Monday, January 25, 2010

Powder Cowboys

With all the new snow that has fallen in Idaho's mountains the crew has been out in the woods shredding some of the deepest lines of the year so far.  The snow is incredibly light and fluffy and about waist deep in the backcountry.  The other day we did some lines in a zone known as the "Endless Pillow Line," and believe me, they are called that for a reason.  The pillows are huge, the line is about 500 vertical feet and it was the craziest damn thing I have ever gone down in my life.  A quote from Ian McLaren whom dropped first, went something like "I have never experienced anything like that in my life."  At the bottom you would kind of get an idea of where you wanted to go.  However, when you reached the top it was a completely different story.  You just had to flow and try not to fall into the numerous caves and holes that are in between the giagantic pillows.  Also, since the snow was so deep and light you were constantly fighting to see while at the same time trusting yourself to just air down the hill.  It was quite the show watching your friends come flying down this face riding like they are out-of-control yet very much in-control.  Terms like "Let Er Buck" come to mind.  If you could ride the endless pillows for more than 8 seconds, you are definitely an Idaho Powder Cowboy.


The Endless Pillows




Saddle Up Cowboy




Tristan Studying a Line




Ian ready to drop




Yeehaw




Ian finding his way through the maze.

 
This is called Ghostbuster steez.




The pillows, side angle.



Ian McLaren




Martin Campbell launching into the unknown.

 
Martin still launching into the unknown, Full Moon.



Idaho Powder Cowboy



Saturday, January 16, 2010

Another One Bites The Dust

The other day I was riding at Brundage with my brother Cam and Martin Campbell.  We were taking some pow lines at the end of the day that most people had avoided because this particular type of terrain is very difficult to ride.  (Exposed 30ft cliffs with chutes and giant boulder fields).  I dropped a 20ft cliff and rode out with an insane amount of speed through a pillow field ultimately ending in a high speed smashing somersault over a giant boulder at the bottom.  When I got to the cattrack I noticed that something felt wrong, very wrong.  I looked down and I had broken my board in two places, it cracked all the way across in front of each binding.  The board was done for, Martin had lent me the board to ride last season after I destroyed my Burton T6 164.  So in honor of my latest board death I have decided to create a post about all the boards I have destroyed over the many years that I have been snowboarding.  If you have never broken a snowboard, you might not be riding hard enough :)




The Casualties of War


The Option Kevin Sansalone Pro Model.  A 164 wide with a dope photo of Whistler Blackcomb on the topsheet.  I forget how I snapped this one, but, nevertheless it snapped eventually.  I loved this board and have swore by wide boards for pow ever since I had this board.



Cracked behind the binding.



I used gorilla glue to try and repair it, but it didn't really work.


 The Heelside.  I won this board in a raffle at Bogus Basin, a 156cm.  It met it's demise on Utah's Snowbird Mtn. When I ollied over what I thought was going to be a little rock that turned into a giant field of rock, I landed in pure rock crags and front flipped over the rest of the pile, somehow managing not to hit my head.  The board however was toast after that incident.



I took a little bit of the mountain home with me that day.  The rock is still wedged in the base like an Indian tomahawk.


The Baron.  I loved this board.  I got it after I broke my Heelside, a 162 wide.  I snapped it hitting a jump up at Grizzly Gulch, UT in the spring.  I hit the jump a couple of times more with the broken board.



Reverse camber with air pocket technology.



The T6.  This board is the dopest board I have ever ridden.  164 wide. Rode this board for 2-3 seasons at Brighton and Brundage.  I was so pissed when I destroyed it last year about this time in the season.



The damage.  I hit a rock doing a cork 5 off of a cliff.  I thankfully landed on my board and the board took the damage.  It cracked all the way through the metal aluminum honeycomb base and shattered the topsheet.


The Forum 161.  Amazing board, light and snappy and super fun to ride in the pow.  The latest casualty, this board was shredded to shreds and finally just gave in.


Cracked in front of both bindings.  It makes for a really sketchy ride.



Sunday, January 10, 2010

The Deep Woods

The crew has been venturing into the deep woods to find the goods to get our shred on.  We found the goods and the snow happened to be really was deep in the woods.  The snow in this particular part of the woods was about 3 feet deep and bottomless.  It took us about 3 1/2 Hours to get to our destination, when it normally would take about 30 min.  The early season conditions and the bottomless snow made for a difficult ride but one to remember.  We got a work out digging out sled after sled as they vanished into the seemingly bottomless powder.  You would hit a pit of a pocket of air under some bushes and you would sink like a rock.  We kept going making our way further and further all the while reminding ourselves that this is the best thing ever.  When we got to the zone the light had faded and we all took one run.  4 Runs down some far away face in the Idaho Backcountry was our reward for an entire day's work trying to break trail digging a total of 15 snowmobile pits some 6ft deep, and building a jump over a log to get a sled out before it got dark.  All in a days work to get out to ride the goods in the deep woods.


3.5 Hours to this point, It normally takes 30 min max.



Stoked To Finally Ride



Dylan Holt



Tristan McLaren and Martin Campbell



That was a good run


How to heat up your boots Idaho Style.



Dylan Holt



Cam Holt sending it deep.



Cam Holt. Method


Martin Campbell on sled, Steve Becker drinking coffee while filming.



Martin Campbell


Cam Holt


Martin Campbell


Tristan McLaren


Steve Becker 360



"Hey Tristan are you going to air that?"


Tristan McLaren airing out the laundry


"Dude, Nice."

Saturday, January 2, 2010

We're Back-country

We recently ventured out on one of the beautiful bluebird days that we had up in the mountains, preceding this New Year's Storm. We went out to one of our regular early season spots to get some pow lines and close up pow slashes. But when we arrived the light had already faded off of the face and we were forced to look around for other features to shred. We caught sight of a sweet little cliff bench and before you know it, we were taking some of our first backcounty lines of the season. We lapped the zone 10 times each and proceeded to have an epic first day filming. On the ride home we stopped at the point and got some photos. Memories of past years and the feeling of being back out in the backcountry gave me a sort of energetic high that slowly dissolved into absolute exhaustion as I passed out on the couch when I got home.


New Zone we called "Lunar Landing".



Cam deciding on which line to do first



Cam Pow Shred, The snow was awsome!



Dylan. Pow Shred



We still need more snow, some rock are still exposed.



Homeward Bound.  Headed back to the lot.