Cooke City Vacation and back to Munich

The week we spent in Cooke City felt like vacation. Snow and weather conditions were not perfect but good enough to ride some fun lines, hit two jumps and just enjoy our time on the mountain...

 ...and in the valley!

 Together with our new friends Jason Robinson and Leland McNamara we were just enjoying this last powder trip of the season and were thankful for every other powder turn we could get out of this winter!

On the last day I lost my snowboard on the mountain because my snowboard rack broke without me noticing it in time. And I could not find it anywhere. Then at night we went out to some bar in town and had a couple of drinks. Between beer and Jägermeister the barkeeper offered me a snowboard. He found it on the mountain and took it down... So random!

My first time ordering a snowboard in a bar for sure!

On the last day we still got a fun shot droping off this roof and riding the Mini Quarterpipe. Acutally the whole situation wasn't too much fun but rather very tense as not everyone in town liked us climbing onto this roof. But in the end they tolerated a few tries and everything was good...

Right after this we left town. Our way home felt like a Safari. We spent a couple of hours cruising through Yellow Stone National Park and seeing all this wildlife. It was a truly amazing experience!

 Seeing deer...

...elk or something...

...of course a lot of Bisons...

...some crazy looking ram...

...and even a black bear right next to the road!

After this amazing Safari we spent another full day and night at our friends' Home in northern Montana and had our first real summer day in 2012!

While these guys were batteling who is more suntanned I was doing some modern gardening...

Actually the whole journey back to Whistler felt more like coming home from some summer vacation than being on a snowboard trip...

...enjoying beautiful nature right outside the window...

...and swimming in rivers right next to the road!

Returning in Whistler the next morning at 6 am after another 16 hour drive was a little disappointing: it was raining from valley to the top of the mountain and the weather forecast did not give me any hope... So I made a quick decission to change my flight. The only flight that was affordable was the one leaving the next morning. After a night with no sleep in the car I spent a whole day getting things ready to leave town before finishing the whole trip with an amazing dinner with the crew at Sushi Village in Whistler.

And we found some good storage to leave both our sleds and the Truck in Whistler. So we are ready to come back to BC or the States for some more sled adventures next year!

Now I am back home in Munich and had a couple of amazing summer days in the city: Biergarten, Clubbing, Englischer Garten, Table Tennis, Skateboarding, riding my bike, BBQ and just enjoying some beers on a roof with a view all over Munich to the Alps...

Probably I am going out snowboarding in Austria and Switzerland soon again but right now I am really stoked to spend a week in Munich and enjoy my life here!

Servus!

Spontaneous Roadtrippin: Whistler to Cooke City

The past week we finally got some spring feeling over here in Whistler. Warm temperatures and some more sun made us go to the lake to play Backgammon...

 go to the local Skatepark and drink Löwenbräu...

                                                       play soccer with Shayne Pospisil...

 and as well have some fun days at Whistler Blackcomb Ski Resort.

 

 After 5 days of spring and no fresh snow in the forecast we were starting to get anxious and decided to hit the road to find some more powder. That same day we've rented a trailer and started driving together with our two new friends Jason Robinson and Leland McNamara.

                                                                   1700 kilometers.

 

 25 hours of driving...

                          until we would finally arrive to another beautiful spot on earth. Yellowstone National Park in Montana.

       

Wild nature

 

 and greedy tourists.  

 Nature and wildlife are amazing out here in Montana.

                                    

                                        

Today we just had our first day up on the Mountain in Cooke City. Although it was pretty warm up there lately we could still find some good powder on some northern aspects.

  

 Where I did a very fun line.

 

After filming some natural lines we could even prepare a jump for the next sunny day. And since we have found such a nice cabin here in Cooke City we decided to rather stock up fore some time...

It's snowing right now and we are all excited about the next days as this might be our last time riding powder this season!
 

Living for the moment !

Hey, it's Elias. I'm also getting into the blogging business now…

The first two days of the past week out here in Whistler weren't easy. First we built a Kicker and when we finally got it done the whole landing slid!

Then we get to this amazing face with tones of lines. We can't wait and already go through the lines in our mind..… unfortunately we never got any further then that, as the Forum crew's rolls up and tells us, that they are here since a long time and basically claimed the whole face…!

Alright, next day everything will get better. After we already felt like sled pros, reality brought us back on our feet. It took us forever to even make it up to the alpine on… but fortunately we had "Bob" our big shovel always with us to dig us out…

 And fortunately Brian our filmier, local guide and friend was always there to help. It wasn't long though, till lucky Brian also blew his forth engine of the season that day… One week ago the engine made it 2,5 km till it completely broke down… this time the brand new engine made it 10km further till it blew. So at least a positive trend!

A view hours later we finally made it up the mountain and started building our sunset Kicker again from two weeks ago. This time we stepped it up though.

 As a great ending of a difficult day Marco and I did a nice line right at sunset. I'm sure that in that moment you see Marco shredding this amazing line, nothing else mattered any more and all there was was now!!

We got home at 11pm and all that we could think of was eat and sleep. Here's our dinner! I even got into cooking here. 5 eggs, 3 tomatoes….

Then the whole next day was, how the one before has ended. Perfect for moments! Moments we'll never forget...

Sushi, clouds, jumps and broken engines

After the three succesful sunny days the first thing we did was rewarding ourselves with a culinary explosion at sushi Village together with the rest of the People crew.

After a short time recovering our bodies from the last week we hit the road again to explore another amazing zone only 30 minutes away from Pemberton.

Even just the landscape next to the road was beautiful.

They've got some cosy little huts around here. Wouldn't want to spend all winter here but surely very comfortable during summer time...

Once again the terrain up on the mountain is just a huge playground! Usually for breakfast we are either having some pillows...

... or some spines and drops.

For lunch we are mostly having pasta...

... or if we are really hungry we mostly build ourselves a big booter.

We called this one the "Moon-Ramp" as it was just sending us up so high!

After a nice shoot in the clouds on this one we hit another amazing jump the next day. We've probably spent about 4 hours on it window shopping and only got to hit it twice until it was dark.

Our filmer Brian Hackenstein has already adapted to the long waiting times during a session.

Elias FS 3 First Track.

But of course not everything always works out smoothly all the time. This week we've had a broken trunk...

... a broken window on Pierre's car...

and a broken engine.

Brian was a little disappointed about his rebuit engine (that he had been waiting for about 4 weeks) blowing after only driving 2,5 kilometers.

In the past 4 weeks Elias and me have learned a lot and even progressed with sledding more and more. Elias was already catching some air yesterday.

 Whereas I am still having a hard time getting the sled onto our truck.

Now another snow storm is coming in and should bring at least another half a meter of fresh snow. Sot it is time to rest again and be ready for more powder soon!

Elias is already preparing our boards on a spot where I am usually preparing our dinner...