Crown Mountain Guides offers a front row seat to the Knik Glacier. Photo: Nic Alegre
This past April, Maggie Voisin got the call she never thought she’d get: TGR was inviting her to go film in Alaska as part of a stacked crew in a new zone for Legend Has It. Maggie’s career had taken her across the world pursuing slopestyle skiing all the way to the Olympics, but big-mountain skiing in Alaska was a big step in a new direction.
Maggie Voisin in the Great Land. Photo: Nic Alegre
The team included veterans Sage Cattabriga-Alosa, Ian McIntosh, and Maggie’s childhood best friend Parkin Costain. It was a dream come true for the two young skiers, who were both raised watching Sage and Mac on the big screen in their hometown of Whitefish, Montana, and now had the opportunity to learn directly from masters of the craft while staying at Crown Mountain Guides’ Alaska Glacier Lodge.
Parkin Costain's inaugural trip to Alaska. Photo: Nic Alegre
Located at the base of the massive Knik Glacier on the northern end of the Chugach, Glacier Lodge has unparalleled access to some of the biggest terrain in the state, but as with many missions to Alaska, this one proved more challenging than expected. Just like on any film trip, the crew spent the first few days scouting and getting their feet under them on smaller warm-up lines, before an extended unfavorable weather pattern left the mountains covered in clouds and inaccessible.
Crown Mountain Guides accesses terrain in the heart of the Northern Chugach range. Photo: Nic Alegre
Many of the zones they wanted to film included fluted spines precariously glued to near-vertical rock slabs, the type of riding Parkin and Maggie had only ever dreamed of, and Sage and Mac had played a large role in developing over the last decades filming with TGR.
Mac rides the spine. Photo: Nic Alegre
The veterans quickly recognized that Maggie and Parkin had the skiing skills they needed to succeed in this kind of terrain, but saw the opportunity to begin instilling the mentality of a true mountain professional in them - something that’s only possible through practice and exposure to the real thing. In other words, they had come to the right place - but the first lesson they would need to learn was one in patience.
Sage showing the kids how its done in the Alaska backcountry. Photo: Nic Alegre
Down days on TGR trips are a funny thing. The intensity of shoot days is balanced by hours of aggressive R&R. The film crew and athletes have plenty of time to eat great food, reminisce about past missions, watch the northern lights, and play a whole lot of disc golf. For Maggie and Parkin, this trip was a chance to check in with one another and download how, after many years, their careers had converged again. “Right now, Maggie is really my favorite person to ski with,” says Costain. The two grew up skiing together in Montana, but while Parkin leaned into big-mountain skiing, she followed a more traditional freestyle-focused path that led through the US Ski Team to the X Games and the Olympics.
“I have this memory of when we were 12, where we just decided to learn 720s after ski practice. Maggie actually tried one before I did and that really motivated me,” Parkin says, “but, for the record, I landed one first.”
“He’s right,” Maggie begrudgingly confirms.
Parkin making the best of a day down at Crown Mountain Guide. Photo: Nic Alegre
After nearly two weeks of false starts, hanging out at the Glacier Lodge, and practicing their patience, the two protégés finally got a chance to go beyond backyard tricks and step out into the terrain of their dreams.
“Watching Sage and Ian’s process in the mountains is fascinating - they start slow and build themselves up. It’s about building confidence at the right time,” says Voisin, ”Parkin really took to that and it was really cool to watch him take in the process from these two legends, and on the flip side, it was really cool to have him share his vision about how to ski stuff - there were a few lines he saw that even Sage and Ian couldn’t visualize.”
Maggie is a quick study. Photo: Nic Alegre
Maggie took these lessons to heart, and inspired by her oldest friend - and by the two legends leading the way - she threw down the segment of her career, earning her IF3’s Standout Female Skier of the Year. Catch it in TGR’s film Legend Has It.
About The Author
stash member Max Ritter
I manage digital content here at TGR, run our gear testing program, and am stoked to be living the dream in the Tetons.