Mammoth with the Monster Crew
Every year Monster Energy throws a park shoot for their ski team in the spring, and this year I was priveledged enough to get an invite. The spring shoot happened the last week in March up at beautiful Mammoth Mountain California.
After landing in Mammoth
Right after I got into Mammoth I went to the hotel and met up with the some of the crew which consisted of Spencer Milbocker, Colby James West, Peter Olenick, James Woods, Jossi Wells, Henrik Harlaut, Ian Cosco, and Davey Smidt. After hanging out a bit we all went back to our rooms and settled in for the night. The next day we woke up to a few inches of fresh and so we decided to go ski for a few hours. Afterwards a group of us choose to go out to one of the natural hot springs in the area. This was the first time I had ever been in hot springs and it was was amazing.
The next day our shoot officially started off with a fun couple hours of lapping the Mammoth park and then heading over to South Park to hit a double quarterpipe feature. Meeting up with us this day was Devin Logan, Luggi Brucic, and Tom Wallisch.
Hanging out before starting the session
This was by far the coolest feature I've ever gotten a chance to hit. Just the feeling of hitting it and landing on the other quarterpipe going the opposite direction was such a fun and cool feeling. With filmers Harrison Cole, Josh Turner, Todd Schlopy, Josh Finbow, and Josh Berman on hand to film the shoot the whole week. The guys started to go after it and get crazy on this fun feature. After hitting the feature for a bit everyone decided to take a little break, and come back that evening. While everyone was enjoying a little break I was able to go check out the "Hole in the Wall" off the backside of Mammoth thanks to Todd Kupke and Robb Hewett.
After skiing through the hole we shuttled back to the other side of Mammoth and met back up with the rest of the crew in South Park. We got to hit the double quarter pipe feature till the sun went down with the whole crew going crazy on this feature and was so crazy to witness. When the session got over we all headed back to the hotel to chill and relax. On day two we got up early to hit the big jump that Mammoth set up for us! A big 70-80 foot step down that ended up to be a ton of fun!
Took a little bit to get the session rolling, but once it started we didn't stop for awhile. A few fun hours of sessioning then we took a little pizza break before hitting the rail feature right next to the jump.
Some crazy things happened on this feature with Jossi doing what he does best, and Henrik getting creative with transitions, and Spencer sending it deep. After we got done sessioning the rail, it was time to head over to the pipe and take some fun laps.
This was probably the most I've hit the pipe all year and I had a blast trying to learn new tricks and get more comfortable with half pipes in general. Still a very weird feeling to actually ride pipe, but it's something I would like to get much better and comfortable at. Pretty cool to see some of the pipe guys ride and see how high they were boosting. Sadly the final day of the shoot was filled with high winds and the mountain closed for the day, but we still found ways to have fun, from hitting up the pool, to filming some fun things for edits. Really looking forward to seeing the edit from this along with some of the footage that will be in movies this fall for segments, and the photos Nate Abbott took.
This trip was so much fun and I'm very grateful to Davey for inviting me out so I could ski with the team. Had a great time getting to know a bunch of the Monster crew, hearing a bunch of funny stories from Colby, and just hanging out with everyone. This was definitely a highlight of my season, and I cannot wait for the next time I get to ski and hangout with those guys again.
Noah