May 2008 Archives

In this behind-the-scenes look at Tanner Hall's "The Massive," we find Sean Pettit, Callum Pettit, and Ian McIntosh deep in the Whistler backcountry slaying some nice looking pillow lines. Keep an eye out for Callum's mind-blowing tree bonk and Sean's ridiculous tree jib. The Lorax is gonna be pissed.

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Get after it yourself and head over to Red Bull!

While much of the population enjoyed a relaxing Memorial Day weekend, Red Bull Ski Team members Tanner Hall, Grete Eliassen, Shane McConkey, Jeremy Nobis, and Daron Rahlves roared full-throttle for two days of parties and general madness surrounding the launch of the new Red Bull Cola. We attended exclusive parties day and night, went indoor skydiving, watched McConkey huck his meat off the MGM Signature Towers along with the rest of the Red Bull Air Force, and partied with athletes spanning most of the sports Red Bull is involved with.

Red Bull Cola is the first new product Red Bull has launched in 20 years. It's a premium cola made from 100 percent natural ingredients (no phosphoric acid, no preservatives, and no high fructose corn syrup). Red Bull Cola is not a cola-flavored energy drink, but it does contain a bit more caffeine than other colas, because it is flavored with coca leaf and kola nut, original ingredients when cola was invented.

See the madness in pictures here!

Learn more about Red Bull Cola and Red Bull Events!

This week webisode features Ian McIntosh and Dana Flahr up in Terrace, British Columbia, filming for Tanner Hall's latest movie, "The Massive." After receiving a massive dump like B.C. is known for, Ian drops into a line after some questionable calls on the part of the heli guides. Check it out the exclusive footy!

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If you're energy is ripping downhill fast, head over to Red Bull for a lift!

May 16, 2008 (Wels, Austria) – Professional skier and alpinist, Chris Davenport of Aspen, Colo., completed his quest to ski four of the highest and most famous peaks in the Alps: Mont Blanc, the Matterhorn, Monte Rosa and the Eiger. Davenport, who famously skied all 54 of Colorado’s 14,000 foot peaks last year, completed his European quest in just 10 days from May 5 to May 14.

“These are some of the most famous mountains in the world. It’s where modern mountaineering was born over 200 years ago,” stated Davenport. “It was an honor, a challenge and a thrill to ski from the summit of these peaks and I think this project will help progress high performance skiing in the biggest mountains.”

Dana Flahr and Ian McIntosh hold down the fort up in Terrace, B.C. while Tanner heads stateside to take care of his ankle. Unfortunately for everyone involved in the making of "The Massive," there's a whole lot of nothing going on due to weather. When it's clouded in for days on end, what do the pros do?

Check out the exclusive video!

Need to break out of your own slow roast? Head on over to Red Bull!

Back in April Red Bull Skiing was fortunate enough to accompany Tanner Hall and his film crew up to Haines, Alaska where they were filming for Tanner’s upcoming movie release, “The Massive”. Also along for the trip, to collaborate with and document what Tanner’s crew was doing, was Eric Crosland, Dave Mossop, and Malcolm Sangster of Rocky Mountain Sherpas. In an effort to create a new and innovated avalanche education film in 16mm, the RMS have traveled far and wide this winter capturing epic images of skiing and its relationship to avalanches. Malcolm took a few minutes out of his busy schedule to talk to Red Bull Skiing about their movie, "The Fine Line".

Tell us about the project you guys are doing and how it came about?
 
In high school we lost four close friends to an avalanche, and over the years we’ve lost more and seen many young people perish.  We’ve always wanted to try and do our part and make an avalanche education film that kids will actually be stoked on.  The Canadian Avalanche Foundation, having similar goals of youth education, realized that an energetic film is a great way to engage students and inform them about avalanche safety.  Their belief in us really opened doors and companies like North Face, Red Bull, Black Diamond, and others have followed suit and have made this thing possible.

One thing about traveling to the further corners of civilization to find pow is you also find the people who live in these corners. Tanner Hall appreciates everyone with a story and everyone with a stoke for the mountains and sliding down them. This week we find Tanner and Ian McIntosh walking the streets of Terrace, British Columbia and interacting with the locs.

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And for even more flavor, head on over to Red Bull!

The first day of May fell on this past Thursday and all over the country lift chairs idly swung in the spring sun as the meltdown intensified at the base of the lift towers. Not everywhere though. In a couple places across the country, winter was still in full effect and some skiers dropped in to their eighth straight month of powder skiing.

We cleared our schedules and kept a keen eye on the weather sites: almost with the same anticipation we do in the fall when the wind blows cold and the storms start lining up in the Pacific. Just like skiing powder in October is a rare and fulfilling treat, skiing powder in May is similarly satisfying.

Clocking in with eight inches of new, Sugarloaf, Maine was representing the East Coast. Utards were dumbfounded with 20 inches in Little Cottonwood Canyon the night before the 1st, and Timberline at Mt. Hood, Oregon checked in with an accumulated 20 inches on Thursday.

We made the mad rush up Highway 26 on a Timberline mission. Nearly to the lodge, we overtook a snowplow blasting powder into the roadside trees. Look at the picture, it could be the dead of winter. The temps were slated to warm up, and that they did, but for a few glorious hours in the morning the light and fresh was slayed in Timberlines secret steep stashes. As the clouds burned off, the scene literally changed from winter to spring before our eyes and under our feet. Nothing a little park skiing can't fix. Here's to you winter, we'll see you next year.

If you got no pow and need a fix, head over to Red Bull!