Even the most passionate skiers need a break from ski boots, and a reprieve from winter’s go-go-go.
In the warmer months, many skiers turn to activities like mountain biking, cycling, and trail running. However, there’s a deep crossover between those who find their flow state on water in its frozen form and those who find it when the snow has melted into liquid.
For a long time, there has been a correlation between skiers and river runners. You’d be hard-pressed to find a whitewater raft company in the western US that didn’t have at least a couple guides who are also die-hard skiers, or that work as ski guides in the winter.
A 1977 issue of POWDER Magazine chronicled the similarities. Matchstick Productions’ 1994 film The Hedonist and 1996 film Fetish both featured whitewater kayaking segments nestled into an hour of ski-porn. Teton Gravity Research followed suit shortly after, with the closing segment of Uprising (1998) showing whitewater clips.
In 2001, they released a feature-length kayaking film titled Nurpu.
Photo: Vol. 5, Issue 5 (1977)
While whitewater kayaking specifically remains a far more niche sport than skiing, the ties between the two are still plenty strong, and as it would turn out, some of the sport’s most talented athletes are also cementing their place in freeskiing.
Sitting between McCall and Boise, Idaho, the North Fork of the Payette has been a proving ground for whitewater kayakers since the first full descent of its rapids was made in 1977. The North Fork is made up of 15 miles of Class V (the highest difficulty on the scale used to classify whitewater) rapids, many of which were created when rock fell into the river from blasting the railroad and highway out from either side.
The run can be broken up into three sections, known as the ‘Upper Five,’ ‘Middle Five,’ and ‘Lower Five,’ with the Middle Five known as the most difficult section and hallmarked by the formidable Jacob’s Ladder rapid.
Last week, the whitewater kayaking community celebrated the 11th edition and return of the North Fork Championship on the North Fork of the Payette river after a three-year hiatus. In its return, the North Fork Championship’s new format consists of a qualifier sprint race down S-Turn rapid, which is the final rapid of the Upper Five.
The fastest racers from S-Turn and a field of pre-qualified racers advance to a sprint race down Jacob’s Ladder the following day. On the final day, the fastest racers from the day before (30 men, 6 women) race slalom style down Jacob’s Ladder.
Like ski slalom, gates are set up throughout the rapid that paddlers must circumnavigate or pass through, with time penalties for hitting gates or missing them.
Izzy Lidsky
The athletes racing Jacob’s Ladder, it should go without saying, are at the very top level of the sport. Four different Red Bull helmets could be seen descending the ramp that launches paddlers into Jacob’s Ladder last week, a universally recognized symbol in action sports that elite sh*t is going down.
Aside from the names well known to most whitewater paddlers, skiers might recognize at least one of the paddlers dropping the Jacob’s Ladder ramp, several of the safety team, and even more folks taking leisure laps down the North Fork last week.
In April, 19-year-old Nate Pruzan punched his ticket to the 2027 Freeride World Tour following the 2026 Kicking Horse IFSA Challenger.
In 2023, Pruzan also became one of the youngest two people to ever ski Jackson Hole’s S&S Couloir alongside Jack Kilmain. Like many kids who grow up in Jackson, Wyoming, Pruzan has been skiing most of his life, but, more uniquely, he’s been kayaking since he was big enough to fit in a boat, and he paddled his first top-to-bottom lap of the North Fork of the Payette when he was just 12 years old.
Izzy Lidsky
Last week, Pruzan qualified in 7th place out of 178 racers in the S-Turn qualifying race, less than 6 seconds behind the first-place time, and beating many of the sport’s most elite paddlers.
In the Jacob’s Ladder sprint the next day, Pruzan was one of the youngest racers to launch off the ramp. It’s hard to convey just how impressive it is to qualify for both the FWT and NFC in the same year. To help quantify it, most skiers would quiver in their boots looking down the sheer walls of S&S Couloir, but Pruzan said racing Jacob’s Ladder was definitely scarier.
Freeride fans might also recognize the name Kelly Hilleke from the FWT or Kings & Queens of Corbet’s, but whitewater paddlers will know him as one of whitewater legend Tommy Hilleke’s four sons.
Kelly raced in the S-Turn qualifier and placed in the top 50 racers. While he didn’t qualify for the sprint race on Jacob’s Ladder, he did help to set safety for the races on the North Fork’s most difficult rapid.
Positioned along the rapid, many of the safety crew are on live-bait, or essentially the whitewater version of being ‘on-belay,’ so they can assist paddlers without being swept into the river themselves.
Izzy Lidsky
Pruzan and Hilleke are just two of the crossover population between freeriders and class V whitewater kayakers. However, as these two continue to make names for themselves in skiing, it’s worth considering just how kinesthetically talented they are in other realms.
The bar is high in action sports these days, and while whitewater kayaking might be particularly niche, the skills and mindset required for it certainly stand out when applied to skiing as well.
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