Angel Collinson. Alongside Lucas Debari, the big-mountain skier will MC the Wednesday, Oct. 7 film program, Cool Skiing, Hot Planet, at SHIFT.
On Wednesday, Oct. 7, big-mountain skier Angel Collinson and big-mountain snowboarder Lucas Debari will MC SHIFT’s Cool Skiing, Hot Planet Film Program. The evening is a celebration of big-mountain riding—a pursuit in existential peril as a result of climate change.
Both Collinson and Debari are athletes with The North Face and members of Protect Our Winters’ Rider’s Alliance. Collinson is a film star with Teton Gravity Research (TGR).
SHIFT is developing the program with The North Face, TGR and Protect Our Winters (POW). It will be preceded by the SHIFT Drinks Happy Hours on skiing and climate change, which features POW’s Executive Director, Chris Steinkamp, and the co-founder of Teton Gravity Research, Steve Jones.
Collinson and Debari will participate in the happy hour discussion as well.
The Cool Skiing, Hot Planet program kicks off the 2015 SHIFT Festival’s evening events with a focus on how the influencers of snow sports are using their passion for riding to create a social movement around climate activism.
Collinson and Debari will present a lineup of some of the wildest new ski and snowboard films on the planet—and connect the dots with the climate-action revolution.
Collinson, a Snowbird, UT, native, has witnessed climate change adversely affect winter in her backyard and in mountains around the planet.
Big-mountain snowboarder Lucas Debari has witnessed the effects of climate change on winter first-hand. The experience has turned him into a climate activist.
In the past four or five years, as Debari has transitioned from the pro snowboard circuit into snowboard mountaineering in the Greater Rangers, he has witnessed first-hand the impact of climate change on his passion.
Both joined POW’s Rider’s Alliance as a result of their first-hand experiences in the mountains.
“It’s my duty as a person, with every bit of influence I have, to share the message about climate change,” he says. “How many people who love to ski didn’t get to do any of it last year because of the weather? In the big scheme of things, skiing and snowboarding is a small part of the equation, but by channeling the passion in incites in us, we can make a difference.”
POW’s mission is to unite and actively engage the global snow sports community to lead the fight against climate change.
The POW Riders Alliance is a community of professional athletes committed to environmental leadership.
Since 2011, Riders Alliance athletes have met with over 20,000 high school students, written numerous local and national newspaper op-eds and visited Washington, DC to defend the EPA and the Clean Air Act.
Presentations to high school audiences are planned by Debari and Collinson during their visit to Jackson Hole for SHIFT.
