A few early season turns from skier Nick Bullard. Shot on location at Alta Ski Area, using the Lazer Dissent helmet with GoPro mount.

Mountain Stoke’s newest athlete Forster Meeks, showing us how it’s done, summer style up at Mt. Hood! Forster has a nickname, “Molebowl meeks”, but with style like this, “rail jeti” might be more appropriate! Look for more of Forester’s edits coming soon as he packs it up and heads back to Utah for a winter of park and pow!

Rider Nick Bullard checking out the Empire Trail in Park City, Utah for the first time.

Mountain Biker Nick Bullard riding the HAM trail to the Spiro trail in Park City Utah yesterday. After a bunch of rain, the trails in Park City are about as good as they get, packed and tacky, and encourage you to go as fast as you can. The HAM trail can be accessed by riding up the Armstong Trail near the base of Park City Mountain Resort. Check out more of Nick’s edits here.

Mountain Stoke Athlete, Matt Ratajczak, showing how a dyno is done. Check out Matt’s athlete page for more sick climbing!

For those of you who remember my interview with Jamie Schectman here on Mountain Stoke a few months ago, you will be pleased to hear that they recently announced their latest partnership with Maine’s Mount Abram! If you want to know more about Mountain Riders Alliance, check out the video above, or click here. They are always looking for passionate skiers to get involved, and they offer lots of sweet benefits, depending on how much you can afford to give toward one of the most important causes out there (IMO). For the next 13 days, check out Support The Future Of Skiing for more info on donating. After the 13 day period, check out Mountain Riders Alliance.com for additional information.

Official Press Release:

Mountain Rider’s Alliance Announces Partnership with Maine’s Mt. Abram

Mt. Abram Aligns with MRA to Launch Crowdfunding Campaign in Support of a
Sustainable Ski Industry

JACKSON, WY – August 23, 2012. Mountain Rider’s Alliance (MRA) has partnered with Mt.
Abram to promote a cooperative business model and convert Maine’s authentic ski area into an
MRA Mountain Playground. The joint effort aims to boost regional visitation, increase
sustainability awareness, and create a business model for other community-oriented ski areas
worldwide.

MRA is dedicated to creating and supporting a sustainable ski industry model, which focuses on
keeping environmental, community, and rider concerns ahead of short-sighted decision making.
This partnership with Mt. Abram represents MRA’s first conversion of an existing ski area. Mt.
Abram will remain open to the public without significant changes to its operating plan. As part of
this partnership, membership shares will be available via MRA, which will offer a variety of
benefits and privileges, reciprocation at other Mountain Playgrounds, as well as allow for
elections to represent membership in dialog with ski area management.

“We started this movement in 2009,” said MRA co-founder Jamie Schectman. “Since then, we’ve
seen thousands of passionate folks around the world support the preservation of our sport. It’s
about the local communities, generating our own energy, reducing our carbon footprint, and most
importantly sliding downhill on snow. With Mt. Abram’s dedication to the community and
environment, we couldn’t ask for a better partner. Supporting this mission is just the beginning.
We’re building a replicative model to save what we love about skiing, and offer a new direction for
ski areas around the world.”

Mt. Abram is a 560-acre privately owned and operated ski area that recently won the 2012
Golden Eagle Award for Environmental Excellence by the National Ski Areas Association. Mt.
Abram is located 90 minutes from Portland, Maine, and offers 1,150 feet of vertical drop,
affordable access, and an alternatively laid-back vibe to nearby mega-resorts. Mt. Abram is
owned and operated by Maine businessman and recent Maine Sports Hall of Fame inductee Matt
Hancock.

“Mt. Abram’s greatness doesn’t have to be restricted to Maine,” said Hancock. “There are a
number of other independent ski areas that would fit well into this model. Mt. Abram’s
collaboration with MRA is about skiing, plain and simple: a thriving business model away from the
commercialized, overpriced, factory outdoor experience at the mega-resorts. Mt Abram’s niche –
soulfulness, great terrain, skier-centricity, and enjoying the outdoors with family and friends – is
what attracts people to the sport. MRA was founded to instill and promote these same
characteristics in an industry that is moving away from what we love about skiing.”

About Mountain Rider’s Alliance:
Mountain Rider’s Alliance (www.MountainRidersAlliance.com) is a group of like-minded people
dedicated to making a positive change in the ski area industry. The mission of MRA is to develop
values-based, environmentally friendly, rider-centric Mountain Playgrounds that encourage
alternative energy creation while reducing their carbon footprint. It is MRA’s priority to develop
sustainable Mountain Playgrounds that offer an authentic riding experience, help the environment
thrive, and promote prosperity in our local ski towns.

In addition to Mt. Abram, MRA has entered into the permitting process to restore Manitoba
Mountain, a ski area that last operated in 1960 on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. Manitoba Mountain
would offer terrain for all ability levels via three surface lifts and access to 10,000 acres of world-
class terrain (www.skimanitobamountain.com).

MRA has recently launched “Support the Future of Skiing”, skiers and riders who wish to support
this crowdfunding campaign are invited to visit:

http://www.indiegogo.com/SupportTheFutureOfSkiing.

All media inquiries, please contact Jamie Schectman of Mountain Rider’s Alliance at
shecky@mountainridersalliance.com.

Another great edit from Matt Ratajczak. This time traveling to New Paltz, New York to hit up the Shawangunk Mountains, aka. The Gunks! This route, Bad Bladder (V6), offers a pretty serious dyno to get the job done. After only a couple attempts, Matt nails it (1:07), and finishes the climb strong. I like the second angle that appears after the first competition, it adds some different perspective on the route, and it’s difficulty. Nice work, Matt!

Want to see more of Matt’s routes? Click here.

Headed up to the Canyons today for round 2 of park riding, and had a total blast! I met up with some friends, and friends of friends, collectively known as the Mexican Freeride Team, a club I actually just joined after my first day at the park last week. These guys rip, and like anything else, when you hang around people whose skill set is higher then your own, you tend to progress faster. Today, I hit a few things I had not mustard the gusto for last week, the big one being the right side of the step down (which, as it turns out, really is easier then the left). The progression seems good, and I think a few more times at the Canyons Bike Park, and I will be hitting everything, and maybe throwing a whip or too off the bigger hits – Stay tuned

Rider: Nick Bullard

Rider: Nick Bullard

This weekend I had a chance to head up to The Canyons Bike Park for some mid summer shred. I am pretty new to the whole “huck your meat on a bike” scene, as in today was really my first day. The little experience I have comes from a few small jumps I built back east in the woods near my house in Virginia. The Canyons Bike Park came highly recommended by just about every serious mountain biker I know. Having ridden it now, I can definitely see why! This was almost as much fun as a pow day at My Alta! Wild Mouse is dubbed a blue square, intermediate trail with lots of dirt table tops, ladder systems and dirt berms. What I like most about Wild Mouse is the variety. The only down side is trying to keep your speed for some jumps, while trying not to go too big and over shoot the landing on others, get the jumps mixed up in your head, and it can spell disaster. Rally Cat is a more difficult trail, and while there is only one mandatory clear, the tables are noticeably bigger, and the trail has two step downs side by side. You will notice in the clip that I opted for the left one, which is a little smaller than the right. I felt pretty comfortable on it, so next time I think I will be ready to step it up (I mean down – whatever). Wild Mouse and Rally Cat are just two of the trails available off the High Meadow lift, and yes, there is a “beginner” green circle trail as well as a skills park with little jumps and berms to get you dialed in before going for it.

When you decide to head back to the car, I suggest taking Holly’s Trail to Ricochet to get back down rather then downloading the gondola…

Mountain Stoke Ambassador, Matthew Ratajczak, is at it again with this sick dyno in the Harriman State Park in New York. Pretty killer edit really, it’s always tough to show the difficulty of something on camera, but I think this clip does a pretty decent job of showing just how hard this V7ish dyno move really is. Throw in some synched beats to boot and bam, way to go Matt!