a natural. Megan: Yeah, exactly. I have my days. The competition thing is only part of my sport. I'm a competitor against myself, and I'm the biggest judge against myself. Passion is the mountains. I could never think of conquering a mountain. I would think of being grateful for the mountain to allow me to be part of it. |
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