Backcountry Magazine 156 | The Backwoods Issue

On the Cover: Caite Zeliff fell in love with the freedom of skiing as a kid in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Eventually, the sport became her livelihood: first receiving a college ski racing scholarship, then chasing podium purses as a competitive freeride skier and, finally, becoming a sponsored professional athlete. At some point, the joy disappeared, but Zeliff is working to get it back. She says she found some of it on this day, skiing on the edge and dancing among giants in Seward, Alaska. [Photo] Eric Berger   THE BACKWOODS ISSUE RENAISSANCE MAN p. 60 In 2019, Adrien Grabinski impulsively turned into the Shames Mountain parking lot. The detour led him to a job as a patroller, and a year later (at just 21 years old) he became the director of Shames’s ski patrol. As casually as he earned this role, he’s also made his way into ski films and started snowboarding. And he’s happy with his inadvertent destination, Shames. It doesn’t hurt that he can kick off the workday with a solo