There was a time when Alaska belonged to all snowboarders. It wasn't merely an inaccessible, exotic land where only the world 's most creative riders explored the boundaries of what is possible on a snowboard. Valdez and Thompson Pass were destinations. Destinations that anonymous resort-town locals made their way to every year. Sure, there were the badasses of the day-Farmer, Perata, Burt, Goodwill, Klassen, Reeves, Salasnek-but it was also a time when line cooks and shop kids from Jackson, Mammoth, Tahoe and Baker saved, begged, and scammed their way to make the annual pilgrimage to our version of a holy land. Those who were there in the first few years were blessed to fly out of downtown Valdez and drop into first descents-we all wish we could have flown with Chet and partied at the Tsaina. It would have been sketchy as shit, but getting dropped off without a guide and rolling into a bottomless line of your own-that would have been all-time. Utterly lawless. Dangerously free. An epic moment in time.
The rest of us can only live vicariously.
At some point, snowboard media stopped stoking riders to make the expensive journey north. Out of the communal spotlight for almost a decade, Alaska has devolved to something out of reach, something not real. The way it is presented to us now, it is merely the domain of high-budget film crews who blow our minds.
It's true that it is a playground for the world 's best riders, and that 's great to watch each year. But Alaska is much more.
Alaska is what is best about snowboarding. Not its specific type of terrain or type of riding, but its attitude and meaning, which speaks to all types of riding.
It is progression. It is as close to unadulterated freedom as you can get. It is terrifying. It is the pure hedonism of float. It is the addictive rush of steep-ass shit-the anticipation as you strap in, the drop into the first turn, and the moment that you lock into the rhythm of the line. It is raw. It is enormous and over-powering. It makes you dream and fantasize for years.
If you've never gone, go.
If you have, at some point in time, it will pull you back.
0 comments:
Post a Comment