I think I figured that the total driving time from Sandpoint to the Ralston Cup to be around 18 hours. Throw in some snowmobile shuttles, hiking donner pass, goofing around and you’ve got about twice that. It wasn’t a race to get there so having as much fun as possible on the way down seemed like a good idea. The fun started Friday morning when I met up with Graham, Jeff, Pidgeon and a snowmobile trailer. We headed up to Bogus Basin to see if we couldn’t get a few laps in before the big drive to Truckee. The snow was deep and the fog was thick but who cares when your making fresh turns. I grew up in Boise and rode Bogus Basin all the time. Unfortunately they don’t allow snowskates so we had to ride outside the area. Jeff has tried to talk the GM at Bogus into letting snowskates on the lift. The GM said he would pay for Jeff’s gas to drive somewhere else to ride???? After three great laps apiece we dropped off the snowmobile trailer and Pidgeon, who couldn’t make the trip, and headed for Truckee to spend the night. Saturday morning gave us around 6 inches of fresh snow and with the help of our good friend Brad Krommenhock we got some shuttles in on Donner Pass before heading to south lake and the Bonser Pipeline. We got to Bonser’s just before dark and just as Jommy landed a kickflip over the keg gap. There were a ton of people and the pipeline was going off. Scott Chapelle had rigged up a tree stand about 30 ft up in the air from which you could get a birds eye view of the party and quarter pipe.

I guess I forgot to get pictures of all the features but I did get Brian straddling the coping.

Jeff got us a room for the night that had a blow drier. I guess he thought he would ride better if his skate was blow dried before the comp. Check out his Chiller shirt.

I’m sure some people take snowskating comps seriously but most of us were just there to have fun and hang out with other riders. there is a lot of standing around and waiting which means there is always a flat ground session going. Jake here with a kickflip!

The course had two lines and tons of variations. Boxes, rails, tables big and small and lots of hips with a mini quarter right in front of the judges. It was great to see Sean Davis ride again, so solid on the boxes.

The tables were getting sent by a bunch of people but unfortunately Goblin wasn’t one of them thanks to a bad landing trying to transfer a huge gap between the last set.

The comp consisted of a slalom run and a slopstyle run. The slalom was pretty technical and required you to carry a lot of speed otherwise you crawled across the finish line. The slalom wasn’t something to take too seriously but I did kinda make the 45″ for just such an occasion. I rode it first and had a so so run. They weren’t shouting out times so its hard to know how you faired. I decided to take the 42″ morning wood for my second run and it did so much better railing the corners and I felt like I carried a lot more speed through the course.  After everyone had made it through the slalom we ran the slopestyle in the same order.  Hanging out with a bunch of friends, watching each run and cheering everyone on is just the best. Jake was amazing with his taped open shinner and it was obvious that he rides on a much higher level then the rest. He won the whole damm thing, slalom and slopestyle, I’m not even sure who placed below him.

Chillerdecks donated the slalom prize, its great to have such a ripper owning one of my decks.

I entered the amateur division which had around 35 riders, the most of any group. We’re hoping next year they make a division for old guys so it breaks it up a bit more. I guess the 42″ morning wood did a pretty good job cause I won the slalom and took home a Ralston Snowskate. I was blown away and so happy to have one of their new skates to add to my collection. It won’t be a hanger I assure you. I ride every board I own, it keeps me up to date on all the offerings.

After the comp was over we made a bunch of mob runs down the boarder cross course. Comps like this are really the only chance many of us get to ride with other snowskaters and its always a blast. People are gaping that’s for sure plus what other sport do you get to ride right alongside the best in the industry. Afterward there was lots of hanging out and visiting. Travis pulled out his Japanese powskate that he got from a kid in Japan. If you check out the Banff film festival this year you’ll see a segment of this board being ridden by the maker.

After the comp we headed to Bonser’s for the after party and more riding. then a late night drive back to Brad’s in Truckee. The next morning brought blue skies so instead of heading home we headed back to Donner Pass. Graham was feeling a bit sore so offered to just drive shuttle. We opted instead to hike some new terrain so he decided to come along and maybe just take some pictures.

We hadn’t hiked far before we came to a very picturesque cornice and all of a sudden Graham wasn’t so sore and tired any more. Both Jeff, pictured below, and Graham hit it a few times before Graham sent it big. Its really hard to take in such a great weekend and luckily we have pics and video to remind us how much fun it was. Thanks to everyone who gave us a place to stay, shuttled us around, and shared their beer. It was an amazing trip!!!

We had a great trip and I’ve tried to take lots of crappy pictures and video. I still need to sort through it all but expect a full trip report by Friday. In the meantime here are a couple of pictures.

Jeff picking his line

Graham sending this drop. He landed at the bottom of the frame.  I have some video of this hit that I’ll post too.

Wrapping up a few things in the shop then loading up the van and heading south to Boise to pick up a couple riders. Should be able to get some turns in the Boise foothills on Fri before hitting the road again for Tahoe. I promise to take lots of pictures and shoot lots of videos of the weekend (we’ll see if I keep my promise) and post it all here as soon as I get back. In the meantime here are a few shop pics of the new graphics, thanks BARONTiERi for the creative artwork!!!

Many people just don’t get it. They see us riding in the powder and ask why wouldn’t we just ride a snowboard. I’ve come up with the answer, footwear.  I’m mean what other sport allows you to wear skate shoes in the backcountry?

It has not snowed for a week or so. Things are getting pretty tracked up but there are still lines and with the help of cold nights the hoar frost mimicks fresh snow.

We got in four laps in an area that was across from a spot we usually ride. The snow pack is pretty stable around here due to the lack of accumulation which makes it easy to explore new areas. There were lots of snow mounds to hit and Cole seems to be dialing in his landings.

Here’s a little lesson in video production, always make sure your lens is clean. I mean it may be the shot of the century but if you’ve got a dirty lens, well its just take a bit of the shine off. The other thing that is helpful is to shoot in the sun, not the shade. In fact after Cole hit this jump and we were hiking back up the entire field was lit up by the sun, oh well live and learn.

This is what the sky looked like as we prepared to take our first run of the day. That’s a sunsets folks. Granted we had one run down to shuttle all of our supplies to set up camp. But riding with two packs strapped in front and back hardly counts as an enjoyable ride.

The light was unreal and felt like a reward for the days almosts. Like almost turning back at the very beginning cause of snowmobile mechanicals or like Tim almost getting completely lost on his sled in super tight trees while trying to cut a switchback during the shuttle.

The entire run was about 1000 vertical with both tight and open trees, steep and mellow slope and light fluffy snow.

This video, shot the next morning, shows what the top 1/4 was like.

You know what’s funny about this shot? Eric doesn’t even snowboard, he’s a skier. I guess it helps that he skates, alot.

Cole snowboards, or at least he used to. I missed a great shot of him busting through some trees. I’m a shitty photographer cause I’m always watching them ride instead of getting the shot.

You remember the short teaser of Cole and Tim carving some turns? Well here’s a little pole cam vantage of the same line.

We spent Thursday and Friday in the back country. It was sick and I got lots of pics and video. I’m posting just a clip from the trip until YouTube gets its audio swap working again.

I kinda messed up this shot, I was down below them and wasn’t quite ready when they rolled up on me. I wished I would have stayed on Cole the whole time, he was hauling.

The fun thing about recycling is you don’t always get a choice on what graphic your going to use. I’m running out of Dragons and Helicopters so it’s time to pull out the models. This should give the gawkers something to stare at.

Morning wood camber with a tapered side cut, I’ll ride it tonight for its maiden voyage.

The Thursday rides are getting better and better. The snow is piling up and the backcountry is smoothing out. Yesterday we had four skaters pounding out the boot and we were able to get 7 laps in. The glade was untracked when we arrived first thing in the morning but by noon there were 28 deep trenches down her. I feel just a tinsy bit bad for cutting up all that powder… well not really.

I still haven’t gotten my video editing software working but here’s a 1 mn clip that came out pretty good. Everyone’s on snowskates, even the filmer(me). One of the guys, Tim, has only been snowskating one other time.

Every since the beginning of the season, Cole and I have made Thursday our hike day. There is nothing like the feeling of heading out of bounds away from the crowds and hacked up runs into some fresh untracked terrain. There was a pretty good dump on Tue (see previous post), and the winds hammered on Wed. You could see the wind gust tracks in the trees, certain areas were blown clean while others were all white. The feeling was to head in the direction of the all white areas. The first two runs were great, the third was horrid, almost to the point of wanting to call it a day. We didn’t though and went in search of one more gem to ride out on.  The slope was pretty mellow, probably around 23-27 degrees but it was open and untracked and the powder was light and fast. I think a lot of skiers and boarders would consider it a bit boring, but on a powderskate it feels like the ultimate play wave and you just don’t want to stop.

I’m still having a bit of trouble with my video editing software but with a little luck sometimes clips come out ready to go so here’s another minute of turns.

Well I can’t edit it or trim the clips or combine them but I can upload them to YouTube and you can catch a glimpse of what we hit yesterday.

Ok so for xmas Jill got me a GOPRO Hero HD helmet cam. It is very cool and we have shot some sick footage in tight trees with DEEP powder. The problem is the format, Mpeg4 is a bear to work with. For some reason both my Quicktime player and my AVS video editing software is very choppy. It sounds like others with this product are having the same problem. I’d love to post up some of yesterdays runs but as of right now I’m still waiting on customer support from both AVS and GOPRO. Because I’ve been taking the helmet cam lately I haven’t been shooting any stills, so this post is picture less, sorry. Hope to have something interesting to view soon. If not I’ll go out and take a picture of my new snow rake from Planet snowtools, the thing is absolutely amazing.

Mark