Just incase you haven’t seen MTV’s Peak Season, Check it out all this week on CTV at 7pm Monday-Friday.
They will be showing back-to-back episodes of the reality series taking place in Whistler. I got a chance to be involved in the show and I am in 5 of the 10 episodes, so be sure to check it out in between your busy shred/work/school schedules!
Other then that, been busy working lots up in Whistler, should be coming down to Grouse Mountian for some shred soon!
Happy Holidays and hope to see you all on the hill this winter!
The Quiksilver Terrain Park is running stronger than ever as we’re nearing the end of 2009. The sun has been shining almost every day and winter break has brought a few new faces to the mountain. I’m not in much of a writing mood as I’m about to head up the mountain, so I’ll let my photos do the talking. Enjoy.
Corey Mcintosh sending a cork 5 over the jump
James Anderson with a tail 720 over the jump
Park Crew Ryan Belich with a backside 180 off the pole-jam
Grousepark's own Sam Masih sending it off the pole-jam
So we figured it was about that time again. After what can only be called the early season sadness that is rain (I got to spend that week frolicking the beaches of SoCal…suckers), we’re back at it for a little park rebuild.
For those of you who haven’t graced the park in the past week, get in there! Some highlights include a nice mellow jump with a hint of the wu for those who like to get inverted, a 20’ box gap 40’ box combo for your jibbing pleasure followed by a newly renovated s-rail and a handful of other goodies. So, now’s the time with the sick weather inversion to get up and get your shots in.
Below are some teaser pics of things we’ve been working on that you’ll be enjoying soon as the snow starts falling again, and some of the mountain folk on their rounds. Oh, and on that note, a huge shout-out to the Grouse Mountain snow makers, because without them we wouldn’t even be thinking about jumps and park rebuilds.
Dano cutting up puckboard for a fresh double kink box...keep your eyes out for it sometime soon
The crew sporking out the details on the newly designed Butterworth Kicker
A guest appearance by OG park staff Liam Mullaly, down visiting from his new home up in Nelson
A couple local shreds, sorry guys I forgot your names, who helped us out as we struggled to drag the rainbow rail around
Just a neat inversion shot
Tom Robinson showing us the proper technique with a spork. Aussies know best!
And last, I leave you with a teaser of new box pieces, some wood walls, and, if you look real hard, an oversized picnic table?
With the holidays wrapping up, I hope everyone had a great Christmas, and will have a great New Years. While wandering the internet from Birmingham, England, I have stumbled upon Transworld’s Top 5 Snowboard Tricks. Wether your up the mountain or looking for Boxing Day deals, you should be sure to check out these videos.
In 5th place: Outta Nowhere Rail Skills, 50-50 to front 3 back to 50-50: Ethan Deiss
In 4th Place: Wrecking Rails -Jed Anderson’s back 1 to switch nosepress to switch back 1 out.
In 3d Place: Backcountry Double-corks
In 2nd Place: My personal favorite Dan Brisse’s Urban Death Gap
So, the time we have all been waiting for is here, winter break. Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, whatever you believe, they’re all here. More importantly, the freedom to snowboard or ski and be carefree every day is rolling through. This is a time for holiday celebrations, visiting friends and family and for riding every single day. Remember, throughout all the festivities you may start to get tired and, as we all know, the Lower Mainland hasn’t had that much new snow lately. The mountains aren’t exactly covered in powder at the moment, but don’t fret! Just remember to think about your safety and make sure you stock up on Red Bulls for the mornings you’re feeling tired. I wish you all happy shredding and a happy holiday as well!
Every year, I aim to make a trip down to Mt. Baker right before Christmas. For those of you that have never been, I don’t know what’s wrong with you. Baker is one of Washington State’s most legendary mountains. The inbounds ski area is HUGE, with so many lifts, that there are never lift lines longer than 2 minutes. On any given day, you’re always bound to find a playground of powder somewhere on the mountain. If the inbounds terrain bores you, which it shouldn’t, you can always hike into the backcountry, given that you have a beacon, a shovel, are avalanche safety certified and a bunch of other things.
We left Vancouver bright and early, at 5:30 in the morning. Usually too early to be alive, I came up with the genius idea that instead of sleeping and struggling to wake up, I’d just stay awake till 5 in the morning. Needless to say, the drive there was a challenge (the drive home had it’s own pleasant situation. Ask me about it if you see me on the mountain, it’s a great story). In any case, we got to Baker at 9 am, after making a quick pit stop in Bellingham for a hearty breakfast at McDonald’s, where a super size meal actually means a super size meal. My buddy Charlie and I met up with Duke and Jordan, a couple Washington locals and hit up the mountain. There were freshies on the ground and not a cloud in the sky. It made for a perfect day of riding and was a nice break from the local skating rinks we’ve been riding. My words won’t do it justice, so here are a couple pictures that sum everything up.
Sunrise on Old Baker Highway
View from the parking lot
Looking back from the very top at Jordan
Mostly untracked going down
Short break when the legs started to feel like Jell-o
The active volcano itself
This is how close the backcountry is
I was riding a 150 Rome ArtifactSK 1985 the entire day. For those of you that haven’t tried reverse camber in powder yet, it’ll change your life. I’ve never had such a fun pow day in my life. That being said, if you getting into the deeper stuff, you probably don’t want a super soft jib board with reverse, but seriously, reverse camber is the beeeest. All in all, a great day with good friends and new friends. Get up there if you can, they still have midweek discount lift tickets, so try to get there between Monday and Friday.
Lastly, from all of us at Grouse Mountain Terrain Parks and Grousepark.com, we’d like to wish you and your families a super duper Merry Christmas. Hope you all had a good one!
The holidays are always a fun time to be up Grouse Mountain. Everyone just seems much happier and today definitely followed that trend. I spent the day shooting with Shayan, Trint and Geoff. The sun was up, and the park was in prime shape, so we got to work and shot all day. The newly put in pole-jam definitely seemed to be ‘the feature’ for shooting today. Photogenic views and photogenic snowboarders made things behind the lens a lot easier.
Shayan with a big skate-style ollie off
Trint with a big front 180
Geoff with a front 180
Geoff with a back 180
And to mix things up, here’s a couple jump shots.
Shayan corking a 5
Geoff with a corked back 5
But what good are photos without some video footage to back them up? Well thankfully that was also covered today. Trint’s friend Wesley Kilpatrick spent the day manning Trint’s video camera, and Trint threw this little edit together of the day’s work.
