Skier Finds 14 Year Old Camera at Mammoth, Launches Search for Original Owner

The search is on for a decade-plus-old time capsule found on the slopes of Mammoth Mountain, California.

In a post on the Mammoth subreddit, one user said that while hiking the Hemlocks trail at the ski resort this summer, their friend came across a Contour Roam—a long-discontinued POV camera that used to be an alternative to GoPros.

Their friend gave them the camera, and they popped the SD card, imported the footage, and discovered that it dated back to March 2nd, 2012 (bear in mind: the footage could’ve been dated incorrectly).

The footage appears to show an as-yet-unidentified skier ripping around on a classic, wind-buffed Mammoth day. See below.

You can check out the Reddit post here. At the time of writing, no one had stepped forward as the camera’s owner on the post.

“If you recognize the skier, gear, remember losing a Contour Roam out on the Hemlocks around that time, or know someone who did, please comment or send me a message — let’s see if we can reunite this one!” the poster wrote.

The little moment speaks to how much has changed in skiing in only a decade or so. 

In 2012, freeskiing had yet to debut at the Olympics, Instagram—now the place where most people engage with ski media—was only two years old, and there were still a few years to go before Alterra would begin offering the Ikon Pass. That all feels strange to write, honestly.

It’s also a reminder of the hidden treasures that litter ski resorts. While much of it is trash (pack it out folks!), there are some real goodies like the Contour that turned up. There’s no way this is the only head cam missing its owner, nestled in some rocky outcropping, waiting for a summer hiker to find it and catch a self-contained glimpse into the past.

What’s least confounding and perhaps most comforting about this story is the footage itself. 

Skiing looks different now, sure. But the act itself of skiing hasn’t evolved too much. Just this past winter, plenty of people were doing exactly the same thing as the skier in the video at Mammoth: enjoying the fresh air, feeling the wind on their faces and, if they really know the place, venturing to their secret spots to score a skiff of fresh snow.

Related: Meet Lizzy Schofield, Arapahoe Basin’s First-Ever Female Ski Patrol Director