For those of you who may not have heard of this little event, the Mt. Baker Legendary Banked Slalom needs a bit of an introduction.

"The Legendary Banked Slalom began as a race and ended up defining the soul of snowboarding. Every winter pro riders, industry pioneers and inspired racers journey to Mt. Baker, Washington for friendship, love of the mountain and the 'infamous' Duct Tape trophy."

-from the jacket notes of the movie "Platinum"

In this 22nd year of the LBS, I was finally and happily chosen in the lottery. The fifth time was the charm in my case. I found out back in October and immediately made plans with some good friends to incorporate a pilgrimage to Mt. Baker into our loosely planned February road trip. We figured February was a good time to find some snow, being smack dab in the thick of winter. Unfortunately this was not to be the case.

Vacation started the morning of Sunday the 4th after a hellish week of deadlines and feverish preparations. Bryan and I headed up to Meadows for some afternoonish/night riding and found slushy spring conditions akin to the best days in April and March. We spent the evening back in Portland poring over weather forecasts and maps, trying to find powder somewhere. We saw promise to the northeast, so we figured we'd go ride meadows and check again and hit the road. We picked up Joe Thomas on the way and took advantage of the nice spring day. We built a fun little jump, and got rad.

01. MHM parking lot

02 Oregon BC setup

03. The mountain and I

04. Bryan launching over some rocks

It looked like it still might be good off in the northeast, so we beat feet up to the idaho panhandle to check out Schweitzer. Death fog was in attendance and made for interesting driving conditions.

05.night run

The potential of Schweitzer was a thing to behold, but alas not so good when we visited. WIth the storms fizzling to freezing rain, we backtracked and headed west for Stevens Pass.

06. looking for snow

Ah, a night in Wenatchee, WA. nuff said. We had a pleasant breakfast at the sweetest wafflehouse in the quaint Bavarian-style town of Leavenworth and proceeded to have the roughest day of the trip, conditions-wise. Ice, fog, no snow for three weeks. Good stuff. Time to push on for Baker.

07. main drag, Leavenworth, WA

08. Mini-Tucker

09. I love waffles!

10. spillway

Thursday was another good spring day. We previewed the course, hit the kiddie park, and stopped off at scenic Nooksack falls for some photos.

11. Nooksack falls #1

12. Nooksack falls #2

13. Nooksack falls #3

We managed to secure the last room in Glacier, so we were told. One bed, a sink, some pots and pans, and a bathroom that took up 1/3 of the structure, being about 200 square feet. Needless to say, accommodations were a bit snug. Bryan set up quarters in his car, and we made ourselves at home by commandeering the common area grill. Joe set us up with Teriyaki chicken, corn, veggies, and all the trimmings.

14. hot coals

15. flare-up

Next day was the first day of qualifiers. My group was Older Amateurs and we didn't run till about 2, so I spent most of the day lapping nearby runs and trying to get some insight as to tactics. There were plenty of wipeouts, with variable conditions throughout the course. Times were all over the map as snow fell, melted, warmed up, and cooled down. I had a solid first run and qualified for finals on Sunday.

16. start area

Saturday dawned sunny and clear, and we were pleasantly surprised with a few inches of fresh on the upper part of the mountain. I managed to get a hike in with Joe and Annie Fast, a friend from Bozeman days. It made the whole trip to take in the view from the top of Hemispheres. Absolutely gorgeous. Annie had just smoked her second run and was in high spirits. I took my second run a bit later and received no time due to a malfunction of some kind. I declined the rerun and headed back up Hemispheres with Bryan to finish out the day. We staggered into the parking lot just in time to catch the last bit of 500lbs of fresh salmon being served up next to the bonfire.

17. Shuksan Arm from chair 8

18. turn #1

19. top of the course

20. Hemispheres

21. turn #1 victim

22. Annie in the start gate

23. 3...2...1...GO!

24. turn #2

25. backcountry gems

26. Mt. Baker

27. Mt. B closeup

28. Joe with Shuksan

29. Joe gettin some

30. turn #1

31. there were some legends...

32. my turn #1

33. my turn #2

34. Bryan up top

Finals came with the rain on Sunday. We got two runs back to back, with time withheld on the final run so nobody knew who won until the awards ceremony. My runs felt solid. Not super fast, but relatively smooth and so much fun. They course was amazing. It took me 1:36 to get through the whole thing, including the corkscrew toilet bowl. I don't have a picture unfortunately, but basically you did a full 360º turn over a bridge and then down through a tunnel. Three or four more gates after that and one gnarly steep compression turn to the finish. I was gasping at the bottom every time. The awards ceremony was a sight to behold. So much good stuff made and donated by fine local craftsman. Surfboards, snowboards, embroidered Carhartt jackets, duct tape trophies. Annie took her category, gold duct tape and all. I finished in 5th place in my division, very happy with my results and stoked on the whole experience.

34. awards ceremony

34 .the elusive duct tape

BC drove me back to Portland that night, and I was back in Bend Monday morning looking at freshies on the Bachelor snow report. Gotta love it when you drive all over the place looking for pow and it's right where you started the whole time. Good stuff.