Kate Lessman
Renowned big mountain skier, aerial sports athlete and award-winning professional stuntman is welcomed to the Montana-based ski company
BOZEMAN, Montana (March 7, 2023) - Peak Ski Company announced today that professional skier, and award-winning stunt coordinator, JT Holmes has joined the company’s leadership team as Senior Director of Innovation and Business Development. Launched by cofounders Bode Miller and Andy Wirth, Peak Ski Company’s 2022/23 lineup of high-performance Peak by Bode Miller alpine skis have been met with high praise from seasoned ski testers and consumers alike.
“Over the past thirteen years, JT and I have spent a great deal of time working on various projects and shared many memorable days skydiving and skiing. I’m quite confident of his ability to have a very positive impact, right out of the gate, here at Peak” said Andy Wirth, Cofounder and Chief Executive Officer of the Peak Ski Company. “We’ve built a high-performance, high impact team and JT didn’t miss a beat as he’s already started integrating with the team over the past few weeks. In fact, he has already opened new, strategic-level business development opportunities for the company through his vast and diverse network.”
Holmes will report directly to Wirth and will be involved with the development and execution of the company’s strategic plans with an emphasis on all facets of business development in the US and Europe, product innovation, design and development and support of Peak’s innovative marketing programs and platforms.
“I am very excited to be working with Bode and Andy on Peak’s leadership team. The decision to join the Peak Ski Company team was based on a shared ethos of innovation, performance, precision, and grit. Andy and Bode are both greatly respected in the industry and they’ve developed an incredible line of skis, making the transition easy. My best friend and mentor, Shane McConkey, is renowned for developing the rocker and reverse sidecut ski. Similarly, Bode developed the shaped ski – the K2 Four. Since then, Bode’s drive for innovation and his creativity have advanced to what we see now in the incredible line of Peak’s 2022/23 skis. Peak has so much more groundbreaking development on the horizon that I simply knew that aligned with them for the long term is where I belong.”
“You see JT’s success in so many activities and industries. He’s become one of the most respected minds and talents of our generation,” said Bode Miller. “In fact, it’s exhausting to just track with the guy, but as Andy well knows, JT’s success comes from a drive that aligns with ours and at the center is inventive and creative thinking. Andy and I have seen the gravitational pull toward tradition and sameness in the industry, but that’s not who we are, nor is it why we started Peak. Thankfully, that’s also why JT wanted to join our team. I’m told that when JT saw the large banners in our offices that read, ‘We Aren’t Here to Do What’s Already Been Done,’ he realized immediately that he was in the right place.”
Holmes began his ski career at Palisades Tahoe on the race team and then the freestyle ski team. As a sponsored athlete he has appeared in 30+ ski films and been featured on 60 Minutes twice. He was a top competitor in big-mountain events for nearly two decades. He did his first B.A.S.E. jump at 22 and within months was pushing boundaries in the disciplines of wingsuit flying and ski B.A.S.E. jumping. He has 12 years of speedriding experience. “It’s the fourth dimension of skiing,” said Holmes. Speedriding combines skiing with use of a high-speed parachute to fly down mountains and ski terrain and jump off cliffs that otherwise would not be accessible. Holmes continues to be at the leading edge of the human flight movement, pushing his sports to new heights. JT’s Emmy-nominated “The Birdmen” feature is one of 60 Minutes’ most-watched segments. In 2015, JT completed a high-speed multi-sport descent of the Eiger in Switzerland that was documented by 60 Minutes with Anderson Cooper. JT has been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, CBS This Morning, The CBS Early Show, Discovery Channel’s Adrenaline Lab, Sports Illustrated Now, and ESPN SportsCenter. His speedriding was showcased at COP 26 Climate Summit in Glasgow immediately preceding Barack Obama’s keynote speech. That segment, titled Dear Earth lives online as a YouTube Original with 2,500,000 views.
JT’s athletic career segues into work with the Hollywood film industry, commercial production, corporate hosting and public speaking. In addition to being a published writer, JT is an award-winning executive producer in television. Holmes is a member of the Screen Actors Guild. His leadership of a climactic stunt scene in Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon earned a Taurus World Stunt Award for Best Specialty Stunt. JT’s work has been featured in movies including Fast and Furious 7, Godzilla, Hangover 3, The Amazing Spiderman 2, Running with the Devil and The Mustang. Keep an eye out for JT’s work in Netflix’ August 2023 release Heart of Stone starring Gal Gadot. Holmes also competes internationally in off-road racing. He has won the prestigious Baja 500 and the SCORE Desert Challenge.
Learn more about Peak Ski Company at www.peakskis.com and watch the video about why Holmes is joining the company’s leadership team on the Peak Skis YouTube channel.
ABOUT PEAK SKI COMPANY, LLC
Proudly born of the mountains of Southwestern Montana and from the vision of its co-founders, Andy Wirth and Bode Miller, Peak Ski Company is rooted in innovation. A direct-to-consumer, high performance ski and brand platform, Peak Ski Company is leading with a line of six all mountain and side-country skis for the 2022/23 ski season. Peak’s high-performance all mountain skis include the Peak 88; Peak 98; Peak 104, and Peak 110. Developed and tested in the Montana backcountry, the company has also developed a line of high-performance “sidecountry” skis, Peak SC by Bode Miller, including Peak 98SCs and Peak 104SCs. Peak is the first, at-scale, direct-to-consumer ski company in the United States and is focused on developing advanced materials, manufacturing processes and equipment, and integrating technologies into its skis with an intense cadence and a focus on performance. Peak’s 2022/23 line of skis have already been declared among the best skis available on the market based on the ingenuity and experience of the product design and development team led by legendary alpine ski racer, Bode Miller. Learn more at www.peakskis.com.
MEDIA CONTACTS
Kate Lessman, Think Big PR at kate@thinkbigmediapr.com or 970-333-3395
Jess Weaver, Think Big PR at jessica@jvpcommunications.com or 530-448-6981