30 Days in the Valley: A Snowboard Odyssey

Over the last month Utah was been the hot spot for events especially those of the snow persuasion. Not only did we have the Winter Dew Tour rolling through for the first time ever, we also held the final Grand Prix of Snowboarding contest to determine who would be heading to Vancouver to respect Team America (fuck yeah!), played host to the X-Dance film festival for it’s 10th anniversary and also received about 8 ft. of snow in a week making for some last minute photo shoots and epic riding conditions in an otherwise lack luster early season. Fortunately (and unfortunately) I was there to observe it all for you!

First Stop: Snowbasin.
This year Snowbasin housed the 2nd stop of Winter Dew Tour Challenge. Sponsored by Wendy’s and Toyota, this tour is one of the fastest growing competitive series we’ve seen in years. Most big name riders were a part of the contest which includes Superpipe and Slopestyle events. Those of you familiar with the summer tour will automatically see the similarities here: festival village, demos, free stuff an smorgasbord of adolescent activities to distract even those with the most severe cases of ADD. Being the lazy man I am, I only made it there for two days.

On Saturday I watched the superpipe finals. Many of the rider’s struggled to hold their runs together and in the end Danny Davis who landed the only clean double cork (more on this later) took home top honors. On a side note, Davis a practical shoe-in for the Olympic team was injured after the event in Park City. For those of you living under rocks that makes two, yes two hopefuls knocked out of the Olympics. Kevin Pearce was also injured in PC while training. Get better dudes!

The slopestyle competition was held on Sunday. Due to a trigger happy snooze finger, I arrived just in time to see Chas Guldemond and local rider Sage Kotensburg receive their first and 2nd place prizes. Turns out that I didn’t have a photographer anyway so after scrounging up a lift ticket, I spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the mountain (little did I know I could’ve received a four day pass, but apparently is was like pulling teeth for them to fork over a day pass so I could get a run or two in). If you don’t know about Snowbasin, the terrain is excellent and they are home to the country’s best lodge restrooms. Their porcelain thrones would suffice even Queen Elizabeth’s standards.

Next Up, Powder!
Over the next week leading up to the Grand Prix we were hit with a series of storms that rocked the West Coast. With reports ranging from inches to feet, we all prayed for some much deserved snow. Turns out someone upstairs listened to the call as we were blessed with over 7 feet of snow. The timing couldn’t have been any better, with some many rider’s in town looking to score photos and some of the greatest snow on earth. One of those spots with the greatest snow was Powder Mountain (well they didn’t get the most but…). This place is quite the hidden gem, rarely crowded, and not easily accessible (the roads are steep and snowy) it offers some of the best powder in Utah. Over the week this place saw some of the industries’ best ripping turns and dropping cliffs.
 

PC Invasion.
After, ripping up every resort within reached it was time to venture west, into Park City for the Grand Prix, and the last contest to determine the Olympic Snowboard Team. Unfortunately, the contest was held during Sundance, this made for an unbearable air around town. Paparazzi snapping photos of semi- famous stars, hipsters, whores, tourists, atheists, protagonist, terrorists, were all hustling and bustling down the streets in some sort of hyperactive state either dodging the spotlight or trying to dive into it. Unbeknownst to me, the organizers of the Grand Prix event really hooked up those representing media outlets. I was treated like a King! Free food and good food at that, check! Free pass for 8 days, check! Reserved spot at the base of the pipe, Check! Free beer, Check!

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