Wade McKoy

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Wade McKoy

Wade McKoy has spent more than half his life photographing, and writing about, ski mountaineering adventures. A 20+ year resident of Jackson Hole, WY, McKoy had a short-lived career as an on-mountain photographer at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, but quickly realized that wasn't his calling. "I wanted to shoot for Powder," he says.

That opportunity came in 1978 after he found himself hiking to the top of Cody Peak, south of the ski area boundary in the Teton Mountains. McKoy stared into the gut of "Once Is Enough" couloir, and after a harrowing descent, submitted the story with images to the magazine. It got printed.

It took a while to get rid of the on-mountain business, but soon enough, he and partner Bob Woodall established their successful, now 24-year-old company, Focus Productions, Inc.

	Wade McKoy

Originally from Mississippi, McKoy initially had dreams to become a veterinarian. Instead, he moved to Jackson Hole with a college friend, following through on a pact to move to a ski town to be ski bums. Learning to ski there, McKoy went on to capture beautiful images from adventures around the world, including ski and snowboard expeditions to China, Russia, Spain, France, Africa, Turkey and Alaska.

While noting some of his most memorable experiences, McKoy said sumitting Alaska's Denali changed his attitude about climbing. "I've never had any desire to climb at altitude," he said, citing that most of his alpinism has been below 14,000 feet. "But on Denali, at 20,320 feet, I witnessed the raw power of truly big mountains, and how each individual deals with the inherent danger and hardships of high-altitude climbing." McKoy has also summitted Russia's Mount Elbrus and Africa's Kilimanjaro with Stephen Koch.

McKoy calls this trip to Antarctica "the opportunity of a lifetime."