COVER “Pulling up to this feature outside of Pemberton, BC, feels like looking into a massive wave that’s frozen in place. Ben Ferguson put a line into it, and our crew stepped into a solid session. Ben’s elevated riding on this day was drawn from a perfect mix of his years spent riding transition and his prowess in the backcountry. The double crippler seen here had never been done before in the backcountry. You can read more about it in his profile (beginning on page 036).” Photo: Aaron Blatt UP TOP 01 “It was our first day in Hokkaido and we were all jet-lagged. After a few laps at the resort we figured, ‘Let’s just have a bowl of ramen and then call it a day,’ but we spontaneously decided to take the long way home via the back bowl. Turned out it was untracked as far as the eye could see. This was Lars Popp’s first trip to Japan, and this was his first real Japanese powder turn—one he’ll likely remember for a long time to come.” Photo: Aaron Schwartz 02 “It’s one thing to step to a spot like this, hit it four times, stomp it four times, and then move on to another spot—it’s a whole different thing to hit it switch every time. But Gigi Rüf has put more than 10,000 hours into his mastery of snowboarding, and it showed with his approach to this cliff in Vorarlberg, Austria: switch frontside 180, switch backside 180 no grab, switch backside 180 tail grab, and the switch backside 360 seen here.” Photo: Sean Kerrick Sullivan 06 Christian Haller touches up the lip on a sunny spring day in Laax, Switzerland. Photo: Dominic Zimmerman 07 “In early March, Fredi Kalbermatten and Gray Thompson embarked on a train trip through the Swiss Alps called the Glacier Express. The eight-hour route runs from Zermatt to St. Moritz and precisely halfway through there’s a little mountain gem called Andermatt. We had a full day with everything from crazy lines accessed by death traverses to a jump session on a windlip. On the run home at last light I decided to follow Fredi down with my 14mm lens on my camera, which wasn’t the easiest task, but I’m happy with the result.” Photo: Silvano Zeiter 03 “Griffin Siebert had the idea of waking up early one morning to catch first light on Mount Tuscarora in the Brighton, UT backcountry. Like a good photogra-pher, I checked my batteries the night before and saw three bars—good to go. The next morning it was cold as hell and by the time we arrived at the shooting location, the battery was toast. I popped it out and stuck it in my armpit to try and warm it up for Griff’s line. Lucky for me, the battery lasted just long enough to capture this photo then die.” Photo: Bob Plumb 08 “It was a perfect bluebird day at Mt. Baker, and Shuksan Arm was going off— never have I seen so many people sending above Chair 8. I posted up just off the bootpack and chatted with friends hiking by while Jared Elston, Nik Baden and Jake Blauvelt went to work. After putting in the track, Jared stomped his backside 720 first try, but he wasn’t totally happy with it, so he kept going back for more. He hit this thing a half-dozen times before he went too big, landed around 810, tomahawked, and lost his goggles for good. The kid took his lumps and was still ready to send the next day.” Photo: Colin Wiseman 04 “I found this spot while searching my hometown of Saint Petersburg, Russia— it’s in the observatory district. Although the buildings there look abandoned, most are still in use. This April, I returned with Artem Smolin and his filmer Egor Mamaev, where we found our way into this building and pushed snow for a few hours. It took Artem a couple of tries to land this lipslide, but he eventually added a little tap on the drop before stomping it square.” Photo: Evgeny Pavlov 09 “We were almost a month deep into a Japan trip with the Pirate Crew, staying in a very remote and rural town on Hokkaido when Jed Anderson dropped his highly anticipated street part. That morning, the crew watched it a few times and that afternoon, John Jackson locked himself into one of the gnarliest boardslides I have ever seen. Coincidence?” Photo: Sean Kerrick Sullivan 05 “Arlberg, Austria is famous for its powder, but sometimes the side hits are too fun to pass up. Here, Simon Gruber floats one en route to a powder run, and then the equally famous local après scene.” Photo: Roby Bragotto THE SNOWBOARDER’S JOURNAL 015
The Snowboarder's Journal frequency 17.2: Page 15
