There is one true mecca in snowboarding. The place Craig Kelly chose to live and – not by choice – die. It’s called Baldface Lodge and anyone you’ve ever looked up as a snowboarder makes an annual pilgrimage there. Bryan Iguchi, Jamie Lynn, Travis Rice, the list goes on and on.
The public got a taste of it when Travis ran his Supernatural contest down the face of one of the most popular runs and now Teton Gravity Research has given it the full interactive treatment. Moving pictures, videos, and more that tell the story of founder Jeff Pensiero and how he came to build a snowboarders paradise in the remote mountains of Canada.
This describes the basis that Baldface was born out of. Creating a true snowboarding experience:
“Jeff pestered the owner of a British Columbia heli-ski operation relentlessly, eventually earning himself a discounted seat on a heli trip. Once there though, what was supposed to be a dream day ended in thorough disappointment. The guides treated him, the only snowboarder, like a kook. They chastised him in front of the group for his request to ride what he considered interesting terrain while they farmed perfect figure eights down low-angle pow fields.
What irked Jeff the most was the guides’ and clients’ obsession with vertical feet. The number on the altitude gauge dictated how they felt about their experience, rather than the quality of the turns. What Jeff experienced that day highlighted a major difference between skiers and snowboarders at the time. For him snowboarding was about creative expression. His board allowed him to experience and craft a story in the mountains. He cared about quality, not quantity.”
Click over to Teton Gravity Research for the full interactive feature on Baldface: The Temple of Snowboarding.
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