About Chris

I’m a mountain professional and pro freeskier from the UK, I’ve been lucky enough to ski all over the world from Chile and Argentina to NZ and all over Europe. I’ve based myself in the Chamonix Valley during the  winter time since 1992. People often ask me ‘why Chamonix’ and I most often reply ‘because I came here as a young lad with aspirations of skiing the famous steep slopes of Chamonix just like my childhood hero’s Glen Plake and Scot Schmidt’. Most visiting skiers get the Chamonix vibe and come back year on year. Its a pretty special place with something for everyone but also a valley steeped in a rich alpine history, with tails of extreme mountaineering and skiing echoing around its many jagged peaks.
My skiing career really took off in Chamonix from dirtbag ski bum in the early 90’s to ski model and international freeride competitor. I was really lucky back then, to have been offered the opportunity to shoot photo’s with many of the Alp’s finest ski photographers. These images of my skiing then started to appear in the UK snow press, magazines like Fall line skiing really helped out a great deal by printing images of me. From then on in, I began working hard to provide action ski images and stores from my expeditions and experiences, of traveling and competing around the globe. Many might say ‘I was living the dream’ and to be honest that’s very much how it all felt. My sponsors support, enabled me to live this life style which really was a dream come true in many ways.
Around 2000 I started to look at how I could share this experiences and knowledge to the up and coming skiers looking to take a similar path to myself. I ran a number of summer training camps and Indoor freestyle comps in order to offer these young rippers a chance to showcase their talent. Purefreeride then appeared on the scene, the aim of this company was to offer the same sort of coaching principals that worked with the younger skiers to the general public. Based in Chamonix Purefreeride offered Backcountry and Freeride skiing camps and courses.
Along side myself I had a selection of top UK pro skiers like Nick Southwell and Jason Shutt and local Chamonix guides. The Purefreeride concept drove me to finish off my International ski teaching qualifications and although hugely torn between the guides course and BASI I decided to go for the teaching qualification. The remit for the ISTD included the ability to teach off-piste skiing and ski touring and that’s really what I wanted to be able to do with my Purefreeride groups so the decision was made. Although Purefreeride still exists my focus has shifted somewhat. Watch this space for our new website showcasing my new offering of skiing courses including piste performance, off-piste, backcountry ski touring, steeps skiing and more.

Qualifications:

BASI ‘International ski teaching diploma’ Alpine Level4 ISTD
French equivalence BEES 1er Degré Alpin
Alpine race development coach Level 2
NZ Professional avalanche safety management ‘stage one’
NZMGA Mountain skills
IFSA Certified judge

This is some footage of me from a UK freeski movie from a few years ago.