WINTER 2011-2012 CALENDAR

DECEMBER 2011
10th - Reel Big Fish Boulder, CO
11th - Reel Big Fish Salt Lake City, UT
14th - NFM registration opens

JANUARY 2012
19-22nd NFM Snowbird-Cancelled
14th - ORANGE EXTREME Riders Meeting
24-26th COLORADIKAL BBQ Shredfest, Rocky Mtns
26-29th SIA Snow Show Denver


FEBRUARY 2012
11-19th REEL BIG FISH Europe
15th REEL BIG FISH Lucerna Music Bar, Prague
14-17th NFM Crystal Mountain
17-19th CO Freeride Championships Snowmass


MARCH 2012
1-3rd Freeride Taos
1-4th NFM Kirkwood
8-12th Tailgate BC


APRIL 2012 
1-12th Tailgate Alaska

The North Face Masters of Snowboarding 2012 Schedule Released

Hey Rippers! I hope y'all are doing squats cuz it snowed a foot in Aspen and the hills are turning my favorite colors....ORANGE and WHITE!

5th Annual NFM Tour Dates:
January 19-22nd SNOWBIRD, UT
February 14-17th CRYSTAL MOUNTAIN, WA
March 1-4th KIRKWOOD, CA

TAILGATE ALASKA Rocks the Planet!

Alaska Rendezvous Heli Guides

Tailgate Alaska 2011 and the King of the Hill World Freeride Championships brought over 500 people up to Thompson Pass in Valdez, Alaska for BIG, AWESOME FUN. Does winter camping in tents, RVs, and igloos with helicopters buzzing overhead sound rad? Heli-yeah!

This incredible gathering of international athletes, founded by Mark Sullivan and Nick Perata, is the best big mountain snowboarding event in the world.

The ORANGE EXTREME Big Mountain Snowboard Team arrived at the pass on March 30th, 2011. What followed was two weeks of high-poppin' snowboard action, culminating in the King of the Hill World Freeride Championships. Our team riders finished with impressive results (see below), and welcomed two new riders to the team. It is my great pleasure to officially welcome Kenny Jones from Girdwood, Alaska and Steve Klassen from Mammoth, California to Orange Extreme.

Orange Extreme Team: Tyler Dewitt, Onna Konicek, Kenny Jones, Kaelin Bamford, Casey Vandenbroek, Steve Klassen & Dave Watson (with special guest Casey Lucas down in front)

2011 KING OF THE HILL

WORLD FREERIDING CHAMPIONSHIPS RESULTS:

Women's Snowboarding

1. Holly Enderle

2. Iris Lazzareschi

3. Rachel Sheidow

4. Casey Lucas

5. Sunny Prather

6. Hana Beaman

7. Vera Janssen

8. Onna Konicek

9. Callan Chythlook-Sifsof

10. Mary Fenton

Men's Snowboarding

1. Will Brommelsiek

2. Ross Baker

3. Scott Sheer

4. Brandon Reid

5. Jeremy Thompson

6. Rob Kingwell

7. Mike Basich

8. Nakagawa Shinya

9. Josh Warnick

10. Tim Gallagher

11. Kenny Jones

12. Aaron Robinson

13. Tyler Dewitt

14. Jacob Focht

15. Greg Sperry

16. Nico Demetrio

17. Casey Vandenbroek

18. Steve Klassen

19. Donny Mills

20. Paul Henderson

21. Dave Watson

22. Rydor McCune

23. Micah Hoogeveen

24. Chase Madison

25. Travis Elquist

26. Kaelin Bamford

27. Eric Morrison

28. Jesse Fryer

29. Dennis Nazzari

30. Sebastian

Hale, Watson, Mark Sullivan, - King of the Hill- Will Brommelsiek, & Dave Geis

CONGRATULATIONS everyone on a safe and successful competition. It was off the chain. A big thank you to Nick Perata, Mark Sullivan, Dave Geis and the rest of the Tailgate Crew for making it happen!

Watson, Onna, Nico Demetrio, Casey, Nick Perata, Tyler Dewitt, & Kaelin Bamford @ Pipeline

VALDEZ: ORANGE EXTREME TEAM heads to TAILGATE ALASKA

Stoked to report that the whole team is launching our first annual mission to TAILGATE ALASKA and to compete in the KING OF THE HILL.
Kaelin Bamford, Dave Watson, Onna Konicek, Casey Vandenbroek and photographer Brady Curry in the house. Watson, who is also sponsored by Venture Snowboards from Silverton, CO, will have the Venture snowboard demo set. Stop by our RV and try next year's STORM or a splitboard.

Onna Konicek at COLORADIKAL

Colorado Freeride Championships 2011

Come shred Snowmass for Colorado's big mountain freeride event! The Aspen Ripper Factory is in effect. We are all psyched to see locals Kaelin Bamford, Casey Vanderbroek and Dave Watson lay down some bold moves. Aspen skiers are also well-represented by Jay Brown, Jonathan Mika and Brian Anzini. Our judges this year include Chris Tatsuno, Kiffor Berg, Anders Gustafson and Riley Gessele. Sick!

Coloradikal Freeride 2011

COLORADIKAL

After much conscientious planning and coordination by Tyler Dewitt and Dave Watson, the COLORADIKAL freeride project became a reality with the first annual backcountry BBQ shred session. Close to 40 ripping riders brought eight snowmobiles, a BBQ, ropes, harnesses, three photographers and a dog into an undisclosed backcountry location. What went down was the sickest shredfest of 2011! This hallmark event was the first of its kind. Check out photos and video at www.snowboardfreeridetour.com

Backcountry Fun

Today was amazing! Bluebird with 20 inches of untracked snow - add that to the Shred-O-Meter! The crew: Dave Watson, Red, Angus, Shane, myself and our fabulous photographer, Jordan Curet. A great group of riders and stellar conditions made for a glorious day in the backcountry. The boys got into the cliffs and sessioned some gnar. I was impressed.

We advise caution in the central Colorado backcountry. The avalanche danger in the Aspen area is CONSIDERABLE on all aspects near and above treeline. We all had the appropriate avalanche safety equipment including beacons, probes, shovels and an Avalung or two. Big Red set off a moderate-sized slough on a South facing slope. The upper few inches were quick to break away, but the slabs were shallow and slow moving. We encountered signs of significant wind loading. Today was safe, fun, with freshies and great photos for all.

Aspen Powder Day...we topped US charts!

An old-fashioned Rocky Mountain Blizzard brought FIFTEEN inches of champagne powder to Aspen and Snowmass, with areas of 20-24". The Dumps, the Wall, and Rock Island are just a few spots with blower conditions. I bombed down Cone this morning and looked back to watch Jordan and Travis get face shots all the way down. The season is off to an amazing start with us logging plenty of pow days to get to the 100 foot goal again this season- that's 1200 inches of untracked powder. Look for our snow depth meter to be posted soon.