Angel Collinson is one of the most accomplished big mountain freestyle skiers in the world. Throughout her career, she's won two championship titles at the Freeskiing World Tour, and was the first woman to be awarded Best Line at the Powder Video Awards in 2016. Angel is perhaps best known for her many appearances in Teton Gravity Research’s (TGR) annual ski films, which have featured some of her most spectacular and daring runs. When Payson interviewed Angel last week at Red Bull headquarters, she was still recovering from a thousand foot tumble down an Alaskan mountain that led to a second knee surgery and extensive rehab. In this conversation, they discuss her injury, how she has maintained her legendary positivity throughout the lengthy recovery process, her close relationship with brother and fellow professional skier John Collinson, and how leaving a promising academic career in Environmental Law to pursue skiing gave her an even more powerful voice as a lobbyist for environmental change in Washington and beyond. They also go in depth on Angel’s complex feelings about the post-#MeToo era and how she thinks the pendulum might have swung too far. And just in case the conversation was in danger of getting a little too serious, Angel tells the story of when her dad lowered her headfirst into an outhouse toilet by the ankles.
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