Dave Van Dame, also-known-as The Farmer. Photo: Alta Ski Area

LITTLE COTTONWOOD CANYON, Utah — “Our hearts are heavy with the passing of David Van Dame—The Farmer,” Alta Ski Area said in a post on Monday.

An Alta skier for nearly five decades, Van Dame perfected the art of snow farming as a way to maximize his powder turns.

“Alta will not be the same place without you. You taught us all how to love every moment in the mountains, how to live a life worth living, with a focus on simple pleasures not material things.

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Donning your faded red jacket, wool-knit hat and Pocket Rocket skis, you showed us how to effortlessly ski deep powder for 48 years at Alta.

You have inspired our entire mountain community with your calming demeanor, unwavering voice and gentile smile—almost always obscured beneath your frosty ice beard.

Thank you for spending your days farming snow in the upper reaches of Little Cottonwood. We will forever save a spot for you on the Wildcat double chair.”

Farmer Dave’s perfectly farmed tracks. Photo: Alta Ski Area

“Farming is a term that’s been used when people cultivate a resource in order to reach its full potential. I try to do the same thing with a field of snow. I can ski untracked powder all day long,” Van Dame said earlier this year.

In a 2006 profile, William Delco of GravityFed recalled the first time he saw Van Dame —

“I first saw his unmistakable tracks in the backcountry in the winter of 1992 and thought, “What the hell made those?” It looked as if a snowmobile made about 40 turns side by side. It was not until we got closer that it became apparent the tracks were made by a skier. The snakey grooves were cut side by side and about a foot apart and took up an entire snowfield. I think I was with Matt West at the time and he said, “Oh, that’s the work of the snow farmer, he’s out here in the backcountry a lot.”

“From that day on I saw a lot of his enigmatic work in the snow off the back of Supreme, but I saw little of the artist. His tracks were always side by side, every swath in the snow a reflection of the previous one. The tracks were always perfect, flawless; no craters where he lost balance and tipped over and no missed turns. Always off to one side there was a diagonal skin track zig-zagging back up to the top. This I thought, was his signature.”