Author of book exploring the life and death of legendary snowboarder Craig Kelly to visit Bookworm in Edwards

The last time Eric Blehm visited Vail, he landed in Denver with a plane full of his snowboarding cohorts fresh off the beaches of Southern California for the seventh annual Transworld Snowboarding Industry conference in 1996. Blehm was then editor-in-chief of the world’s largest snowboarding magazine and descended on the Vail Cascade with 450 shredding attendees who would ride during the day, gather for a couple of hours of conferences in the afternoons, and then party all night.

“I just remember we had our own private lift and got fresh tracks every morning because no one else had access to that side of the mountain,” Blehm says. “By the time we made it over to the Back Bowls, we’d never ridden the same trail twice. We got great snow, and probably had a little too much fun, but Vail definitely delivered the goods.”

Blehm returns to Vail for the first time in over 20 years on Feb. 27 with a different mission, but one that feels like a homecoming. This Tuesday, he’ll be at The Bookworm in Edwards to promote his new book, “The Darkest White,” about legendary pro snowboarder and four-time World Champion Craig Kelly and the detailed account of the avalanche that took his life in 2003.

Blehm left his post at Transworld in 1997 to travel around the world with his girlfriend, Lorien, a copy editor from Outside magazine (the couple were married in 2001 and have three children). He began freelancing in 1999 and has since become a best-selling nonfiction author. Early projects remained tied to snowboarding and outdoor adventure.

His book, “The Last Season,” won the National Outdoor Book Award and was named by Outside magazine as “one of the greatest adventure biographies ever written.” His foray into nonfiction took him down a new path into writing about fallen military heroes in Special Ops, with two New York Times best-sellers, “Fearless” and “The Only Thing Worth Dying For.” Two of his books, “Fearless” and “Legend” are currently being adapted for film.

Support Local Journalism

Donate

In “The Darkest White” Blehm takes a deep dive into the life of Kelly and the avalanche that killed him on Jan. 20, 2003, in the Northern Selkirk Mountains in British Columbia, Canada. A 100-foot-wide tide of snow barreled down the mountain, burying more than a dozen skiers and snowboarders beneath several tons of rock-hard snow and ice on the Durrand Glacier. A heroic effort ensued and among those buried was Kelly, “the Michael Jordan of snowboarding,” a man who had propelled the sport into the mainstream before walking away from competitions to rekindle his passion for the untamed wilds of North America.

“The Darkest White” is the story of Craig Kelly’s life, a heartbreaking but extraordinary and inspiring odyssey of a latchkey kid whose athletic prowess and innovations would revolutionize winter sports, take him around the globe, and push him into ever more extreme environments that would ultimately take his life. It is also a definitive, immersive account of snowboarding and the cultural movement that exploded around it, growing the sport from a minor Gen X cult hobby to an Olympic centerpiece and a billion-dollar business full of feuds and rivalries.

Finally, “The Darkest White” is a mesmerizing, cautionary portrait of the mountains, the allure and the glory they offer, and the avalanches they unleash with unforgiving fury. It also offers perhaps one of the most comprehensive historical accounts of the sport of snowboarding that’s ever been written.

It’s not just for snowboarders. Skateboarder Tony Hawk raves, “Eric Blehm offers an insightful perspective on how Craig Kelly became the effortless icon that we all revered as well as sobering details of how his heroic journey tragically ended. ‘The Darkest White ‘ is a must-read, not just for fans of snowboarding, but for anyone looking for inspiration from an unlikely hero.”  

Blehm will be in Edwards on Tuesday, Feb. 27, at 6 p.m. to celebrate the official release of “The Darkest White” and to participate in a conversation with local Beaver Creek snowboarding legend, Wookie.

“You don’t have to be a snowboarder to enjoy this talk,” Blehm says. “We want skiers to come too! It’s about love of mountains, snow science, and the risk and reward of the backcountry, a topic that’s close for Coloradans.”

For Blehm, who plans to spend the day of the event snowboarding Vail, the release of his newest book is also a journey that takes him back to his roots as a lifelong snowboarder, and back to Colorado, where he lived during the 1988-89 season, giving a shot to turning pro while living in Breckenridge.

“It’s definitely taken me down a rabbit hole of so many memories and people coming out of the woodwork,” he says. “I’m just grateful snowboarding gave me a path in life.”

To purchase tickets and for more information, visit BookwormofEdwards.com.