Meet Lel Tone, the ski patrol/guide/ski film star that stole your first tracks.
Tone has been a member of the Squaw Valley Ski Patrol for 17 years as well as assistant avalanche forecaster, a Chugach Powder heli-ski guide for 14 years, and now, with Warren Miller’s new film, a ski movie star. For years Tone has guided film crews around the mountains where her biggest concern was ensuring everyone’s safety. Now the tables have finally turned and Tone is the star.
Last year, Tone traveled to India with freeskier Lynsey Dyer to shred the Himalayas for Warren Miller’s ‘…Like There’s No Tomorrow.’ Tone immediately saw what it takes to be in the ski movies. The first run on the first day in the Himalayas was a wakeup call. No warm up, never on the mountain before, and having only looked at the run from a helicopter, it was show time.
The cameras were rolling. With years of patrol and guide experience, Tone instinctively knew that skiing down a chute with no knowledge of the mountain or snow conditions alongside Dyer was dangerous. This time, Tone had to rely on her own guide, placing her own safety in his hands. Her concern was to ski the best she could for the camera. This was a complete flip flop to what Tone has always been about.
‘I was always worried about other’s safety and now I worry about sticking the line and looking good,’ Tone said.
It takes 28 hours and four commercial flights to get to Indian Kashmir and a new world of skiing experiences. Tone, who is well versed in North American skiing, found that when the pilot is wearing an oxygen mask, the helicopter is dropping you off at 15,000 feet, and you are 70 miles from any sort of help, the adrenalin is definitely in high gear.
Tone and Dyer tackle first descents in the world’s highest mountains and most secluded terrain with verve and fearlessness.
‘It takes its toll, you are punch drunk by the end of the day,’ said Tone.
When they aren’t up on Kashmir’s daunting peaks, the women are down in Gulmarg’s pristine resort meadow, ripping turns with the locals and discovering common ground on the snow-covered mountainside.
As Dyer explains, ‘[You can] come to someplace so foreign and still feel completely at home. Other people…may not speak your language. But you can look them in the eye and know that they know how the mountains work. And so do you. And so you have that bond.’
The scenery will leave you speechless and the lines will take your breath away. You didn’t think you could go heli-ski in the Himalayas? Well, you can.
You can see Tone and Dyer skiing the Himalayas, re-live last year’s epic snow in Tahoe, and watch other top skiers rip it up in Warren Miller’s Tahoe premier of ‘…Like There’s No Tomorrow’ on Friday, Nov. 25 and Saturday, Nov. 26 at 7:30 p.m. at Cal Neva Resort. Advance tickets are available at Tahoe Dave’s Skis & Boards.
