After the Aspen Open I left Colorado and headed out to California with buddies Robby Franco and Kyle Delong. Making sure Robby’s car was jam packed we headed out from Silverthorne and began our journey.

This was my first road trip of the ski season, and I must say we did make the most of it. Our first stop was to Park City Utah to break the drive up a little, and to of course ski Park City a bit.

We ended up staying with our good friend Jess Sharp and fell asleep almost as soon as we arrived. After waking up and saying thank you we headed out to Einstein’s bagels to meet up with another good friend of mine Devin Logan. Then after getting everything figured out at Park City we went off to have a fun few hours of shredding before heading out on the road again. 

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We started our drive again and it felt like we didn’t make a single turn till we got to Nevada. We kept on driving the rest of the day until we reached Reno where we decided to stay with a couple of Robby’s friends and hang out for the day before going to his house. This turned out to be a pretty fun day of getting to check out the Moment factory headquarters. Then heading to walk around the University of Nevada campus a little.

 After leaving Reno we decided to go up to Woodward at Tahoe and jump on the Trampolines a bit. This was my first time at the new Woodward facility, and it was a blast.  Got  to work on a couple tricks and hang out with buddy Khai Krepala, and see a few of the other Tahoe homies.

After a fun time jumping, and a couple more hours of driving, we finally arrived at Robby’s place in Placerville. Once we arrived there we had a lovely dinner made for us by Robby’s parents and we got to meet his family. 

The next day we got to go check out Robby’s home resort Sierra-at-Tahoe, and have a fun mellow day there. This was also the first “spring/summer” like day I had all season long. With temperatures in the upper 50s and 60s, I had forgotten what it was like to be so warm and ski at the same time.  Afterwards we went to hang out with a few of Robby’s buddies before going back to his house and hanging out a little before heading to bed.

The next morning we had to wake up early to head down to Mammoth for the Monster Army Recon Tour slopestyle event. Once we finally arrived in Mammoth we met up with the Monster Army guys and went to have a super fun day of shredding Mammoth’s main park in the late morning, and finishing off the day by checking out the slope course over in South Park. After giving the park crew and the Monster Army guys a few suggestions on the course we headed down the mountain and chilled for a little bit, before heading out to the hot springs. Once we got back to our friend Clint’s house it wasn’t long before we headed to bed.

The next morning I was awoken bright and early by one of the most gorgeous sunrise’s I’ve ever seen.

An hour or so later the rest of the guys began to wake up and we got ready and headed up to the hill for the competition. After running around we finally got passes figured out and got to take a few laps on the course. Unfortunately there was a massive tail wind and two of my three runs I ended up over shooting the last jump in the course, and ended up in 5th place for the day. My buddy Robby Franco was able to laydown one awesome run and put him well deserved in the top spot for the day.

The best part of this trip to Mammoth was easily just getting to meet the Monster Army guys Chris and Robby. Didn’t really know them that well before, and after getting to finally meet them I was very happy to get along with some great people. We were supposed to do a fun little shoot the very next morning, but due to bad weather the shoot was cancelled. So Robby, Kyle, and I all headed back to Tahoe.

The next couple of days Robby and I took a little break to go hang out at Santa Clara with his girlfriend Caitlin.

After a fun time in the warm sun, we headed back to Tahoe for the Northface Open at Northstar Resort. The first day we rode Northstar, we were happy to find some powder to enjoy. Sadly this was only the second pow day I’ve gotten to enjoy this whole season, but we definitely made the most of it before heading down to meet up with our buddy Max Szekely.

The next two days were thankfully practice days for our competition. The first day’s weather was so bad that they had to make the second day a practice day as well, and after the second day I was feeling pretty confident that I could get a run down.

The qualifier day for some reason always seems to be the weirdest/gnarliest days for me. For this qualifier day in particular we were met with head winds. These winds made it a very hard thing to clear the final jump for almost everyone. My first run in qualifiers I came up short on the last jump, and then second run I was able to clear it by sit tucking on my skis. Thankfully that run put me at 3rd overall for the day.

The next day was our semi-final/final day. The weather was much better and I was able to land my first run that put me through to Finals 2nd overall.  In finals on my first run I screwed up on my first rail feature, which had been a first for me the whole competition and I received a 52. Then on my second run I was able to put down a solid run and I received an 88 for that put me at 2nd place. I’m still so stoked, and thank God that I was able to put one to my feet. This was by far the biggest competition I’ve ever made the podium at, and makes me look forward to even bigger competitions in the near future.

You can see my 2nd place run by following this link.

http://thenorthfaceppos.com/2013/mens-top-5-runs-footage/​

After getting my check I took out some buddies for a 10% dinner of Taco Bell, before heading to the Good Enough house for a few days.

The next day was an extremely fun day of riding at Boreal with the Good Enough guys and a few peeps. Everyone the whole day was throwing down hard and just having an absolute blast. The highlight of the day was Kix Kamp throwing down his first ever backside dub 10. Congrats Kix.

After a fun day of shredding and fun birthday party that night, Garrett, Khai, and I decided to head to the beach for the day to just relax. Tahoe is such a beautiful lake, and this was the first time I was able to actually enjoy it a little bit.

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The next morning I headed back to Spokane, but was able to take a small detour in Boise to hang out with one of my favorite families, the Krall's. Now I’m back in Spokane for a week and a half before heading out on the next adventure. So glad I was able to go on this fun Road Trip, and have a bunch of fun experiences along the way.

Special thanks goes out to the Monster Army guys Chris and Robby for helping us out with tickets in Mammoth and Park City. To Robby’s parents for cooking amazing food, Clint Kasten for letting us crash in Mammoth with him, Max Szekely and his family for letting us stay at there place for the Northface event, and the Good Enough boys.  Cannot wait for the next trip.

​-Noah