Adam DeVargas

Taos, NM Hundreds of fans came out in full force to watch the Final day of the Salomon Extreme Freeride Championships. Riders and skiers stepped up there game and started the morning with a grueling hike to the top of Kochina Peak.

Solid group of friends!

Words and Photos: Mike Hardaker

Jeff Meyer

Snowboard Magazine and Coors teamed up to welcome the athletes to The North Face Masters of Snowboarding at Kirkwood. Bubs Bar and Kirkwood Resort allowed a bunch of snowboarders to come in, drink free beer and enjoy a night to catch up.

Jim O'Connor made the haul from Jackson Hole

Words and Photos: Mike Hardaker

Vail, CO

Some would look at Vail as only having 28% of the mountain open and decided to go elsewhere, summit county maybe? We opted to roll the dice in search of POW. We showed up Wednesday and had the entire mountain to ourselves. Maybe it was the cold temps, "lack of snow" or work that kept people away but this was the leasst crowded day I have seen up here in ten years.

Words: Mike Hardaker
Photos: Mike Blondon

21 Miles West of Boulder, CO

Eldora Mountain Resort has opened for the 2009-2010 ski season. In the past 24 hours, 12" of light fluffy colorado powder has fallen on the mountain. Temps hovered around 10 degrees making for ideal 5% density snow, the kind you can literally blow right off your car!

Brendon Thompon

Colorado is excited to announce the opening of a new ski and snowboard resort located in Morrison. The tiny town also host the world famous Red Rocks Amphitheater. With word of deep snow and possible face shots we were off once again.

Words: Mike Hardaker
Photos: Mike Hardaker and Brendon Thompson

Sean Robinson and John Strieby

Over 2 Feet of snow has fallen in the foothills outside of Denver in the last 24 hours. With snow totals like that we decided to head up to Loveland Ski Reort in hopes of some early season pow turns. As soon as we left my house I knew we were in for a bit of a drive. Traffic along I-70 was crawling around 40 mph, we took it safe and made it up in 2 1/2 hours.

Words: Mike Hardaker
Photos: Mike Hardaker and Patrick O'Toole

For some riders, early season shreding equals laps around A-basin and Loveland resorts. Others search out fresh Colorado Blower Pow. If you know where to look ( less then an hour from Denver ) great turns can be had.. October 22nd 2009 was my second day of riding this winter. Today was different it was a far cry from my usual jibfest with the brobras.

El Nino is off to a great start with Colorado backcountry riders are out in the field enjoying fresh powder and early season turns. With snow on the ground in Boulder I knew it was time to take a drive to the mountains and search out some fresh pow.
To date 5 ski resorts are open across the country; some boasting earliest openings in over 40 years!! However we werent heading to the resorts just yet..

After yesterday's amazing day of riding I could barely sleep. It was one of thoose nights you replay every run and every turn of the day back in your head, everything was so vivid... So when the alarm went off early this morning I was tired but knew we had one more crack at the nice bluebird weather hole. Bluebird means when the skies are blue and the birds - ie.. Helicopters are flying.. or atlest thats how I have always known it.

Travis Young