The Big Shred RV left Vancouver days ago, rolled promptly through Whistler and filled up with supplies, snowmobiles and Vera Janssen, Josh Lapkovsky and Brian Hockenstein. I was on a different trip with dates overlapping the first few days of this trip, so I flew in late for a rendezvous with the crew on March 31^st. 

A sick event called Tailgate Alaska is happening up here, situated thirty miles outside of Valdez on the Thompson pass. This is on those be a Holy Grail events, with legends and hardcore shredders alike coming out of the woodwork.  The purpose of the Tailgate event is to create a temporary mountain community in the heart of the mountains that serves as a base camp for shredding the mountains and bringing the people together. The King of the Hill event is also associated with Tailgate and is set to run again after a 10 year hiatus. 

Vera, Josh and Brian kicked things off midday Tuesday, March 29 after driving the RV 4000 kilometres, and scored a day and a half of shredding before I arrived. From what I understand the days were sunny and epic, so naturally once I arrived I was bombarded with the ol’ “shoulda been here yesterday” beeks. What partially eased my jealousy is that I happened to be scoring some epic shred myself, elsewhere.

Then Thursday morning arrived with some delightful sunny conditions. Josh and I woke up early to score some runs before the forecasted low pressure system arrived.  We cruised around and looked at all sorts of amazing terrain, and did two runs in two different drainages; 1000 vertical meter runs, 5 minute sled shuttles, no big deal. 

The King Of The Hill competition venue.

Here's Travis Rice's winning runs.

We’re planning on heading out towards this peak in the next few days.  Apparently you can boot straight up some parts of the walls. Stoked to check it out!

From the Tailgate Alaska compound there are two main drainages that you climb to access the goods. On either side of the frame are the two drainages.

There has been some sketchy stuff. Some cornices have been cracking off naturally, and there are stories circulating of some human triggered slide activity over the last couple days.  My friend Moss from Tahoe had a mega close call yesterday after the slope of his run slabbed halfway down his run.  He managed to claw to the wall and have the slide run without him over heaps of nasty rocks. 

The Tailgate compound is comprised of two frozen parking lots on either side of the Thompson Pass Highway, filled hodge-podge with trucks, RV’s, trailers, sleds, dogs, BBQ’s, fires, guns, yurts, tents, helicopters, slednecks, caves, quarterpipes and a collective stoke for shredding the dreamy, nasty, AK terrain.

Lots of fires, keeping warm and drinking beers happens at night. The Northern Lights flicker hard on the clear nights.

Tailgate brings out the shredders--some of 'em have screws loose.

We’re up here to experience AK firsthand, on a mission to shred heaps of epic riding whilst documenting the days. Our crew will be blogging our experiences as it happens, so keep checking back for updates.  Share the link, and enjoy your early April riding wherever you may find yourself. We love ya’ll.