You probably won’t find Chad Chomlack stroking his chin and waxing aesthetic at the next hipster-riddled art opening in your town. You also won’t find him cutting down other shooters’ work online anonymously. Same goes for trade-show fellatio-fests, on-snow bro-minglings and name-dropping sushi dinners. You might find him at home with his family. Or at Mt Baker’s Legendary Banked Slalom every year. And you’ll definitely find him in the BC backcountry casually bagging shots of some of the most expressive riders in the sport: David Carrier Porcheron and the Yes team, JF Pelchat, Devun Walsh and the Now team—pretty much anyone who joined the pow team and never turned back.

Chad’s nothing if not a fiend for powder. He was born in Abbotsford in British Columbia’s Bible Belt and grew up riding cross-border Baker in its center-of-the-universe, Mount Baker Hard Core days. He now lives in Pemberton, just north of Whistler. It took him a minute, but he finally found a way to make powder days his job. 

In 2016, Chomlack, 43, stunned our insular little world by winning the Deep Winter Photo Challenge at Whistler-Blackcomb. It was the 10th anniversary of the contest that sends shooters and crews out for 72 hours to see what kind of slideshow they can rustle up while facing weather uncertainties, sleep deprivation and the reek of wet merino. Chad bested a field of former Kings (and a Queen) of Storms and did so in his own aw-shucks, wildcard way that was all heart and very little swagger. The resulting black-and-white slideshow had its share of deep powder but was more about the emotional connection snowboarding fosters between friends and generations, Wildcats and their litters. Dude won $10K on authenticity and talent alone…

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