Of all the incredible things that went down during the winter of 2023/2024, Travis Rice pioneering this British Colombia backcountry zone he christened as “The Velvet Castle” might be the most memorable.
If you flow even few consecutive pillows in say a hundred yard span and ride away clean, it might be the best thing you’ve done all season. Velvet Castle just a tad bit bigger measuring 3,653 vertical feet top to bottom stretched over 1.3 miles. I won’t even estimate how many pillows he hit, lost count as my eyes grew bigger in astonishment.
Tag along with the best snowboarder in the world for 4-minutes navigate a dreamscape of snow that will go down in the history books as one of the coolest first descents in the history of the sport.
How Velvet Castle looks from Travis’s standpoint:
Here’s what you don’t see according to Red Bull:
-3700’ vertical drop – about 3 Empire State building
-Top speed of 55mph (88kph)
-Pillows on the face are actually large boulders and small alpine trees
-Left side of the ridge is a no go area with a 300 foot cliff below
