The Crags

Farmington Hill aka The Paul Uterus Experience

Unusually packed-house for any bar in Silverton

Lucky board winner claiming it!

Charlie Hoch white room

Ryan Cruze pillow fight

Custom graphic Silverton Mountain Edition Venture boards- a great stocking stuffer...

Early morning sled to watch the sun rise over the Southern San Juans

Obligatory hiking/ line scouting

Cabin owner Chris Rapp in the Spire Chutes.

Matt Degelman getting seconds. I got thirds. Snow photo-ing is stupid sometimes; you carry the heaviest pack, and ride the least. But sometimes you get invited to places you otherwise might not have gotten to go to. Yes, I'm complaining.

If you and your friends have sleds and backcountry travel experience then you too can experience the goods of the often over-looked Southern San Juans that Prospect Mountain Cabin offers. Visit their website for more info, and you didn't hear it from me, but heli-lifts to the cabin from the Wolf Creek Ski Area might be a possibility...

Owner/ Mtn Manager Davey Pitcher in one of the Peak Chutes

No shoveled ramps today

Matt Degelman

Cat ride to the top of Alberta Peak!

Chris Rapp

Matt Degelman

Our chariot awaits

p.s. yea yea yea... I know its dumping everywhere else right now too. But we didn't have to share the hill with anyone else.

How did the relationship with Venture come about?

It actually started up in Haines (AK) a few years ago when I was on a splitboard trip for Deeper. I didn’t own a splitboard so a buddy of mine sent me some and I rode them for the trip. When I went back to Sweden and Norway and was doing some splitboarding back there, I called Venture up to see, you know, see what was going on and get some more boards. Then we started to talk, and that’s how it all started.

Have you ever gotten this hands-on before in a snowboard factory?

This is pretty close to being really involved in it, where with Burton it was a bigger deal. It’s really hard to get in, it’s like a 6 month deal to do any changes. It’s a big ordeal.

Going back to Deeper, when you guys were stuck in the tents for like 7 or 8 days did any  thoughts of cannibalism come up?

Hah , no, we were good. We had food. We were running a little bit short for a while, but once you’re out there, even if it’s a snowstorm, it kinda wears on you a little bit a few hours per day, so you at least got to get out, maybe do that one run or whatever. It gets to you after a while if you stress like that, but it worked out good.

Being ‘old’ in snowboard terms myself, I’m pretty familiar with your early career, but I did a google search on you anyway because I don’t keep up much with the industry these days. Did you know that the Smithsonian Museum’s website has your AK footage from TB5 listed as #8 on their top 10 list of “Snowboarding’s Greatest Moments?”

Well no I didn’t know that. That’s cool. That AK footage and everything that happened up there went a long way. It’s cool that it’s still recognized. It’s nice. What was #1?

Sherman Poppen’s invention of the Snurfer, I think. But #9 was Terje’s boycott of the Olympics. I wanted to ask you about where you stood on that back then, because I know a lot of people (myself included) looked at the Olympics as something that wasn’t good for snowboarding. Looking back to that period of time, it seemed like to the turning point, which I think you put best in another interview, when snowboarding went from being “Rock ‘n’ Roll” to “Latte’s and Laptops.”

I did a lot of competing in World Cup half pipe and big airs, Innsbruck Big Air, but it came to that point when the Ski Federation got snowboarding into the Olympics, I think it was really good that Haakon said no. I kinda always wanted to get out of it. I never liked competing. I was maybe ranked like top 10 in the pipe tour.

That (Terje) said no was great, but a lot of people stayed in it. They got an easy ticket because they were starting to ride the FIS tour and it all went to pretty much bullshit. I don’t know, for me I quit competing (in) the World Cup as well at that time, but it was more because I wanted to get back into riding mountains or just riding whatever, not just riding a pipe or a built kicker. But yeah, they got it and I hope they’re happy.

I’m glad I was a part of those early days where I thought it was pretty cool, but it’s a lesson you learn how easy it is to lose the pride of the sport, the foundation of the sport. All of a sudden someone comes in and buys you and they’ve bought the soul of the sport. Nobody knows about that when they watch the Olympics. With the Olympics all of the sports reporters, back in all the countries, they can be involved in snowboarding. Before that they were just like “What the hell is going on? What is this snowboarding? This is not a sport! But oh yeah, Olympics…” now that’s something they can report on.

You know what I thought was total crap, and I just thought about this, was when uh, what the hell’s her name? Oh yeah, Lindsay Jacobellis, when she blew her Olympic boardercross run because she butt-checked her method off the last jump. She caught so much crap for that, like she failed her country, and I thought that was lame.

I’m sure most snowboarders would think that they are not part of a nationalistic sport ‘cause all those years growing up as a snowboarder everyone was against you. You had to fight for your space on the slopes and the resort, couldn’t ride this, couldn’t do that, then all of the sudden everybody wants to be in it. I don’t know, somehow I think there’s a lot of people that should have stayed in the cross country tracks who started snowboarding, cause, you know, once the Olympics started rolling they were the happiest ones, collecting helmet sponsors or whatever. But that’s what happened. It was the best thing that Haakon said no. If he would have not said no then nobody would’ve thought that it would’ve been a wrong thing, so hands-down to Haakon for sure.

So what do you have planned for this winter?

This winter I am going to try and ride as much as possible. I left everything open. Just heading up to Canada. Ride, shoot, film, that usually works itself out naturally these days so I try not to make too many plans so you can roll with the conditions and how the season goes.

Are you filming with any of the major film companies this year?

Not that I know of, but I’m sure I will run into some people as the season rolls by, and if not, it’s all good. My goal this year is to ride as much as possible. Knock on wood. We’ll see.

Johan, thanks for your time. So those prototype boards you were working on earlier, is it cool if we take them outside and run them over some rocks?

Yeah sure, that’s what they were made for. We got some handrails set up; break them in a bit.

Hey kiddies, "what's the big deal" you ask?" 1996. Johan's opening part in TB5. That's the big deal.

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Matty G busting out a Craig Kelly 161 rescued from a bench. Forget what year it's from; it's got the three hole pattern, but definitely before the angry tree thing graphic.

It wouldn't be SWCO without a dog. I'm pretty sure you get handed one at the DMV when you move here.

Matty G dropping the Grassy Knoll (I think?) with the North-facing runs of Silverton Mountain in the background. If you look closely you can see the billboard.

Logan " 2 Legit" dropping. That's his wrestling name. Seriously. Google it.

Darned hippies and their dogs. Matty G's like a modern day Scott Kennett.

Kirk Davis getting first tracks in the sidecountry

Paul Goodman slashing the face of The Pyramid

My favorite thing: gaper family ski-day in the flat-bottom of the pipe

Wyatt "The Turtle" Glynn inverting the slush feature

Annual non-TelSki approved party in Prospect Basin. Acid rumors abound...

Goofy costumes mandatory

This goofy costume is probably what the kids are wearing on the hill in SLC/Tahoe/Scummit on the regular

Gorronos mid-mtn lodge poppin' off! Too bad the band was some hippy stuff (people in Telluride like that kind of thing). I vote for Slayer or Gravy Train next year.

Telluride is often overshadowed by its neighbor Silverton a few miles away (as the crow flies) when it it comes to the public perception of the gnar. However, they are both in the same mountain range with similar terrain and vertical, and access to the goods from the lift through the backcountry gate is easier than in Silverton. But unlike Silverton, there is no avalanche mitigation work. The access is always open at your own risk. And in March, every jack-ass with a beacon thinks that because its spring the backcountry is 'magically safe' and proceeds to track it up with jump-turns and slide-slips, which means you gotta bust out the touring gear and push out further. The above photo is Wasatch mountain as viewed from the ski area, with our planned route labeled.

Paul Goodman trekking out from the ski area on his ski blades. I mean ascent skis.

View of the new Revelation Bowl on the Telluride Ski Area from the top of Wasatch Mountain

Looking at Wasatch Peak. Tempting, but someone else beat us to it.

Gabe Wright slashing the wave.

Paul Goodman surfing the wave. That face in the background is Upper Bear Creek and is accessible within about 5 minutes from the ski area, and it ain't no joke. Tread lightly.

Our tracks in the wave

The Hairy Banana. After cutting the top our scout called it off. Too much spring hot-pow.

The Alta Lakes part from SixEleven's movie "This Is Serious." This is from a DVLP Clothing team trip to the Alta Lakes Observatory last winter. Dang, fool, watch out for that tree!

www.sixelevenproductions.com

www.altalakes.com

SixEleven Silverton Skitching from SixEleven on Vimeo.

For more check out SixElevenProductions.com

Beds for 21; packin' some heads in the joint! You could do some hella FaceSpace taggin' on this photo.

Coach Coulter leading some SASS campers around.

SASS camper Brian Sullivan getting what he ain't got back East.

Coach Coulter gettin' some pretty good leftovers.

SASS Camper Sean Ryan

SASS camper Jack Kyle in the white room

SASS Coach, Silverton Mtn Guide, and 1/3 TMH owner Skylar Holgate

SASS camper Randall Stacy gettin' out of the park and into the all-natural. And not getting buried this time...

Brian Sullivan rock blastin' a method. That rock is probably as soft as the snow where this kid is from...

View from the outhouse

Chris Coulter bouncin' off a cornice chunk

Alyssa Steinloft gettin a wheelie

Burrito guy Keelan fs3 off the cornice chunk

Can you see the cabin amongst the massiveness? You got a 4-hour skin or a sketchy-ass snowmobile ride to get here. Once your here, though, the roads around the cabin are maintained by the neighbors at the original TMH cabin with their fancy Piston Bully snowcat. That means sled-shuttles for days! And for a couple of extra bucks you can get the cat to push some jumps!

Wanna go yourself? Book a trip through:

Treasure Mountain Hut.com

South America Snow Sessions