So John Foy "The All American Boy Toy" and I arrived in Seattle Thursday afternoon. We headed to baggage claim to set in for a 4 hour hanging sesh that followed before our train would pick us up to roll north to Bellingham. Upon getting to baggage I noticed Ben from Transworld and said wutup. He immediately offered us a ride to Bellingham. A free ride for the Heckler bros from Transworld's budgeted rental car? Oh shit yeah! Ben told us about the art show/kickoff party for the event going on in Bellingham so northbound we went. From there our ride Gray Thompson would take us to Glacier where we got put up in a sick, cozy, little fisherman's cabin by one of the raddest dudes I've met in shredding yet, Alex Yoder.

Before we got too far north we had a must stop at a bomb ass Vietnamese joint in the Asian part of Seattle we randomly picked to grub at. The girl that waited on us seemed more like a little Japanese girl anime cartoon character than a real girl and after a legit belly filling meal and an explanation on what the christmas colored cups filled with sweet beans and other desserty weirdness were we cruised on. Perfect timing. Rush hour traffic through Seattle. That took a bit and some instagramming. We arrived in Bellingham that night at the Cascadian Collection show, a mountain art showcase and fundraiser event for Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center that Innate was throwing. Innate is a local screenprinting shop in Bellingham and is run by Dylan Warnberg and others. The Cascadian Collection showcased work from local photographers and artists including Colin Wiseman, Justin Kious, Liam Gallagher, Jessie Carlson, Dylan Hart, Ryan Duclos and Mike Ennen as well as a live screen printing session from the local boys next door (Innate) and even a live viewing big screened photo booth room. The DJ was spinning and people were stoked, the tall PBR's were only a few bones and raffle tickets were cheap. We hung for a while and met some new friends as well as tried our unlucky hand at the raffle. At around 10pm after our ride showed up, in need of food again we quickly bolted to the nearest legit burger stop. A milkshake, fries and a burg was only 6 bucks??? This place is amazing! Insta stoked we were and the food was better than most. Finally, Glacier bound, we headed up and out of cell and internet service (the only reception is at the top of Baker resort) for the next four days. Glacier Washington is badass and remote. If that doesn't fit your gig you best get over it and find a new one. Its sick! At night no one is staring into their digital lives or talking on their phones disconnected from the world and friends around them. No updating your insta life and BS at all. You have to save that shit for the chairlift ride the next day and even then hopefully it snows or rains right into your iPhone speaker re-disconnecting you from this mad digital world.

Getting to be part of this event and document it for the first time, for us, was really meaningful. Everyone, from the backcountry golden children Mr. T Rice and Terje, to the random lifties and townies, come out with nothing but good vibes and big grins from ear to ear because this is what snowboarding is on the real. All are there to have a blast, party, eat epic food, and watch some of the worlds most talented snow super schralpers get down on this gnarly ass legendary course rain, snow or shine. The course was brutal with gnarly ruts, bumps, berms, rollers and was long enough to give the best of the best a guaranteed run for their money physically. This place makes you realize why the locals all kill it. We only wished we could be riding it as well, but regardless just being there was by far enough. Even though it rained off and on the first few days, getting to do methods off of random jumps in the trees right behind Terje and eating the best on mountain food I have ever tasted, this was clearly the place for us to be.

We ate at Grahams in Glacier after the first day and highly recommend the Black & Blue burger with sweet spud fries to anyone. After the next day of shredding we sent it into Lucas and Maria Debari's local family owned and operated restaurant Milano's for what is obviously the best food in Glacier by far. The place was packed and every shred head in the LBS rolled through at some point it seemed. We went out the night before finals on a mission to send. Glacier doesn't cater very well to the type that want/need to have a party scene and when this event goes down the town and local authorities prepare to screw over anyone possible with their presence like rats in NY city. There is one spot we never ate at in Glacier called Chair 9 and we went there for the Freak-When-See party which was not all that. After waiting twenty minutes to get in past the not so rad lady at the door and finally getting to the bar we found that they wouldn't let dudes order pitchers. We watched these kook ass bartenders serve ladies pitchers at will but not us bros. So we gladly sent our "All American Boy Toy" on a mission for the girl who would get our pitchers. We had pitchers in no time. They also stop serving hard A at 10pm just because they can. We ventured off a sketchy little blair witchish looking road a few times to scope the party scene at the local Indoor Skate Bowl that is built in a barn not far from town. Not much was ever going on around there when we rolled through, other than the standout token platinum blonde girl attempting to skate and shake her boobs around with her tube top that didn't fit in the musty cold night. The town of Glacier definitely seemed like it has had its fair share of raging drunkin shredders year after year and want to keep their businesses open and opt to not let the party really get swinging anywhere; so everyone made house parties instead.

The day of the finals was pretty cold but at least it wasn't raining. In the end all had a blast and Terje smoked fools proper style as the sprocking cat should. There was a salmon feed and hand plant contest party after the finals wrapped up at the New Ravens Hot Lodge. Zack Marben has some seriously nasty ass hand plant skill-a-ma-jigs in his bag. The salmon feed, as well as all the different salmon goodies served over the weekend, were my true favorite and made for some much needed good energy. My face mask and gloves still smell of this awesomeness.

The LBS reminded me of the way snowboarding was when I was a kid. You can roll up to anyone at almost any time and say what up and shoot the shit and it's all real and raw. Snowboarding has gotten so saturated and played in so many ways that we forget that we are one giant family no matter how dysfunctional and wack we can be. We are all in this for the same reason. To shred the rad! All in all this was the raddest event I have seen in snowboarding and I'm sure it has always been and will stay this way, for the people who come out and make this happen truly are snowboarding the way it should be. Let's go shred now!

Here are some photos of photos and other art from the opening night art show in Bellingham.

A personal fav

Second fav

Sick fish and shredding

Amazing photos lined the walls with bidders battling it out to take em home

All were worth staring at for us ahtsy fahtsy people