Ralph Backstrom

Flashback to Feb. 19, 2011 – We finally got some visibility after 8 feet of snow fell on Squaw.  I was extremely excited to hit a couple features, primarily the … Read More

The Verbier Xtremes happened in Switzerland yesterday in front of thousands of spectators on the Bec des Rosses.  Snow conditions look like they were pretty decent, but the venue itself … Read More

Last storm cycle brought us some wonderful light pow.  After it settled for a couple days, it would form into little pow balls when you would slash it, sort of … Read More

The 6th episode of Xavier Delerue’s TimeLine took him to Italy, where he got into some big couloirs with fellow The North Face athlete Giulia Monego.  They take chairlifts straight … Read More

The final stop of the 2011 series of The North Face Masters of Snowboarding went down at Kirkwood yesterday and today.  With a closed venue full of new snow, tracked … Read More

March 1, 2011, (Truckee, CA) — High Fives Non-Profit Foundation (Truckee, CA), and Biking for a Better World (Olympic Valley, CA) officially announce the Squaw Valley Prom 2011 – Costume … Read More

This is a video I put together of some footage from the last couple seasons for Protect Our Winters‘ Hot Planet Cool Athlete program to show the students down at … Read More

About Three years ago several friends & myself embarked on a summer mountain biking mission.  Not only did we find excellent mountain biking, but also of more importance, we found … Read More

The 26th Annual Legendary Mt. Baker Banked Slalom went down in the natural halfpipe at Mt. Baker the 11th through 13th of February.  Legends and pros were in attendance: Tom … Read More

It’s about G.D. time old man winter showed back up, bringing a couple feet of blower pow thus far in the storm cycle.  I think I saw my whole neighborhood … Read More

The North Face Masters went to Crystal Mountain, WA for the second stop of the 2011 season.  Competitors had an awesome time shredding the mountain apart, even though conditions were … Read More

Here’s the first episode of TGR’s third season of Almost Live, featuring Ryland Bell, Griffin Post, Todd Ligare, Rachael Burks, and Erik Roner.  A little tease of what actually went … Read More

Here’s a collection of Alaska footage from Standard Films, Teton Gravity Research, and Xavier’s personal cinematographer Guido Perrini.  Xavier show us just how good of conditions and how well he … Read More

Two simple ideas of Arne Backstrom’s have made it to production with the Tecnica/Blizzard brands.  They’re so simple, it’s amazing that other companies aren’t producing similar products (at least for … Read More

This is the 4th Episode of Xavier de le Rue’s TimeLine.  This episode takes us to Japan on a The North Face Expedition with Lucas DeBari.  After a few days … Read More

If you’re really anxious to get on the snow this weekend, and are sick of the same sunny runs at Squaw, you can always get onto some sunny faces in … Read More

Coffee and other caffeinated beverages play a crucial role in most action sports athletes’ lives.  Coffee is certainly a major part of mine.  I’ve been slow-roasting a lot the past … Read More

The North Face Masters of Snowboarding 2011 series kicked off last weekend at Snowbird, Utah.  Snowbird had received some snow recently before the first day of competition, which was badly … Read More

Day one of The North Face Masters happened at Snowbird on Silver Fox yesterday.  Conditions were variable, with a thick icy rain crust up high, some smooth wind buff in … Read More

From the Unofficial Arcives – Before I came down to Las Lenas, one of my priorities was making a split board so that I could get into some of the … Read More

I’m very happy to say that the Tahoe area now has its’ own snowboard magazine, called Tahoe Snowboard Magazine.  Most publications are based out of SoCal, and Tahoe’s talent, in … Read More

Episode 3 of Xavier de le Rue’s TimeLine takes you to Fernie, BC for a winter camping mission with the Nissan team.  Some cool time lapses by Tero Repo, some … Read More

Here’s a photo gallery from a few days in the Tahoe Backcountry with some friends and legends.  Tom Burt, Jim Zellers, Jeremy Jones, Ryland Bell and myself comprised half the … Read More

A while back I made a post about The Making of a Jeep Commercial.  Well, the Jeep commercial is out now in time for the X-Games.  I’m really surprised and … Read More

It’s unfortunate that there are so many serious accidents in an industry that brings so much joy and happiness to so many (Two off the top of my head at … Read More

Just when you were positive that the split board binding to buy was any Spark R&D model, the Karakoram Split 30 enters the market place.  This is my gear review … Read More