MTNOPS - New Snowboarding Mag

I'm not so sure that there is room in the Snowboard Mag world for another printed version of Snow pRoN but somebody thinks so. Launching in 68 days and counting is a new mag called MTNOPS which when I first heard the name had me thinking it was a resort operations magazine to which I shrugged "what's so cool about that?".



But this does look pretty cool.(see above screen shot of the site) It's lifestyle, action and everything snowboarding that Transworld, Snowboarder, Snowboard Journal and Frequency aren't (if there's anything in there that is missed).

If nothing, their Tailgate Alaska section of the site is pretty sweet. More vid of living the dream than I had time to watch.(the man is looming) Your homework assignment is to watch them all and report back. We're waiting...

It's a tough row to hoe so we'll see if they stick the landing after launch. Best of luck!

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Meanwhile in Alaska...

Even though it's going to be well into the 90's today at Backcountry.com HQ (likely 100+ in the warehouse) winter is still on the brain for some of us. Got the same problem? Need more winter stoke?

Here's your stoke. If you've not checked out the latest winter stoke coming out of Alaska by Backcountry.com athlete Jeremy Jones you need to. He's been hunting the big ones in AK (like Pontoon Peak below), nailing lines that I'm sure will be unbelievable on the big screen this fall when TGR's new film is unveiled.

Read up on what Jeremy has been getting done in AK. It's worth the click.

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Taos Opens to Snowboarders

They said it would never happen. Skiers thought they would always have Taos Ski Valley to themselves, but on March 19th, 2008, Taos opened permanently to snowboarding.  I headed home to see a bit of the action first hand, and to discover if pigs really do fly.

As a frequent snowboarder, I can remember wishing Taos would open to snowboarding and ditch the exclusive attitude fostered by many of its locals. Having to travel to other resorts when NM's premier resort was in my backyard just seemed like cruel punishment for wanting to shred pow on one stick. 

Ironically though, I packed my skis for this trip. How contrarian of me, I know, but on nail-biting, steep hard-pack where Cadillac-sized bumps quietly wait to throw the unsuspecting tourist, it just makes more sense to have four edges at your disposal than two, n'est pas? 

Burton and Forum set up demo booths at the base, and an air of camaraderie and liberation filtered through TSV. Timbuk2's Ryan H. and I hiked Kachina Peak (12,481'), chatted up some stoked rider chicks (who consequently went careening down Main Street on their butts), and tried to keep up with local stud Fred F. on the groomers. My liftee friend Dennis asked, "Why aren't you snowboarding bro?" "Well..." I paused, "It's Taos." Respect to the Blake family for taking the plunge.

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Gnardonculous? Just Another Addictionary Werd

It's a skier thing. Just like the video that Kim posted last week of the guy thinking on the chair lift, unless you're in the ski world you may not know why it is we make up words for things like "Skiing Powder" which I often refer to as "shralping the sicky pow-pow". Then again, I'm not really sure why it is.

Anyway, to fuel the fire Ski Utah and Winter at Westminster hosted a contest for new "werds" on the Addictionary site (it’s an online dictionary of made up “werds” - you know, like the words you used to make up with your bro/brahs but never wrote down).

Skiers and swowboarders came out of the woodwork and from all over the country to submit their werds. Hundreds of new werds for the “one werd to rule them all” category poured in and another stack of werds for the lingo category piled up like the snow at Alta.

The winners:

Snowriding (n) A new winter recreation industry term describing the act
of either snowboarding or snow skiing down a slope.

Snowriding, the grand prize winner and the new werd for “skiing and snowboarding,” was submitted by: Roberta Stjernholm of Lakewood, Colo. She won a week long trip to snowride in Utah. (Am I the only one that sees the irony in this?) Perhaps after checking out how easy it is to get to the resorts from Salt Lake City versus running the I-70 ultra-marathon from Denver she’ll move to Utah.

gnardonculous: (a) gnarulous and ridonculous. The definition of this winning werd actually consists of made-up werds. So to clarify,
gnardonculous is an appropriate synonym for such go-to adjectives as: gnarly, sick, rad and/or ridiculous.

Submitted by Andrew Howard Johnson of Stamford, Connecticut, this new snowriding lingo werd took home the prize of 2 lift tickets to The Canyons Resort and 10 shirts featuring the new werd.

I’d definitely wear a tee shirt with the word Gnardonculous on it. Backcountry.com should make Andrew a little deal for the next T-Shirt of the Month project.

Check out the other new werds from the contest on the Addictionary site.

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Hell Froze Over Today

Just in case you didn't realize it, Hell froze over today. That is, Taos is now open for skiers and snowboarders starting today. Taos founder Ernie Blake was once referenced as saying that the day Taos allows snowboarding would be "when hell freezes over".

Perhaps now they'll change the name on the website from SkiTaos to just Taos. Despite that little omission they've been doing a lot of work in preparation for this day. They added a Snowboard section to the Taos website along with Snowboard School info for those skiers, like the guy in the video below, who may want to expand their mountain experience and learn a new skill.

Yesterday a pile of skier gathered to bid adieu to their skiing only ways. I think the guy who says the mountain is "too narrow, too steep" in this video sounds like a tool.



Then there was this guy whose picture was on the Taos website and likely around the web by now. This image is strong! That's core, no matter how you slide on snow.

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Do You Have a Werd for Skiing and Snowboarding?

When it comes to snow related things, more if often better. 4 inches of powder or 14? 1000' vertical feet or 3000' vertical feet? Other times less is better.

To that end Ski Utah along with the Winter at Westminster program is about to finish up a contest they are sponsoring with the Addictionary. Addictionary is an interactive dictionary where you can add "werds" (that's what they call them) with meanings that you come up with. This werd contest's goal is to come up with the best "werd" to describe skiing and snowboarding. See, the trouble is whenever you are writing or talking about the act of sliding on snow it requires 3 words. More is not always better and in this case having one word to cover both worlds of sliding on snow would be ideal.

Tomorrow is the last day of the contest to name the best word for Skiing and Snowboarding. If you come up with the winning "werd" you'll win a trip for two to ski in Utah next month. Not too shaby.

So if you've got a werd that you use to describe sliding on snow it could land you in Utah next month to ski the greatest snow on earth.


Check out the Addictionary.org contest along with the prizes.

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Little Rippers - Kids are Fearless on Snow

You know the drill. Crusin' down a run at your local ski hill, thinking you're all that and more...or perhaps you're not thinking anything but just crusin. All of the sudden some little ripper on skis or a snowboard comes railing past you, boosts off a wall hit and sails on by like it's second nature. It's in moments like these that I just shake my head, smile and say, "Right on kid!"

The vid below comes from the TackledBox Blog. Not really sure who this blogger is exactly but he did mention hooking up with some of the boys from Backcountry.com at the Snowbasin Demo a few weeks back so he must be a friend of the crew.

So check out this little kid with skis so small that the are barely past the binding is completely fearless. Fearless indeed.

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Jeremy Jones : Origins of Snowboarding

Backcountry.com sponsored Athlete Jeremy Jones has been in Turkey recently and posted this amazing story on his blog. Seems they stumbled upon a village in the mountains where people have been pracitcing a form of snowboarding for a long, long time.


Photo: Bernard Ritzer

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RiderTunes.com - Songs That Don't Suck

A while back I posted about a site called SkiMovieMusic.com that breaks down all of the music from your favorite ski films each year. Watching the credits over and over hitting pause and then writing down the song name, musician, etc is so old school. It was worse in the VHS days...if any of you remember that.

Not a skier? Looking for the songs from this years Standard Films "Catch the Vapor" but are too cheap to buy the DVD for yourself? Head over to RiderTunes.com and buy songs from your favorite snowboard films through iTunes. No more pause/play junkshow.

Still too cheap? Round up $.99 from your little brother's coin collection, tell your buddy about the site, have him buy the Danny Kass segment song Trains and Planes by Zion I and the Grouch, give him your $.99 in pennies and then snag the song for your iPod. Songs on the cheap for you and you're spreading the word to your buddy.

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DogFunk.com Goes Easy on the Eyes

After what feels like forever and I'm sure the site designers will agree, Dogfunk.com got a new face lift yesterday. If you're not in the know then you didn't realize that Dogfunk.com is one of the Backcountry.com family.

It's mostly run by a few renegades who were haters at first but now they more or less put up with all the granola eating Chaco and Patagonia wearing backcoutry types that are the mass of employees around here. They out style the backcountry crew and it definitely shows in the new look.

Perhaps I dig it so much because I like black websites (my personal blog is black, my Firefox skin is "Black Japan") but the site feels like a great fit for the snowboarding crew. With all of the little action images going on and the "busy" images in the header and the footer it reminds me of the Burton ads that I saw a couple of years ago.

I wanted to get some feedback from some of our snowboarding readers so here is a screenshot of the top half of the home page. Take a look at the entire Dogfunk homepage and let us know what you think of it. (not that any of your suggestions or comments will change the look of it anytime soon but hey, you'll get to spend your 2 cents)

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