Mt. Baker hardcores Adam, Rene and Tory for Lib Tech Ski
Our ski program can be traced back to one man. Tory Bland. Tory is a long time friend of Lib Tech and a sideways thinking skier who has guided hardcore shreds and visiting snow dignitaries around Mt. Baker’s legendarily treacherous terrain for years. Tory is a DIY master creating his own clothing, surfboards and mounting his own bindings who was drawn to our own DIY ethos and American craftsmen spirit. Lib Tech founders Mike Olson and Pete Saari, being life long skiers themselves, had always wanted to build a better ski and now with Tory had the perfect reason to.
For the last 15 years Tory has been instrumental to Lib Tech Ski ushering in early designs on models like the POW NAS and the Wreckcreate series. To this day he’s still making his own stuff, chasing surf and pow from his van, choosing his own lines and making speed management aesthetically beautiful on the skis he helped bring to life.
Along the way Tory brought in another baker legend by way of Chilliwac, BC, Renne Crawshaw. Rene get’s more days on hill than almost anyone. One day he’s scoring fresh pow at Baker then he’s nipple deep in Japan then he’s touring the Sawtooth Range during a lunar eclipse then he’s slashing summer slush at Mt. Hood with the family. The guy never misses a day or a chance at a deep turn, a tight tree run, a cliff drop or an Air Bear inspired kicker sesh. And when he’s not doing the skiing he’s got his trusty Olympus to document the crew or the next up and coming ruler.
Rene’s input on the UFO 115, Mega Pow and Wunderstick has helped us constantly improve our designs to progress Lib Tech Ski including the new modifications to our ski specific MagneTraction.
And the Baker trifecta is now made complete with Rene and Tory’s good friend Adam ü joining the squad. Adam is an enigma of positive energy, knowledge, production and creative expression. He’s a savage beast on skis launching with equal parts precision style and reckless abandon.
A shredder on snow and a shredder on the guitar fronting a high energy rock band when he isn’t on the water studying rare marine mammals. What? Yes, he’s a marine biologist who spends half the year on the water researching marine life and water quality and half the year back at Baker researching deep pow and great times and the effects of adrenaline on the brain.
If that wasn’t enough for a guy this ski boss has also scored six magazine cover shots this year alone on Lib Tech skis. Is that a record? Not sure but it is for us. Cover photos by Grant Gunderson X 5 and Kevin Mchugh X 1.
Look out for these Baker boys, they’re easy to spot; they have Lib Tech skis and are buried in pow with only their huge smiles up for air.
