What a journey it has been. I woke up at 6am on Tuesday morning and jet out of Southern California with my sights on getting as close to Mt. Hood as possible. Counting an overnight stop in Redmond, Oregon the trip took about 16 hours driving nonstop.
There's was a lot of amazing scenery to take in moving from deserts to cities, plains, lakes, and rivers; unfortunately I had no time for any of it, so I did some drivebys.
Ground Zero
Leaving the desert.
Six Flags
California "Happy Cows" huddled shoulder-to-shoulder to live in their own shit.
Farmland
Sacramento--the city of...trees?
California landscape shot
First evidence that snow still exists.
Where they filmed Sound of Music. No, I don't know.
Sunset in Oregon. Only 230 miles to go...
Fancy views from a fancy Portland apartment.
It's nice to be in Oregon and out of the scorching heat. It's also nice that in Oregon you aren't allowed to pump your own gas, so I haven't had to do that for a couple of days.
Of course snowboarding today was excellent. Nothing too fancy in the public park this late in the season: for rails there was a choice a single barrel donkey dick, a double barrel down, and a flat bar; for jumps a line of 4 perfectly shaped kickers, which were definitely the highlight of the day.
I have to say I think this is the most barren I've seen Mt. Hood in August, but the public park has kept good shape and I spotted some cats working on the High Cascade layout for session 6, which starts tomorrow. Stay tuned for photos and coverage of what goes down.
Time for another video post already!? Well, when your morning routine consists of sorting through 10+ fresh-out-the-oven shred videos, all of which happen to be bangers, the footage starts piling up. Gotta post the new stuff while it's still hot or some sick videos end up getting lost in the woodwork; so without further ado, video post 2010 numba' two...
TWSNOW has run this Sunday in the Park series out of Bear Mountain for several years now. What keeps it alive are two things: the Bear Mountain terrain park--always changing, never the same--and the Bear Mountain team riders with their insane style and creativity. Lately, Bear has been capitalizing on a long string of bluebird days (likely to last through the season) to film for their next annual promo video. This clip is worth watching for the tandem tail tap alone.
When the season makes it this far and things start getting stale, that is when you've got to throw in some switch-only days and put some spice back into life. This video is inspiration for the switch rider in all of us...
We all hate hearing but it's the damn truth! Summer will be here soon and it's never too early to start planning your summer snowboarding trip. Here's a preview of the breathtaking views, stellar terrain parks and excellent coaching found at Windell's up in Mt. Hood, Oregon. Milbery spends the better part of his year passing on knowledge hungry shredders, and I'm sure he's got a few tips to help you out as well.
Meanwhile, somewhere else on the very same mountain. Jed Anderson films an entire part using High Cascade Snowboard Camp's main park. Jed loves rails, which there is no shortage of at camp, but did you see the minipipe, jumps, and skate park? This all took place in only half of High Cascade's facilities! Visit HighCascade.com to find out more.
Last but not least, another location soon to be summer snowboarding headquarters, Whistler, Canada. Take a look at what our neighbors to the North finally get to enjoy now that the games have cleared out. Snow pack actually looks pretty good out there, so if you won't get your chance to shred Whistler during winter season Camp of Champions is sure to be poppin' off this summer.
