Charlie gets ready to drop the Meatball in the Sandwich Zone.

Words and photos by Mike Thomas

To celebrate the launch of 2010, Charlie Hoch and I headed out to Silverton Mountain for a few runs and ended up getting on the helicopter for a heli lap. After all, we both figured there wasn’t a much better way to start the New Year than with a heli drop. We went into the Sandwich Zone to ride Meatball, a steep, rocky couloir that emptied out into a beautiful apron. The sometimes-sketchy entrance to the couloir was all blown in, offering soft, relatively deep turns even as I entered — the fifth and final rider to go down the choke. The following turns in the apron were even better and we definitely got our money’s worth and then some as the New Year was off to a pretty good start.

Carving fresh pow heli lap style.

The helicopter idling in Velocity Basin.

Slashing some pow in the trees at Silverton Mountain.

Not realizing Silverton was about to get another eight inches of snow in a microburst storm that hit later that night, we ventured to Taos early Saturday morning to help out Gags and the Never Summer Crew work a demo at Taos. Wait, you may be thinking, “Never Summer doing a demo at Taos, that can’t be right…” But, don’t forget, this New Mexico gem is now accessible to snowboarders, and it couldn’t have come sooner; the terrain there is insane. Sustained steep pitches, chutes and cliff bands everywhere with some of the biggest moguls you will ever see (which the local skiers are very proud to lay claim to) make Taos an expert rider’s wet dream on a pow day. Add a super friendly and relaxed mountain staff across the board and one of the most welcoming ski area atmospheres and the result is one of the best mountains I have ever experienced.

Charlie at work in Taos at the Never Summer demo.

Charlie rocking a tail grab on his homemade wall ride in the woods...

After shredding and hanging out with the Never Summer crew at Taos, we headed out of the Land of Enchantment and back to Colorado to head to Charlie’s family’s house to hit and shoot some photos of a homemade wall ride and logslide. After the session in the woods, we headed up to the summit of Wolf Creek Pass to ride some fresh snow and hit a cliff Charlie had in mind. He went big off the shelf with a frontside 360 indy and then we rode out to the highway with just barely enough light left for us to see where we were going. Riding snow until the very end, now that is my idea of a good weekend.

…and then 5-0’s the logslide.

Going big on a 360 in the Wolf Creek backcountry.