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 Athlete to Athlete Interview
 Mark Synnott with Rick Armstrong September 2001 The North Face athlete Mark Synnott uses his unique perspective to get to know the rest of our athlete team - who they are, what inspires them, and what lies ahead. Rick Armstrong and I shared a great adventure this spring on Mt. Waddington in British Columbia's Coast Range. It was our first big trip together, so of course it had to be an epic. Towards the end of the trip we found ourselves pinned down at high camp during a three day blizzard. To save weight, neither of us had carried a book and it was only thanks to Rick's amazing (though somewhat demented) sense of humor that I maintained my own sanity. We came away from it great friends, with plans for many future adventures. Mark: What have you been up to lately? Rick: Mostly, I've just been flying my paraglider. That's what I do for entertainment and training. I've been flying for 12 years. I stopped counting around 2200, but I guess I have a little over three thousand flights. I got into the sport really early. I've been flying almost as long as anyone in the US. I do some comps and stuff like that. At one point I was rated as one of the top ten paraglider pilots in the US. We're breaking new barriers every day. We are constantly finding new things we can do, new places we can go, records we can break. We're flying around like birds. We're trying to break the world distance record of 200 miles. We're also trying to get the local record here in Wyoming which is 102 miles. I try to paraglide every day. Mark: What's it like? Rick: Usually, it starts with a long hike up a mountain. On top we'll wait for the optimal conditions -- thermals. You have to figure out when the peak heating is going to release. We're legally allowed to fly to 18,000 feet. The highest I've been is probably around 21,000 feet. It's totally unbelievable up there. We're always looking for more lift. Once we get up high, we try to travel and see how far we can get from where we took off. It's completely meditative most of the time, but it can also be super turbulent. Have you ever experienced turbulence in a small airplane? That's nothing compared to what it feels like in a glider. It can go from being the most calming feeling in the world, to "Mommy help me" in a matter of seconds. In big turbulence your paraglider can ball up above you and you'll free fall for a while - the g's are insane. Mark: Any close calls? Rick: One time I was flying near Salt Lake City, and the guy I was with forgot to tell me that we were flying in the approach zone for the international airport. At one point I looked around and counted eight jets around me. I had visions of being a fly on the windshield. Mark: How does this mix with your skiing? Rick: It's great because I focus on skiing and climbing in the winter and in the summer I focus on paragliding. I usually bring my glider when I go on ski trips. . I'd like to bring it on my next trip to South Georgia. I've flown off the Great Wall in China, in India, all over the world really. My goal in the next year is to put together some paragliding expeditions. Mark: Tell about our last big adventure on Mount Waddington? Rick: Yeah, that was my last mission. Waddington is a truly amazing peak. The highlight of that trip was definitely the bivi that we shared at 13,000 feet just below the northwest summit. We got stuck there for close to three days in a raging blizzard. Seriously though, I definitely felt like we were out there. With the coastal weather being as temperamental as it is, things could have gone either way. We could have easily been stuck up there for a week and run out of food. The worst part was that we had no books or entertainment at all. We stupidly thought maybe we could rappel down an ice gully on north face and we even checked it out. That was a mistake. We just couldn't go anywhere in the whiteout. Mark: Will you share how we got out of there? Rick: Finally, on the third day we woke up to a window in the clouds. We decided to pack up and try to ski out. It had snowed 2-3 feet and the avalanche danger was high so all we wanted to do was get out of there fast. Just as we were about to descend the peak socked back into whiteout and we were momentarily lost in the mist. At that point we were kind of wondering if it had been a good call to break down camp. The Angel Glacier has very few safety zones - most of it is exposed to either massive crevasses, rockfall, icefall, seracs, and avalanches. Those are some of the biggest crevasses I've ever seen - and I've seen a lot of crevasses. There was this one monster that was like 400 feet deep. So we center punched it -- a term we came up with working as Alaskan heli ski guides. When the conditions are really bad, sometimes the best thing you can do is just point 'em straight down the hill…and try not to wipe out. I think we skied the whole thing in about 30 minutes. Mark: Would you like to tell the story of your all star wipeout? Rick: Well, after Mt. Waddington we decided to do some heli skiing. It's cheating I know, but it's OK to cheat now and then. We were looking for good stuff to ski, but the snow was horrid, all punchy with avalanche debris all over the place. We were kind of having a hard time finding stuff to do and I was getting bored. We were filming, so I was looking for something exciting, something cool for people to watch. We got dropped off on this one face that was about 50 degrees with a small cliff at the top. I made the first few turns then straight lined it off the cliff. I soared about 20-30 feet and landed in breakable crust. I was a touch off balance on the takeoff. In good snow I think I could have stuck it but the snow was crap and I started to roll. I almost stopped it right then but not quite. On a slope that steep you just accelerate in a cartwheeling motion. I tried to turn around a couple times but there was no getting out of it. I did a nice double back hand spring over the shrund and miraculously walked away. That's one of the top three wipeouts I've ever taken. I hate falling, but sometimes when you're pushing to the highest level you're right at the point of what's physically possible. Huck and chuck. Mark: Tell me about your next big mission? Are you planning anything for this fall or winter? Rick: Yeah, I'm super psyched. Right now I'm getting organized for an expedition in October to South Georgia Island. It's north of Antarctica, east of the southern tip of South America, west of the southern tip of Africa. This is the same place where Shackleton stopped over on his famous epic. We're going to attempt a bunch of first ski ascents and descents. The mountains are big, 9000 feet high and that's coming straight out of the ocean. We'll be shooting footage for a Warren Miller ski film. The team is myself, Hilaree Nelson, John Griber and Doug Stoup, plus the film crew. Mark: How are you going to get down to the island? Rick: We'll take a ship from South America to the Falkland Islands, then form there on to South Georgia. We'll be sailing through an area known as the "Roaring 40s", some of the wildest ocean in the world. I've been across the Drake Passage twice, but this is supposed to be way more intense. The trip will be about six weeks long and we'll use the boat as a sort of floating basecamp. It's perfect because we can move it around and then just take the Zodiac when we need to get in to shore. Mark: Why do you do this stuff? Rick: Well, I guess I do it for the adventure. I'm into exploration. My biggest goal is to go and do things that other haven't people haven't done yet. These days people have been pretty much everywhere, but I search out those few places that still remain untouched. It's neat to think that you're making steps where no one has ever done that before. It allows you to really think about stuff. I don't know what it is about adventure that sucks you in, but it's definitely addicting. After a while it becomes something that you have to have. I guess that's why Antarctica is my favorite place. It's got the wildest mountains I've ever seen, but it's also one of the least explored places in the world. Checking these places out is like fulfilling a childhood dream. |
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