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Friday Feb 8, 2008 - Day 1

Got up at 5am and powered up to Mt Baker–brutal. Made it to the White Salmon Lodge for registration for the Slalom by 8:15. Rode some of the new 12 inches of pow and then headed up to the race start. After doing a side-slip only course inspection, my group Masters started racing around 11am. Everyone i know in my division pretty much made the cut to qualify for the finals on Sunday.

Later in the day the DOT decided the avalanche potential was gonna be too high so they closed the road that night at 10pm and all day on Saturday. Evidently there was some slide path along the highway that was ready to go and could take out the road completely. I’d heard someone say that the avalanche danger was worse than it’s been in 20 years. Damn.

Obviously the ski area was gonna be closed on Saturday too. So what they did with the Slalom was take the top 50% of the Friday finishers for the Sunday finals. Usually what they do is take the top 25% from Friday and the top 25% from Saturday. If you blew it Friday you’re kinda screwed but you get an automatic invite back for next year…not so bad.

Saturday Feb 9, 2008 - Day 2

Closed.

Sunday Feb 10, 2008 - Day 3

The course on Sunday was way different than Friday. The temperatures had gone up and it rained a bunch on Saturday. On top of that they’d gotten a few inches of snow–enough to pretty much fill everything in. The snow was some of the NW’s finest wet, heavy guanch. Good shit. The course was smoother than Friday but waaaaaaay faster. So all the little mini bumps were amplified going that much more fast. Almost everyone in my group went down on at least one run. For how gnarly the course was there was no way i’d go that fast in normal conditions. It was some serious balls out shit.

The Slalom was a blast. Bumped into a ton of people i haven’t seen in a while, met some new shreds, got to ride some pow and drank beer. All in all, an awesome weekend.

Photo Gallery Here - Results Here

And now it’s time to ride pipe….

A few years back i was up at the Mt Baker Banked Slalom with a bunch of friends. Clem and Darin both were in the Slalom, i was just there to heckle them and drink beer. One of the days we were sitting down at the White Salmon lodge drinking some beer in the sun when some guy came up to us and asked if he could ask us some questions about snowboarding, avalanches and safety.

The guy ended up being an author of a book i read in college that had a part in it about the elementary school i went to as a kid–weird. Anyways, check the article below. It’s basically about how avalanche deaths are on the rise, Craig Kelly and snowboarding. The article quotes myself and Darin a few times. I’d say it mis-quotes me. Evidently i worshiped Craig Kelly.

Hmm…

NY Times Article