Mountain Life
  • Daily Content
    • Trips & Expeditions
    • Climbing
    • Mountain Biking
    • Mountain Lifer
    • Multiplicity
    • On The Trail
    • Paddling
    • Photography
    • Skiing
    • Snowboarding
    • Stay & Play
    • Surfing
    • The Great Outdoors
    • The ML Interview
    • Travel
  • GEAR
  • VIDEOS
  • STORE
  • Magazines
    • ML Coast Mountains
    • ML Rocky Mountains
    • Vie En Montagne
    • ML Blue Mountains
    • ML Annual
    • ML Subscriptions
  • ABOUT
    • What is ML?
    • Our Team
    • Newsletter
    • Adventure Grant
    • Distribution
  • Podcast
  • Contests
  • CONTACT
    • ML Agency
    • Advertising
    • Contribute
Subscription Form

Get notified of the best News

Social Links
Instagram 22K Followers
Facebook 25K Likes
Twitter 5K Followers
Pinterest 1K Followers
Vimeo 34 Followers
LinkedIn 0
22K Followers
25K Likes
5K Followers
1K Followers
Mountain Life
Mountain Life
  • Daily Content
    • Trips & Expeditions
    • Climbing
    • Mountain Biking
    • Mountain Lifer
    • Multiplicity
    • On The Trail
    • Paddling
    • Photography
    • Skiing
    • Snowboarding
    • Stay & Play
    • Surfing
    • The Great Outdoors
    • The ML Interview
    • Travel
  • GEAR
  • VIDEOS
  • STORE
  • Magazines
    • ML Coast Mountains
    • ML Rocky Mountains
    • Vie En Montagne
    • ML Blue Mountains
    • ML Annual
    • ML Subscriptions
  • ABOUT
    • What is ML?
    • Our Team
    • Newsletter
    • Adventure Grant
    • Distribution
  • Podcast
  • Contests
  • CONTACT
    • ML Agency
    • Advertising
    • Contribute
  • Skiing

Brotherly Love – Vancouver’s Peiffer twins serve up double trouble on the Freeride World Tour 

  • February 18, 2019
  • Bradford McArthur
Total
15
Shares
15
0
0
0
0
0
Total
15
Shares
Share 15
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0
Share 0
Share 0

words :: Ben Osborne    photography :: Craig Barker 

Back in the year 2000, three-year-old Tom Peiffer was not sold on the idea of having his frozen toes crammed into vice-tight plastic ski boots for eight hours a day. Thankfully, the rest of the family coerced him and at the end of that season neither Tom, nor his twin brother Liam, could be peeled off the ski hill before the chairs stopped spinning. Almost 20 years later, the brothers are alumni of the Whistler Freeride Club, and both are competing in the 2019 World Freeride Tour. 

“When I first found out, I was incredibly stoked because that was a childhood dream,“ says Liam. “When the excitement wore off, I realized what I was actually going be doing and I got pretty nervous. I haven’t felt so nervous and excited at the same time since I lost my virginity.” 

Fiery Color 4 copy 21 min1
Double Trouble. The Peiffer boys, primed to shred.  Peiffer family

The Peiffer boys were born into a ski family with a pedigree of instructors, patrollers, Olympic athletes and general ski fanatics. Whether they loved ski boots or not was beside the point, the boys were born to be on snow. They also established a healthy competitive spirit with each other early on.  

“They had their own language when they were babies,” recalls mother Sharon DuGuid. “They would encourage each other to escape from their cribs.” 

When Liam and Tom were just one-and-half, Sharon and her husband Andy would ski with them strapped to their backs in Alta, Utah, where Andy worked as a ski patrol doctor. By age four, the twins were skiing as many days as possible. When the family relocated to Switzerland in 1997, Tom and Liam—aged 10 at the time, truly solidified their connection to the mountains.  

“Skiing was a huge part of our parent’s life, so naturally they taught us to ski,” Liam says. “In Switzerland, we had a god-awful racing coach who never let us ski pow. One day we just got sick of it and quit racing to go ski pow, and we’ve loved it ever since.” 

Capture
Tom (Left) and Liam on their home turf, Whistler Blackcomb. 

When Sharon’s job beckoned her back to her hometown of West Vancouver, the family was relieved to get away from the uptight European racing culture and enjoy Whistler’s famously deep snowpack. The boys quickly enrolled in Whistler Adventure School, eventually finding the Whistler Freeride Club. Things went downhill quickly (and off cliffs, through chutes, and into all kinds of incredible powder). Head coach Derek Foose saw potential and encouraged the Peiffers to enter some freeride competitions. Liam earned a spot on the Junior Freeride Tour in 2015, with Tom just missing the cut. 

“That was hard,” recalls Sharon. “Tom was a great skier, but he would let his head take over.” The brotherly competitive spirit established in the crib soon took hold and it wasn’t long until Tom and Liam were sharing podiums across North America. One day in April 2018, Whistler freeride coach and freeski legend Jen Ashton texted Sharon with the news—Liam and Tom had made the Freeride World Tour, the pinnacle of freeride competition with stops around the globe.  

Craig Barker MLSubs Feb2019 41 min1
Style comes easy when you’re practically born on skis.

At press time, Tom was coming off a third place finish in the Hakuba, Japan stop of the Freeride World Tour, with Liam putting down a solid run for a 13th place finish. More importantly, both skiers looked right at home on the big stage against stiff competition, including Hakuba winner Marcus Eder and freeride legend Tanner Hall.  The second event returns to BC at Kicking Horse. After that, they’re off to Austria, Andorra and—if they ski well enough, the brothers will return to their roots and compete in the grand finale of the Freeride World Tour: the iconic Verbier Xtreme in Switzerland. 

The competitive spirit of their youth has waned, with both Peiffer brothers focusing solely on their own skiing. “The biggest goal is to qualify for finals in Verbier, and earn a spot on the tour for next year,” Tom says. “And of course, bring home some hardware.”  

 

 

 

 

Total
15
Shares
Share 15
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0
Share 0
Share 0
Related Topics
  • Freeride World Tour
  • Liam Peiffer
  • Tom Peiffer
Bradford McArthur

Previous Article
Heather Lightfoot Climbing
  • Paddling
  • Photography
  • Women

Rad Women of the Sea to Sky

  • February 16, 2019
  • Mountain Life Media
View Post
Next Article
How to not be a dirtbag
  • CLIMBING

How to Not be a Dirtbag Sellout

  • February 21, 2019
  • Bradford McArthur
View Post
You May Also Like
Powder-Highway-BC-ski
View Post
  • Rockies
  • Skiing
  • Snowboarding

Powder Highway Revisited

  • Mountain Life Media
  • March 21, 2023
rope-tow-Vancouver-Island
View Post
  • Skiing
  • Trips & Expeditions

Poached Winter

  • Mountain Life Media
  • March 7, 2023
Ryan-Osman-ontario-splitboarding
View Post
  • Ontario
  • Skiing
  • Snowboarding

Off-Piste ON

  • Mountain Life Media
  • March 6, 2023
Skiis-and-Biikes
View Post
  • Mountain Lifer
  • Ontario
  • Skiing
  • Snowboarding

Skiis & Biikes Looks to the Future

  • Mountain Life Media
  • March 6, 2023
Baker-Boyd-Rossignol-Discordance
View Post
  • Skiing
  • Videos

Friday Flick: Discordance with Baker Boyd

  • Ned Morgan
  • March 3, 2023
Quebec-Colin-Field-ski
View Post
  • Skiing
  • Snowboarding

La Belle Verticale

  • Editor
  • February 16, 2023
Rossignol-XP-100-positrack-snow-terrain
View Post
  • Skiing
  • THE GEAR SHED
  • WINTER GEAR

Cover More Terrain: Rossignol XP 100 Positrack Nordic Skis

  • Ned Morgan
  • February 10, 2023
Kings-and-Queens-2020-Parkin-Costain
View Post
  • Skiing
  • Snowboarding
  • Videos

Friday Flick: Kings & Queens of Corbet’s Couloir

  • Mountain Life Media
  • February 10, 2023
Featured Posts
  • Mustang-Survival-WOMENS-HELIX-CCS 1
    Gear Shed: Our End-of-Winter Picks
    • March 23, 2023
  • natural-selection-Redbull 2
    Friday Flick: Natural Selection Tour Highlights
    • March 17, 2023
  • Powder-Highway-BC-ski 3
    Powder Highway Revisited
    • March 21, 2023
  • AleTrailsSouthernInterior_Vernon_MikeGamble_LookoutTrail_BenHaggarPhoto 4
    Ale Trails: Southern Interior Part 1, Vernon + Shuswap
    • March 20, 2023
  • Bora-Boreal-Quebec-winter-cabin-stars 5
    Bora Boréal: Frozen in Time and Ice
    • March 14, 2023
RECENT POSTS
  • Elements-Outfitters-Filson-cabin
    Elements Outfitters Partners with SALTS to Protect Alberta’s Incredible Landscapes
    • March 16, 2023
  • Uncertainty-mountains-Rockies
    Facing Uncertainty: The Role of Chance in Mountain Adventures
    • March 13, 2023
  • The-High-Route-Kaytlyn-Gerbin-Jenny-Abegg-North-Cascades-High-Route-glacier-hiking
    Friday Flick: Alpine Ultra-Run Sufferfest
    • March 10, 2023
Social Links
Instagram 22K Followers
Facebook 25K Likes
Twitter 5K Followers
Pinterest 1K Followers
Vimeo 34 Followers
LinkedIn 0
INSTAGRAM
mountainlifemedia
22K Followers
From The Gear Shed: Last Monday was the official start of spring, but we know there’s still some winter to be shredded. So ML staff and partners have picked the latest jackets, lanterns, bindings, mugs and drysuits for winter-spring.
Exploring the sights around beautiful Sutton, Quebec with ML creator @adv_bird ❄️🫶
Back on the road with three generations, dancing lifties, best-on-planet pizza and elusive-but-exquisite pow days.
Live It Up EP 24 is out now!
The Southern Interior region of BC holds an ecological cross-section of the province with alpine meadows, arid Douglas fir grasslands, damp cedar and hemlock forests of the Columbia Mountains and the warm expanse of Shuswap Lake.
Do Not Disturb mode activated ✅ #mountainlifer
Conceived by superhuman snowboarder @travisrice, the @naturalselection Tour highlights earth’s premier riders, from big-mountain mavens to Olympians, all competing on the most stoketastic—and unpredictable—terrain known to humankind.
Built upon a shared desire to enjoy, respect, and advocate for Alberta’s incredible landscapes, it was a natural fit for @elementsoutfitters to work with a local conservation organization @saltslandtrust to highlight the province’s rugged beauty and outdoor apparel to match.
THE UNINVITED INVITATIONAL April 13-16 @woodwardtahoe 😱 $40,000 cash prize purse and a whole lotta spotlight on a group of riders whose time has finally come!! Presented by @jess.kimura and @thenorthface and supported by @yeti @capitasupercorp @slushthemagazine @unionbindingco @smithoptics @sunbum @coalheadwear @fattire 🫡 watch the finals in person Saturday April 15 and join the crew + @btbounds for a public ride day Sunday April 16 @borealmtn. Time to make some history!!! #linkinbio to learn more!
Close your eyes and, for a moment, imagine yourself deep in the polar regions aboard an expedition ship stuck in the ice. The white pack-ice is dazzling, and the immobile vessel seems frozen in time and space. That experience piques your curiosity, doesn't it? Without having to go all the way to Antarctica, you can experience these icy sensations 30 minutes from Quebec City in one of Bora Boréal 's two floating cottages.
Follow

Subscribe

Subscribe now to our newsletter

From The Gear Shed: Last Monday was the official start of spring, but we know there’s still some winter to be shredded. So ML staff and partners have picked the latest jackets, lanterns, bindings, mugs and drysuits for winter-spring.
Exploring the sights around beautiful Sutton, Quebec with ML creator @adv_bird ❄️🫶
Back on the road with three generations, dancing lifties, best-on-planet pizza and elusive-but-exquisite pow days.
Live It Up EP 24 is out now!
The Southern Interior region of BC holds an ecological cross-section of the province with alpine meadows, arid Douglas fir grasslands, damp cedar and hemlock forests of the Columbia Mountains and the warm expanse of Shuswap Lake.
Do Not Disturb mode activated ✅ #mountainlifer
Mountain Life
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Advertising

Input your search keywords and press Enter.