Joe, Pablo the Drunk, and “The Heat” do Spirit Mountain – their story:
We woke at 5:00 in the morning. The loud blaring alarm clock caused my blood shot eyes to open in excitement knowing that I would be hitting the biggest Terrain Park in the Midwest in 3 hours. I fell out of the bunk bed at my friends house and onto my skibum buddy affectionately called ‘Pablo the drunk. Pablo is a die-hard skier but I am working him over to the dark side of skiboarding. Another one of my friends commonly referred to as “The Heat” would also accompany us. We dressed in our dirt ball attire, took a shower (used deodorant), gave our teeth a once over and went down to eat. My meal consisted of macaroni and cheese, Pablo’s was fruit loops, and The Heat put milk and chocolate syrup in his mouth and shook it up and drank it. He did this about 7 times for a healthy satisfying meal. We then departed, having loaded all our gear the night before.
We drove for two hours. Heatness was the driver and I was the navigator, Pablo was the drooling sleeping sloth in the back of the van. The speed limit was 70 miles an hour. Going the speed limit, we should have reached our destination in around 3 hours. Since there were icy roads, low visibility, and a lot of other traffic, the Heat decided that it would be in out best interest to set a cruising speed at 90 and to ride peoples bumpers until they moved. Since we were driving in a huge conversion van, this did not take long. While Pat was in the back drooling on our equipment, Hotness was telling me about all the times he had swerved off the road and had thrown various projectiles at other cars. All this was very comforting.
In no time we entered Duluth, Minnesota, where the largest Terrain Park in the Midwest was located. The Heat was slightly disoriented about his location, probably from drinking 20 cans of Jolt (yes I counted) to stay awake. We were slightly off track but The Heat whipped a stellar donut in the parking lot and we were back to Spirit Mountain.
We arrived at eight o’clock exactly. The lifts had just opened and we were ready to go insane. I had also purchased a disposable camera to capture all our moments. We purchased our lift tickets and went back to the van. We backed in right outside of the Terrain Park. If we lived in the van, it would have been a “ski in and ski out’ van. It was perfect, putting on all our stuff with Blink 182 and Sublime blasting loud enough to make the lift operators look. We each then proceeded to empty our bladders on different sides of the van, appalling many visitors. We then strapped on our stuff and were away.
We all got used to the mammoth jumps fairly quickly. We decided it was a good idea to start taking pictures. Prompted by Kodak Courage, we pushed ourselves and each other to do our hardest trick. The highlight of my day was landing my first bio 540. Pablo started off his day by launched his first Mosely 360. The Heat floated a wicked three on his skies. He also tried many insane moves but ended up digging many bomb holes with his noggin. We ate and skied. The Heat inspired by my dope bio 540, asked to use an extra pair of old school Klimax skiboards. He caught on very quickly and invented his own move names the Smurf Toe. He also landed the first Smurf Toe burner and the first Smurf toe Misty Flip. All in all it was a very phat day for all riders.
By the end of the day Pablo landed his first 720 off a 10-foot kicker. I salted down the rest of the day with front flips and little grabs. We decided to leave at around 6 o’clock. We had all gotten our fill and our legs were getting wobbly. I will always remember the insanity of Spirit Mountain. My ski buddies are still here to throw together another trip and I look forward to a similar trip this year. I encourage anyone who has an opportunity like I did to do it because it is so much fun. Thank you.
Joe
St. Paul, MN