Sending It At The Sennheiser Bralorne Backcountry Picnic

Sending It At The Sennheiser Bralorne Backcountry Picnic - Natalie Langmann's Features - push.ca
13-02-02 12:26 PM
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Sending It At The Sennheiser Bralorne
Backcountry Picnic
Posted On Apr 09 2012, 03:19 PM by Natalie Langmann
There are many points that sum up the Sennheiser Bralorne Backcountry Picnic: an
underground event sponsored by a music, microphone and headphone company; a
helicopter just hanging out for emergencies while boarders, like ant colonies, attacking the
neighbouring hills; Whistler/Blackcomb Pro Patrollers on stand-by; more dudes in a zone
than the Brandywine parking lot on a busy weekend; enough lines to go around for
everyone; nailing those lines; reggae man Jah Cutta raising the roof of the Mineshaft, the
local watering hole; dancing in the Mineshaft in your snowboard pants without showering for
three days; sledding from the doorsteps of one of the 100 candy-coloured cabins or from
the hotel; riding/sledding until nightfall. But beyond all this awesomeness, just where and
what is this Bralorne place to begin with?
The 'scene' at the Sennheiser Bralorne Backcountry Picnic. Hogue photo.
Bralorne is about an hour bumpy sled ride north of Pemberton and has the heart and soul of
a quintessential mountain town, minus the hubbub, glitz and glam of a typical ski resort and
the chair-accessable peaks. You either hike, heli, sled, or splitboard, and there are lines to
be had for days in the ranges surrounding this once-thriving ore-mining town, but the locals,
well, they like to keep all these secrets to themselves. I'll never forget the first time I wrote
about Bralorne: it wasn't because it was the first article I had ever had published in Canada
(a SBC article with Shin and Shandy Campos, Al Clark, Mike Wilson, Mike Turner, Jon
Cartwright some eight-years ago), nor that I had a vested interest in the area (owning an
80-year-old haunted cabin since 2002), but the fact that I went around to every person in
town (about 40), knocking on their front doors, and asked them if it would be OK to promote
the town through the eyes of a snowboarder. "As long as we don't look like a bunch of
kooks," they told me.
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Sending It At The Sennheiser Bralorne Backcountry Picnic - Natalie Langmann's Features - push.ca
13-02-02 12:26 PM
Andrew Geeves. Hogue photo.
Next I went to Sean Kearns, since he and Devun Walsh owned part of the bar and hotel
back at the turn of the century, and had done serious hard time sledding every single zone
with these ranges with his buddy Orion living in east-side Goldbridge during the ‘99 season.
"Will I get my house torched?" I asked. Would I wake up to my sled engine lying in pieces in
bed next to me like that horses head in The Godfather? Kearns looked me right in the eyes
and said, "You can promote the shit out of Bralorne, but it will change nothing; the masses
will never come. People will make excuses like, ‘It's too far', ‘I have no money', ‘There is
nothing to do there' - getting people out of their comfort zone is next to impossible." And
with those words in mind, I broke the silence in Bralorne, BC.
Despite a growing interest, Kearns' words rang true: not many came. Years passed, Johan
Olaffson went back to Sweden, Al Clark moved on to Revelstoke, and Andrew Geeves picked
up where the OGs left off, pumping out web edits under the moniker of Bralorne Livin'. But
no matter how many web hits Geeves garnered, and no matter how much hype was
generated, Geeves felt the seclusion. I guess convincing your buddies to come and spend a
greater part of their season in a town where cell service is obsolete is not a seller while the
rest of the North American shred-scene migrates north to shoot the same Whistler and
Pemberton jumps that have been shot a zillion times before.
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Sending It At The Sennheiser Bralorne Backcountry Picnic - Natalie Langmann's Features - push.ca
13-02-02 12:26 PM
Joel Loverin. Hogue photo.
That was until recently when a long-time Bralorne home owner who had skied more lines in
the area than most, Free Spirit Quinn, a master of the ‘making-something-out-of-nothing'
school of thought, came up with the Sennheiser Backcountry Picnic: invite a bunch of
like-minded snowboarders (Jake and Josh Bauer, Andrew Geeves, Warren Williams, Wiley
Tesseo, Nev Lapwood, Braden Dean, Gord Emery, Tobin Faraday, Joel Loverin, Travis
Williams (filming), just to name a few), skiers, splitboarders, noboarders, sledders, telemarkers, whatever-gets-you-stoked-in-the-mountains-ers, bring everyone to a zone that
has the lines, showcase the spots to build booters, ride the pow, drop some massive cliffs, all
while having a heli and pro patrollers on standby. Play some tunes, set up a tent, give free
lunch for the participants, and book some solid musicians to play the bar at night. The
concept was to show people the spots and the lines where they can ride while not giving
away any of the secret zones, and in turn, everyone films a video part that will be aired and
judged on the Sennheiser Backcountry Picnic website with the winner(s) announced on April
16th, 2012. (There's still time to vote, so go do it)
(keep reading for more from the inaugural backcountry picnic)
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Natalie Langmann's Features
Natalie Langmann rolled into Whistler in the early nineties with a bottle of Old
English in one hand and a desire to document snowboarding’s ever-evolving,
haphazard and hectic lifestyles in the other. Almost two decades later, having
ripped pow from Terrace, BC, to Chamonix, France, she splits her time between
Pemberton and her snowmobile-accessible-only cabin in Bralorne, BC.
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Sending It At The Sennheiser Bralorne Backcountry Picnic - Natalie Langmann's Features - push.ca
13-02-02 12:27 PM
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SKATE SNOW
VIDEO PHOTO NEWS FEATURES BLOGS FORUMS POLLS FIND A RESORT
Sending It At The Sennheiser Bralorne
Backcountry Picnic
Posted On Apr 09 2012, 03:19 PM by Natalie Langmann
Wiley Tesseo, Andrew Geeves and Joel Loverin's video:
"It's like the wild west out here," explained Jake Bauer, while eyeing up the never-ending
ranges stretching up through the Pacific coastline, "except we have sleds instead of horses
and there's probably even less women. Usually there isn't much camaraderie and socializing
in the backcountry, everyone is on their own program; but with the Backcountry Picnic it
brings people together from all sorts of crews." Unfortunately for Jake, he dropped a cliff and
put his knee to his face, which cut his trip short and had him sledding out for an hour over
the Hurley logging road to get stitches in Pemberton.
"They were definitely looking for the wrong gold in the right place," said Gord Emery, when
asked what he thought of Bralorne. "These mountains are filled with so many shreddable
lines and cliffs that I'm almost positive the two zones (the Noel and the Not Noel) that we
went to had more rideable features than I've ever seen in one spot."
Like most riders, this was Warren Williams' first time in Bralorne, but he knows he will be
back, especially to do this contest again next year. "In my experience sledding in the
Whistler area," says Williams, "I have never seen a sled zone get killed so hard in such a
short period of time - it must have seen 100 lines in two hours. It was like almost like
standing in the Peak line (on Whistler Mountain) after a big dump."
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Sending It At The Sennheiser Bralorne Backcountry Picnic - Natalie Langmann's Features - push.ca
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Tobin Faraday's line. Langmann photo.
Tobin Faraday dropped a massive cliff, enough to send event-organizer Free off the deep
end. "I was a bit nerve racked getting in there and having someone [Free] yelling at me
didn't help the situation," says Faraday, explaining that Free got upset when he took his
board off to scope his landing after he had side-slipped through rock-gnar to get on top of
the shelf above the 60-foot cliff. "You can stare at something forever from the bottom, and
it still looks different from the top. Once you're there you can't turn back; I just needed a bit
of direction, that's all. Free would have traded places with me; I'm sure of that," says
Faraday, "I'm pretty sure the stress of feeling responsible for all those people finally caught
up to him - props to him for pulling off what many consider a flawless event that will no
doubt happen again. This was the best weekend of the year hands down."
Andrew Geeves' line. Langmann photo.
Andrew Geeves had been scoping another line off the same rock face as Faraday and
stepped up after Free had peaced out of the Noel. Geeves scraped down through the rocks
and busted off the steep side of the face - he went so huge you could hear his stomp for
miles around. "The Backcountry Picnic is the best time I've ever had in Bralorne," said
Geeves, "and this means something because I used to live here." Enthusiastically, while
sucking back on a local's wineskin filled with Fireball, he adds, "This is the best contest I
have ever done, and it will probably be the only contest I will ever do again. I can't wait for
next year."
Find out more about the Sennheiser Backcountry Picnic as well as vote for your favourite
video at sennheiserbackcountrypicnic.com.
Free Spirit Quinn and Paget Williams (Reel Events) would like to thank Jean Langlais and all
of Sennheiser Canada, Red, If3.com, Anon, Canadian Ski Patrol, Blackcomb Aviation, Reel
Events & Management, Union Label Group, the Mineshaft Pub and all the people that came
out and made the inaugural Sennheiser Backcountry Picnic a success.
--------------------------Related:
Andrew Geeves: Bye Bye, Bralorne
Andrew Geeves Leaves Whistler
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Sending It At The Sennheiser Bralorne Backcountry Picnic - Natalie Langmann's Features - push.ca
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13-02-02 12:27 PM
46 people like this.
Feature archive
Natalie Langmann's Features
Natalie Langmann rolled into Whistler in the early nineties with a bottle of Old
English in one hand and a desire to document snowboarding’s ever-evolving,
haphazard and hectic lifestyles in the other. Almost two decades later, having
ripped pow from Terrace, BC, to Chamonix, France, she splits her time between
Pemberton and her snowmobile-accessible-only cabin in Bralorne, BC.
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