THE KING SNOW MOVIE | MIKEY CICCARELLI • FULL PART + INTERVIEW

Mikey Ciccarelli dedicates his season to filming in the backcountry and the result doesn't disappoint. 'Psycho Mike' goes all-in for The King Snow Movie stacking clips with effortless style.

THE KING SNOW MOVIE Available Now

Boom! Your first video part. How does it feel?

Oh man, just having the opportunity to film a full part and then actually being able to do it was another whole level that I really wanted to happen. So, I’m just grateful and just happy that it all worked out.

That’s hype. How did you go about it? Is there any sort of strategy you had to best showcase your riding? Did you keep a trick list?

I did actually have a bit of strategy. On my phone, I had notes of a trick list. This was my dream part if I got all these tricks. And then as I would get shots, I actually would write them down in my phone so I would have an idea where I was at with my part, and so I didn’t get lost on each session. I think that helped me a lot, just so I could have a clearer vision of what I had already. It was almost like I was trying to form my part as I was getting it.

What was eye-opening about the process?

The biggest was the amount of effort it takes. I’ve filmed a couple of days before this year. But this was like, we’re waking up early, we’re doing it every day. And I feel staying positive and motivated is the biggest battle. You can have days where the jump doesn’t work, the snow sucks. So being able to bring that positive mindset into every day was the biggest challenge.

You’ve dropped into some pretty heavy contest situations. Are there similarities between strapping in, top of the Forum stepdown and strapping in at the top of a US Open Slopestyle final?

I honestly drew a lot from my competitive background in the sense of visualization and my ‘self-talk,’ and my breathing. Because moments this season, I was very, very nervous. And I’m drawing back to moments where I’m like, “OK you got this, you can do this.” Because it’s, yeah, I feel the same kind of pressure. You’re not doing as big of tricks, but the features are way bigger. I was really trying to draw on that. Positive self-talk, good breath, visualize the trick and really trusting your ability. I feel like that’s the biggest thing in the backcountry, you have to be so confident. Because a lot of the time, you’re dealing with a weird lip or the snow isn’t as good as you’d want. But if you’re overly confident, then you can kind of make it happen. So I guess it is a lot like competing where you have to know that you’re going to put it down.

Is this the first glimpse of what’s to come for you?

Definitely. Yeah, I literally already have ideas for next year. Tricks I want to do and places I want to ride, and I can already feel the stoke. I have crazy awesome vibes about it, which is really cool.