Party laps were encouraged, posting times, optional. While the fastest racers were getting through in the 53-second range, for many it was hard to resist surf-slashing fresh on the top of the banks. With a whole section of Alpy’s lower mountain roped off for racers, a fall meant freshies to the bottom and another lap to rebate—it was, after all, jam format, and you could post as many times as you felt reasonable. However, most of the racers, myself included, settled on one clean line and then made for the upper mountain’s stacked pillows and ledges—if Aaron was there, this is what I imagine he would have done as well.

By the time awards rolled around at 5pm, many continued to smash pow under the lights, others retiring to the parking lot for a few beverages. In the end, Thadius Hukari narrowly edged out Marcel Dolak for fastest time of the day with a 53.53 and 53.89, respectively—Robyn Borneman took the ladies title with a 1:00.14. Over 160 competitors all left the mountain smiling, and a generous percentage of them stuck around to watch A-Rob’s "Manifest" and the Big Sky two piece The Riot Act—for whom co-organizer of the event Shane Stalling plays drums and drinks whiskey—rocking until they were told they had to leave. “We got to do an event for Aaron at his favorite resort in blower pow,” Stalling said. “If they hadn’t asked us to leave the lodge, we wouldn’t have been doing it right.”

“Everyone knew how Aaron was,” added Pope. “And if you liked that vibe, there’s a good chance you had a great time at the event. We got to do the first ever banked slalom at Alpental in deep snow, the deepest I’ve ever seen at an event, and that was a perfect tribute to Aaron. Just watching everyone hike laps above the course, that’s what Aaron would have been doing. It definitely felt like he was there with us.”

With a follow-up powder day on Sunday, Pope was able to get his turns after a week of hard work and led us around some of the lesser known nooks and crannies of The Summit before a late evening departure and some well-deserved rest. A huge thank you goes out to Joe Pope, Shane Stalling, all the diggers and riders for an amazing event.

Smash life—smash powder. Aaron would.

Relieved, I dropped in to some of the deepest turns of my life and quickly found that this was the Storm’s element: deep, deep snow. With rocker, taper, and a significant setback, the bombproof Storm planes like a surfboard in deep powder and is lightning quick when transitioning from toe to heel—enough so that on that day with Jones and the Deeper crew, one of the cinematographers told me he had nicknamed it “the cobra.”

Now well into my third season on the board, it is just starting to show signs of wear, but is still a pleasure to ride in the deep. From northwest concrete to Tahoe blower, summertime slush, corn, ice, and everything in between, I’ve put the Storm-R through its paces. In terms of performance, powder is clearly its niche, and the generous nose and medium-stiff flex wades through chundery runouts with ease. If I had one knock on the board, it may be in spring/summer conditions when it would be nice to be a little more centered and have a little more drive in the tail. However, since my sample was produced, Lisa Branner, co-owner at Venture Snowboards, explained that they had tweaked the rocker and taper profile in the tail a bit for more drive without sacrificing float.

It is clear that the Venture crew’s dedication to snowboarding shines through in their designs and the fact that they tailor every board to the individual rider with a variety of waist width and length combinations available shows they understand we aren’t all built the same—my board, for instance, is a 161 with a 25cm waist, something that’s quite hard to find within the stock offerings of most other companies. The Venture crew rides nearly every day in Silverton, CO, and they are in tune with the ever-changing needs of the growing splitboard community.

The Venture Storm-R, which is also available as a solid deck, is undoubtedly frequency TSJ approved and we look forward to future offerings from their factory in the San Juan Mountains.

While much of the lower 48 languished under a dry December, four freqs made for the Great White North on December 31, 2011. Visions of downtown bars and cheap champagne drifted away as we wound north to Cariboo country and Mike Wiegele Helicopter Skiing in Blue River, BC. Although not privy to the heavy storm track of AK through the holidays, northern BC had received its fair share of snow, and conditions looked promising through the early part of January.

Home to one of the largest heli ops in the world, Wiegele’s self-contained operation can only be classified as a mini resort village of the highest-end variety, which also looked promising for a New Year’s party—with lodging for almost 150 souls and serving as the hub of the community of 400 that is Blue River, the dining room was packed for a fine meal featuring sushi, lobster, prime rib and more before a cover band took the stage to ring in the new year. with at least 200 in attendance and plenty of party favors, the party was enough to inspire many to keep it rolling into the wee hours of the morning. As soon as the clock struck midnight, however, those anticipating alpine turns made for the comfort of intimate chalets and transceiver training in the morning, myself included.

New Years Day dawned cold and clear, and, after transceiver practice and introductions, we were transported into over 1.2 million acres of untracked bowls and glades and unmatched alpine vistas. Although avalanche danger didn’t allow us to access the abundant steeps and chutes up high, guide Andy Aufschnaiter, a 20-plus year veteran of the operation, delivered rolling glacial turns and a gourmet lunch in the Grizzly Hut before moving to mellow glades stacked with pillow poppers and wide-open cut-blocks down low. And even though the first day was shortened a little by the morning’s safety briefing, we still managed to log 22,000 feet of untracked vertical. Indeed, this is one of the greatest features of Wiegele’s: unlike most heli ops, there is no limit on vertical feet. If it’s firing, you ride until day’s end… or until your legs can’t take any more.  

For the next two days we swapped bluebird alpine for tree laps and high fives with an Austrian contingent under an incoming storm by day, and meals and libations with Blue River resident Jonas Guinn, the newly-engaged Young Dave of Noboard fame, and a host of other locals and guests by night. Settling into the easy lifestyle of deep powder, gourmet meals and heli-side accommodation was easy—leaving was the hard part.

January 3 brought a reluctant departure for the real world, thoroughly spent from three days of luxury living and unlimited vertical. A huge thank you goes out to the Wiegele’s and their staff for an unprecedented New Years—one that will be undoubtedly set the bar for years to come.

Main Image: Colin Wiseman by Jason Martin.

"Join us on January 6th to celebrate Aaron Robinson by Smashing Life at Big Sky's first ever snowboard slalom. Registration is $15 8:30 AM-10AM in the Big Sky Mountain Mall Friday morning. Preregistration is $10 if you get your name on the list by emailing your info (Name, Age, M/F) to . 100% of proceeds go to A-Robs Plant-A-Seed Foundation, helping Montana's underprivileged youth get on the slopes snowboarding! All ages are welcome.
Racing begins at 10:30 AM. Going to be fast! Jam Format Race, so take as many runs as you can throughout the day!
Shortly after the lifts shut down A-Robs MANIFEST, a film by Sam Tuor and FunBlock Films Inspired by the late Aaron Robinson will be playing in the Summit Hotels Talus Room. Free Admission but Plant-A-Seed Donations will be highly recommended. Raffle Prizes as well.
Following the video, After Party (21+) at Scissorbills with music from The Riot Act."

Check the teaser for manifest below--we saw it this weekend in Oregon, and it was an amazing movie. See you there!