Loving Life: Rahlves Redbull Banzai at Alpine Meadows

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Rahlves Redbull Banzai at Alpine Meadows

This whole season has been a new experience for me. Having to mentally overcome knee surgery I think is the most difficult part of it all, the physical aspect is easy, but having to completely re-think the way I've lived my life forever and be "cautious" is something i've never had to do.
That being said its opened so many doors that I had so strategically left closed for a long time knowing that my true passion may lie behind them. Between the freeride series, getting out in the mountains and earning my turns, I feel that riding park may be a thing of the past for me (at least until the summertime.)
I was coerced into coming with some friends to do the BANZAI in Tahoe which is another event that I had heard of, but never thought I would have an opportunity to do with my heavy slopestyle contest schedule. Luckily I was able to sneak over to Alpine Meadows and participate in this one, and man was it intense! I've never done any racing on my snowboard, let alone racing with 3 other people next to me, down what was basically a Giant Slalom course covered with giant icy moguls! The event was all time and so were the people. The format was insane, I still can't wrap my head around it, but I do know that I somehow managed to get 4th for women! Congrats to everyone who participated and survived that icy hill of death! Special shoutout to Daron Rahlves for hosting the event and showing us all what a great skier he is by absolutely crushing the course on his warmup run.