The Northface Masters Stage 1 Snowbird

First morning 1 foot!

Yeow so ol mate Sebastian was real keen to drive down to Salt Lake City to have a crack at The Northface Masters at Snowbird, seeing Id already made plans to hit up the second stop of the tour at Crystal Mt thort it’d be rude not to go along to the first stop.A cool wednesday morning saw us depart in the GMC Safari our accomodation for the week recently fitted out with plush packing crate matress, saaweet! After declaring at the border, yes we are bring canadas cheapest beer into the states (beer is only 3.2% in Utah!) customs proceeded to search the entire van.  Apon figuring we were harmless snowboarders and not terrorists they let us through. We hit a decent storm coming into Idaho which proceeded to slow us right down to 50klicks an zero visibility we decided itd be safer to sleep the storm away rather than risk the already dodgy steering. Next day we trucked on through in worse conditions with an occasional unwanted swerve across the road chucked in to keep us on our toes. Several repeats of the Doors, the Beatles and Meatloaf on casette tape later (Yeyaar ol school as!) we made it safely to Salt Lake City. Apon arriving at Snowbird and finding a handy parkspace to illegally camp for the week Sebastian decided the best way to keep a low profile is to spray the van “rasta” red yellow and green right around! Nice one bro! haha. That first night our airbed made a sweet hole in itself and decided to deflate, a cold uncomfortable night followed. 

Next day we awoke to cannons roaring and bombs going off in all directions (this is what they call avalanche control) and a foot of fresh dry white on the ground that Utah is famous for. This was to be the first of many weather days as vis was low and only course inspection could be carried out. Oh well just have to go riding then, damn. Spent the day riding the Tram lapping “silver fox” the planned venue for day one of the comp. After a coupla weak as beers at the local hole we decided might be an idea to find somewhere better to sleep tonite. We bumped into Nick Greener at the bar a ripping local skier of international skiing fame who was happy to lend us his floor as he had often been in the same situation ski bumming the world around. Cheers Nick and Anne-Marie! Was good to have a shower, realised how bad we smelt hahaha.

Lappin the tram, rollin hundy deep!

Day three, was much the same with worsening forecast calling for storm of the season and already another two fresh feet of snow overnight, after bullshitting the sheriff that we in fact do have four wheel drive we got up to snowbird eventually haha. More laps of  the tram and getting lines sorted for the comp. We took some runs with Mike Hardaker and Dave Ratcliffe also competeing, the snow was great although couldnt see much at all.Later that day half of the course ripped out to the ground in a large avalanche right where we had been riding, too close for comfort, and closing half the venue for the remainder of the comp. The weather continued to deteriorate as the day wound on and with the roads shutting it didnt look like theyd open in any hurry the next day, The decision was made to make a run for the Cliff lodge where we were promised cheap on hill accom for the night. We probly got 200metres before the van was stuck in the thickly falling snow, the sheriff decided itd be a great time to show up, Seb tried in vain to explain in his best english (hes French) what we were doing,we got ordered off the road and to leave the van there, great! We grabbed what we needed and scarpered!  Met up with Mike, Dave and Jess Turtur from Jackson, got the last room left for the night and split the cost, still wasnt cheap! Nice room tho,thats is, was until 5 snowboarders removed their boots. Fortunatly Seb had the foresight to grab as many beers as possible from the van, these went down great. New friendships evolved and the snowboarding spirit turned into a night mission to get some shots,  Mike was covering the event for Snowboard-mag.com, nice. Outside was insane, the snow seemingly fell from all directions a foot of it had settled since checking in.! We didnt get far tho security turned us around after declaring an interlodge shutdown, the avalanche danger in the valley had reached extreme. Not before we got a couple of shots jumping off the hotel entrance on our shovels, tindy grab and all. Our boards were still in the van. Oh well back to the bar ay!

That is part of a car

Day four dawned much the same as the night prior still dumping but with 4 feet of accumulation overnight!! A quick conference with organisers and competitors established what we already guessed, another weather day.   This left us with one day to complete the competition if weather would cooperate, with over a hundred people to run this wouldnt be easy so a one run format was decided for tomorrow, everyone goes once and thats it! Also the entire venue would be shut until the comp started leaving us to guess what had changed and the most sweetest dryest deepest snow ever for a big mountain comp, couldnt ask for better! The road would be closed for half the day giving us enough time to dig Rasta van out and put it somewhere safer before the masses arrived! The day passed as you would expect after that, more laps of the Tram and a bit of exploring with such a riduculous amount of snow itd be rude not to. Mike got his shots during the day and was pushing for some more at the end of the day so crew came together with local ripper Jesse Delago and had a look around the village, a sweet bridge drop was spotted by Jess, as she got into position to drop the boys looked a little higher to the top of the carpark building and promptly disappeared. Dont think Jess got a chance (sorry Jess) because the moment we emerged on the roof of the carpark building security was on their way. A hurried strap in an almost fall off, wet hands and no gloves sticking to the steel handrails, dropping, tail grab, poomf absolutely no impact from three storeys up into 7 feet of pow. Two seconds later security was all over it yelling at the boys to get down which they did, not the way they were hoping for tho! Strait off the side and another funny as shot of Jesse and Seb flying into deep as snow, hahahaha. Awesome. After dealing with the inevitable telling off we moved to find somewhere new and innocent right, wrong! 5mins into hiking up a mellow as face to get some pow shots in the fading light the sheriff shows up again telling us to get down asap! Back to the Rasta van, once again we are explaining to security, patrol and the sheriff that we only want to snowboard, but apparently its illegal to hike after 4pm Whattttt!?? The cop thort it was a huge joke tho and decided theres alot worse things we could be doing and told us to give it up for the night. Cheers good sport!!! We got out of there and crashed at Mikes motel downtown Salt Lake City. A feed was on the cards, we walked into a greasey looking joint talking bout the days antics amongst ourselves, evryone there looked at us like we had three heads, the entire restaurant was watching superbowl playoffs! America! A sweet greasey burger later and it was bed early ready for the comp next day. Seb mustve thought hes back in France during the night as at 2am he got up and got dressed kitted up for riding,hahahaha Seb, not sure what happened there, that man is keen!

Ready to drop in.

Day five dawned clear!! Its onn, a hurried brekky and fire the gear into Rasta and swerve our way back up the hill, an extra foot had fallen overnight bringing the total upto 70 sweet inches since we had arrived! Wow Snowbird gets it! Comps on today is the call, sun is shining fresh snow YES!! I was fortunate enough to be mid order so have time to take warm up laps and memorise my line. Nervous time ticks by riders go one by one 63 get ready, thats my call, sweet bout time. Strap up, last minute check, get the right tunes on memorise the line again. 63 dropping.. it goes by ina flash of faceshots, cliff drops ,landmark checks hoping thats the right tree to drop the next line by! At the bottom in what feels like 5seconds,  its all over, all for one run! Hahaha awesome what a trip! Rest of the day is spent chilling out relaxing now the tension has passed, munch some free burgers and 3.2% beers, watch rest of the riders come

The finish line.

down. Seb ripped it down only to be taken out by rogue avalanche debris under the snow right at the end, gutted! Prizegiving and none of us expect to place but its good to meet those who do, shake a hand with snowboarding legends and enjoy the 3.2% tallcans which seem to do nothing! Few games of pool and time to hit the van for an uncomfortable sleep on the packing crates, not before ol mate manages to rouse one last night mission, hike the trails and launch it into deep untouched snow. No pressure anymore, sweet.

Day 6 We get up still in riding clothes and turn ol Rasta north back toward Revelstoke for one contiuous 21hour drive home, three bags of Jerky, red bulls, and energyshots get the job done for two very worn out riders, the thought of home a real bed and a girlfriend help the cause immensely. We arrive at customs not before playing the same tapes over and over and a few more hairy moments hitting ice in Montana. The border is a breeze in comparison hand over passports, asked what we did in Salt Lake City “snowboarding mam” with that we are ushered back into Canada, both knowing without speaking that snowboarding was just the catalyst for a whole lot of fun that cannot ever be put into one word alone.

Rasta van, our pimp as digs.