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In case you missed it (sorry, im slacking on the posting!) Here is the teaser and NS Article. Also, if you haven’t noticed, there is a dedicated TOO NICE section on the site now, look up and check it out!

Last year, on the way back from Marquette Mountain Superpark, Austin stopped at a gas station and got this ridiculously awesome tee shirt with an elephant on it. Wolf tees are going out, its all about the biggest land animal in the world now.

Summit Pro/Am finals went down on Friday. Me and Austin were in the 15 person field that qualified to compete for the big $1000 1st prize check. I did not make finals, which allowed me to take full advantage of the free PBR. Delicious. Everyone’s best friend Skier Steve Janisch won, and LINE Midwest rider, Matt Halverson picked up 3rd. Andreas White, decked in slim pants, no poles, and fat rockered skis threw down one of the most insane tricks on a down rail I have ever seen, lip 2 3 change 4 out. Wow.

Before the competition, me and Austin met up with super photographer Bill Hickey and Elan/Dalbello rider Willi Engelhart to shoot some pole bonker shenanigans which you can get a peep of at the end of the edit. The park we did it at is right by my parents house. It’s a sledding hill so there was unlimited in run and speed for what we needed to do. Perfect.

The tow rope shred madness tired us out to the extreme, so we decided to do it again the next day at Elm Creek. Elm Creek is a Three Rivers Park District park like Hyland is. Its main attraction is cross country skiing and tubing, at some point, some genius decided it would be an excellent idea to turn the above average sized sledding hill into a ski area. All the old rails from Hyland got tossed over, and a rope tow was put in. It’s possibly the most fun mini shred park, EVER. We lapped for around six hours and it never got old. Austin threw down all eight 270s onto the baby handrail and I tapped and nollied my heart out. David Wells had a credit card number he could use as much as he wanted, don’t ask, and we ordered about $45 worth of Domino’s to the chalet. It was a feast of delicious proportions.

By the way, I ditched the intro segment. I’m sure all you guys were getting sick of it too.

Fall brings a certain anxiety for skiers. We start putting on our new outerwear to watch TV in the living room. We creep resort webcams and compulsively refresh the weather.com 10 day forecast. Everyone has their own preseason rituals. Here in the midwest, the one we all share is the wait for the temperatures to dip below that magical, almost unreachable number, 32.

This season, we were kept waiting a little longer than usual. The weather phenomenon el nino has proverbially screwed us in the ass, leaving minnesota skiers wondering if it was ever going to get cold. Mother nature at last felt a shred of pity for our time and again crapped on region. The midwest has always been forgotten. It’s always East and West, or rather West and East. Spoiled, elitist, and ungrateful west coast skiers looking down on the sad, rain sodden, east coasters that need more attention and sympathy.

Somewhere in the middle, between them, with no actual mountains to speak of, is the midwest. Here in the midwest you find a group of skiers who call two inch dusting of white fluff a blessing. All we know and live are hole in the ground excuses for ski resorts that would struggle to make an old man’s thighs burn. A season starting a month late is a slap in the face from the snow gods who already don’t care about us.

I’d rather not think about what kind of season we are in for at the moment. As of right now, we’re in a state of barely winter, and I’m content with that.

This episode should have gone up 3 weeks ago. Last year, Wild Mountain opened October 26th or 27th. They opened instead on November 15th because of the unusual warm weather. It’s an el Nino year and cold temps are still having trouble staying as we get closer and closer to December.

Shop Wars is a competition Wild does every year. Shops pit their teams against each other in a big rail jam and it’s a ton of fun. Its postponed now til December 20th. Pray for snow.

Check it!