Dec 5
“Hey! Thinking about snowshoeing or touring with the dogs on Saturday… interested in joining? Or doing something outside?”
The message came mid-week from my friend Justus.
Me: “Alpental is opening Friday, so I was planning on hitting up the home hill for its opening weekend. Would you be into that? If the snow sucks we can snowshoe around there.”
And just like that our Saturday was designed. Read more
Oh, it’s a great feeling, isn’t it? A glowing feeling.
The snow season, my friends, is upon us.
The ride season in western Washington was rung in by the joyous chorus of bullwheels cranking up at each one of the region’s five ski resorts last weekend.
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Nov 15
The golden path marks our parade. Kings and queens we are in this resplendent season. The bounty is rich; the treasures blazing and cold. A gust of wind sends the paper embers adrift, only to come to rest on the ground like forgotten confetti from a party that’s long gone by now down the path.
Nov 10
Evan takes on the Grim Reaper in a mock conclusion to Tim Zim’s Deep Summer Challenge photo show.
The Northwest mountain bike community has a kind of magic to it: a little something that tags along in the hearts of the people who make it up, mingling out on the trails and flickering through groups of ride friends. But Monday night in the dingy hall of a dive bar up in Seattle’s eclectic Capitol Hill district that magic was tangible, and it was golden.
Bryce Phillips is easily one of the most influential figures in the Northwest snow-riding scene. Founder of Seattle’s evo ski and snowboard shop and online retailer, he’s played a vital role in fostering a vibrant snow-sports community, cultivated largely through his entrepreneurial spirit, core company values and passionate staff. Read more
How do you celebrate your 10th anniversary when you’re the premier ski and snowboard shop in Seattle and, thus, the anchor of the local snow-riding community in a city where worshiping winter is more a lifestyle than a sport?
You throw a party for the ages and honor your guests by ushering them into the center of that pulse. Via a red carpet.
Oct 20
It’s a funny thing, but fall seems to be a time of celebration in the PNW. What do I mean? Well, even as the weather starts to nip and thoughts of the dark, dead season whip into the thoughts with each gust of wind, Nature erupts on full display—the foliage becomes her own spectacular plume of vibrancy over the hills and valleys, and even out along the coast. With elegance, she postures and curtsies and we’re drawn in, jetting to her wonderlands to catch her brief but riveting symphony of colors.
For those excited to join the festivities this time of year via hikes, the Washington Trails Association has a wonderful website (here) that allows you to pick a trail with specific qualities: waterfalls, old growth, meadows, etc. Last weekend, Alison and I wanted “fall foliage” and close to Seattle. We found the Kendall Katwalk hike.
“We are snowboarding in the streets of Seattle–no holds barred!” —Jesse Burtner
Most photos by Eric Schofhauser
Seattle’s historic Occidental Park once again played host to the Downtown Throwdown on Saturday, marking the rail jam’s sixth year of inundating the city’s core with a spirited snowboard crowd. Grown from grassroots by Snowboy Productions into the region’s notorious kickoff event of the season, the DTTD is a spectacle of rail-riding’s finest young talent, all gunning for $10,000 in prize money. This year, the sun came out to play; Occupy Seattle protesters geared up for an evening march on the fringes; and the snowboarders threw down a display of riding so wicked the snow gods were surely pleased and will bring an awesome winter.
It was a beautiful sight for many on Saturday, October 1, as chairlifts carried mountain bikes and riders up into the mist. They were bound for trailheads atop Stevens Pass Ski Resort to celebrate opening day of the long-anticipated Stevens Pass Bike Park, two hours east of Seattle, off Hwy 2.
The scene signaled many things to the Northwest riding community, chief among them lift access to downhill and freeride trails right in their own backyard.
Well, so much for the Indian Summer this year in the PNW, those summers that start late but stretch their orange and purple sunsets clear into mid-October. Fall has already dropped its misty veil about the region.
But we’re OK with that.
screen capture
The snowboard premiere season in Seattle got off to an intense—and oddly glitzy—start this past weekend: The Art of Flight, the 2-year-in-the-making, $2-million mega production by Curt Morgan and Travis Rice—a film that’s supposed to bridge the gap between the snowboard industry and the masses—played at Seattle’s McCaw Hall in downtown last weekend.
Some trips are pure soul-cleansing trips. The ones you run away to in last-minute escapes to shake the stress of life, ditch the anxiety of the walls closing in on all four sides and return the zen back to your world. Those trips that you need. Need to grind the peace and sanity back into the mind in lap after lap after lap of hard riding down fast, challenging trails. Need to forget everything but the beauty of the mountains, the luxury of great friends with like minds, and the utter abandon a mountain bike provides.
Thank god for Whistler.
