Ramblings

A POW-DER Edit

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:52:59 GMT

Like most snowboarders in North America lately, we've been jonesing bottomless turns and pillow drops for what seems like an eternity. Fortunately for the past few days Ullr decided he'd had enough of the Arctic air mass too and decided to dump some fresh lines all over Whistler. With our priorities straight we've been getting about 3 hours sleep each night to make it to the gondy before it cracks and man has it been worth it! Yesterday just when we thought the winds were gonna keep Peak and Harmony from opening I asked a patroller where the signs were on Hwy 86, thinking we'd have to hike up to Million Dollar Ridge, he told me they were cracking Peak chair in 5 minutes. Jess and I headed down to a running Peak chair with no line up yet (un-freakin-heard of!) and managed to get epic first lines down Million Dollar Ridge and Lower Peak to Creek was full of fun stashes all the way to the bottom. Here's a little edit from this morning on Harmony and Million Dollar Ridge.

2012 big ugly SNOW rebuild

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:26:21 GMT

With the new year comes a new website for big ugly SNOW. We've been busy with our day jobs, but since Ullr isn't really bringin it yet this season I've finally had some time to do a bit of work on here. You may be wondering what the f*ck we're doin with this website and since we ask ourselves that same question all the time... We just want a cool place to share videos, photos, stories and opinions about the people and places that inspire us. It's all about getting stoked on life and in our case we tend focus on the gravity induced sideways sliding variety of thrills.

We're pretty stoked about the new site layout so we'll finally have some time to focus more on content. It's kinda hard without a budget, but we do what we can to make shit happen.

Thanks for takin some time to check us out!

Right Place Right Time Contest

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:48:18 GMT

Right Place Right Time by Chili Thom

How'd you like to hang this on your wall? As soon as we hit 500 likes on our facebook fan page we're giving away a "Right Place Right Time" print by Chili Thom! Inspired from the view of Black Tusk and the Inukshuk at the peak of Whistler.

Finally Some Pow To Shred!

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 05:18:04 GMT

Little miss la nina sure is taking her sweet time kickin in the cold and wet this season!
Luckily we got a few bottomless turns and pillow drops on January 5th and 6th... Here's a rough cut of some lines Messy Jess and I were hitting.

StepChild Creekside Rail Jam 2011

Sun, 17 Apr 2011 06:30:00 GMT

Yesterday after shredding the hill Pabst Bluew Ribbon, the Circle and JanSport sponsored the StepChild Creekside Rail Jam... The underground event was fully stocked thanks to Pabst Blue Ribbon and the crew from The Circle.
Bros and Pros and even 1 Ho hucked their meat to put on a good show! (I'll never try to rhyme again)
A snowmobile drop (I fucked up the angle and didn't get that footy right, sorry!!), some tower climbing and a few back-flips wrapped up the event and I'm pretty sure everyone had a sweet time!

Thanks to everyone "who put this thing togetha"!

Ridiculous Amounts of Pow - the White Room Week at Whistler

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 02:15:00 GMT

When Justin (Snowmadic) and JT (Danger) finally pulled the trigger to get up here for a week of BC shred we had every intention of heading east to hit the Powder Highway in the Koots. There was even talk of hitting Shandyland for a couple days, but on about the 9th or 10th my buddy Eric, who was meeting us in Revy based on plan A, said "you guys are gonna leave the best snow in the country". Ullr had completely different plans for Team get Awesome and Dark Love Crew even though the GFS loops looked like the whole province was gonna be getting hit hard. As the systems approached the temps dropped and the Koots wasn't looking like the action we were searching for.

When JW got here on Saturday Whistler was getting dumped on about 3 inches an hour. The next day the alpine lifts were closed but the mid and lower sections were mint! We destroyed every bit of fresh we could find then headed down the Whistler side of the PeaktoPeak line. That shit may STEEP and full of holes but when you hit it with a 300CM base and almost 2 feet of fresh it's pretty f'n sick!

The pace had been set and Ullr wasn't about to be out done by mere mortals. So he sharted over 180CMs in 5 days and we slayed every bit of it with daily rebates on our favorite lines. By day 7 the bluebird sky beckoned us out of bounds to the Singing Pass trail via Lesser Flute and we quickly destroyed any signs of conformity set by the line farming 2 plankers.

Between our daily shred and bottles of Kagatobi at Sachi Suchi, we were accompanied by Don Julio Anejo and the Havana Club's Siete Anos which somehow earned me the nickname Jon Droolio... Jess has since banned my friends and I from opening any sunflower seed bags in the house especially after drinking.

Ridiculous is the only word that comes close to describing how sick February 12 - 20, 2011 was. As JW put it"the bar has been raised"!

Keeping your cool in the backcountry

Sun, 02 Jan 2011 08:15:00 GMT

Robbie Crawford and Messy Jess - Top of Flute Bowl, Whistler

The other day Jess and I hiked Flute to get some OB turns and avoid the holiday crowds... Just as we were getting ready to strap in and one-foot the ridge to enter Garibaldi Park we saw this guy post-holing his way back in-bounds without a snowboard, skis, or snowshoes. We couldn't wait to ask what the f*#! kinda trouble he'd gotten himself into. Once he got close enough, with an ear to ear grin only a mother could love (just kidding Robbie), he began telling us how his fresh pow lines were not meant to be that day.
The following is Robbie's personal accounting of the tragic loss of his brand new setup:

"You know those mornings when you think... Yeah man, gonna get some super cool lines down an area that has not been touched in weeks, due mostly to weather closure. I got my Go Pro HD fully charged and me brand new board.

9 am, December 29th, 2010, Whistler mountain... It was a blue bird day with the occasional gust of wind. I made my way over to Symphony Bowl and began my hike to the summit of the Flute from the base of the Piccolo.

As I ascended, creating the boot pack for the hundreds of other riders to eventually follow. There was a couple of skiers with the skins on trekking up just ahead of me, but they had it easy compared to wearing just snowboard boots and plodding through the thick wind blown lips and super soft n deep build-ups on some sections of the hike. There is usually a cat or snowmobile track heading up this section, but not this time... Just loads of snow and it was blowing a hooly!! ;)

Anyway, I made it to the top and it was another world up there, the view was spectacular and there was an abundance of epic lines to be had and not a punter in sight just a couple of skiers and me ;) I decided to make my way down to Encore and have some fun down the ridge, a wee rip through the trees and back down to the Symphony Chair for round two. Well that was the general idea...

I put my board down at the Flute summit placed my foot in the binding with only one foot just to ride over the plateau to make my way to Encore, an action I have done hundreds of times over. I began to slide, about 20 meters down the shallow slope on top of plateau, which is quite a wide area from the Flute cornice over to the outer boundary zone. I hit a bump of wind blown crust and suddenly my binding made a sort of crunch sound, I tumbled and my foot popped off the binding. It was not a bad fall, my board was kinda close to me, but it was hit by a gust of wind which gave it a wee push. That "wee push" became a catapult action and the board started to slide towards the out of bounds fence poles, where the slope starts to undulate and roll off into the the immense back country. What happened next was not cool, the board was hit by another gust of wind and the board just pinned it over the south flank, within a few seconds the board was gone!!!

All I want for Christmas is Two Feet of Pow

Sat, 25 Dec 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Jess and I took a little mission OB down the singing pass yesterday... it should really be called the Burning Pass when attempted on a snowboard. Looks like we're gonna be splitting our old boards sooner rather than later. Unless Jones Snowboards wants to sponsor a couple splitties... hint hint ;)

How f'n sick have these storms been? Mammoth getting obliterated with record dumpings and we're finally getting our share of the good stuff here in Whistler too. Yesterday I stepped away from the life sucker so Messy Jess and I could recharge with some fresh tree lines. Even though the early season legs turned to spaghetti almost instantly, it was so rad to get our shred on in some fluffy deep stuff.

Buy A New Spitboard Or Cut An Old Snowboard?

Sun, 03 Oct 2010 04:45:00 GMT

Spliboarding Whistler's Musical Bumps with JT, Messy Jess, Snowmadic and Jon.

Should I buy a new splitboard or cut an old snowboard and convert it? Ever since the awesome day renting Prior splitboards and trekking the Whistler Backcountry (E=MC Splitboard) I have been wanting to score one, but those things are pricey, close to $1,000! After some searching I found that you can buy a kit for like $170 and convert any snowboard if you are willing to cut it in half. I'm in the process of reviewing different forums like splitboard.com, Teton Gravity Research, etc. and cutting an existing board looks pretty doable. There's also a guy near Park City who used to split boards for people (customsplitboards.com) but he's no longer accepting orders. It looks like he's done a nice job on a lot of them, too. I'm pretty sure I'm going to go for it. Check back and I'll update my progress. And if you have any experience making your own splitboard(s) please share any tips or lessons you learned in the process! Thanks!

Snowmadic Seeks Out Stashes In New Zealand

Sun, 26 Sep 2010 03:45:00 GMT

Snowmadic is back!

Catching a flight on a passing albatross to the South Island of New Zealand, Snowmadic brought it for Team Get Awesome and swooped a couple days in the Southern Alps. From Treble Cone to Cardrona, with a dash of Harris Mountains Heli for good measure, gravity induced shreducation was in full effect. Experimenting with a new pygmy fotog, the glory (or what there was to be had) was captured within the magic of the all-knowing digi chip. Truth be told the albatross ride took a might longer than anticipated and by the time I got down there the snow/conditions were not the hero pow of lore. Regardless, I couldn't think of a better thing to do during a hated SoCal heat wave in the middle of August. Truly fuel for the soul!
Lastly DJ Z-Trip provided the groovy tunes so be sure to check his site for more fresh tasty goodness - djztrip.com.

Stay Awesome!