This is the highlight video for the Red Bull Beyond The Line free ski competition. This event went down at Catedral, Bariloche in the end of August. The venue combined cliffs, steeps, and natural airs with man made jumps. It was a show case for Argentinian free ride talent, with locals taking the top 3:

1. Tomas Blanc

2. Facundo Aguirre

3. Santiago Guzman

The winner will go on to compete in the Red Bull Linecatcher in France this winter.

The time of year is upon us, that time when things shift away from skiing…opening a great void in our lives.  What are we to do without our beloved snow capped mountains?  If you feel at a loss with what to do next, check out the above video then go buy a downhill mountain bike.  Whistler Bike Park opened just a couple weeks ago, and judging by the moist, intense, and beautifully slowed down video from early spring, things are teeing off.

Northstar Bike Park opening date:  June 15th

In my opinion, not much can compare to skiing.  But mountain biking certainly comes close to feeding that desire for heart thumping, high speed enjoyment in the mountains.  So what’s your story?  Have you dusted off the bike yet?  Or do you indulge in some other form of summertime fun…maybe climbing, backpacking, kayaking…the summer time options are endless!  You know what they say, you come to the mountains for the winter, but you stay for the summer. 

The tricks being thrown on motorcycles are getting more and more difficult to understand, contemplate, and name.

Red Bull recently got the 12 best motocross jumpers together, built them the some of the most impressive jumps the world has seen, and set them loose.  This whole gig went down at Glen Helen, CA on May 14th, 2012.

What’s next in motocross?  What else can these guys do on these things?

So today Squaw was closed. The “Tram” or “Cable Car” or whatever the hell you want to call it opened today for a bit. Then it closed just as quickly. Today was a sit at home and watch movies day. It’s been a mixture of rain, sun (for a few minutes), sideways hail and rain, sleet, and now turning to snow precip. It looks like it’s trying to snow but I wouldn’t exactly call it snow.

Rain Rain Go away

It’s hard to say how the mountain skied considering it didn’t open?? Really? We’ll have to see what tomorrow brings. Hopes of deep pow are non-existent but we might get a little bit of snow. NOAA.gov says no accumulation but who believes that crap anyway. The report is below. Wear your boxers or panties backwards, do a snowdance or whatever else you need to to turn this shit to snow. My truck says it’s 33 degrees outside so there is hope of a few inches. Not much, but a few days from May a dusting might make for a decent final weekend. Thoughts of the Chimney opening this weekend are unfounded.

This blew onto me within 5 seconds of opening my truck door

Sunday is the Cushing Crossing and the weekend should be fun though. Lets just get this garbage weather out of the way and enjoy Squallywood as it closes. Check out the park video from earlier this week when it was the middle of summer. Lets hope this shit turns to snow up top!

Red dog looks meh... come on snow

Late Afternoon: Scattered snow showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 43. Windy, with a west wind around 35 mph, with gusts as high as 50 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Little or no snow accumulation expected.

Tonight: Scattered snow showers before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 25. Windy, with a west wind 30 to 35 mph becoming east 10 to 15 mph. Winds could gust as high as 50 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Little or no snow accumulation expected.

Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 45. East wind 10 to 15 mph becoming north. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph.

Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 31. West wind 5 to 10 mph becoming east.

Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 57. East wind between 5 and 10 mph.

Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 36.

Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 59.

High Fives mark accomplishment and encouragement, and signify victory and elation. They’re what you give your best friend after they just did something sick. High Fives are awesome. The High Fives Foundation might be the best High Five of them all however. Roy Tuscany started the organization to help athletes who have suffered a life altering injury in the action sports environment. The Non-Profit organization based out of Truckee, CA has been putting on the TRAiNS event for 5 winters now, and it’s one of the best times of the year in Tahoe. Alpine Meadows has hosted the event for the past 2 winters and designed some pretty rad features.

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Trains attracted a pretty good size crowd

There was some amazing talent out there this year. Nick Goepper, the Paul Mitchell Breakthrough Athlete of the year was here. He’s fresh off podiuming almost every major slopestyle event in the world this year, and was Winter X games slopestyle Silver Medalist. He’s also still a junior in High School. So were Level 1 signature athletes Parker White and Chris Logan. The local talent was also on display with Garrett Russell, Carson Lehoullier, Andy McDowell, Danny Tourmarkine, Cooper Davidson, Austin Simonpietri, Davis Souza, Michelle Parker and lots of others. Super Groms Aspen Spora, Logan and Cody Laplante joined the party and it went down.

3 jump option for the bottom feature at TRAiNS

Think rapid fire athletes launching over 3 jumps at the same time , or in large TRAINS. Jamie Lavalle from Marker/Volkl cooks up some of the best chicken wings you’ll ever eat, the crowds come out, and a big party is thrown. The athletes competed for the first part of the day to determine best 540, best Male, and best Female. These categories were won by Andy McDowell, Nick Goepper, and  Marta Krusell (who is 13 and wasn’t even in the event!!) . These 3 then chose teams of 11 to compete for the chance to donate $5,000 to charities. A great event for a great cause.

• Best Male: Nick Goepper donated $1,000 to the Reeve Irvine Research Center
• Best Female: Marta Krusell donated $1,000 to the Shane McConkey Foundation
• Best 540: Andy McDowell donated $1,000 to SkiD.U.C.K.
• Best TRAiNS Team: Green Team donated $2,000 to the Shane McConkey Foundation

The top feature had both a large jump and box feature

Thanks to High Fives Foundation for putting on such an amazing event and helping out athletes in every way possible. You guys rock, and HIGH FIVES TO YOU.

There’s a lot to do around Jackson in the winter. Here at Unofficial Jackson, we sometimes get sucked into just shredding the resort (who can blame us?) It’s good to see that somebody is getting it done a little deeper in the backcountry. Check out the latest episode from The Run Around, shot by Colorado based Two-Plank Productions. Corey Felton, Taylor Felton, Austin Gibney, and Topher Plimpton shred a variety of locations around the Jackson backcountry. Be sure to watch to the end to see some solid sled hang time.

The snow is coming! The snow is coming! Live in Mammoth and it won’t take you long to learn that the weather changes right quick around here. Currently temps are dropping and the winds are blowing, both encouraging signs that we will soon see the white fly again.

Yet, just a couple days ago temps were in the 50s and the winds were calm – great conditions for getting out and enjoying one of Mammoth’s 7 terrain parks. And that’s just what local rider Matt Guntert did. One morning of lapping South Park with Matt and you’re gonna have more than enough shots to bang out a nice little 2 minute edit.

If you’re not in-the-know, South Park is Mammoth’s intermediate-advanced level terrain park. And, as seen here, a “stroll” through the Park on a pleasant sunny day is hard to beat. Enjoy it while you can because it looks as though Old Man Winter is on his way back.

From the Smith Optics files, We Travel is a new series from the minds that brought you the Prospecting Idaho series. Episode 2 of the series accompanies Matthias Mayr, Nico Zacek, Laurent Niol and Markus Eder on travels through Alaska, Norway, Austria and France. From big mountain lines to backcountry booters, these guys get it done. Don’t miss the crazy rock gap at 2:36. These euros get it done!

Snowblading: The Key To Freestyle

As park skiing progresses, riders are always looking to advance their ability. New technologies have allowed skiers to push the sport to places that we have never seen it gone before; 1440′s, triple corks, 450′s in and out of rails, the list goes on. As we look forward to the next trick, we always wonder, who is doing it right? Who is following the next trend to take them to the top? The answer: Skiboarding. Allowing for maximum spinning, amazing control, and all out mayhem on the hill; skiboarding has created a niche market for only the best. The fastest, the highest, and the most agile can all thank skiboarding for their superhuman like abilities on and, arguably, off the slopes. But skiboarding isn’t new, in fact it’s an age old past time which dates back to the 1940′s.

Snowbladers Today:

Getting rad as... (http://www.facebook.com/snowblading)

A Brief History Of Snowblading

Though this glorious sport has only been commercialized within the last few decades, it is arguable that snowblading(or skiboarding) holds a great part of  the skiing and mountaineering heritage. First used in the 1940′s skiboards, known then as Firn Gliders, were used as mountaineers to traverse the glaciers mountaineers would trek across in the summer months. It wasn’t until the early 1990′s that skiings best kept secret hit the shelves big time. Australian ski company Kneissel began mass producing BigFoot skiboards with the classic toes on the tip of the skiboards. Throughout the decade, skiboarding exploded into the ski scene, pro-models started flying off the shelf and it was even featured in the X-Games! Sadly, in the early 2000′s the skiboard community fell apart. The World Skiboard Federation and the United Skiboard Series called it quits and little shredders had to look elsewhere for inspiration. Luckily for skiboard devotees, skiboarding was not gone for long and in the late 2000′s the W.S.A. began to organize events again. Though this was nothing like before, skiboarding was back and buisness and is now one of the coolest things to do on the hill other than maximizing the gap between your goggles and hat, or wearing ‘pizza’ing down the hill as fast as possible.

Tip stalls made easy. (http://wordyraconteur.blogspot.com)

Fun Snowblade Facts:

• “Snowblading” is actually called Skiboarding. The term ‘snowblade’ was trademarked by Salomon.

• Skiboards are short skis typically 75-110cm in length.

World-class groomers and world-class terrain parks – That’s the short of it for Mammoth Mountain these days. The snow is real and temps have remained cool, providing Mammoth’s Grooming Fleet with ideal conditions with which to work their magic.

Top to bottom Gondola laps, with a pass through Main Park, are hard to beat right now. Yesterday I was about to leave the hill when I noticed that Lonnie Kauk decided to make a late day showing. With just one hour to play Lonnie dropped some dope style and some words of wisdom. Anyway you take it, Lonnie definitely makes hitting 50’ jumps look way too easy.