Check out vids of McConkey ski BASEing!

Residence: Canmore, British Columbia
Birthdate / Age: 12/30/69 - 36
Birthplace: Vancouver Canada
Place of residence/Home Mountain: Squaw Valley CA, Squaw Valley CA
Nicknames: Cliff Huckstable and Payne McShlonkey

Shane McConkey freeskiing Sqauw Photo by Red Bull

Career Highlights
Shane McConkey started out as a professional mogul skier and eventually made the jump to the freeskiing circuit, becoming US National Freeskiing champion in 1995 and IFSA World Tour of Freeskiing champion in 1998. In 2002, ESPN named McConkey its Action Sports Awards Skier of the Year. By 2003, McConkey pioneered a new sport called ski BASEing, where he skied lines closing out to 500ft cliffs and then aired off with a parachute. This year, McConkey is jumping off the Eiger in Switzerland and launching double back flips off 800 footers, with the help of a parachute of course. Most recently, he was ranked #1 by Powder Magazine Reader Poll and named the 3rd Most Influential Skier of the Past 35 Years by the same magazine.

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(MZ) One of my most memorable moments skiing was...(SM) standing on top of this line in Haines AK. It was like a 2 turner into a really cool ski base jump. The cliff was beautiful, really striking. It would have made a great shot. I was standing up there for like 45 minutes on what felt like the top of the world. It usually feels like that when about to ski off a massive cliff. I had to wait for the wind to die down. Wind and cliff base jumps mix about as well as water and oil. I really had a good visual on what needed to be done on this line and was totally ready for it. I was almost ready to push off several times but the wind was terrible. The kind of wind that can slam a parachute back into a cliff wall very easily. It was a real bummer to step down on that one but it felt really good to make the right decision and not jump.

I get scared...a lot. Base jumps scare the hell out of me. The sport is dangerous. The possibility of an avalanche scares me. Steep lines with exposure scare me. The possibility of getting injured probably scares me the most. However, after being in any of those situations and then nailing it without the worst happening is perhaps the most satisfying feeling in the world. That's why doing scary stuff is so fulfilling. If it wasn't dangerous or scary then it usually isn't going to be very fun.

The best thing about skiing is...hucking meat! Of course! Duh! What the hell do you think skis are for?

My three favorite skiers in the world are...Scott Gaffney, Chris Davenport and even though he's not old, JT Holmes, I respect all those old farts who are still throwing down, cuz believe me I know how much harder it is to throw it when you are older than dirt.

Competitions are...what separates the men from the boys. You have to fucking dial it in and figure out what you need to do in order to perform your best that day. No excuses. That can be the most difficult task a professional skier ever faces. Either dial it in or else loose. The most pathetic thing I have seen in our sport are competitors at events dropping out of the event because they didn’t like the conditions or complaining to the event organizers that the venue isn’t right or that the jumps, venue or course are all wrong.

Twenty years from now...we are all going to look back at this time in skiing’s freeride development and say things like: “Wow, it sure was fun to be part of what went on back then.”

I tell young skiers to...“Look out below.”

— excerpted from: EXPN, Lat34.com, Powder