The one and only HIMALAYAN BANKED SLALOM; Desert!

An Instagram from www.pirate-movie-production.com
perhaps Gulmarg will show up in their next Film!

 So here we were on day one, the qualifiers. A little icing on the cake was some overnight snow, which put 30cm of fresh over everything. Unfortunately the cloud was with us and the soupy visibility was going to make things a little tricky. We got up early to set the gates, put up safety fences, check timing equipment and generally just make sure all was good to go, before we let everyone out to devour the goodies. A few last minute additional competitors, in the form of the Nitro snowboard crew was a little bonus, Elias Elhardt, Marc Swoboda and Knut Eliasson had, with great timing, rolled into Gulmarg on the day before. We were already stoked with our registration numbers now we had some professionals competing  and Pirate crew filming as they competed! It really was a buzz to be a big part of this event. However, the visibility was not getting any better and the start was delayed while we waited for a weather window.

Local shredders waiting for their shot at the course

Course marshalling sucks in zero visibility! So does riding a course in crappy viz you have only seen once. Being totally powerless to do anything about the weather the qualifiers had to go ahead. The time was ebbing away and everything was postponed till after lunch. Standing around and getting cold before a competition is not a great idea. The juniors and the ladies had all had one run and a few men too. The idea was to give everyone two goes and then qualify the fastest times. This plan was waylaid for a much fairer decision of everyone qualifies and we’ll keep our fingers crossed for better weather on Sunday. Needless to say, the fastest time of the qualifiers was set by Elias Elhardt. However, a good show was put in by all and the general consensus was a job well done.

Day two: BLUEBIRD(-ish). A wee test run for me, just to make sure nobody had spoiled the course in yesterday’s white-out. Not one to hold back and my first real run at the course, which I’d poured a week of my life into, I didn’t really hold back. That’s possibly why Andy got a radio call, from me, shortly after asking him to advise all riders the course was a damn site faster than yesterday and that we had to reset the safety fence on the ‘Super-Pooper’! Nothing to do with the fact I came in too fast and lost it, wrapping myself in the orange webbing, which left me floundering like a net-caught fish. I was just thankful the first time I ever put up a safety net, it actually worked well enough to hold me. With the gates set, safety fences back in place and the timing equipment ready for a test, I got the honour of a second run, just to make sure the timing equipment was working, mind. Absolutely nothing to do with redemption and the need to see how I’d place if I was competing.

The finish line and a bunch of rowdy competitors

Run complete with no bails this time, we could let the competitors at it. I hung out down at the finish line, as I wanted the best view of the hardest part of the course. First the juniors went and it was clear the turns were a bit like trying to tackle a 28oz steak: a gargantuan effort. Massive props have to go out to these kids and all the Kashmiris that have learned to snowboard. Seeing how they’ve never been allowed to ride the beginner lifts and genuinely have to hike for all those early learning runs, it’s an absolute miracle any of them have bothered. So to see them participating in their first ever banked slalom was a privilege. Hopefully, we’ll be involved in making a few changes next year that can further their skills. But I digress from the meaty finals.

The format was changed slightly due to yesterday’s bad weather and the fact we still had 40+ competitors racing. Therefore, an executive call was made so that it was one run for everyone; fastest run wins. Miss a gate and get disqualified, you better show up next year because there were no second chances. (That luxury was only afforded to me!) Ladies next and they sure as hell went hard. The course was quick and so were they. Some of them hadn’t even managed a practice run the day before! The camaraderie at the finish line was awesome. Every time someone came into view there was a whoop and holler like it was their surprise party. All that was missing was cake and bubbly. A real celebration of the sport was happening right here in the Himalaya.

Last but not least the open men’s final was upon us. Everyone was amped and the day was turning out to be epic. The men certainly gave it their all. Some surprise DQs and some impressive times. The immense task of building and helping organize the event was paying off. It was a tasty wee number that everyone enjoyed. The men’s title was scooped by a Russian, so even out of Sochi they were still at the forefront of snowboard firsts! Of all the riders I watched come through the ‘Super-Pooper’ he had the best line, which was evident in his time. Faster even than the pros from the day before! Race over; it was time for a beer and a bit of prize giving. Being Kashmir, where they love a good award ceremony, the ceremony was more silver service, fine dining than the truck stop hoe-down we had envisaged. But hey that’s the way the cookie crumbles. (I promise I only have one more cheesy food/cooking reference to go!)

The hardest corner of the whole course.
This is where the winners were decided

Never the less, we didn’t hurt anyone, the competition ran smoothly and everyone had a good time. We successfully held the first ever Himalayan Banked Slalom. BOOM! With the Jammu and Kashmir Tourism department rather happy with all our efforts and a smattering of international press coverage; it’s all systems go for 2015. Stay tuned for a bigger, more exciting and, we’d like it to be, a snowboard company sponsored event, next winter. Guess that means it’s out of the frying pan and into the fire for us!

(I whole heartedly apologise for all the crappy food jokes in these past blogs. I thought it would be a good thing; write a recipe on how to cook up a blah, blah, blah. But it turned out to be a cringey joke fest interspersed with a story of the event. I learnt my lesson. Thanks for reading though x)

                                                                                                                                                       

We would like to thank all those that helped us turn this crazy idea into an awesome reality. Especially these two men; 
Omar Hajam, for his untiring pursuit of the people in positions of power in Gulmarg. His efforts really made this happen.
Tariq Bhat, thanks for helping fine tune the logistical side of things and helping get some sponsorship.
also
The Meadows Hotel in Gulmarg, this great new hotel came onboard with sponsorship and helped us get gates printed and donated the lunches for all competitors.

THE one and only HIMALAYAN BANKED SLALOM; The Main Course

Seems that writing a blog about building and hosting a Himalayan Banked Slalom takes longer than actually putting the event on! I was busy cooking up the perfect recipe for said event and was just about to jump into the meat of the dish. I reckon I’ve let the whole thing to cure for long enough now and should get back to it. Day one of the big dig was a sunny affair and Andy and I headed into our lovely roped off area to start work on turn one. We had a rough plan of where the course was going to go and there was nothing to it but to start digging. Having absolutely nae idea of how to dig a berm the first one took some time. We excavated way more snow than we needed to but the final result definitely looked like what we were trying to do. Part way through I started to calculate the time it was going to take to build the rest and by god it was going to be tight to get it all done in 5 days! Ever determined we moved onto the next one.

the start of first Gully and the start of the HBS course.

This was the south facing side of the course and the snow was part frozen blocks, part slushy mess. Not the ideal building conditions but we persevered, trying a different tact with the construction of this one. Like a good cook will experiment with different levels of flavour to enhance depth in a dish, we slapped snow here and there, scratched our heads and mused at our work. The second berm finished we were both feeling the burn from man handling the snow. But we had worked out it was much easier to try and shape the berm out of the bank, rather than digging a big pile of snow and shaping that. Ah the ‘eureka’ moment, which we hoped would make the whole process a bit easier. Totally beat after the mornings work, to our relief our great friend, Tariq, brought us lunch and more importantly a fresh pair of arms.

After our food we set back to it. Turn 3 was a great sweeper that dropped steeply away and I called it ‘YEE-HA’, due to the hollering it could potentially induce. Our slow-cooked first berm techniques were being honed into a more efficient methodology, not quite fast food standards but then who’d want to race something so uniform? We knew this year was going to be a bit rough and ready, possibly hard to digest in places, yet this didn’t dampen our spirits. We chapped on and got 3 all done. Back into the sunshine for turn 4 and our day was done. Tired and chuffed we’d got something resembling the beginnings of a banked slalom course. In absolutely no illusion did we think that it was going to get easier but we sure as hell enjoyed the first day’s celebratory beer.

Turn 7 at the end of day 2.

Day two brought more of the same; digging and shaping turns 5, 6 and 7. Our between the tree hole-shot of turn five is the perfect banner sponsorship spot and an epic one for pics. A sunny souther, turn six was a calm one before turn 7. Andy loved turn seven due to its natural high wall up-down cruisiness. I loved turn 7 because we hardly had to do anything to it to make it work! Again we could see the course coming along nicely and were constantly allowing ourselves little smiles of satisfaction. However, we knew the first half of the course was the easy part and we were now into the hardest section of the build. We’d cooked up a fine starter with plenty to get people’s attention. Problem was we had only a few days left and a really steep and somewhat dangerous section to try and turn into something palatable. The support we thought was coming didn’t and Andy had to give a talk that night promoting the event to everyone in town.

The next day was a struggle. The constant digging of two days and the ever increasing reality of what was left to do was fraying at my nerves. Andy, the ever outwardly calm one, was pleasant to me as I bitched and moaned and stressed. We had a really complicated section to prepare and the thought of it just being built with our four arms was daunting. We decided to shape up the top half of the course and make it good to go and allow us to rest. Even though we’d roped off the area we’d had a few people duck it and ride through. So on turn 4 when we saw some bodies come over the ridge we thought god-damn-balls-shit don’t ride over our berms! Then a few more heads appeared and we started to recognize some friendly faces. These weren’t yahoos trying to get some pow-pow, this was help! They say too many cooks spoil the broth; but when you apply that to digging huge quantities of snow, it’s the opposite. Turn 8 became an international affair. I think we had 9 different nationalities help build that corner and we’re truly indebted to them for coming to our aid.

Shaping turn 4 after HELP arrived, thanks to all who lent some muscle.

What had started out as a bleak undertaking became a fun venture with many hands and experience getting the linchpin turn in. With over ten people digging and shaping, it still took the best part of the day to get it finished. Had Andy and I been left alone that day, it’s doubtful to say just how that corner would’ve come out. Burnt, crispy and inedible is one way! So two days left and one more complex turn then it is bish-bash-bosh and the course should be finished. Turn 8 was going to be burly. Like sitting down to a giant ice cream and fighting through the cold pain headache to finish it in one go. Thankful for the help the day before we knew that this corner was probably best left to just the two of us.

 

The complications of trying to balance the following issues; not hurting anyone, making the turn suitable for most skill levels and still super fun, were massive. And we also have to factor in the near vertical section we’re trying to build it on. An hour or so of watching the snow roll down the hill we decided that starting at the bottom was probably a better idea! We managed to get it connected and round the tree in a way that was a little less than sketchy. I mentioned to Andy that most people are going to shit themselves, coming through this one and a little while later the ‘Super-Pooper’ was named. Some more friends came down that afternoon and helped us sure up the turn and make it a little safer. This one was definitely getting a safety fence. One more day of digging left and we had a few more corners to go. We finally had the use of the pisten bully to build the start ramp and help conclude course construction.

Friday was a big day. We had to finish the course and hold registration. Let’s call it desert and menu setting. But we have a big machine to help so hey it should be easy. Hmmmmm……how to put it? The cat certainly can move snow. Lots of it, in vast quantities, which sets like stone and becomes a really doozy to shape with our little shovels! Knowing that time was no longer on our side we had to cut the course a few turns shorter than we’d hoped. On the one hand we had no choice. On the other, if the competition is a success, we already know we can make it longer in 2015! So having not even run the course from top to bottom, we were off to register all the crazy people that wanted to be a part of the first ever Himalayan Banked Slalom. Again, thanks to the support and help of some more wonderful people, while Andy and I had been building the registration was all set up and we just had to show our faces and help out if required.

It’s a little daunting, having put so much time and effort into the preparation that perhaps, just perhaps nobody will give a monkeys and even bother to register. There was no need to doubt as we knew we’d at least have some locals enter the competition. It was the main reason behind this whole event. Give the local snowboarders a competition all of their own. No more racing a skier set course on a snowboard. A real opportunity to show the big wigs of Gulmarg that snowboarding is as big a sport as skiing. So when we closed registration and had 45 competitors, with almost 50% of them Kashmiris, we knew all the hard work was worth it. All we had to do now was host the event. So proof of the pudding is always in the eating and that’s what we had to do now. But I think I’ll leave you to stew a little longer for that one (definitely not as long as last time, I promise).