As you may or may not know – Mt. Baker Ski Area in Washington state has been putting on “THE” event in snowboarding.
This year marked the 29th Annual Legendary Banked Slalom. � It is the second longest running contest in North America (behind the U.S. Open put on by Burton – and just in front of our own event – The Easy Rider Snowboard Cup).
I was planning to go down and watch – and ride with industry friends – but 4 days before the event – my friends at Lib Tech / Gnu called and told me that they had managed�to�get�me a spot in the race. �Actually Pete Saari (one of the founders of Lib Tech) had given up his spot so I could enter.
The LBS has a limited amount of entries – you either have to be an invited pro, have won your�category�in the past, be a major sponsor of the event, win one of the qualifiers held the week before, or win one of the few sports given away by lottery. � Since I met none of the above (the last time I entered the LBS was 1990) I really never thought I would be racing in it.
I jumped on a plane Friday morning – flew to Vancouver – rented a car – got stopped at the boarder for a “random agricultural search” – and then drove to Mt. Baker.
By the time I picked up my racer pack – and made my way op to the course – my group was being called into the starting area. �SO much for getting a look at the course.
In the famous start hut (it was the same one from 1990) – one of the workers said “just stay high out of the tunnel”. �I replied – “Tunnel? �What Tunnel?” � He laughed and began my count down.
While I slid out on both runs (it was super icy) I still made all the gates and got times for each of my of my runs on Friday and Saturday.
The weekend was amazing – if you ever want to go watch the best riders in world riding and having fun . . . go to the Legendary Banked Slalom!
Some photos from the weekend below.
A HUGE Thank You to everyone at Mt. Baker, �Pete and Mike from Mervin for keeping snowboarding Fun, and to Dan for securing my spot and letting me crash in your condo!