Baldface Lodge Day 3

Sasquatch sighting..

YETI ATTACK!

TR

Baldface Lodge Day 2

Today was umm, well.. it was 'ok'.

Another 10-20cm overnight, and we just killed it. Was pretty much perfect snow density, tons of features everywhere, and you could just send it! Best day of the year so far at Baldface, and some of the best snowboarding conditions in the last few years for us. No time for riding pictures - today was all about gett'ner done.

Done got!

We were up past midnight last night reviewing prototypes - up again at 7a.m. Charged hard all day, then Andrew and Colin transfered back to Nelson to continue their journey to the far east.

On the in-coming transfer came our friends Palmer West and Jonah Smith, and the yeti crew, that will be our posse for the next few days. It's clearing and getting colder. It's possible tomorrow could be better yet..

Andrew, Susanna, TR

DingDingDing!

TR and Colin.

The sickest board in the world! Only 2 in existence. All I can say is reverse camber is the bomb. And it's 164 cm. Everything else is classified.

TR, Susanna, Andrew and Colin.

Yuske-san! Got to ride with our friend Yuske for two days. He transferred out for his week off today, and heading back to Rodger's pass to work on his ACMG guiding cert. Check out the profile on Yuske that was recently published in SNOWSTYLE below. Yuske Hirota [the man].

TR

Baldface Lodge Day 1

Was dumping snow all day today and getting progressively deeper every run. We connected with Andrew Burke and Colin Alger from Burton. They flew from Burlington to Seattle, to catch a flight back to Spokane, to rent a car and drive to Nelson, to get picked up by a boat and then snowmobile for an hour to get to the snowcat...  while merely stopping en route to Asia for factory visits and product development meetings.. No cliche here, these guys are dropping in and working hardcore, and yes, testing product at Baldface really is part of the job. 

All four of us are testing 2011 [ak] 2nd gen. protoypes, and making the final decisions and refinements for the 3rd gen. of development. We have a very compressed amount of time to really field test everything and make improvements. We are on-snow again tomorrow before they start reversing their moves back to Spokane, to continue on to Taiwan. 

TR

FYI at Baldface Lodge

We arrived at the lodge last night. The approach is by 20 minute boat ride down west kootenay lake, to the snowmobiles waiting at the other side. You then snowmo another 45 minutes up to the lodge at 6700ft. It was just dumping snow on the approach, and it continued all night. Today is going to be DEEEEP!

TR

[ak] Japowder movie.

A new [ak] movie by Neil Hartmann, featuring some epic blower

pow riding with Yoshinari Uemura(Ue), Narufumi Yoshimura, 

Takamasa Imai, Yoshiaki Oka, Shunsuke Hoshino, and Soichiro 

Tanaka. You can find the movie in the [ak] movie page of FYI. Watch

for new content of the Japowder posse in the [ak] team rider 

page of FYI posting soon..

TR

CRF450R Project update.

....opened the box.

Even though I knew what was inside, it was the best box opening ever!

TR

FYI in Snowboard Canada.

An interview with Susanna Bergstrom on the W's AK program, featured in the Snowboard Canada annaul W's issue. Can read it here; FYI/Snowboard Canada

FYI at PROJECT LV

A quick trip to Las Vegas to drop in on the PROJECT trade show. Spent the day walking, talking and connecting with friends at Aether, Nau, and the Vael Project. Followed by dinner and drinks with the Aether crew, Sven Sandahl and Shawn Stussy. 

Jonah Smith and Palmer West, founders of Aether Apparel.

Coleman Horn, and Geoff Rittmeyer have been developing the VAEL PROJECT for a couple of seasons already, and had a good presentation. I have known both for a long time and through many different ventures over the years. The Vael project being their latest collaboration. 

Matt Carroll, Geoff Rittmeyer, JamesVaccaro and Coleman Horn.

TR

[bc] field report.

F.or Y.our I.nspiration 

Just in from the [ak] underground. Chris Ankeny get'ner done [bc] style. These shots are from last week in the Coast Range. Thin snowpack this year, but conditions are finally improving.

Aston Martin One-77

The One-77 is an automotive art project. Conceived as the ultimate expression of Aston Martins full design and engineering capabilities. Only 77 cars will be hand built and tailored to each specific owners tastes. Customers are encouraged to be heavily involved in the design and development process of their personal car. Currently the most expensive road car in the world at £1.2m

The One-77 has a handbuilt 7.3 liter v12 with over 700hp, carbon chassis and aluminum body.

Watch.

episode 1

episode 2

TR