Standing watch above the Mt. Baker Ski Area in Washington state is Mt. Shuksan, a towering mountain that steals your eye and sends shivers down your spine. Its glaciated terrain is always moving, letting loose torrential avalanches at a moment’s notice. Its northern faces are steep, wild and fraught with peril. It takes perfect timing along with a union of perfect conditions to ski it. After ten years of waiting for that union, the time has come. Having spotted a solid weather and stability window, the Fifty crew camps out at the legendary Mt. Baker Ski Area parking lot and is joined by fellow Salomon athletes Stan Rey and Alexi Godbout for an attempt to ski the steep and heavily exposed Northwest Couloir. While conditions seemed perfect from afar, the mission gets thrown into jeopardy by a sudden shift in winds and a whole lot of question marks.
Not many professional athletes have the opportunity to grow with their sport the way that Hans Rey has. Having spent over 25 as a professional mountain biker, Hans has been around for nearly every major technological advancement our sport has seen. We thought that it would be fun to compare Hans’ bike from 1995 to his current setup. Enjoy!
What do you do if you want to snowboard, but everything around you is flat? Coming from Minnesota, it’s a dilemma snowboarder Benny Milam knows all too well. But with some creativity and a little help from snowmobile legend Levi LaVallee, a wide-open field and a few bales of hay turns into the perfect setup for a one-of-a-kind midwest tow-in snowboarding session.