Hey everyone,

This is yet another reminder that you can get your first rad of the year by joining us this Tuesday night (October 11th) at 7:00pm in EEB 105 (On campus!). Your very attractive HST officers will be talking about the club, answering questions, throwing stickers (and taking your money).

If you can’t make this meeting, we are still tabling in Red Square Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from roughly 10:30 to 2:30.

As spring progresses and the lifts stop spinning across the Pacific Northwest, many snow enthusiasts begin “earning their turns” by climbing alpine terrain and sliding their way back down. Spring has just begun in the Cascades and the snowpack is at or near seasonal maximums in many locations. As the days get longer and warmer the snowpack changes in rapid and often unpredictable ways. Melt water seeps down to harder layers and lubricates the upper layers of the snowpack, providing a slippery surface for large, wet “climax” avalanches to run on.

A large, early spring natural slide in the Mt. Baker backcountry. Photo: Gwyn Howat / NWAC.

Each spring there are far too many close calls and unfortunate and occasionally fatal accidents involving skiers, snowboarders and climbers in the backcountry. Such was the case this past March when HST lost one of our own to a low-elevation wet slide in the Steven’s Pass backcountry. In light of this tragedy and the increased risks our members may put themselves at while enjoying the late snow we’ve been blessed with this season, we’ve partnered with The Mountaineers to provide members and the general public with an informational evening about backcountry avalanche awareness and backcountry travel in general.

Backcountry Avalanche Awareness

Tues. May 10, 7 pm
EEB 105 (map)
FREE & Open to Public

The event will include presentations on necessary safety gear for backcountry travel, elementary information on snowpack analysis and signs of instability and information on what to do when the worst happens. Whether or not you’re planning on heading into the backcountry this spring, we hope you’ll join us for what we hope will be the first of many collaborative events between HST and the Mountaineers.

This past weekend marked the second coming of the Ride Shakedown event to the Summit West base area of the Summit at Snoqualmie. A 4-star event for this year’s Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour, the event promised to be exciting.

Perhaps more exciting was what Mother Nature delivered for Saturday’s main event. After torturing spectators and competitors after Friday evening’s rail jam by snarling traffic and forcing a multi-hour closure of I-90 in both directions, the clouds parted leaving a foot of fresh, fluffy goodness and cloudless, sunny skies.

YES, the conditions were perfect in Washington. Photo: Anna X.

Rails were jibbed. Photo: Anna X.

Methods were sent. Photo: Anna X.

14 year old Yuki Kadono pressed his way onto the podium and into our hearts, donating half of his winnings to recovery efforts in Japan. Photo: Anna X.

After rounds of semifinals which saw such tricks as switch double wildcats landed and a plethora of dancy moves on the down-flat-down-flat-down rail, the crowd was treated to an autograph signing and the musical stylings of the Seahawks’ Blue Thunder marching band. Some light course maintenance later and the finals were on!

Kinda speaks for itself, no? Photo: Rachel T.

HST presidents past and present were on hand to witness the shindig. Photo: Rachel T.

In the end, Matts Kulisek took home the top prize for the second year in a row: $15,000 and more high fives than anyone could count. Yuki Kadono chased him into a close second, trailing only by a single point. Rounding out the podium, Tyler Flanagan climbed into third place and the Georgia-native netted himself a nice stack of cash for being from a state better known for its soda than its snowboarding.

Winning! From left to right: Yuki Kadono, Matts Kulisek, Tyler Flanagan. Photo: Anna X.

Del tha Funkee Homosapien rocked the afterparty into the wee hours of the morning. Photo: Anna X.

There is only one cure for the current bout of mad pow disease affecting roughly 90% of western Washington’s snow shredders: MORE POWDER!

Mother Nature’s been delivering over the past 2 weeks. Steven’s Pass picked up a sick 23 inches of fresh over Sunday night and The Summit at Snoqualmie has seen over 90 inches of snow since this storm cycle fired-up at the start of last week, doubling the base depth at the recently renovated and reopened Summit East.

If you haven’t been able to get out and enjoy the mega epic powder that Mother Nature’s been blessing the Cascades with, you have two HUGE chances to get some! This Thursday, Summit East is opening for yet another “Powder Thursday“, spinning the East Peak chair from 9-4. How deep will it be? Well if yesterday’s belly-button deep slashes at Alpental are any indication, the conditions should be off-the-chain!

If you can’t make that or you’re too cool to have a pass to the Summit, this weekend is the annual Hope On The Slopes 24-hr ski/snowboard race against cancer. Why shred pow just during the day when you could shred it all night?! If you’re interested in participating, we still have a handful of spots open on the two HST-sponsored teams. Email your friendly officers to sign-up or learn more. If you’re really cool and are interested in donating towards the cause, you can do so via this link.

Finally, here are some pictures showing you how we’re coping with the current bout of mad pow disease.

Sometimes you’ve gotta hike for the goods.

Sometimes the going is treacherous.

But the effort is (almost) always worth it!

This past weekend I was not only lucky enough to attend the 26th edition of the Mt. Baker Legendary Banked Slalom, but to race in it. Being new to the LBS, I wasn’t sure what to expect. In the end I got to spend the weekend amongst the most core group of shredders, riding in the least competitive contest snowboarding has to offer.

The course was brutal, featuring a “choose your own adventure” section, and the conditions weren’t much better. Thanks to Contour you can see the course from a racer’s POV:

Friday was a mixed bag of rain and snow. On Saturday, Old Man Winter did a fly-by, bringing gusts of up to 92 MPH and a dumping of snow. Of course, with snow and wind come whiteouts, which is pretty much what everyone was racing in Saturday. You couldn’t see more than one gate ahead and the precip at the bottom felt like riding through a cloud of tacks. Did anyone complain? Nope, “Just another day at Baker.” As the wind increased on Saturday, they progressively closed down more and more chairs. After 2:00 you could no longer get up to the course from the base without hiking in to the only chair still running. But when I dropped in that afternoon the sidelines were packed with spectators who had done just that to cheer us on.

Preparing to drop-in.

Yours truly, getting it!

Of course, the conditions were perfect for Sunday’s finals: bluebird skies, deep fresh powder and light winds. Having finished but failed to qualify Friday and DQ’d Saturday with a goggle- and glove-removing high-speed tomahawk down the middle of the course, I wasn’t lucky enough to compete for the golden duct tape. I was, however, lucky enough to run into a group of almost-lost friends and get several backcountry laps in.

Outside of the rope lines, the terrain at Baker stops feeling like Washington and starts feeling like Alaska. Big cliffs break-up the middle of lines with screamingly steep chutes between them. The backside of the rolling terrain above the Canyon, known as Hemispheres, is dotted with dozens of booters of all shapes and sizes and there aren’t many trees to get in your way or slow you down.

Fewer trees = bigger slides. Big crown on the back of Hemis.

Of course, there was a race and some people did win. 17-year-old hotshot Harry Kearney took home the golden duct tape for the Pro Men (and a wad of cash, likely in $2 bills with the occasional Canadian coin tossed in). Keeping her winning streak going, Maelle Ricker took the top spot for the Pro Women for the fourth year in a row. Surprisingly, LBS legend Terje Haakonsen, who posted the best time in Saturday’s blizzard didn’t make the podium, going home in 4th place with an honorable mention. Friday’s fastest racer, Temple Cummins, finished in a shocking 10th place.

ESPN thought the Banked Slalom was so cool, they made a video about it: