{"id":20314,"date":"2017-09-19T11:16:22","date_gmt":"2017-09-19T18:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/?p=20314"},"modified":"2018-11-11T22:26:54","modified_gmt":"2018-11-12T06:26:54","slug":"angel-collinsons-view-from-the-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/snowsports\/angel-collinsons-view-from-the-summit","title":{"rendered":"Angel Collinson’s View From the Summit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rather than basking in the glory of past accomplishments, Collinson is focusing on self-improvement and making a positive impact.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I think about last winter, I sort of get the image of a floppy wet noodle,\u201d Angel Collinson tells me over the phone. I\u2019m sitting in my van in Jackson drinking a Modelo and she\u2019s drinking mescal at a bar in Salt Lake City telling me about her 2016\/17 ski season.\u00a0The 27-year-old pro spent much of last season recovering from a knee injury and it wasn’t until this spring that she felt ready to film.\u00a0But instead of getting upset that her part in TGR\u2019s 2017 ski film, Rogue Elements<\/em><\/a>, will be a small one, Angel just laughs it off and says, \u201cNow I have a fire under my ass to film and make shit happen. I haven\u2019t had that in a while!\u201d<\/p>\n

And Angel really is on fire right now. That\u2019s the reason I called. It all started when she opened the Teton Gravity Research (TGR) film\u00a0Almost Ablaze<\/em> in 2014 with a banger Alaska segment\u2014the first time in TGR\u2019s 21-year history that it’s opened with a female skier. I remember sitting in the Wilma Theater in Missoula, Montana, as the entire audience went absolutely crazy. Watching a woman open a feature-length ski film was something I\u2019d never seen before, and it\u2019s something I\u2019ll never forget. In 2015, Angel’s mind-blowing segment at the end of TGR’s\u00a0Paradise Waits<\/em>\u00a0earned her Best Line<\/a>\u2014an award no woman had won before\u2014and Best Female Performance at the 16th annual Powder Awards, skiing’s most prestigious gathering. The same year,\u00a0Freeskier<\/em>\u00a0magazine named her Skier of the Year. The following season, Angel won yet another Best Female Performance at the Powder Awards for her segment in Tight Loose<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But even after all that, she says, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say I\u2019m at the top. Everything is changing and even at the resorts I\u2019m seeing all these girls and they are so good. There are always going to be people coming up behind you that are better than you. But it has been so cool to be recognized this way. It\u2019s a gift and an honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Angel\u2019s upbringing taught her how to be comfortably uncomfortable.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you\u2019ve read anything about Angel before, you probably know she grew up wearing thrift store clothes in employee housing at Snowbird, sharing a room with her younger brother, John. And that her dad, Jimmy, was a ski patroller and her mother, Deb, was a schoolteacher. Every summer, the Collinsons would move into their old Ford Econoline van and travel around the West climbing mountains and backpacking.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, Angel and John learned to embrace Type 2 fun early on. When they were ages six and seven, they summited Mt. Rainier (14,411′). Shortly thereafter, they ticked Whitney (14,505′) and Shasta (14,180′). \u201cI\u2019m very grateful for the fact that I grew up the way I did,\u201d Angel says. \u201cMy parents were still strict and firm in the rules but they also let us find our own way through life, and they taught us reverence for the natural world.\u201c<\/p>\n

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