@erikhoffman - Tumblr Blog

Posts

Wake up, drive, park, uber, fly... sleep… land, drive, camp… sleep… wake up, drive, camp… sleep… wake up, drive, destination reached… have a drink. An itinerary not for the faint of heart with nearly 48 hours of travel via trains, planes and automobiles spanning six states, two time zones, about twenty bathroom stops, a small fortune in packaged beef jerky, not enough extra socks and boxers and zero worries except for getting stranded in the middle of the desert out of gas with an unwalkable amount of miles to the nearest help in either direction. Pat McCarthy, Matt Belzile, Sammy Luebke, Matt Wainhouse, Forest Bailey, Ian Post and myself were led here on the word of Montana local, and newest 686 Global Team Skier, Parker White. Parker’s knowledge landed us a five-star, river front camping spot complete with an open field for activities at the foot of the Beartooth Mountains. The Beartooth Pass dances and winds its way in and out of Wyoming and back into Montana. Slithering its way from the Northeast entrance of Yellowstone National Park at 7,500 feet to a vertex of about 11,000 feet before it snakes back down to a valley of 5,500 feet in Red Lodge, Montana. The pass closes from October to May due to snowfall and intermittently throughout the summer when overnight snowfall is not uncommon. On top of the pass sits Beartooth Basin, home to a couple poma tows and varying terrain that sets up ripe for a good time with your crew. The surrounding area has about 3,000 vertical feet of hike-in terrain in addition to the 1,000 vertical feet of poma serviced terrain. 686 Recommended On-Hill Activities: Lower Poma Terrain Park - A handful of features lappable via the Poma 2. The "park" changes daily with the rapid snowmelt. With a bit of intuition and a shovel you can build or rebuild whatever you please. Upper Poma Area - Poma 1 provides hiking access to moguls, fun corn snow fields, cornices and steeps and your only way out to the small dirt parking lot. Fallen Cornice Chunder Field - Under Nikky's we found a super fun chunder field filled with chunks of a, ski patrol triggered, fallen cornice. Once the debris settled there is plenty of fun to be had flowing through the larger snow chunks. Road Laps - Pile your crew in the back of your pickup, rip up to the Forest Service sign at the Montana Wyoming border, unload, rip down, do it all again. Don't forget to switch drivers and give everyone a chance. 686 Recommended Off-Hill Activities: Polish Horseshoes - A go to after riding. Grab a couple empty tall cans and some trekking poles about 15 yards apart and have at it. Further you knowledge here. Muff - Another classic time waster. The crew stands around in a circle and passes a soccer ball from one to another all while keeping the ball from touching the ground. The person who touches the ball last before it hits the ground gets a letter (M,U,F or F). The first person to spell MUFF is the loser. He/she must walk a few paces away, turn around and let the entire crew kick the ball at them. Be careful of the Canadians, they seem mellow but Matt Belzile proved they can really aim for the head with precision. Wiffle Ball - The classic baseball game with a plastic bat and ball. It's Montana there's plenty of rocks around, toss them on the ground try not to trip over them and boom you have bases. River Bath - Not for the faint of heart, the river at the campsite was absolutely freezing. Those who wanted to clean up had to brave the dreaded glacier melt for a guaranteed brianfreeze. Note that the river bath is also a great alternative punishment for losing MUFF. Campfire - There's plenty of fallen brush around to make a huge fire. Recommended pairings include a chair, brats, ribs and beers. For more information about Beartooth visit these resources: http://www.beartoothbasin.com http://beartoothhighway.com -Erik Hoffman Staff Photographer / Graphic Designer @erikhoffmanphoto

R: Yuki Kadono Superpark is not for everyone. Side effects include, snowburn, sunburn, hangovers, beer shortages, body odor, Kodak courage, excessive branding, broken boards, trench foot, frontal flips, backward flips, grab and spins, double chucks, triple chucks, over energetic and over caffeinated 14-16 year olds who have been better at snowboarding than you since the day they were born. Snowboarder Magazine’s Superpark is now legal in its 21st year and for the second consecutive year at Mammoth Mountain a seeming perpetual winter wonderland, its damn sure bigger, better and girthier than it has ever been. I mean come on the features that are built have almost no business existing outside of your Xbox. 120+ foot jumps, hips the size of buildings and consequence that of the same as jumping off of one. That being said we came for the snowfield littered with large sculpted takeoffs, strewn with bent metal but stayed for the beauty Mammoth Lakes has to offer. While this event is extraordinary on-snow its also an excuse for friends to gather in masses and enjoy each others company. -Erik Hoffman Staff Photographer / Graphic Designer @erikhoffmanphoto Our tiny home for the week. It slept six with an upstairs loft, a downstairs master bedroom and a kitchen attached to a living room. You're never further than talking distance from anyone in the house. Rule #1: Turn on the fan and shut the door after using the bathroom... Polaroid by @tristansadler Team Rider Max Lyons contributes to the eventual demise of the hanger rail in the Carinthia zone as it snapped off of the feature later on that day. This is Shuhei Sato. He made his way to Mammoth all the way from Japan for Superpark 21. One of the nicest guys you'll ever meet, this is a photo of him flying past the branches of a tree placed dead center in the middle of the Boreal zone. R: Christian Connors The "arrowhead" jump made a triangle with two quarter pipes and a jump landing in Loon Mountain's zone. This jump was probably about a debatable 85ft to the knuckle as you see young gun Sam Klein spin over it while grabbing tail with no gloves. Benji Farrow seen above doing a switch backside rodeo over a Piston Bully snowcat that was used to build this feature. Benji later landed a switch double backside rodeo on the same jump as the sun set. Mammoth kept lifts running for Superpark until around six when the rest of the mountain closed at 4pm. This guy. Nobody that I spoke with knew his name. What we did notice is that for one, he rips, two he wears a third mitten on his belt loop and three he always wears a backpack. He was quickly dubbed the name "backpack guy" for obvious reasons. It's not confirmed what exactly is in his bag but I heard multiple things from a Smirnoff Ice to tons of blunts. Whatever is in there those things had a hell of a ride as he managed to double backflip and frontside 180 the 120+ ft Mammoth jump with the backpack on. Him and his backpack will no doubt go down in superpark lore. R: Jesse Paul The eastern Sierras offer some natural relief from the aching muscles and joints sure to plaque anyone riding the event for days on end. These are the hot springs that sit in the basin that cradles Mammoth Lakes, a welcome spot to cruise to with friends, drink some beer and unwind.

It’s spring and who are you kidding, when you get to the hill you’re not looking for the best conditions. You are no longer trolling the forecast looking for a powder day; instead you’re rolling out of bed late looking for the sun…and a beer or two, or three. April, it’s the month of the parking lot, when die-hards turn into parking lot try-hards. They bring the chairs, charcoal, meats, beers and lets be real we love those saints who are willing to open up their tailgates to those loyal mountain goers looking to get a little sloshed after slashing some slush. Now as the last remnants of white begin to dissipate from the slopes and the time spent on the hill swings in the direction of the parking lot barbeque time it would be irresponsible for one to not be prepared with some entertainment aside from the burgers and your buddies falling into the pond skim. The solution, a couple ski poles, a couple empty cans, one Frisbee, and four human beings each holding a cold one. We call it Polish Horse Shoes, but also goes under the aliases of Frisbeener, French Darts and Beersbee but call it what you want here’s how you play. Shove those ski poles about twenty to forty feet apart, place one empty can on each ski pole, and arrange yourselves in such a way that each pole has a person on each side of it. Don’t let go of that beverage in your hand, rules state that each player must have only one free hand for catching and throwing the Frisbee. So now that you’re on the brink of being the envy of the entire parking lot we should talk rules. The person you’re standing next to is your teammate. The object of the game is to knock the empty can off the stake either by hitting it directly or by hitting the stake. If the disc hits the stake and the empty can is knocked off, then 1 point is scored unless the can is caught before it hits the ground. If the disc hits the can directly and the can is knocked off, then 2 points are scored if the can hits the ground and only 1 point if the can is caught before it hits the ground. In addition, the disc itself must be caught after every throw. Failure by the defending team to do so earns the throwing team 1 point unless your buddy on the other team airs it ten feet over your head or digs it into the ground. Goal of the game is to be the first team to score 21 points and you have to win by two. Oh yeah and don’t be that guy who catches the Frisbee before it passes the pole. HANDS BEHIND THE POLE! Otherwise you’re penalized three points and you become the laughing stock of the lot. Now that you’re in the in enjoy the last gasps of resort air as the season comes to a close and remember a good time is just a plastic disk, couple empty cans and a couple ski poles away. It’s simple, easy and travels well, do it wherever whenever a good time is imminent. It’s just one more thing to help you through those doldrums of summer.

Galapagos. The land that, bald headed, Santa Clause bearded, naturalist Charles Darwin made famous with his studies in the mid 1800’s. Those studies where he determined that species descend over time from common ancestors through the process called natural selection. I.E. Evolution. Anyone remember that stuff from college. No? Remember the finch’s? Galapagos Finch’s, Darwin’s Finch’s? Those damn birds…most anyone who took a biology class had to toil over these guys in labs for some extended number of hours as blood sugar ran low and your iPhone buzzed with friends asking when you were out of class for the day. Anyway, Darwin and those finches made this place famous. It’s a place that only Sir David Attenborough could adequately describe in words. The Ecuadorian Government does a hell of job to take your money with fees to set on very foot on the island. It’s like 120 bucks or something but damn it goes to a good cause. They keep that place pristine and only 1.5-2% all the islands are used for human and tourist use. Despite the mainland being 1000 kilometers away there are plenty of rangers overseeing the ocean and land making sure no one is raising any sort of unwanted debauchery. The other 98 percent of the islands are strictly used as a plant and animal sanctuary. If the travel bug gets yah and you decide to make the trip, there’s a couple ways to go about visiting, via land or via water. Which one you do will very much depend on how fat your savings account is. Via Yacht, from what I saw, will cost you about 3-5K without airfare but they will take you everywhere on land and in the water during the all-inclusive trip. There are a couple islands within the archipelago that can only be reached if you pony up the cash to take a Yacht also. Via land you will fly into Isla Baltra take a short 1 dollar ferry across the channel to Isla Santa Cruz which is the main island for tourism. Once you get there you will take an hour bus/taxi ride that will run you between 3-20 bucks depending on if you take a bus or a taxi. From here you will travel through the highlands and then back down to sea level as you make your way into Puerto Ayora, the most populated area in all the islands and the main tourist hub. Here you can find Air Bnb’s for 20 bucks to 50 bucks a night with AC if you’re not trying to be hot and sticky all night. There’s plenty of street food (get those cheap lobsters) to get you through the days and keep cost low. This area will be your jumping off point to plenty of activities. Some points of interests are Tortuga Bay, Las Grietas, Tortoise Conservatory in the Highlands of the Island and Lava Tubes. Taxi drivers on Santa Cruz seemingly double as tour guides which is nice for those of us who are stubborn, think we don’t need a guide and would rather just go out on our own. The drivers will take you to the highlands and wait for you while you explore for the day which will usually cost you around 40 bucks as he drives you from spot to spot and waits on you. The drivers that we encountered were also very patient with our broken Spanish, or could also speak English. While Santa Cruz offers a lot of activities if you want to get off the beaten path Isabela, the largest island in the archipelago, will satisfy your craving. Getting there will cost you 30 bucks for an hour to an hour and a half boat ride where it’s almost guaranteed that someone will lose their lunch so be ready with that Dramamine if you’re prone to a weak stomach. The second you get into the harbor area you’re bound to catch a glimpse of sea lions, marine iguanas, eagle rays, penguins, and any other sort of rare seabird. Most of the local dwellings are made of cinderblock and mortar so you might have a couple lizards cruising about your room from time to time. On Isabela, like Santa Cruz, you can book an Air Bnb and pay next to nothing for a night’s stay. Some points of interest here include a tortoise conservatory, where the government has set aside land to raise young tortoises before they let them into the wild. On the way to this you’ll pass through lagoons full of pintail ducks and flamingos feeding. Isabella also provides some of the best opportunities to get in the water. Take a quick tour of the harbor and you can find anything from sea lions to penguins cruising around the clear blue water. Los Tuneles is a must see, it is a short boat ride into a labyrinth of submerged lava tubes that have become a breeding ground for sea birds and home to many green sea turtles and white tip sharks. The Galapagos a place ode to that of Jurassic park. A biologists wonderland. It’s worth the trip if you can stand eating all the plantains and seafood you can stomach. Any last bits advice? Watch where you step, that rock might be an Iguana, bring sunglasses and sunscreen, pack light, don’t flush the toilet paper, walk instead of taking taxis and don’t take any shit from sealions they bark but they don’t bite. Follow these or don’t and you’re bound to have a hell of a time. -Erik Hoffman Staff Photographer / Graphic Designer @erikhoffmanphoto

Feet of snow, ice, downed trees and power lines resulted in the closure of Mount Baker’s Resort just days before industry pro’s, legends, desk jockeys and other various characters were poised to gather for the 31st year of the Mount Baker Legendary Banked Slalom. Those tasked with the setup were put in a crippling position with an event that carries such a heavy bag of history right on the horizon. With tireless hours that core group of Mount Baker’s finest managed to exceed expectations and open the resort. Even while being stuck on the mountain for multiple days with limited assets and manpower they managed to weather the storm and also prune the course into pristine condition for the start of the event; a feat that offers validation to the already fabled lore of Mount Baker. On our end power had flickered off and on and back to off as storm clouds dissipated and snowfall tapered off. The erratic weather left feet of snow well below the usual snowline. Snow banks piled to head height triggering a PBR fueled dig out that teed off a normally unusual experience at the McCarthy residence and set pace for three days of exceptional Mount Baker conditions. Pat McCarthy, 686 Team Manager, hosted team riders looking to race into legendary stardom and have a good time. Here’s a taste of the experience. - Erik Hoffman Staff Photographer / Graphic Designer @erikhoffmanphoto

En Lew of the recent airbag craze we tend to forget while these airbags are devised to save lives they are only a last line of defense between snow-goers having the day of their lives and being buried alive or worse dead. For the Whistler snowboarder who deployed his electronic airbag pack, as an avalanche swept him downhill, life very well could have been saved by this devise. Truth is, most of the time it takes a multitude of poor compounding decisions for you to end up in these situations and education is the best way to know before you leave the parking lot if you should make your way out of bounds or just stick to the resort for the day. This past week GLCR by 686 and 365 Boarding, lead by former Pro Patroller and avalanche expert Jeff Hambelton, offered an intensive avalanche course into Mount Baker’s esteemed backcountry. The course included an in-depth classroom session, multiple burial situations, as well as a touring portion into backcountry situations to dig pits, study snowpack as well as procedures to identify safe riding terrain. The class of students included industry team managers, pro snowboarders and area locals such as Dave Marx (Team Manager GNU Snowboards), Tanner McCarty (Marketing Manager Ride Snowboards), Pat McCarthy (Team Manager 686), Forest Bailey (Pro Snowboarder), Gus Warbington (Amateur Snowboarder), Ryan Tucker (Local Rider), Nick Saupe (Local Rider), Heather Hakes (Colorado Local) and Kevin Shuler (Colorado Local). “I have been riding at Mt Baker Ski Area now for 18 seasons” said Pat McCarthy, Mount Baker Local, “During my time here I have been in at least five avalanches of different size and structure. The more you practice and get out there with the groups you ride with, the quicker you will be able to save someone’s life. I had an amazing time working with Jeff Hambelton and his crew during the GLCR by 686 X 365 Boarding Avalanche Awareness Weekend. Jeff and crew were really good at explaining the foundations of avalanche safety and gave us the opportunity to go out and practice multiple burial situations, dig pits and track snowpack data. Take some time each season to brush up on your avalanche skills, you may save your friends life or enable someone to save your own. Knowledge is the key, go and get it.” While Avalanches make plenty of news, like recently in Whistler, no news is good news. For most stories of injury or death that we stumble upon on the Internet, there are plenty of poor judgment calls that go along with it. “One common theme in avalanche accidents is being in the wrong place, at the wrong time.” Jeff Hambelton addressed during our tour, “There are a variety of reasons, from lack of awareness to consciously riding a slope, knowing it has risk. Spending time taking avalanche courses is one of the best ways to become aware of the risk, and gain understanding of avalanche terrain and conditions. It's important to remember though, even experts get surprised now and again in the mountains. We make better decisions about risk when we discuss the problems observed and create a plan for operating around them. Learn the basics before you go out in the backcountry, and work with the people in your groups to keep learning as you gain experience.” Remember, preparedness can start before you even get out of the sheets in the morning. There are plenty of easily accessible resources online that will clue you in on the snowpack and tip you off if snow conditions are prone to instability. When you do venture out never leave without, at the very least, a fully charged beacon, probe and shovel. Don’t become a statistic. If you too would like be educated visit the webpage that corresponds with your area for recent avalanche information and Avalanche Awareness class calendars. Northwest Avalanche Center Sierra Avalanche Center Utah Avalanche Center Colorado Avalanche Center -Erik Hoffman Staff Photographer / Graphic Designer @erikhoffmanphoto

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs