Editor’s Note: Last season I was motivated by fellow Sierra splitter Tim Strickland, (know as tjstirck on the forum) to attempt my own 12 months of consecutive shred. Based on the images I’d seen from his Instagram account (@thattimdude), I knew this would be no easy feat. Long drives and long approaches, all to ride patches of brown suncupped-snow would be the norm. With the disastrous snow season we had in the Sierra, the idea was quickly shelved with the hopes of making it happen during a better year. I figured even the most committed riders would have extreme difficulties keeping a streak alive this year. As June and July rolled around, I was surprised to see Tim was still working on his streak. I reached out to Tim to learn more about his mission. Here’s what he had to say.
Words and photos by Tim Strickland
Three and a half years ago, I did a stupid thing. Deep into the winter of 2010/2011, one of the best the Sierra Nevada has ever seen, a friend (BillyGoat) and I decided to start a new project. Perhaps naively, we set out to snowboard a minimum of 1,000 vertical feet per month, every month, for as many months as possible.
We’re certainly not the first, nor will we be the last to set out on such a fun and silly adventure. We’re not even close to some of the guys on TGR or cruising around the Tahoe Basin. Hell, a friend’s dad has an active streak going strong at 132 months. Our goal for the streak was to get outside, snowboard with friends, and have as much fun as possible.
In the interest of full disclosure, this post is something of an obituary. BillyGoat’s streak ended at 20 months on July 30, 2012. My streak ended at 45 months Sunday, August 31 thanks to poor packing. Either way, the streak is dead. Long live the streak.
When Billy and I decided a 1K per month streak was a good idea, we were 5 or 6 months into an epic winter that started for us the day after Thanksgiving with an overhead powder day at Kirkwood. It was the same winter that we both picked up splitboarding. Eager to learn everything that we could about touring, we both spent a lot of time on splitboard.com… you know… meeting men. But men who shred!
“Our goal for the streak was to get outside, snowboard with friends, and have as much fun as possible.”
Over the next three and a half years, Billy and I (eventually just I) spent at least one weekend every month hiking, sliding, bootpacking, skinning, and most importantly, snowboarding.
