Tahoe Just In Time

A quick update from Tahoe. I've been here since Sunday, which is just after the eight-foot storm that filled in all their gaps. After two days of riding, I caught the six-hour flu from hell. Today I got back after it, which is good because Tahoe is still getting hammered. It dropped 27" overnight, but they only opened three lower lifts at Squaw and they just ran from 10 to noon. Yup, free voucher to ride tomorrow. Another two to three feet expected tonight. That means up to six feet untouched on the upper mountain tomorrow. I'm gonna need a bigger boat.

View out my window Friday morning. Might be clearing as of Friday afternoon.

Mt. Hood Fusion Series

What ever happened to the good old-fashioned local contest series? You know the one, show up with your friends every weekend and try to take down your rivals. Don't know what I mean? Well, if you live in the Mt. Hood area, you can figure it out starting this weekend. The Mt. Hood Fusion Series is on at Timberline and Skibowl!

Come out to play!

The only speed trap I have any experience with has to do with cops. It was lame. A snow obstacle course seems like fun, though. Whatever the case, bring your friends and do your best to recreate The Warriors. But instead of guns, knives and bats, just bring your snowboard.

Avalanche Awareness Events

Next week is a big one for avalanche awareness here in the Mt. Hood region. It all starts Sunday the 20th with an avy dog fundraiser out in White Salmon. Then, on Monday, Meadows is selling special lift tickets to raise money for the Friends of the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center. Finally, on Wednesday the 23rd, Portland Mountain Rescue is hosting two lectures and a movie on avalanche safety at the Bagdad Theater in Portland.

So much more than cute little puppies.

I've always been more of a cat person, but if it can find me under a couple feet of snow, I'm willing to give any animal a chance. Come meet the Mt. Hood Meadows avy dogs at Everybody's Brewing in White Salmon, WA (right across the Columbia from Hood River). Also on tap for the night is an account of Meadows pro patroller Dave Watson's descent of K2. Yup, the second highest mountain in the world. Respect. Doors at 6:00, bring money for beers and raffle tickets. Stomp your feet to Billy Sheeley after. Details.

If you've ever been outside in the mountains in the northwest, you should know who the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center (NWAC) is. If you don't, let me put it to you simple: they deliver the most accurate and comprehensive weather and avalanche forecasts from Mt. Hood up to Mt. Baker. Problem is they are woefully underfunded. Mt. Hood Meadows is doing a little to try and help. Monday nights, Meadows usually closes at 4:00. This Monday, Presidents Day, they're offering a $10 ticket good from 3-9pm. A night pass is usually $29. All proceeds go to Friends of NWAC. If you don't want to stay up late on a work/school night, drop a couple dollars in the hat over at NWAC's site. Talk about an overworked and under-appreciated lot.

Portland Mountain Rescue, the guys who save you when you're doing the things you probably shouldn't be, are throwing a bit of a bash on Wednesday the 23rd. They'll be giving two lectures, "Avalanche Awareness and Backcountry Safety" and "The Mountain Locator Unit, Personal Locator Beacons, and the Spot," as well as screening the movie, "A Dozen More Turns." Having seen that film, I can attest to its power. Anyone interested in backcountry riding would do well to check out this night of edu-tainment. Come on, it's only $5. Movie and a drink for the price of a movie. 

If by next Thursday you're not ready to buy a pack, beacon, probe and shovel, then maybe you never will. Or maybe you got scared serious. Or maybe you just didn't check out all the avy-tainment afforded to you in such a small area and period of time. The amount of information and entertainment you can get for $25 in the following week is straight up staggering.

Contests = Prizes, Right!?

A contest is a competition where the winning participant gets the advertised prize. A contest where participants submit entries, yet the promoter fails to deliver on the prize would be called a scam. A rant is what happens when a contest entrant gets scammed out of two prizes in one winter. This paragraph could be considered a warning.

First stop, Snowboarder Magazine, late-October. Snowboarder likes to have contests where you submit your own caption to one of their pictures. They do it every month. Recurring traffic and all that. They give away prizes from their advertisers. I like to write and I like free shit, so I enter and I win. Check it out (a screen grab from Facebook, so I don't have to link them).

"Congrats to Graham Mueller..." That's me. Where's my prize!?

Turns out, I don't really win, though. After a couple e-mails with their sales and marketing manager, he stops responding. I leave a few comments on their Facebook page. The only people who answer are two other guys who 'won' the caption contest and never got their prizes. Snowboarder Magazine's Open Caption contest is officially a scam. Let's hope there's an explanation for this one because I'm on good terms with everyone I know at Snowboarder. They're good folks.

Next up, Transworld Snowboarding and 686, mid-November. Right about the time I 'won' that first contest. Clothing company 686 does a ton of contests in November around what they call 686 Day. I don't know what day it is or what it means, only that it involves my favorite type of stuff, FREE STUFF! This year they get together with Transworld and have a little writing contest. Talk about your favorite place to ride.

Who won? No won.

  
Simple. I fired that one off immediately. Solid gold, too. Now here's where, a few days later, they post the winner on their site and give away the free pants. Only they never posted anything. After a week, I started with the e-mails. That's just the kind of kid I am. No reply. So I sent them another reason I should get those pants.

I'm just that down for the cause.

Yup, 2002 Smarty Cargoes and a signed Patrick McCarthy poster from '06. The Shaun McKay poster wouldn't fit in the picture. Seriously, these posters hang immediately to my right as I sit here typing. Sent it to the 686. Nothing. So, I sent a picture of me wearing the pants. Around my ankles. As I mooned them. Turns out, dingleberries get attention. Just kidding. Made that whole part up. I never heard anything from Transworld or 686. Scam? Possibly.

Bigger question: How often does this shit happen? Big magazine runs contest sponsored by big advertiser. It's good for both of them and for the lucky punk who wins the contest. So many entrants just fill out the form and forget about it. Someone else won, no big deal. Only nobody won. Advertiser still gets the eyes, but doesn't have to deliver on anything. Pretty mediocre as conspiracy theories go, but it's got some meat. At least with little kids like me who want their free stuff.

Anyone else have experience with this? Win or lose? Drop me a comment and I'll tally the total. Then I'll select one random commenter to win a six day, seven night trip to Chamonix. Yeah, right.

Another Year Another Legend

The 26th Mt. Baker Legendary Banked Slalom went down over the weekend. Those of you who follow me on Twitter (@boredyak) already know that Harry Kearney won Pro Men's, Maelle Ricker won her fifth consecutive Pro Women's and that Terje Haakonsen won the switch run. You won't find that last one on Baker's site, but I assure you it happened. No duct tape trophy for that, just some commemorative goggles that ended up in the crowd. Ricker won hers with her broken hand tucked inside her jacket. Rumor has it that Maria DeBari hired Tanya Harding to smash her in the knee with a pipe, but Maelle got a hand in the way, saving her knee and her gold duct tape. I started that rumor, of course.

You better aks somebody.

I didn't race this year as I yet again failed to have my name drawn from the lottery. I did get to shred two days on a legendary hill with equally extraordinary folk. Saturday it was windy enough for the powers that be to shut the diesel off and kill the lifts early - save the one lift that shuttled riders to the top of the course. Then, it dumped eight inches overnight, tapering off for a mostly sunny opening on Sunday. My friends and I showed up for first chair only to find that two of us forgot our boots. Team Rental Boots still shredded the pow mercilessly. Honestly, the rentals were as comfortable as my own boots. I took the occasion to ride a couple different borrowed and demo boards; a K2 Turbo Dream and a Bataleon Omni. Even with our lack of a local guide, we found fresh snow until it was time to return the smelly boots. Helluva day. We even managed to find a crew who barbecued a whole pig in the parking lot and provided dinner for a crowd. Didn't really expect that.

Look close enough and you might even see a race course.

Another year without running the race and I find the LBS to be all about friends. Friends from as far as Norway or as near as Bellingham, with Utah, Colorado and Seattle in between. I wish I could have caught up with everyone. Thanks goes out to all who provided me with hospitality and congrats to those who brought home the tape, came close, qualified, gained entry or just caught up with their own friends. You know what it's all about. Watch out next year in the Masters class, though. I'm aiming for the top. Only 364 training days left.