Shane McConkey


Shane McConkey was a professional skier and BASE jumper. He was born in Vancouver, British Columbia and eventually based himself in Squaw Valley, California, but due to an itinerant childhood he never identified with a single place and chose Boulder, Colorado, as the place he came from. It was from here that he started his professional skiing career after initially attending the University of Colorado Boulder before dropping out to pursue his dreams.

Biography

He won numerous awards and competitions. McConkey started as a competitive ski racer, but moved on to be featured in a long line of extreme skiing movies. McConkey was known for combining BASE jumping with skiing, as seen in such feats as skiing into a BASE jump off the Eiger. McConkey went to Burke Mountain Academy. He was also known for his contributions to ski design, notably being the father of reverse sidecut and reverse camber skis ; first mounting bindings onto water skis for use in Alaska, then with the Volant Spatula and, more recently, the K2 Pontoon ski design. McConkey's high-speed chairlift and ski area at Park City Mountain Resort are named after his father, Jim McConkey, who was an early proponent of extreme skiing in the U.S. On April 2, 2011 Shane McConkey was inducted into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of fame along with other Tahoe skiers, Daron Rahlves and Glen Plake.

Death

On March 26, 2009, Shane McConkey died while executing a ski-BASE jump on the Sass Pordoi, a mountain in the Sella group, in the Italian Dolomites. One of his skis failed to release, sending him into a spin. After he corrected the problem, it was too late to deploy his parachute.

Career accomplishments

2005: Nominated for Laureus World Alternative Sportsperson of the Year, ranked #1 in Powder Magazine's Reader Poll and won Powder Magazine’s Full Throttle Award.
2004: Ranked #2 again in Powder Magazine’s Reader Poll, won Powder Magazine’s Full Throttle award, won Powder Magazine’s Best Helmet Cam award, went ski BASE jumping all over Europe, double front flip off the Eiger and got married in Thailand.
2003: Ranked #2 in Powder Magazine’s Reader Poll, completed his first of over 700 BASE jumps.
2002: Ranked #1 in Powder Magazine’s Reader Poll and invented a revolutionary powder ski: The Volant Spatula with reverse camber and reverse sidecut.
2001: ESPN Action Sport Awards Skier of the Year, Red Bull Ultra Cross’s Big Air Comp - 1st and ranked #1 in Skiing Magazine’s Top 25 skiers in North America.

Competition results

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