Tribute to Shane McConkey

(December 30, 1969 – March 26, 2009). Born in Vancouver, British Columbia,^[1] McConkey was a professional skier based out of Squaw Valley, California. He won numerous awards and competitions. McConkey started as a competitive freestyle skier, but moved on to be featured in a long line of extreme skiing movies. McConkey was known for combining BASE jumping with skiing, as seen in such feats as skiing into a BASE jump off the Eiger. McConkey went to Burke Mountain Academy. He was also known for his contributions to ski design, notably being the father of reverse side cut and reverse camber skis (aka: skis with rocker), first with the Volant Spatula and, more recently, the K2 Pontoon ski design.

On March 26, 2009, McConkey was killed while skiing in the Dolomite Mountains in Italy. He and his skiing partner JT Holmes were skiing off of a cliff while wearing parachutes; after doing a double back flip, McConkey was unable to deploy his parachute because his ski failed to eject, and he crashed to the ground. His parachute did not malfunction, it was never deployed. He died on the scene.^[2]

foto via lat34.com