Deeper

鈥婤ryan Fox, Angel Collinson, and Kalen Thorien shred harder than most鈥攂etween the three of them, they鈥檝e been featured in dozens of ski and snowboard films and magazine stories (including this ). But each of them have passions that run deeper than just dropping big lines. Angel lobbies Congress each fall on behalf of Protect Our Winters, Kalen is a Youth Ambassador for American Rivers; and Bryan is the founder of Drink Water, a company that encourages people to eschew energy drinks in favor of water. 鈥媁e kicked the photo gallery off with Kalen鈥 and Angel鈥. This week we add 鈥婤ryan to the mix.

Pro snowboarder Bryan Fox is the people鈥檚 rider. His style isn鈥檛 flashy, and he rarely enters competitions. When he placed third at 2013鈥檚 invite-only Red Bull Ultra Natural, beating out 13 of the world鈥檚 most decorated riders, it was his first-ever podium. Even so, it鈥檚 likely you鈥檝e seen him ride. Since his first appearance in 2004鈥檚 cult classic snowboard film Some Kind of Life, Fox has appeared in some 20 films, including his own offering, 2014鈥檚 award-winning Pathology, which he starred in and made with collaborator Austin Smith. 鈥淚鈥檝e always thought that our obsession with snowboards is like a disease,鈥 says Fox. 鈥淪ome people catch it, and some don鈥檛. Pathology is the study of the disease.鈥 This winter he appears in The Snowboarder Movie: SFD. He鈥檚 also a counterculture figure within the sport鈥攈is company Drink Water encourages people to eschew sugary drinks, whose purveyors are major sponsors of action sports, in favor of water. 鈥淚 just want kids to think for themselves,鈥 he says.
Photo:

Fox grew up far from snow, in a small California town called Ramona in San Diego county. He started skateboarding at age 11 and surfing at age 12. He snowboarded a few times in high school but didn鈥檛 catch the disease until he moved to Oregon a week after his high school graduation. 鈥淚 saw snowboarding as the best of both skating and surfing鈥攖he flow and that sense of flying, transcending the earthbound human experience. Oregon felt like home to me, and I could snowboard year-round on Mount Hood.鈥 When Fox decided to drop out of college to snowboard full time, his parents were surprisingly supportive. 鈥淭he first film premiere I took my dad to, he freaked out. 鈥業 didn鈥檛 know this was a job you could have,鈥 he said. To this day, he describes my job as 鈥榡umping off mountains,鈥欌 says Fox.
Photo: “This shot ended up on the cover of TransWorld SNOWboarding. Flying back to Girdwood after a day in the Chugach, Travis Rice made the pilot drop us off on this peak because it had the last light of the day. That鈥檚 him standing on the peak while I dropped in. He basically gave me a cover, which was quite kind.”

Fox has never done drugs and never drinks alcohol, which makes him an anomaly in his community. 鈥淚 guess it鈥檚 a little bit of a punk sensibility鈥攆ind your own identity, don鈥檛 be a follower,鈥 he says. 鈥淚 feel like people turn to substances when they are bored. That鈥檚 not my nature. I鈥檓 never bored. There are always a dozen things I want to do: snowboarding, skateboarding, making films. At the end of the day, I鈥檓 always fulfilled and tired and want to go to bed. Why would I sit in a dark, loud room and strain to hear conversations?鈥
Photo: Hiking in the Colorado backcountry near Steamboat in .

In 2011, Fox and fellow pro snowboarder Austin Smith founded , a response to what Fox calls, 鈥渢he infiltration of action sports by the energy drink companies. We wanted to remind kids that that don鈥檛 have to poison themselves to have fun snowboarding.鈥 It started with the pair simply writing 鈥淒rink Water鈥 on their boards with a Sharpie to counter energy drink makers鈥 logos and evolved into an apparel company that donates 10 percent of their profits to Water.org, a nonprofit that drills wells in drought-stricken nations. In addition, all the money raised at their annual Rat Race banked slalom event at Mount Hood鈥檚 Timberline Lodge goest to the nonprofit. Altogether since 2011, Drink Water has funneled more than $50,000 to Water.org, and now boasts a team of 26 pro snowboarders, skiers, skaters, and surfers.

Photo: Sporting a , about halfway up Mount Moran in Grand Teton National Park to film a sequence for TGR鈥檚 Almost Ablaze in March 2014.

It鈥檚 official: Angel Collinson, 24, is on fire. That鈥檚 her on the cover of the November 2015 issue of . And that鈥檚 her absolutely shredding 鈥婣laska’s 鈥婲eacola Range鈥 鈥媔n the closing segment of Teton Gravity Research鈥檚 latest鈥 film鈥, . For those following her rise, this isn鈥檛 the least bit surprising. After narrowly missing a spot on the US Ski Team, the Utah native stormed on the freeskiing competition scene, winning the Freeskiing World Tour in 2010 and 2011 and finishing second in 2012. Later that year, standing in line for the Snowbird tram, she got a phone call from Teton Gravity Research, inviting her to heli-ski in Alaska for their 2013 film. 鈥淚 was too stunned to get onto the tram,鈥 says Collinson. 鈥淚 felt like I鈥檇 just won the universe鈥檚 lottery.鈥 She has since appeared in a half-dozen ski films, including Unicorn Picnic鈥檚 Pretty Faces, Sherpas Cinema鈥檚 Into the Mind, and four TGR films, including winning Best Female Performance at the Powder Awards for her opening segment in 2014鈥檚 Almost Ablaze. Photo: “This was in the Jackson Hole backcountry, on my first ever snowmobile trip last winter. We all got together and it started dumping, so we headed out to check out some new zones. For the most part we were zipping around on logging roads, which made it nice for me because I’m a totally beginner sledder.”

Collinson and her younger brother John, also a fixture in TGR films, grew up at Snowbird ski resort, where their father, the legendary Jimmy Collinson, was 鈥媡he assistant 鈥媓ead of snow safety. The pair shared a 5-by-12-foot walk-in closet in employee housing that was furnished with bunk beds. Their mother home-schooled them, along with a few other children, so in winter they rarely left Little Cottonwood Canyon except to go to ski races at other mountains. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 remember a time before skiing,鈥 says Angel. She and her brother now share a house in Salt Lake City, near the base of the canyon. 鈥淗e鈥檚 still my favorite person to ski with,鈥 she says.
Photo: 鈥淚鈥檓 waiting for the lifts to spin at British Columbia鈥檚 Red Mountain. It鈥檚 snowing big fat flakes outside, so I鈥檓 just staying dry. This was our first stop on a pow-and-pillows tour for a TGR sequence. At Jackson Hole, we have to get a permit to go up early and film before the crowds arrive. At Red, there are so few people that you don鈥檛 need to, which is what makes it so great.鈥

In 2014, Collinson drove to Jackson Hole from Utah at TGR鈥檚 behest, only to find out the night before that she was slated to ski the South Teton the next morning. 鈥淲e started skinning at 4 a.m.,鈥 she says. Five thousand eight hundred feet later, she and fellow pro Griffin Post, here in the lead, summited the peak.
Photo: 鈥嬧淕riffin dropped in on the East Face first and shredded the line, but then he radioed up that conditions were sketchy鈥攂reakable crust,鈥 says Angel. 鈥淲e all made it down safe, but because the snow conditions were so bad, it wasn鈥檛 great footage and never made the film.鈥

Collinson has only been winter camping twice, for three days at the base of Mount Moran for the March, 2014 Almost Ablaze expedition (shown above), and the year before in Denali National Park, when the Collinsons joined Ian McIntosh and a film crew from Sherpas Cinema to lay down some first descents on Mount Hunter. The group spent 12 days camping in temps that reached 40 degrees below zero (鈥淭hat sleeping bag there is one of the great loves of my life,鈥 she says), but they still managed to knock off a half-dozen new lines and make cocktails with glacier ice every evening. Along for the ride鈥攁s it is every ski day鈥攚as Angel鈥檚 favorite item from her rock collection, a golf-ball-sized meteorite that stays in her right cargo pocket. 鈥淚 bought it in a rock shop in Moab, Utah, shortly after my boyfriend Ryan Hawks died in a freeskiing competition,鈥 says Angel. 鈥淚t鈥檚 literally a piece of stardust. It鈥檚 an antenna.鈥
Photo: Stretching out in her . 鈥淚 had my own tent, so I could spread out. 鈥婱ark Fisher, the photographer, always makes me laugh. I鈥檓 sure he鈥檚 making some little joke here.鈥