No Snow? No problem: SandBoard Shredding
By mid August, most (if not all) backcountry skiers and boarders have given up on their quest for any semblance of quality turns. The hike to alpine glaciers or remnants of past winter’s pow stashes are likely an arduous all day affair. Even if your locale provides the access or you have the stamina to make it happen the quality would likely be sub-par. Over time, the sun not only melts any remaining snow it also sun-cups the hell out of glacial and Névé snow so that it’s virtually un-skiable. Many of my friends who have skied ever month of the year do so with limited success and most of my mid-summer ski-safaris have had similar results.
On this weeks pilgrimage to the Summer Outdoor Retail Show (OR) in Salt Lake City I couldn’t help but make a pit stop at Bruneau Dunes, Idaho. Not only is this home to tallest single-structured sand dune in North America, but they also rent SandBoard for those willing to put in the work to climb the 470 feet to the top. Having never skied or shredded a sand dune before I couldn’t pass up this opportunity but also I didn’t have high hopes for how effective it would be at replicating the experience on snow. After-all, how can coarse dirty sand compare to the light and fluffy white stuff we have all come to love? We’ll, it can’t. But the experience of carving a turn sure is the same no matter the surface material.
After two laps shredding a smaller dune, I thought my balance and stance was dialled so it was time to amp things up a notch. After another lap with a full 360 front face-plant-roll I knew I was definitely ready, but the big dune would have to wait until morning as the mid day sun was cooking the sand which was cooking my feet (literally).
A 7:00am start had us on the 470 foot summit of the largest dune in the park relatively quickly and a after a wax of the board (which is mandatory) my 11 year old son and I were ready for the descent. Ten to fifteen big carving turns had my son giggling like a school girl and me smiling from ear to ear. Linked, carving turns in the middle of August, what could be better?
After the morning’s reprieve from the heat it was soon 33°C in what little shade we could find and we had to call our day of shredding complete.We’ll be back though, likely with rock skis in tow next time.
Turns out the endless winter can live on if you know where to look.
