Marketing and advertising coordinator Matt Wibby and I drove down to Mt Hood to check out Burton’s major West Coast throw down. With the new issue about to go to print, Editor Jeff Galbraith flew in a day later. On the drive down, two girls started writing messages on a notepad, trying to find out where we were going. Matt held his snowboard against the window and they responded with the message: “Come to Cali with us”. Unfortunately, they didn’t flash us. Friday night we saw Mammoth home boys Retard Riot and sat in the corner drinking till 3am. The next afternoon, we arrived at the Quarter Pipe just in time to see Pat Moore throw down a huge 25 foot air. WOW… A contingent decided it would be fun to jump into the 40 foot transition using the pads from the deck and do the drop-in luge: Potential new XGames event Jeff arrived and we went for some dinner and brews at the Mt. Hood Brewery before heading over to the Burton party and some midsummer bro-downs with Snowboarder and TWS staff, Burtonites, wayward coaches, randoms and spun-out athletes. Insisting we get a (comparatively) good night’s sleep, Galbraith issued our departure around 1 am and we bounced. Sunday’s contest was at the halfpipe. I lost track of Wibby in the masses, and Jeff was seen roaming the deck and mingling with guests. Hands were shook and I shot contest photos. The riders performed incredibly with the Japanese contingent of Takaharu Nakai and Kazuhiro Kokubo, especially killing it with gigantic airs. Jeff blazed back to B-ham, and Matt and I went headed back out for drinks and the ThinkThank premier. Monday morning was kinda cloudy, and Matt had way too much work to do, so we bounced. We stopped in Olympia for a quick pit stop, visiting the lawn of the State Capitol building and saying hello to a friend of mine. We had lunch at a taco truck, and chatted about the World Cup and the state of the taco truck industry with the owner. A solid weekend of Abominable level snowfun. For more information on the event, visit the ASJ website: Burton’s Abominable Snow Jam The Results WOMEN’S QUARTERPIPE RESULTS 1st – Molly Aguirre – $5,000 2nd – Elena Hight 3rd – Alexis Waite 4th – Meg Pugh 5th – Hana Beaman HIGHEST AIR – Elena Hight – 12 Feet – Ski Doo Freestyle Snowmobile BEST TRICK – Alexis Waite – McTwist – Rolex MEN’S QUARTERPIPE RESULTS 1st – Nicolas Mueller – $10,000 2nd – Chad Otterstrom 3rd – Scotty Lago 4th – Steve Fisher 5th – Kevin Pearce HIGHEST AIR – Pat Moore – 25 feet – Ski Doo Freestyle Snowmobile BEST TRICK – Nicolas Mueller – Chickenwing McTwist – Rolex MEN’S HALFPIPE RESULTS 1st – Takaharu Nakai – $10,000 2nd – Kazuhiro Kokubo – $5,000 3rd – Danny Kass – $2,500 4th – Chad Otterstrom – $1,500 5th – Steve Fisher – $1,000 6th – Scotty Lago – $500 7th – Danny Davis – $250 BEST TRICK – Takaharu Nakai – McTwist – MacBook Pro WOMEN’S HALFPIPE RESULTS 1st – Elena Hight – $5,000 2nd – Mercedes Nicoll – $2,500 3rd – Jamie Anderson – $1,250 4th – Junko Asazuma – $625 BEST TRICK – Elena Hight – FS900 Melon – MacBook Pro MEN’S SLOPESTYLE RESULTS 2006 1st – Jussi Oksanen – $10,000 2nd – Danny Davis – $5,000 3rd – Danny Kass – $2,500 4th – Andreas Wiig – $1,500 5th – Wyatt Caldwell – $1,000 6th – Chad Otterstrom – $500 7th – Lane Knaack – $250 BEST TRICK – Andreas Wiig – Switch Backside 900 – Sony HDV Camcorder WOMEN’S SLOPESTYLE RESULTS 2006 1st – Jamie Anderson – $5,000 2nd – Chanelle Sladics – $1,200 3rd – Natasza Zurek – $675 4th – Marie France Roy – $300 BEST TRICK – Silvia Mittermuller – Backside 720 Nosegrab – Sony HDV Camcorder VOLVO OVERALL RIDER AWARD A brand new 2007 Volvo C70 was awarded to Elena Hight with the best overall performance this weekend. HARLEY-DAVIDSON MOST INSPIRED RIDER AWARD An 883 Harley-Davidson Sportster was given to: Men’s Winner: Danny Kass Women’s Winner: Jamie Anderson The awards were given to the riders who displayed the highest degree of unique and stylish riding and who best embody the spirit of Harley-Davidson through innovation, creativity, and style in their riding.