This April, Logan Pehota bought his first dirt bike. Within a month, he was leading his local pack on some of the gnarliest trails in British Columbia—weighting his foot pegs like a seasoned pro while jumping every hip and tranny in sight. By the end of the summer, he was more focused on dialing in his whips at the racetrack than riding singletrack.

It’s a rapid progression that barely shocks his friends. The learning curve has always just seemed shorter for the 25-year-old. In elementary school, he won almost every cross-country and track meet he competed in, podiuming at races across British Columbia as part of the 5 Peaks Trail Running series. Two summers ago, he took up rock climbing, and was able to scale 5.11s after only a few months. On his mountain bike, he’s dialing in 360s and backflips. There was also a summer of paragliding. His snowmobile—a comped 850 RMK from Polaris—is an extension of his body, and he’s close to landing a backflip on that too. But these are just extracurriculars. Logan’s true calling is on skis, the latest iteration of one of the most influential family legacies in recent ski history.

Logan’s father Eric Pehota is one half of one of the most successful and emblematic partnerships in big mountain skiing. In the ’80s and ’90s, Eric and the late Trevor Petersen evolved ski mountaineering into big mountain skiing as we know it today, ticking off some 40 first descents in British Columbia and Alaska with unprecedented flair and style. Logan inherited Eric’s passion for skiing and innate mountain sense, and understands his big mountain pedigree. Still, Logan says he’ll save the “old-man” stuff for when his skis stay on the snow. In recent years, Logan has proven himself everywhere from the halfpipe to the high alpine. He’s won Freeride World Tour stops and was runner-up for the overall title his first season on the tour. The young Pehota has spent the early part of his career carving his own legacy, opting for snowmobiles and helicopters over touring gear and skins, big lines and progressive tricks over sufferfests in the mountains..

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