SuperNatural? Not in my backcountry!

On this list of environmental disasters this ranks pretty damn low. This is one face, on one mountain in the vast Canadian backcountry. How many faces this size are stripped completely of their trees for logging?

Look at the BC interior on google maps. Try and find the “Supernatural” site among the swaths of land clearcut and then take a second to think about your post. Not that I’m against logging – if it’s managed sustainably. I’m just pointing out the relative environmental damage.

@PedroDelfuego wrote:

You want ride in the park, go to the park.

Exactly. And the mountains are littered with snowmusement parks enough already.

The back-country should remain wild.

^^^^^ Well put. ^^^^

I don’t have much more to add about the environmental impact of building a few features on an otherwise normal cat serviced run except that this really isn’t very different from the Red Bull Rampage mtn bike event that has been running in Virgin, Utah for years. My understanding of the SuperNatural event is that RB has signed a 5 year contract with Baldface to hold the event annually. At that time they will probably take a hiatus, maybe forever, maybe until enough people in the industry want it to come back. I’ve also been told that not even Travis himself is riding the features until the next contest in order to preserve some semblance of fairness.

Does anybody want to build features in the backcountry where I recreate? Go for it, but good luck finding them again after the first couple of storms or they will only be good to go for a very short window of time when the snowpack is just the right depth.

I like seeing the progression of snowboarding in this direction. I have a hard time getting excited about guys snowboarding with ice axes in their hands, after the first ice fall they gracefully rap over they all look the same…

I’m over the idea of “my backcountry”, “secret stashes”, “local spots”, etc. With the explosion of forums and GoBros there is no mystery left, just hard work to get away from the easy access stuff.

this is a funny thread, NIMBY, ‘cept its not your back yard. you should take the a google earth tour of the “backcountry” around the koots and decide for your self if a cat ski op building a few stunts is really a big deal? :scratch:

Good post, but sometimes you have to pick your battles and this isn’t one.

What I don’t get is Travis’ splitty is great ideal “sustainable” board…bio topsheet, basalt, dead wood cores, and then blam! Let’s cut down some trees for a fakkin park. :scratch:

Don’t get me wrong.. I love jumps, but jumps that I build, or natural jumps. The Baldface set up is not backcountry. It’s a high dollar a$$ kissing machine. I was there the 1st year they were open, and that was low key. If Craig Kelly was alive today…Jeff Pensiero and his B.C. douche haven would get punched square in the bean bag.

BaldFace can take a chapter on how to run a sustainable BC lodge from Phil @ Retallack, and Ruedi Beglinger of SME.

Don’t get me started on Red Bull…They know a money making machine.

It all boils down to this one statement…

Money, Ego, and Materialism are the motivation of too many people with too much power.

And that is classic HFT right there kids.

I’m convinced HFT is a reincarnation of some mountain legend from way back.

….seriously

:bananas: :bananas: :bananas:

“We have a greed, for which we have agreed”- Eddie

believe that for some “extreme” riders (a.k.a. Travis rice) Are taking This hole backcountry thing as a chalenge and they want to fight it with their money not their abilities. They will ride a heli to the top and go down something that would take an average Guy two days and a hell of alot of skill to get to the top of. They are missinghalf the point of Backcountry riding. :banghead: