Chad's Gap, a 120-foot backcountry jump in the Wasatch Mountains near Alta Ski Area, Utah, holds a legendary place in freeskiing history. It's a spot synonymous with both innovation and risk, and no story of Chad's Gap is complete without mentioning Tanner Hall.
Tanner Hall, a freeskiing pioneer and seven-time X Games gold medalist, has devoted almost half of his life to freeskiing. At age 15, he left his home in Kalispell, Mont., to attend a private ski academy in Park City, Utah, to focus on mogul skiing. By 16, he'd been kicked out of high school and he'd given up moguls for the more counterculture world of freeskiing. He was a natural from the start.
In 2001, at 17, he competed in his first X Games and won gold in Ski Big Air. In 2008, he became the first person to three-peat in two Winter X disciplines by earning three straight Ski SuperPipe and Ski Slopestyle victories.
Since then, Hall has been a prominent player in the freeskiing world. He became an investor in a cat-skiing operation in British Columbia, Canada, co-founded the ski company Armada, and he's appeared in over a dozen ski films, including a 2011 documentary about his life called "Like a Lion," created by his friends and filmmakers Eric Iberg and Shane Nelson.
"Tanner's contribution to freeskiing can't be overstated," says Chris Jerard, a co-founder of the Association of Freeskiing Professionals. "From winning X Games gold to coming back from devastating injuries that would have crippled someone else, he has always found a way to win with skiing. The advantage is his deep love of the sport combined with a crazy mental toughness. The truth is, the only one who can beat Tanner is Tanner."
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However, Hall's journey hasn't been without its challenges. One particular incident at Chad's Gap stands out as a pivotal moment in his career.
The Discovery and Early Days of Chad's Gap
According to one version of the story, Chad Zurinskas, a local Utah resident, discovered the gap-formed between two piles of mine tailings-in 1999. He then collaborated with filmmaker Kris Ostness to construct a jump and attempt the first successful crossing. While Zurinskas may have initiated the jump's construction, it was Candide Thovex who ultimately landed the first successful jump.
In the year 2000 a D-spin was a super technical trick even when deployed in the park - there were probably only a handful of people in the world who had it dialled. Candide Thovex didn’t just take this trick to the backcountry - by the standards of the time he took it to the moon. Today crews take up to five days to build the jump and in-run. Candide and the Collins brothers spent just a few hours. Chris Collins did a huge front flip deeper into the landing than anyone had gone before. Candide took slam after slam before nailing the D-spin the following day. To land a trick so far ahead of the game off such a hastily-prepared jump over a gap that still leaves pro skiers shitting veins - well hopefully you are starting to get an idea of why Candide Thovex is kind of a big deal…
In 2004 Travis Rice and Romain DeMarchi hit Chad’s Gap for the movie “Pop” they changed the sport of snowboarding. Between them Romain and Travis nailed a backside 540, switch backside 540, cab 720, backside rodeo 720 and a backside 180 - each of them 120 foot plus. As Rice’s sponsors at DC declared in a celebratory advertising campaign, Chad’s Gap had been well and truly “shut down”.
Travis’s first hit was 205 feet - right to the bottom of the tranny. He would have smashed into the uphill wall on the far side of the second gully had he started at his intended point - a couple of skiers who had hit it before pointed out that they had started lower. Travis moved 15 metres down the 300 metre in-run and just avoided accordioning into an unforgiving Grizzly Gulch terrain feature.
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X Games Most Dominant: Tanner Hall - Winter X Games
Tanner Hall's Crash at Chad's Gap
Hall suffered a major injury in March 2005, when he broke both heels and both ankles in a crash at Utah's Chad's Gap.
On this day Tanner had plenty on his mind. Tanner’s crew spent five days building the perfect switch in-run. Unless you are travelling over 51 mph you won’t clear Chad’s Gap but as the temperature changed during the day so did the required in-run length. Conditions were spring slush. Photographer Brent Benson believes that with a powder landing Tanner would have walked away uninjured. Tanner’s spectacular crash has come to overshadow the rest of his session - which is a shame given his lofty, ultra-smooth switch 5s and switch 9s are the highlight of his segment in ‘The Teddy Bear Crisis’…
The video of Tanner Hall sending Chad’s Gap-located in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah-casing it and breaking both of his ankles became infamous. His exclamation, "My ankles are broken, my ankles are broke", has become famous in the snow sports world. He got off lightly with two broken ankles: his horrific scorpion that occurs a few hundredths of a second later tests the limits of human flexibility. He was lucky to ever ski again.
Hall recalled it to feel like someone had loaded his ski boots with dynamite. Few of us are cursed to suffer our greatest trials in the public domain. Tanner had the best riposte to any criticism - coming back the following year to win the X Games Superpipe and to long endure in one of the shortest career paths in modern employment; the pro freeskier. He also had unfinished business with Chad.
The Internet is awash with schadenfreude over this crash - one of the worst in freeskiing.
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Below is Tanner Hall's full segment from the Teddy Bear Crisis at Chad’s Gap including switch 900…
The Road to Recovery and Return to Chad's Gap
Despite the severity of the injury, Hall was determined to return to skiing. He came back strong after that, seemingly unstoppable. He won the next three X Games Ski SuperPipe golds. Returning after an injury like that, on a feature which takes some major cojones to hit in the first place, takes a strong mental game.
Hall suffered a major injury in March 2005, when he broke both heels and both ankles in a crash at Utah's Chad's Gap, but he came back strong after that, seemingly unstoppable. He won the next three X Games Ski SuperPipe golds.
Here’s a video showing both sessions:
Yesterday, Hall returned to Chad’s Gap and sent it huge-landing far beyond the knuckle of the jump and claiming redemption.
Tanner Hall Today
For a self-proclaimed non-jock, Hall looks surprisingly strong -- 160 pounds of lean muscle, big enough to take hits in the halfpipe without flinching. His forearm tattoos peek out from under his shirt, and his flat-brimmed hat is stamped with the logo of his new energy drink sponsor, Rockstar Energy. This is a new Tanner Hall I'm looking at across the table.
But now, in addition to his regained physical strength, he has a new state of mind, a mental toughness, and a sense of humility and appreciation for what he has.
"He's a completely different Tanner than he was five years ago," says Dr. ski team. "He used to be a wild guy who didn't take care of himself and had a sense of arrogance. But now, he's dedicated and focused. His injury helped him grow up."
Hall agrees. "My life changed after that injury," he says. "Before, I was getting out of control with my partying and my lifestyle. I wasn't being healthy. I wasn't treating my friends and family the way I should. I think karma put me in my place."
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