The spring tradition of watching snowboarders slide the set-up in the Village at Mammoth’s West Coast Invitational rail jam has gotten to be a really good show.

I love that art finds its way into the festivities, with the Still Life with Snow in ‘09 and the I am Snowboarding exhibit this year.

And thankfully local artist Traci Hartless is here, or else the winners wouldn’t get  their big 10-grand prize handed over in a custom money box.

“[In 2007] Heather worked for Unbound and she suggested that I could make something cool to give out the money in instead of a boring old briefcase,” said Traci. “Oren liked them and has asked me to keep doing them every year.”

“My first year was on Cinco de Mayo and it was a box that I painted Day of the Dead.”
Jonas Michilot, 2007

Chaz Guldemond, winner 2008

Dan Brisse, 2009

“They keep getting more and more difficult. But I like doing it. Pretty fun, but definitely stressful.”
Ryan Paul, 2010

Everyone loves ’80s vintage ski wear. Finding it is the hard part… unless you live here

L.A. Times’ Adam Tschorn recently interviewed Hot Tub Time Machine costume designer Dayna Pink, who brought Winterfest 1986 to life on screen:
Was it difficult to source ‘80s wear?
Since it was a period piece, we couldn’t ask extras to just show up in their own clothes. We had to find wardrobe and do fittings for 3,500 people.
Where do you go to find 3,500 outfits from 1986?
The Paper Bag Princess [on Olympic Boulevard], and Meow in Long Beach were really good. But we ended up hitting every Salvation Army and every vintage store we could find since most places would only have five or 10 ‘80s pieces tops.
What was your favorite wardrobe piece in the whole movie?
You could barely see it in the movie at all, but the woman who ends up with Nick in the hot tub, the jacket she wore into the bar had these two unicorns, one on each shoulder, with the mane running down each sleeve. It was just absurd. ...read the whole interview.

Nothing beats a ski town thrift store
For how small our populations are, our thrift stores are equally as good as those in L.A. because of all the coming and going, rich residents (and perhaps a couple of professional snowboarders) busting with stuff and ski fashions being the fabulous statement-makers that they are. Recently in Sun Valley I shopped the Gold Mine (supports the library) just when they put out their spring line – yes, they have a spring line – complete with classy straw sunhats, deck chairs and an entire wall of men’s cowboy boots in super good condition (one time I wished I was a boy!). In Mammoth there are two thrift stores now, and I can almost guarantee they will get better in the coming months as second-homeowners do their spring cleaning. My most recent purchases at Second Chance (proceeds go to Disabled Sports Eastern Sierra) were a Polaroid i-zone camera for a quarter and gold clip-on earrings to wear to the De La Soul concert here in February.

Dave McCoy, 94, who founded Mammoth Mountain, has recently taken up photography. “This is a phase in a lifetime of dreams,” he said last month to a room full of Mammoth loyalists, many whom worked for him for decades.

Not only has he picked up a new passion in his ninth decade (check out DaveMcCoyPhoto.com), but on a recent Saturday night, while Oren Tanzer’s crew was building a massive slopestyle course for the Roxy Chicken Jam in approximately the same spot of snow that Dave built the first Mammoth chairlift, the legendary mountain man spoke some motivational words: “If you have a dream, don’t you think of not doing it.” Simple and real, and I was floored.

Photo: Dave McCoy explores the Eastern Sierra in a Rhino and takes pictures of Bighorn sheep and beautiful vistas. This pic appeared in Inc. magazine in 2008.

The best things in life are free! Like this Todd Richards interview with Torah Bright.

I haven’t really loved much about Olympics media coverage (for example, Christine Brennan talking about snowboarding being “just for ratings” and Larry King questioning Shaun White about Scotty Lago’s TMZ pics – bleh and bleh), but this little tidbit made me smile a thousand times. Thanks, NBC, for your five minutes on Kevin Pearce.

It’s 7am on a Wednesday in February in Mammoth. My condo is cold, I just got some coffee going and my next project will be starting a fire. There’s a loud hum outside – a snowblower clearing pathways for people to get out their front doors. I peek at him through my window. He’s so bundled up, it must be cold out there. From my kitchen window I can kinda see my car. It’s a lump of snow ten feet high with little sideview mirrors sticking out, like a gigantor polar bear with tiny insect ears. The snow is knee-deep out there. Not too deep to ride on the mountain. Snow insulates everything. It’s going to be a quiet day wherever you are. There goes the wind, picking up bits of snow and tossing it through my parking lot. It would be nice to leave the house today. An adventure. Will it be too windy to ride? The moment of truth will come as the sun rises and the sky shows its blueness. Or not. It will take at least 45 minutes of shoveling to dig out my car and take it anywhere. I have a library book due – yesterday actually – maybe I will snowshoe over there. I remember the days when I worked in the marketing department on the fourth floor of Mammoth’s main lodge. If you didn’t show up to work at 8am on days like this, you were nothing but bad excuses. Everyone figures out how to get to work. Snow is life here. You wake up extra early to dig out, catch the bus or hitchhike with your neighbor who works in security. But now that I work from home I’m stoked. Got my hot coffee, my picture window, my laptop and my snowboard ready. Life’s good.

Fave read of the month: Snowboarder Mag’s girly feature

Finally. Snowboarder Magazine’s “We Should Be Sluts,” an interview with Marie-France Roy and Annie Boulanger, is the profile on female snowboarders I’ve been waiting for.

The two friends talk like a lot of girls I know: about liking pink, being scared and thinking boys were “so hot” when they first got into snowboarding and not wanting to slow boys down – almost like the over-the-stall conversations I’ve had in the tiny Whiskey Creek bathroom early season nights in Mammoth – but better, because Marie and Annie are better snowboarders, ride in Whistler, and are better snowboarders – I know, I already said that. It was worth repeating.

“We Should Be Sluts” is in the January 2010 Superpark issue.

Related stuff: Videos with Annie Boulanger and Marie-France Roy interviews on Push.ca.

Because life is too exciting in mid-December to get work done.

Tis the season of snowboarding and wasting time thinking about snowboarding. Who can focus on anything else during the holidays when there’s tinsel and snow flying in the air? (both simultaneously at my house, actually).

Nothing could possibly go better with milk ‘n cookies and contest season better than the videos being served up regularly on FrendsVision.com right now.

Titles like The Real Totinos Commercial, Danny Davis is Jamaican? and Louie Vito can snowboard better than he can dance! for cozy nights by the fire – thanks Frends!

Writing about floatiness and speediness requires more patience and attention to detail than you’d think, yea yea.

While Steve K. explained to me why testing snowboards is not just another day in the park, it’s still glaringly obvious: his job rules.

Steve Krcmar, tester of snowboards, how hard is it, really?

“I demo everything I write about. I got most of the boards last winter and put five to ten days on each, but a lot of days I tested more than one to see how they performed in similar conditions.” He gets the boards on loan.

Read Steve’s recent reviews on MensJournal.com and GearJunkie.com.

I’m not the only Mammoth resident preoccupied with climbing rocks

One of the best things about early-season, pre-big winter in the mountains is that snow doesn’t consume everything yet, leaving room for other outdoor fixations. So many people have been talking about climbing this fall that snow feels like an afterthought. Has Lonnie Kauk single-handedly made rock climbing the coolest other sport for snowboarders? Or is it that more are discovering what a good complement it is to shredding – “it’s like yoga, but more fun,” as Big L says.

Never without my Nikon D40, I followed some guys on a recent Tuesday into the Owens River Gorge. The result was some fun pics that ended up on Chris Benchetler’s blog, CTBBloggin, providing another glimpse into the mind of the climbing-obsessed snow athlete. Chris’ blog is always full of good outdoorsy updates. But as much fun as climbing is, I’m hopin his next post is about massive Mammoth snow.