The Snowboarder's Journal - The Snowboarder's Journal 21.3
BELOW THE RIM IN SOUTHERN UTAH
Words: Austen Sweetin 2023-12-06 11:00:49
Look. Don’t ride. Photo: Hayden Brosnan
I was in Jackson, WY, when Griffin Siebert called me. “I got these desert spines down in Southern Utah at Blowhard Mountain,” he said. “They’re so sick, we gotta go.”
So Sean Lucey and I were in the car the next morning driving 12 hours south to meet Griffin, Harrison Gordon, Sam Sosnowski and Hayden Brosnan. By sunset, we were turning the corner up the winding road to Blowhard to see our roadside attraction—a skintrack already set with plenty of lines left untouched between towering red rocks, lit by alpenglow.
The following morning, as we approached the skintrack, we realized our lines wouldn’t receive light until late afternoon. We also realized the road continued around to the backside of the mountain. That road led us to a perfectly groomed snowmobile trail and we conveniently had two sleds on the back of my truck. The trail led Lucey and I to a lookout where our brains nearly exploded at what we found: an amphitheater of desert spines tucked between castles of vibrant red rock. We raced back to the crew. “DUDES, you won’t believe what we found. Endless desert spines, the sickest thing we’ve ever seen, let’s go!”
We loaded the two sleds with six people and headed out. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen Grif as stoked as when he looked at these spines. The aspect we wanted to ride was off the opposing ridge and the approach was a long, icy traverse over rocks. Smooth and steady, we made progress through the slippery crossing. About an hour into our traverse and halfway to our objectives, I heard yelling, “HEY! YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE THERE! THAT’S SUPER ILLEGAL. YOU GUYS COULD GO TO JAIL!”
I turned to acknowledge the man on the bluff. A quick conversation with him led me to understand that it was indeed illegal to be where we were, and he wanted to warn us so we wouldn’t go to jail. It seemed he was nice enough and just wanted to help. We told him we were sorry, that we didn’t know, and that we would abort Operation Desert Spines.
At this point, Lucey, Sam and Hayden quietly hid their camera gear so they wouldn’t get into trouble alongside the three rebel splitboarders. Yet an hour later, regrouping at the sleds, a park ranger came in full throttle. Hand on gun, he approached us like we had just robbed a bank. Establishing his dominance, he spoke sternly, telling us that (as we now knew) what we were doing was super illegal. We apologized and explained we’d had no idea it was illegal—there weren’t any signs to that effect. The only visable sign was one informing snowmobilers to stay on the groomed trails. Saying that we were snowboarders, that we couldn’t be trusted, and that we should do our research as to where it is legal to snowboard, the ranger escorted us to our trucks. Once there, he ordered us to load our sleds and keep our hands where he could see them. He then ordered us to sit in a circle on the pavement. One at a time, he called each of us up to hand over our ID and tell him the story. After about an hour of this, he came to us with our IDs and an announcement: “Good news, boys, you’re not getting tickets today.”
We all knew a “but” was coming.
“But lucky for you,” he continued, “you all get to come back to beautiful Southern Utah for a court date to plead your case in front of the judge.”
One by one, we received a federal court summons and then he sent us off. Shocked and confused, we finished loading our gear and made our way back around the mountain. Feeling defeated, we cranked a few runs about as fast as humanly possible on the established skintrack to burn off some steam. The snow was cooked and the slope was tracked, but we made the most of it, given the circumstances.
Returning home, we cracked some brews, Hayden put on a trippy Grateful Dead performance and we “did our research,” learning that even on the official national forest website, there isn’t one thing about snowboarding being prohibited in the park. In fact, it encourages snowshoeing and cross-country skiing through the beautiful Blowhard Mountain terrain. Luckily through a lawyer friend of Grif’s, we were able to get off with a minor fine and didn’t have to go to court in beautiful Southern Utah.
Moral of the story: If you ever find yourself splitboarding in Southern Utah, make sure to do your research and never go below the rim.
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