“A healthy freethinking community that strives for a better world by educating people and businesses to transition to a sustainable alternative lifestyle ”
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About Us

We are healthy, smart and fun. We make dreams come true. We inspire people. We believe in change. Balance! Love! We believe! We listen. We love the outdoors. Adventure Sports! All the Board members are professional skiers and experienced athletes that are well educated and have studied in the fields of business, psychology, history and the arts but we are most experienced in the field of living. Experience is our knowledge and our backbone but learning is our life.

Let us learn together.


Meet the Board members:

 

Jesse Swing

Founder/Skier/Designer/Inventor

 

Where is your favorite place in the world and why?

Home is where the love is, only I consider my home the whole west coast. Fortunately I have been able to spend time traveling all over the West Coast and explore as much as possible while making great friends everywhere enjoying the outdoors and all the adventures along the way.

 

What do you want to change most about the environment?

I want to give the environment back the life it had previous to human carelessness. If only there were no extinct animals and the rainforest was as abundant as ever! I can imagine a city with no pollution where the city and environment are balanced with plants growing from all over every building with living rooftops where people commute with bicycles and zip lines and the only vehicle you see is a Hydrogen/Solar powered monorail to transport people and goods.

 

What is your favorite winter activity?

Skiing

 

What is your favorite summer activity?

Anything behind a boat. I love mt. biking and exploring, random adventures.

 

Where did you go to college?

Sierra Nevada College, Business/Entrepreneurship/Ski Team

 

What is your favorite quote?

You don't have to know where your going as long as you know how to get there. -Jesse Swing

 

Why do you support Heal the Snow?

Because it’s a company that supports all that I believe in.

 

What is your favorite music?

Bryon Friedman and Nate Johansing, but specially when they play together, they’re like acoustic pizzazz with a slice of freestyle funk, they're rad!

 

Nate Johansing

Board member/Skier/Musician

 

Where is your favorite place in the world and why?
My favorite place in the world is Spring Creek in Steamboat Springs, CO. The main reason I love it is because it has been a place where I can release my daily troubles on my mountain bike. It’s a great trail to ride because of how smooth it is and because of the environment it is in. Huge aspen trees, ferns, and pines hide and insulate the trail from the sun and the rest of our chaotic world.

 

What do you want to change most about the environment?

If there was one thing I could change about the environment it would be switch all of the diesel in public transportation to bio diesel. If the general public can see positive changes such as that, then I believe the shift to alternative energy can be much more realistic and possible.

 

What is your favorite winter activity?

My favorite winter activity is skiing. I grew up on skis and I hope to ski till I am 100 years old. No matter where I am when I have my skis on I will most likely have a smile on my face..... and as long as I slay some turns under the chair lift once a week.... I am satisfied.

 

What is your favorite summer activity?

My favorite summer activity is mountain biking. I love challenging myself with new climbs and I love pushing my limits when I descend. For me skiing and biking go hand and hand. They are both fast and can be extremely dangerous.

 

Where did you go to college?

I grew up in Colorado and went to college in New England. The University of Vermont is where I studied small business, politics, and psychology.

 

What is your favorite quote?

My favorite quote comes from my grandfather and I believe he got if from Kant. "Use it as a means to the end, and not as an end to the means."

 

Why do you support Heal the Snow?
I support Heal the Snow because I want to see positive changes in our world with people that work hard and relate to each other. Plain and simple!

 

What is your favorite music?

My favorite music is dub punk, reggae, and blues. Music is a huge part of my life because I am a musician myself. My family is musical and when we get together we always play. I am sure my kids will learn how to play music as well.... as long it is not country.

 

Bryon Friedman

Board member/Skier/Musician

 

Where is your favorite place in the world and why?

My favorite place in the world to ski is in my backyard, the Wasatch Mountains, where I grew up with my closest friends and skied any day we had off from school. I also love skiing on all the farmland in Austria where your only concerns are hay bails and farmhouses...seriously.

 

What do you want to change most about the environment?

I don't necessarily think it's a question of what I want to change about the environment, but a way of living I feel compelled to adopt in order to leave this earth better than I found it. In a perfect world it would be great to eliminate global "weirdening," find an environmentally friendly alternative to oil, and clean up the messes we have made. However, I believe it's more important to take a preventative approach rather than a reactionary one, and spread the word about alternative living and resources, make alternative living and resources a more plausible concept to the everyday person, and make them readily available to those who believe in its doctrine, especially our youth.

 

What is your favorite winter activity?

My favorite winter activity is Skiing and Surfing.

 

What is your favorite summer activity?

My favorite summer activity is Skiing and Surfing.

 

Where did you go to college?

Dartmouth College

 

What is your favorite quote?

 "Bones heal, spirit recovers, and what is left is who you are and what you have become."

-anonymous

 

Why do you support Heal the Snow?

Heal the Snow is something that makes sense to me. It's a great organization to support because its core values correlate with my personal values and those as a skier. Over the past decade I have noticed a considerable change in the Winter climate and have been directly affected by the lack of snowfall in the early season. Its no longer a threat, it's a reality and Heal the Snow is prepared to help those near and dear to skiing to make some changes to benefit our environment.

 

What is your favorite music?

Right now I'm listening to Brett Dennen, Tom Freund, The Band of Heathens and Donny Hathaway...so I guess you could say its a pretty eclectic mix. A little Folk, a little Rock, and some Soul!



Photo by: Mike Schirf 
 
 
Company history
Heal the Snow evolved from many years of travel, exploration, school research, design, and some serious ski bumming in nearly every major ski town. In the beginning there were Baja road trips for surf, endless world travel for snow including Europe, South America, New Zealand and everywhere in between.
 
With experience on our side Founders Jesse Swing and Tobias Lee decided to make their dreams come true by showing people what we have learned in our travels passing our knowledge on in an effort to make the world a better place with many ventures to come.
 
Before the business came to light Co-Founder Tobias Lee died in an avalanch that quickly changed the world around him. In death there is life as we found out, because when Tobias left it was easier to hear what he was about as there was a celebration of life that sent a loud yell of triumph through the souls of those who knew him. The sound we have come to know as the Tob yell. A yell that expresses triumph and success but also a taste of disbelief, usually because he continued to impress himself in a delicate yet adrenaline filled fashion making his dreams come true.
 
So if your ever in a ski town and you hear a impressively loud yell its probably because the U.S. Freeskiing Circut is in town and someone just won the "Tobias Botkin Lee Memorial Sickbird" award, the most coveted award in Freeskiing, an award that has been dedicated to Tobias for all the Sickbirds out there who continue to show us that dreams do come true!
 

 
 
 
 

       Our Friend Tobias Lee.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Jesse Swing skiing the forgotten Snowbasin downhill.
 
 
 
 Nate Johansing loves to surf, but mostly he loves his mustache!
 
 
 
 
 

      Bryon Friedman Rocking! Photo by: Mike Schirf


 

Jannicke Swing

Jannicke Swing

Artist/Designer

Where is your favorite place in the world and why?
The Mountains or anywhere in nature. I love being in contact with the earth because it provides a feeling of connectedness and peace. Skiing has been a sanctuary providing a place where I feel totally at peace within myself and the earth.

 

What do you want to change most about the environment?

I would like to contribute a message of balance and unity with the earth, the largest changes come about through the practice of gratitude in the smallest ways. In order to want to change anything about the environment you must first understand it and appreciate its beauty. By planting a garden and putting your hands in the earth and accepting the earths nourishment one begins to give back to the earth in appreciation of what she gives to us.


 

What is your favorite winter activity?

Skiing naturally, grown up ski racing and doing big mountain competitions it is the sport that gives me the rush I need while also providing peace of mind.

 

What is your favorite summer activity?

Hiking, backpacking, bouldering and wakeboarding,

pretty much anything outdoors is a must.


Where did you go to college?

University of Utah I graduated in painting and drawing in 2007 and have been pursuing art my whole life. although my major was in art, I have continued my quest of learning with subjects including sciences quantum physics, natural healing and metaphysics. As well as astrology, and other divination arts.

 

What is your favorite quote?

as above; so below

 

Why do you support Heal the Snow?
Heal the snow not only offers sustainable alternatives but it educates and inspires those who wish to be the change they want to see in the earth.

 

What is your favorite music?

I enjoy most all music, and find it to be a great source of inspiration. I love to listen to music from passionate  individuals from talking heads to french music or tool. Anything evoking strong emotion from the listener.