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It's Always Sunny in California
We were somewhere outside of Bishop, on the edge of the desert, when the sun began to take hold. I remember saying something like “I feel a bit lightheaded...” It all started back in the fall of 2008; Mammoth Mtn was hosting Snowboarder Superpark in May and thanks to some connections through Greg Wright of Freeskier Magazine, Level 1 would have the fortunate opportunity of shooting this spring park golden egg.
Back in the heyday, say maybe 6 years ago, before the spotlight moved east to Utah and then Colorado, Mammoth was THE place to ride. Under the guidance of Oren Tanzer, Unbound Terrain Park at Mammoth became synonymous with professional freestyle training and shooting grounds worldwide. But the thing is, Mammoth isn’t back, because it never left. This resort built on a volcano in the southern Sierra Nevadas never skipped a beat on what it offers best- perfect features and bluebird skies, and we would bear witness.
Once again the entire family came together (no one was going to miss out on this) and with the exception of Wiley Miller, all heads were present and accounted for. The roster: Henrik “E’dollo” Harlaut, Tom Wallisch, Mike Hornbeck, Adam Delorme, Phil “B-Dog” Casabon, Liam Downey, Tanner Rainville, Mike Riddle, Ahmet Dadali, Duncan Adams, Stefan Thomas, Corey Vanular, Will Wesson, and newcomers Aleks Aurdal of Norway and Superunknown VI winner Niklas Eriksson fresh out of Sweden.
Day 1.
Mostly bluebird with partial milk. The hip, gem of Superpark, was first on the plate. The transition was the most difficult to maintain, and due to quick melt time for such a sensitive snow creation it needed to be put to rest. Large hips are hard to make, and even scarier to hit. Riddle, Aleksander, and Duncan all went up to bat, and despite all professing to never having hit a hip before it went pretty damn well. Riddle and Aleks both went large enough to register on California Air National Guard radar, and were escorted by fighter jets to the nearest landing strip.
Day 2.
Bluebird-windy. The wind didn’t matter so much though because we hit an extra-medium sized jump, with trees in the middle. Ahmet and Delorme both made speed checks borderlining on scary, but once the tree bonking started it was a whole different game. Wallisch, Aleks, Hornbeck, and Duncan all got involved as well throwing diverse forest clipping variations into their tricks, while Delorme- who had been waiting for this kind of hit for years apparently, upped his switch 5 to another level.
Day 3.
Mostly Bluebird. 90 foot stepdown on a large scale (check photo #30 for reference). The cliff sized cheese wedge looked daunting at first, but it had already been well tested by the snowboarding elite a week prior, and after a hasty guinea hit by Mr. Delorme it was on once again. Delorme, Duncan, Aleks, Riddle, Wallisch, Casabon among others made quick work of the beast with more stunts…double extra large this time around.
Day 4.
Bluebird and calm. Starting off with a warm up in Unbound during regular operational hours, which many said to be the most fun day skiing of the season, was just the beginning. A perfect stepover jump (think Windells Turbo jump session of ’08) was waiting at the top/backside of the mountain. An evening shoot was scheduled, and after shuttling everybody (along with Jimbo Morgan, Chris Logan, and Parker White) up to the spot it became clear that it was going to be a fruitful harvest. No need to go into too many details on this one because the footage should do it plenty of justice. Notably however were Henrik Harlaut, Niklas Eriksson, and one of God’s own park skiing prototypes Tom Wallisch (some kind of high powered mutant never even considered for mass production) unleashing their every maneuverable fantasy- think double corks (new, old, new twists on the old, etc!)- with a picture perfect backdrop of a Minaret Mtn sunset. And as a collective group the night went down in the history books as memorable.
Day 5.
Bluebird. The last feature was a lift tower cannon gap. Again, disconcerting at first, but again it was expertly constructed and the final throwdown unfolded without a hitch.
And that would be it, a proper blowout wrap to the season the likes of which we have never seen before. Big thanks to Oren Tanzer, the whole park staff, Mammoth Mtn Resort, and Greg Wright for making it all happen! -and to Austin Holt for the contributing photographs.
That’s it, (but not all) for now folks!
-Freedle/Level 1
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