Greetings from sunny Salt Lake City!
Its been a while since we had a spiritual update so we figured it was about time we changed that. I’m currently sitting in Shred MC alumni Matt Depalma’s living room aka the wolf den where Chris Bishop, Nick Bush and myself have been posted up for the past week or so. Bush and I flew into SLC on Saturday and were meet at the airport by none other than Bishnation himself in the wolf van.
We set up base camp in the living room and promptly fell asleep with dreams of methods and goggle tans dancing in our heads. We awoke early and headed to Snowbird for some radness.
Look at those wolf shirts
After an awesome first day of riding Matt told us that it was customary to hike the haunted peak behind his dorm and perform the Utahtardian sunset ritual. We loaded up our packs and began the ascent to the top of Jim Morrison Peak to watch the sun set and soak in SLC.
If you squint your eyes and listen closely you can hear the sound of Jim Morrison drinking Jim Bean and reading poetry. It doesn’t get any better than that!
Our next adventure took us to Brighton for some awesome park riding. Mr. Depalma is a local celebrity (instructor) at Brighton so needless to say we got the hook up. We lapped the parks all day working on our goggle tans and our front boards, cross rockets and switch hippie killers. Brighton has an insane park line that lets you effortlessly flow from park to park with minimal time not getting rad.
Bush getting spiritual with a front board
Word to wise for you shred hungry travels whom might fancy heading out west to get down: the altitude is for real! Midway through our first day at Snowbird I found myself feeling lightheaded and giggly (not too uncommon) but I was definitely struggling. Combine the altitude with the super intense sun and you have a recipe for tuckered little cowboys and sun burnt Indians. To remedy that we drink plenty of H20 and lather our selves in sunscreen when ever we break at the wolf van. If you stick by that formula than you’ll be doing tail blocks in no time!
Stripes are so hot right now
Since we had so much fun at Brighton on day one we decided to turn it into a two day affair, Under the guidance of Deplasmic laser we stocked up on some sandwich fixings and sunscreen and headed for the hills again. We were meet again my grinning locals and sunny skies, who could ask for more? Taking a hint from the shred gods we got down all over the hill slashing and jibbing every which way. Your familiar with the phrase it’s a small world? Well wouldn’t you know that we proved that theory correct at Brighton bumping into none other than Sauce Mike’s own Brian Hamill! We trained through the park once or twice then parted ways. Always good to see a fellow Vermontah where ever you are.
Brighton was a favorite for two main reasons: the rustic homey vibe and the insane flow of the parks. Unlike some of the more touristy resorts Brighton remains true to their roots and makes you feel like your shredding with your dad in the 80s. Old skool doubles and mullets galore help to make Brighton a shredders dream. As I mentioned earlier one park flows effortlessly into the next making it the perfect place to hone your skills or just have a blast. They also have a half pipe which is perfect for those of us who aren’t working on their back to back 1080s and are just looking to get some air and grab nose.
Bish stepping up to the Kink
So it now occurs to me that the sequence of events is not exactly in the fashion that we did them but I blame that on the fact that we didn’t take any shredding pictures while we were at park city. Nonetheless we hit up Park City on Monday in search of the elusive MFM that is said to haunt the SLC area. Bish was sure he saw this legendary shredder several times but alas he was mistaken. Park City is arguably the best-known resort in the SLC area featuring a vast amount of terrain and 5 star quality everything. I even bought my ticket from a machine! Crazy! We spent the day working on our goggle tans. Jungle Boy Nick Bush was looking for snow bunnies hollering and hooting at every opportunity. Once again we proved that it is indeed a small world running into SMC shredder Greg Bejan. High lights of the day included spirit slides, switch ups, 5s from Bish and multiple insistences of Hossing. I would like to go on the record at this point and say that Park City has some of the largest jumps I have seen. You see them in movies but you cant fathom how large these suckas are, Im talking like soil your pants and call your mom big.
So after a long day of shredding PC, Depalma informed us that he had a treat in store for us. We all love treats especially Bush so we couldn’t wait to see what was in store. Matt went on to explain that his friend Kyle had found natural hot springs about an hour south of SLC. These natural gems were about the temperature of hot tubs and about ten times more awesome. Once hour turned into 2 and we were at the springs, to preserve the integrity and splendor of these little beauties I will only show this picture and say if you get the chance you should bring some adult beverages, your bathing suit and your sense of adventure. Scratch that I cant even show you a picture its just too confidential, you’ll just have to come here and search for them.
After 4 days of shredding in a row we were all ready for a much needed break to rest our knees and dry our gloves. Man camp arose at about noon today and headed into town for some lunch and adventures. Depalma told us he had a great day in store for us but we were not even ready for it. First we headed to an ill water fall about an hour west of SLC that shall remain nameless.
This picture is hella condensed for the sake of saving space but suffice to say it was at least a 120 ft drop. We chilled in its aura for a while and then headed down in hopes of trying out a new delicatessen, Arby’s. While Bush mowed down on a triple stack of roast beef slathered in cheese I played it safe with a turkey sandwich. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of Arby’s I give it a meh. If you’re really into roast beef this is your cup of tea, if you’re a vegetarian than you better stick to your spinach wraps and humus. From there we headed to Antelope Island, which is an island in the middle of the Great Salt Lake which is naturally home to antelope and buffalo. We drove around for a little looking for these “buffalo” and “antelope” which were said to live on the island. Finally we found them! And boy howdy were they there!
Sunsets and buffalo, AMERICA!
Driving past a heard of these prehistoric beasts we were compelled to jump out of the car and snap a couple shots at a not so safe distance. The antelope were present but not nearly as keen on having their photo taken so we were all like “naaaah kid” and drove on to the top of the moundian to see if we could get spiritual. Seeing these natural beasts in motion really inspired us, we spent the duration of the sunset doing sun salutations and lotus blossoms. These pictures speak for themselves….
Depalma throwing stones
Almost too spiritual?
Bish is amazed by my leaping skills
Tomorrow we are off to park city so the adventure is not over quiet yet. I hope everyone has had an enjoyable spring break filled with shredding and spiritual reflection. If you have any pics from spring break email them to nick at nbush@smcvt.edu
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