httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMHLvtouyn0
Local filmmaker Michael Sanders fooling around with a pink insulation blank in the NH surf.
Author: admin
A Good Weekend
A few shots from our shoot up at Lodge Theory near Jay peak this weekend…
Top of the Gravity Bowl terrain…
Fun in the woods…
Intern Max…
… and “Joe Washington.” Super fun weekend – still winter in the mountains folks!
Nicki Slechta Season Update
Since leaving Argentina and coming back to the states I didn’t really know what to expect from this season. In Argentina we were blessed with an amazing amount of snowfall and tons of powder days. I definitely went into this season with high hopes for pow riding, and not much intention of riding park. In mid November Tahoe was hit with a 5 ft storm that kicked off some really fun early season powder days. I was just getting back into the swing of riding, going hiking in the backcountry for some fun lines, when I got the email that I was invited to do the Winter Dew Tour. With 2 weeks until the contest, I decided to do it. It was a complete 180 from what I had decided to focus on. Without ever going to Argentina though I would never have had a focus in the backcountry, because before Argentina I only really knew park riding with pow days being a second priority.
Dew Tour
I competed in the first stop of the Dew Tour in Breckenridge, CO in December. I got 9th and qualified for the rest of the tour, which ended taking up most of my time for January and February. The January stop was in Killington, VT, at that stop I placed 6th. I made it to finals, but a pretty serious slam in practice made me unable to compete. After that was the February stop and also the championship stop was at Snowbird in Utah. I also got 6th at this stop, putting me in 4th overall for the whole tour.
Dew Tour
Humpday: Coulter vs. Christ
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89fiqpMRdcA
SASS Coach Chris Coulter vs. skier Reggie Christ for your Humpday special
Red Bull Cold Rush Day One
Red Bull Cold Rush Day One…
SASS Argentina coach Michelle Parker is back in the contest circuit and threw a big half-cab off the first jump yesterday. The Cold Rush contest is one of the most unique contests in skiing, combining three competitions – big mountain, backcountry slopestyle, and cliff hucking to test who is truly the best all-around freeskier. Last year’s location at the Retallack lodge in BC has been swapped for legendary Silverton mountain, where several SASS guides have been in action guiding the cat builds and competitor groups during the contest. Click the image for the video and dream along with us about what it must be like to have a heli as your chairlift for a contest…
US Open
Piles of soaked outerwear, scratched goggles, tour equipment in a giant mess in the back of the tour car, and exhaustion so heavy we can barely open our eyes this Monday… yup, the 29th annual US Open went down and went down hard. Despite the fact that we were paying for last year’s picture-perfect weather with a very New England blend of fog, rain, snow, sleet, ice, sun, warm, and cold, Stratton’s Sun Bowl venue was slammed all weekend long with X-Games crowds filing through and grabbing up every sticker, postcard, and pair of SASS sunglasses we could put on the table.
Getting ready to watch the men’s superpipe finals.
Crowds gather outside the SASS Global tent.
These guys completed almost 50 half-naked pushups for a pair of SASS glasses!
Powder Week
Since I started contributing work to Powder Magazine this summer, I’ve had some cool opportunities – to do my first print article about my friend and one of our SASS Argentina coaches, Garrett Russell, and do write all kinds of rediculous dispatches from Argentina and the East Coast. This year I got invited to be a ski tester for their annual Powder Week ski test in Jackson Hole.
Jackson Hole guide Mikey Franco after a lap down a sweet untracked field.
I spent nine days in Jackson Hole getting my butt torn around the mountain on monster backcountry missions with mandatory hikes, traverses, and sidesteps into and out of pretty much every line we skied. There was no hope of getting in good enough shape skiing on the East to be ready for it, and I was spent by lunch pretty much everyday.
Enjoying a knee-deep lap down Endless couloir. Thanks Black Diamond crew!
The whole trip was incredible – from being beaten down every run by old men and girls to meeting a lot of the ski industry’s best people to skiing pow and having guides show us the best terrain and runs every day. Big thanks to Mike Rogge and Matt Hansen and the rest of the Powder crew for bringing me in on this one, it was sick! Can’t wait for next year. We’ll be working on getting some really cool guided trips going in Jackson for next year so get ready!
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A little video from some of my better runs (before the camera fell out of my pack on the traverse out on a pow day). Oh well. Off to the US Open at Stratton – see everyone there this week!
-Ryan
Nat & Nicki at SGT Silverton
Oh baby… after Nicki Slechta slayed her way to 4th overall for the season at the Snowbasin Dew Tour, her and fellow SASS coach Natalie Gough busted down to Silveton to hang with the decidedly more backcountry-focused humans of the SASS Global Travel. Namely hanging out at Skylar Holgate’s Treasure Mountain Hut and then shredding that and Silverton Mountain with Skylar and SGT’s resident sneak attack champion, “Sneaky” Pete Connolly.
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Part 1 captures their time at TMH…
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and Part 2 captures their time shredding Silverton Mtn. Heli anyone?
Roxy Refreshments: SASS in Argentina
This past August, we had the ladies from the Roxy snowboard team down to shoot for their catalog and shred pow. Their line-up was stacked and included everyone from up and comers like Norwegian Silje Norendal to Olympian Torah Bright to long-time SASS amigas Robyn Van Gyn and Erin Comstock.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY-fUl-UgnY
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnsQdQUWSRE
They just dropped their first Roxy Refreshments edits from their time at SASS on Youtube – check it!
One Hot Minute: Silverton
Our friend Dustin Eldridge has been enjoying the stellar CO season along with the rest of the state, and was able to write us a little report about his trip to Silverton back in December. Check it!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut3eh_z9nN0
Silverton Mountain is a pow hound’s dream, located an hour north of Durango in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains. I was perusing Silverton’s website in school one day, dreaming for an excuse to make the eight-hour journey. It was as if the snow gods answered my prayers. “Bootpackers needed Dec. 4,5 and 11,12. Bootpack avalanche terrain for one day and receive a free lift ticket. No experience needed.” I started planning the logistics that very second. We pulled into the parking lot, which lacked the Summit County crowds I was accustomed to, on Saturday morning. Silverton’s base area consisted of its single chairlift, a tent serving as a ticket office/bar, and a bus repurposed for renting equipment. After receiving a brief safety discussion, our day began by shoveling and packing snow at the base for the helipad (heli-skiing started the following weekend).