Cody Townsend grew up in Santa Cruz, California, and ski raced at the resort now known as Palisades Tahoe. In his 20s, he got into big-mountain freeride competitions and later appeared in dozens of ski movies and on the pages of every ski magazine, easily making him one of the most well-known and adored skiers in America. His 2,000-foot straightline of an Alaskan couloir known as The Crack landed him on network news back in 2014, when it was called the most insane ski line in history. “Anyone can be an athlete these days with a well-run social media account. But ultimately, the people who are on top are still doing cool athletic endeavors,” he says.

In 2019, Townsend announced his intentions to ski every line in the book, “Fifty Classic Ski Descents of North America,” a feat nobody has done before. The multi-year project became his magnum opus. “I like a challenge,” Townsend says. “I like the feeling of ‘I don’t’ know if I can do this, but I want to try.’”

Through his video series “The FIFTY,” Townsend has shown that it’s always OK to back down from an objective due to conditions or other circumstances. He also doesn’t edit out the mistakes they’ve made in the backcountry so viewers can see the results. “I want to show the entire process,” Townsend says. “It’s a success when you’re back safely—whether or not you checked a peak off the list.”

While the culmination of The FIFTY project still remains to be actualized, word on the street is that Cody is still closing in on all the lines and at some point the full story will still be told, likely just not on YouTube. At press time he was in Alaska chasing down some of the most challenging descents in the book, including University Peak, in Alaska’s Wrangell St-Elias National Park. If he doesn’t get all the lines, that’s fine too, some haven’t been skiable of late, to say the least. We just want Cody around. In addition to training and trying to finish The FIFTY as we know it, Cody has endless ideas for more big adventures in the mountains in which he’ll be mixing up more aesthetic ski lines and multi-sport challenges outside of skiing and heading into the unknown again. All of this will of course be documented on his wildly popular YouTube channel.