
Married in Ski Boots: Thor & Tay’s Backcountry Wedding
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Why two Renoun athletes chose pow turns over party tents, and what it says about skiing, love, and doing life your own way.
You know those mountaintop wedding photos people pose for? Renoun athlete Thor Retzlaff and his wife Tay didn’t just pose, they lived it.
On an April morning in British Columbia, the couple clicked into their skis, zipped up custom onesies (hers: elegant white; his: black with tuxedo flair), and skied into their wedding venue: a hand-built altar in the snow, nestled deep in the mountains outside a remote backcountry hut.
No family. No phones. Just ten close friends, a powder-filled seven-day ski tour, and vows shared under open skies.
Thor isn’t just any skier, he’s a Renoun athlete and founder of the circular sanitation startup Wasted . He’s a driven multi-hyphenate who’s redefining what it means to be a professional skier, and Tay is his equal: smart, grounded, and totally in on the adventure. Together, they’ve built a relationship rooted in the shared values of simplicity, movement, love, and snow.
Their choice to get married on a hut trip where no one had cell service says a lot about who they are. “We went with the most frictionless wedding possible,” said Thor. “No family, just ten of our best friends and a whole lot of snow.”
Before their wedding day, the couple hadn’t seen the venue. In fact, it didn’t exist. “Our friends went out and set up a beautiful altar,” he said. “I skied in first, and Tay came in parallel to my turns. We exchanged vows. Some dank words were said. And then we skied out of the venue doing figure eights.”
Some symbolic turns that resulted in some of the more iconic wedding photos out there. Taken by expedition photographer and longtime friend Matt Tufts, the shots capture Thor and Tay not as posed perfection, but as a couple who is dynamic, joyful, and fully in the moment.
“That was always part of the dream,” he said. “Get married in ski boots. Ski pow all week. Keep it simple and beautiful and ours.”
As for the weather, it wasn’t really on the duo’s radar. “It wasn’t even a part of our inquiry,” Thor said. “We didn’t sit around hoping for a sunny day. We just went out and did it. And the universe gave us a beautiful clearing right when we started the ceremony.”
The overall day was one rooted in intention. Similar to how Thor and Tay live. “We focused on what we could control,” he said, “and let the rest go.”
Their wedding, like their relationship, is a reminder that the best stories come from choosing your own line. And sometimes, those lines are drawn in fresh snow.
You can find Tay and Thor on Instagram:
@tay.zehren
@thoretzlaff
Check out their startup: Wasted* at wasted.earth
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