Reviewing the News w/ Cody Townsend, February 2025 (Ep.350)

12 comments on “Reviewing the News w/ Cody Townsend, February 2025 (Ep.350)”

1. Even when Ted Ligety is airborne he still gets his hip closer to the snow then I do with skis on the snow

2. How come you guys aren’t talking about the most watched tv series in history, “Severance”. :-D

   • Ha, I watched season 1, started season 2 but I lost steam. Should I get back to it?

3. Re: wearing helmets: yes, in fact, a lot of skiers on Instagram (especially those riding exclusively park or powder) will post clips without a helmet on. I don’t want to single-out one skier, but Alex Hackel has posted several reels over the years sans-helmet.

   The nice thing is people will post “no helmet no steeze” in the comments, all the time. The majority is pro-helmet, but some pros still go no helmet.

   The real question is whether or not we should put the onus on the “influencers” to demonstrate good habits, or if it is on us to educate ourselves on it to make the correct choice…

   I know I’m extremely pro-helmet, as I’ve gotten hit by ice falling from a chairlift (on what I considered a warm spring day) that left a scary ~10cm by ~3cm gash in my helmet. That, on my head? Hard to say what amount of skull I’d be left with…

   • I think the onus is definitely on each of us – the individuals in our respective communities. I’m not (currently, at least) interested in going after influencers. But apparently we need to keep making the case for wearing helmets. To me, one of the strongest arguments to make is that, injuries almost never *only* affect the injured individual. They affect parents, partners, children, friends – the broader community. So in my view, forgoing easy steps (like wearing a helmet) to lessen the severity of an injury or accident really is a selfish act. I don’t think it’s wise to shame people on this front, but helping them see the truth of it – in a kind way – is something that’s likely worth attempting?

4. On the no helmet trend in media…
   It’s been noticeable the lack of helmet use in winter gear catalogs this year. Case in point, but not unique, the last Stio catalog had about a half dozen dudes skiing in beanies with mainly the women wearing helmets.

   As a ski patroller and as a multi-sport person (skiing, biking, climbers, whitewater), it’s pretty dumb not to wear a helmet in almost any activity with a chance of significant mechanism of injury. However, I have noticed a trend of no helmet use on my mountain and others around my area (Northern NM).

   Thanks for taking the time to discuss the topic this week

   • It’s always interesting to me when the people who see the consequences of ski & snowboard accidents the most (e.g., ski patrollers), are all in deep agreement: wear a helmet, because you’ll be better off than if you don’t wear a helmet.

     It’s really irrefutable logic.

     • You are clearly pro helmet 100% of the time, but you made fun of a character in Falling for Christmas for wearing sunglasses and a helmet…so is it impossible to ski in sunglasses?

5. Jonathan, I think you’ve missed the mark when you described universal appreciation for public land. There are a lot of recreationists that love the outdoors but do not appreciate the literal gatekeeping in place with some if the land managers. Here in the North Cascades the national park has a low profile but has a draconian position on bolted anchors on common climbing/rappelling routes. If NCNP shared a consistent policy with other national parks I could support them. Bolted anchors would improve public safety and reduce environmental impact by reducing plastic tat left behind at in-situ anchors.

   There are several user groups that have lost access to public land because they choose to recreate in ways that are not approved by the far left. Snowmobiles, dirt bikes, Jeeps, even mountain bikes are being restricted more and more. In the Cascades we are also losing access to established trailheads as roads that were built during logging operations are falling into disrepair without logging money being used to maintain the roads. It’s hard to say either administration is pro-recreation, they just have different perspectives on the industrial use of land, neither of which is beneficial to a large number of users.

   • Hi, Jason – you raise some very good examples here. But my question:

     Aren’t we in agreement that the majority of Americans uphold the value of public lands, though there can then be pretty significant fights and disagreements about the types of ‘permissible’ recreation?)

     Or are you making the stronger claim that, actually, a majority of people *do* want to see public lands dismantled? I guess I’d like to get clear on this, first, or see some polls or surveys from the American people.

     Perhaps you’re right, and we don’t even have common ground when it comes to this particular issue.

6. Hey Jonathan,
   My echo chamber is probably pretty small when it comes to outdoor activities. I’m an active member in many different groups that all like to get outside into nature. Several of the groups locally have common challenges with the land managers to the point that I suspect at least a couple of the groups would be willing to try to deal with self-managed, user maintained management strategies. I think this is because I’m in Western Washington and our population has overwhelmed our recreational address points.

   I think Americans are fundamentally individualists and that we often would rather suffer from our own exposure to hazard than to turn over an illusion of freedom to have a more managed and safe experience. I also think the majority would quickly sell out their neighboring state as long as they thought they could protect their own backyard nature experience.

   Ultimately everything we do in nature requires some destruction of natural resources that fall somewhere on the spectrum of being bad for the environment. I think ski areas, heli/cat/sled skiing, cutting edge mountain biking, and trad climbing all share some core conservative values. Often times there is a fee that can be paid for commercial access to public land. There are climbing routes that are sanitized and bolts installed under the guise of being community projects but many developers would love to not deal with government oversight. The best mountain bike trails locally are either on private timber land or are unsanctioned/rogue trails. Even ski touring requires a lot of equipment built in factories that are usually overseas out of petroleum based products.

   I think most of us want guaranteed access to nature but I’m not sure we can agree on how we want that access managed.

7. If JD Vance’s skiing amuses you so much I’d suggest you also go to Reboboth Beach,DE. There you could watch Biden take 30 minutes to move a beach chair 10 feet, wreck his bike , and probably shit his pants. There are also nice videos of Tim Walz trying to load a shotgun. Rather unsuccessfully I might add.
   The party of Chucky Schumer, AOC, Maxine Waters’s’ wig, Nancy Pelosi’s race to break the Michael Jackson.record for worst plastic surgery, just to name a few is going to criticize a beginner skier. Ones skiing ability has little correlation with their value to society. My wife’s been a cautious green low blue skier for a decade but her PhD in nursing, and working two jobs as an educator, I would say make her a valuable member of society.
   I don’t like Putin. I don’t like Zelenskyy. Ones a bully the other a grifter. Both oppress their own people and would punish you for verbalizing your views on a podcast. You lost an election. It happens. Deal with it. Stop asking like the last 4 years weren’t a complete sh$tshow at the border with 100k/year deaths from fentanyl overdoses and war starting in the Middle East and Ukraine. Now Cody’s party is firebombing Tesla’s. The very EV’s that they worshipped 12 months ago. Senator Mark Kelly just sold his and bought a Tahoe. It’s very interesting messaging.