TEN MINUTES: With Zach Davison

Undoubtedly, Mt. Baker has attracted its share of media attention the last couple of seasons, especially during this powder-filled 2006-07 season. Tanner Hall’s The Bigger Picture crew has sessioned Baker several times along with Pep Fujas, Eric Pollard, and Andy Mahre for their Idea film project. But lingering amongst these big names is another talented skier and Baker local, Zach Davison. Davison, a 22-year-old Anchorage, Alaska, native, made his mainstream debut in Poor Boyz Productions 2005 release, “War”. The Obermeyer and Armada amateur skier has had a busy 2006-07 season filming for Poor Boyz and Idea after coming off a severe knee injury last season. We caught up with the poleless, easy-going Davison after a day of shredding in B.C.

Rumor has it one of the reasons you ended up at Baker is because you attend school in nearby Bellingham, WA. How did you end up in Bellingham from Alaska?
Yeah, Bellingham is a good hub. It’s close to Seattle but not Seattle, and it’s close to home but not too close to home. But yeah, I go to school at Western Washington University. I go in the summer and fall and sometimes spring, but I haven’t been to school in the spring for a while. And I’m majoring in business management.

Photographer Grant Gunderson always tells me that it pisses rain at Baker. So tell me, why are you so enamored with Baker?
It has made me a better skier. I grew up skiing in Alaska and then went to Baker, and it blew me away. There are a lot of similarities between the two, but honestly, I’d rather ski Baker. In Alaska, we ski resort and do some sleddin’ and rarely heli. And when I arrived at Baker, right away I was put into some steep stuff with gnarly chutes and big cliffs.

So in the summer of 2005, you blew your knee in New Zealand. What exactly happened down there?
We were having a great day and [Mike] Wilson and I were shooting with Eric Seo at Snow Park. I hit this jump and did a 3 and landed a little bit sideways. It was the shittiest ordeal ever cause it was just a basic 3. I guess it attests to the fact that it can happen anytime, anywhere. It was the second time I did my A.C.L., but this time it was a different knee.

What was your mindset like after suffering such a severe injury and coming off your first major ski movie segment?
I came back and started skiing after three months, which I was not supposed to do. But I was just skiing easy on groomers. And I kept hearing these horror stories that if you re-tear your A.C.L., you can’t even feel it anymore. I went up to Alaska in April (2006) and hit a couple jumps up there, and it felt pretty good. But I still didn’t feel confident. I played it really low key since my mind wasn’t all there. Luckily, I went to school, took more classes, and got that taken care of while rehabbing every day. I’d do an hour on the bike, an hour or more on the elliptical, and a bunch of other crap.