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Last Tuesday and Wednesday (4/8 and 4/9) i got to ride Baker with no one else. K2 put on their hopefully now annual ‘Kamp K2.’ They did this a few years back–then it was called Festicle. The company rented out Mt Baker ski area and invited both the ski and snowboard teams, a ton of their employees, a bunch of shop people, misc industry people, some Baker locs and a few random dudes like myself.

The two day event was filled with a ton of activities that coupled the difficult and rare combination of coordination and beer drinking. Examples include Flip-Cup, Mechanical Bull rides, Capture the Beer, Mini Banked Slalom, Beer-Pong and Trike Bike Rally.

Actually, back up. I missed an important point here. PBR sponsored this event with 55 kegs of beer. 55 kegs of beer! Of PBR. (On a side note, 1 keg is the equivalent of about 14 cases of beer. 55 kegs equals a little over 9,000 cases of beer. I like to think that required it’s own semi-truck for that delivery). Needless to say, beer was flowing tough, usually mandatory during the activities.

The snow conditions were all time. Visibility was perfect. Hardly anyone was there. It was on. I had a few activities that i was supposed to take part in (a free massage) but opted to ride pow all day. Both days. The sun came out on Weds too. I rode the chair a few times with some people from the east coast who when they were able to see the Arm were trrrrrrrippin! I can only imagine what was going through their heads coming from an icy, flat east coast straight to the most balls-out, powdery place you can. And having it pretty much all to yourself with epic conditions….

Each day was sic. The siccness continued into the night with sic live music, sic costume parties and sic people. DJ Mullet, Vitamin D and Hells Belle’s all provided beats and/or metal for the parties. The partying was nuts. Get a bunch of snow/ski bros together with 55 kegs of PBR, a mini ramp, Rock Bank, beer bongs and 55 kegs of PBR and holy shit…shit goes down!

I finally rode a Gyrator for a few runs–those things are no joke. They tear ASS through pow. Centered stance, little to no leaning back….just like you’ve heard. I’ll probably invest in some sort of non Lib-Tech reverse camber board next year.

So stoked i was able to go. Good times, great conditions, awesome people. Thank you Kamp K2, you’re the best!

Check out the full Gallery from the event.

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….

Holy Sweet Jesus!  I got in….3rd year in a row.  YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!  Somehow i got on the waiting list and i just got an email ‘confirming’ that i was entered.  Word up Amy–High5!

The Banked Slalom is probably one of the most fun events in snowboarding.  The laid back vibe up at Baker from the locals, the staff and everyone associated with the Slalom is so rad.  It makes being in the race so much fun.  Even if you’re not in the race just being there ‘in it’, shredding with your friends, catching up with peeps you haven’t seen in a while, drinking beer, hosing people and staring at Victoria Jealouse–that’s what snowboarding’s all about.

Looks like myself, Clem, DaryinB, MarcelD and Camaro are all that i know that are in.  Anybody else get in?  Anybody got a couch i can crash on?

This year im not drinking any beer….

Pics below from the 2007 LBS

Baker was sic this weekend. Drove up early Saturday morning with Otter/Petersen to 10″ of new. Crowds were minimal but rocks and stumps were abundant. I managed to escape unscathed on the new shred stick. Board rides sick but i cannont–yet. No pow legs.

Met up with a pile o’friends: Otter, Petersen, Bjones, Muffbreath, Crazy D, Snowball, Peelers, Clem(M.I.A.), Bryan R. Hartstad, Bachmeier, JR and BRock. And Lorn.

Saturday we got into some deep pow, face shots left and right. Barreled myself a few times and hose a few people too. At the end of the day we came down Pea Garden which was probably not quite covered enough and got to watch Otter slide on his back down a rocky chute. Why is watching your friends wreck so funny?

Sunday Otter and i powered back up there…still super fun. Had a jump line going down the natural half. Watched some guy backside3 out of the natty half and land on Bryan’s girl. Totally stomped it too. He ended up breaking her pole and scraping her leg up. Savage.

Goddamn Baker is sic. I wish they’d invent teleporters.

Winter is ON son!!