Copyright scotsman
In the snow-sliding world, as in the rest of the extreme sports universe, there are all kinds of talented athletes doing all kinds of difficult, challenging things in off-the-beaten-track locations. The exploits of the elite are usually then packaged up, either as films or as in-person talks, and presented to the masses for their enjoyment. In this way, the companies that sponsor the athletes and supply gear for their adventures hope to be able to shift more units, as Jack and Jill Public walk out of the cinema or lecture hall inspired to go off and have their own adventures. This virtuous (if occasionally precarious) circle has been a key component of the outdoors industry for many decades now, and on the whole it seems to work well for all involved. However, there is a tendency for some of the content it generates to err on the side of the self-serious. For all that the early 21st-century rediscovery of Nan Shepherd’s wise words about the value of walking “into” mountains rather than up them has led to a slight reframing of the great outdoors as a place to be enjoyed rather than endured, the programmes of mountain film festivals and the like still feature plenty of yarns about strong-jawed individuals who have suffered greatly and defied apparently insurmountable odds in order to achieve seemingly impossible objectives. To be clear: I still love this stuff, as do many others. Every now and then though, it’s good to get a bit of a palate-cleanser – which is where the eccentric Tennessee “hillbilly” ski tourer, musician and raconteur Jimbob McCluskey comes in. READ MORE: Autumn? Must be time to break some skiing world records The creation of Edinburgh-based Canadian Stan Intihar, Jimbob made his first official public appearance in November 2022 at the Winter Opener event in Edinburgh – an annual get-together set up in 2015 by ski guides Blair Aitken and Gavin Carruthers as a way for the capital’s snow-sliding community to “celebrate the return to the mountains.” At events like this there is a conventional way of presenting an expedition report, whereby the athlete or athletes involved show a combination of still pictures and video clips on a big screen while telling the story of their exploits. For his performance, Jimbob took this convention by the heels, shook it upside-down, added some bluegrass gee-tar licks and turned in, well, if not quite a stand-up comedy routine then certainly a prototype for a hit Fringe show. His presentation was titled Scotland Sucks, and it detailed a solo descent from Cairn Toul in the Cairngorms. Rather than simply telling the story of his bike-hike-ski adventure, Jimbob half-spoke, half-sang most of it while accompanying himself on guitar. There’s a recording of the performance online, with the audience laughing so loudly in places it’s hard to make out what’s being said. Since then, Jimbob has made the odd live appearance and released another expedition video on his YouTube channel (cunningly titled Glen Quo, to protect the identity of the spot in question) but he’s mostly kept himself to himself. In a couple of weeks’ time, however, fans will have an opportunity to catch him live at the Backcountry Bash, the successor to the Winter Opener, taking place at Edinburgh University’s Hangar 5 at Potterrow on 16 November. Also on the bill: Worth It Every Time, the new film from videographer Ben Girdwood, which follows Harris Booth and friends as they chase “that unique Scottish skiing feeling”; a talk from Edinburgh-based ski racer-turned-ski-mountaineer Iain Innes; and Northlands, a film from skier and filmmaker Kev Neal detailing a hunt for rarely skied lines during lockdown. Jimbob, though, is the only comedy act on the bill. When I meet up with Intihar, the man behind the sunglasses and eye-catching false teeth, I ask how this unique and somewhat unlikely creation came about. Tennessee, after all, is not exactly known for the quality of its skiing. READ MORE: How to get unlimited skiing in Scotland for the price of two days in Colorado “There was a video of a bike, hike and ski tour trip up Cairn Toul that I must’ve put up on the British Backcountry Facebook page,” he says. “It had a musical accompaniment and me singing along on guitar and narrating the trip, but just as Stan, not as Jimbob. “Anyway, Blair [Aitken] got in touch and said ‘Hey, do you wanna come along and do that live at this event we’re doing?’ And I said ‘Sure, do you want me to do it in character?’ And so I came up with Jimbob. He’s this Southern character, he’s a hillbilly but not a redneck – he’s more progressive than a redneck. “I love doing accents and one of the best ones I can do is the American South hillbilly-type accent, and I play bluegrass music too, so I kinda turned all that into this guy Jimbob McCluskey from Gobbler's Nob, Tennessee.” For his Backcountry Bash performance, Jimbob will be telling the story of a ski tour to Braeriach – titled Back to Braeriach in an acknowledgement that it was his second attempt to ski the mountain, and also as a nod to the Back in Black album by AC/DC. “It’s this idea of coming back and doing something that I left the first time,” Intihar says, “which I guess is a good bit of advice for people: if it doesn’t feel right, go away and come back.” Could Jimbob ever scale up one of his trip reports to create a full-length stage show? “Who knows?”, says Intihar. “I think one of the beauties of Jimbob is that he is very ephemeral. He’s like Mary Poppins – when it’s time for him to go he’ll go, when it’s time for him to come back he’ll come back. I think the idea of living in the moment and not planning too much for the future is part of the whole Jimbob ethos.” For more on the Backcountry Bash, see //tinyurl.com/tvxvz4bb Want the latest Scottish headlines sent directly to your phone? Sign up to our new WhatsApp channel here.
