Come hell or high water, no snow on these mountains, it don’t matter, nothing will stop the hundreds of snowboarders from around the world that annually make the trek up the Mt. Baker Highway to bash gates in the Legendary Mt. Baker Banked Slalom (LBS). You go to see a 20-year-old (this year’s men’s pro winner Harry Kearney) hammer down the gnarliest, steepest course of icy berms in the history of the LBS and kick Terje and Temple’s butts. You go to see Terje put on his backpack and race down the course switch and come first in the Fakie Contest with just over ten seconds off what the pros are throwing down in the finals in the actual race. You go because friends come from all over the world to race and hang like it was just yesterday when you all started riding together – back when you were just a bunch of broke-ass dirtbags all dreaming that one day your name would get picked in the lottery. You go to watch one of your best friends find out she actually qualified for the final race day at 4am hammered out of her mind, and then hold back barf as she drops out of the start shack. You go because there is only one road in and one road out, and once you’re in, cell service and internet are minimal. You go because there is no place you would rather be then watching Scott Sullivan get all hillbilly up in your face on his guitar by singing, “On the Road Again” and “Hallelujah”. You go because JF Pelchat’s, Alex Warburtons, and Chad Chomlacks families have all started an RV campground in the Mt. Baker parking lot. And you go for the pasta at Milano’s Restaurant owned by the Debari family. Simply put, there’s something just beautiful about being holed-up in one of the best mountain areas, with the best people, having the best times. Why wouldn’t you go?
Marie-France Roy joined the ranks of Karleen Jeffries, Victoria Jealous, and Maelle Ricker – three of the fastest, most hard-core female snowboarders in history (not to mention all Canadians) – this weekend with the fastest time in women’s pro. Fellow French Canadian Dom Vallee couldn’t have been more stoked to take a silver Duct tape trophy and stand beside one of her best friends. So what does the modest Mofo have to say about all this? “Well, if Maelle wasn’t at the Olympics, and if Marie Debari wasn’t injured, and if Naoko Araki hadn’t fallen, then I wouldn’t have won.” Sure. But you did win MFR. And we’re pretty sure 20-year-old Harry Kearney wasn’t saying any “Ifs” when he snagged his second gold Duct tape out of the hands of certain legends before him.
Colin D Watt warms up in his own unique way
The course was exceptionally hairball this year – built with a chainsaw for starters – and by hand, perhaps even with a pick-axe and a jackhammer (?), and by cat of course. As Kearney best describes it, “When Mt. Baker doesn’t get snow, it makes everything steeper, so this year the course was definitely steeper, icy and choppy.” The beauty part is with this race you have two different days to qualify for the final, third race day, and on this last day you get two timed runs back-to-back. Fastest of the two wins. Riders know their times for their first, but in their second, you won’t know how well you did unless you fall. And if you go down, put on a show like Uncle T-dawg does and jib the course, launch a method out of it for good measure, and throw off the time-keepers by not coming through the finish gate. At the end of the day it’s all about putting on a good show right?.
