Snow has been hitting the Pacific Northwest hard this year, so we brought the Tactics Snow Team up to Randal Seaton’s cabin for a long weekend in Sunriver. Randie’s spot sits at the base of Mt. Bachelor, about 20 minutes from the lift, with a hot tub, bunk beds, and fresh ground coffee at the touch of a button. For a bunch of snow and skate rats like us, this was a weekend of luxury living.
On Friday morning, Mt. Bachelor greeted us with clear blue skies and storms in the weekend forecast, so we took our short window of opportunity to rally park laps and stack some clips.
Tanner DeMoss got loose.
So did his older bro Jordan.
Jake Selover wore two different colored boots and made everyone say, “How the hell is that dude so steezy?!”
After a full 9-4 day, we grouped up for an essential parking lot lurk sesh before retiring to Randie’s for a pizza and refreshments. Team rider Beau Cummins recently took a job driving a cat all night at Willamette Pass and wasn’t able to make the trip, so we played a game of “Bobbin’ Rossi” in his honor. Without getting too deep into the details, the game involves 6+ people, a hot tub, and an increasingly warm jug of Carlo Rossi. The winner/loser of the game typically enjoys an adventure into the snow wearing an unsuitable amount of clothing.
We awoke the next morning to find Randal and Justin Norman cooking breakfast burritos and snow falling heavily from the skies. In the interest of avoiding Saturday lift lines and enjoying a relaxing morning, we decided to take advantage of the unusually deep snow in Sun River by building features in the backyard.
Back flips were the theme of the morning. This sequence was landed by Jordan DeMoss.
Randal didn’t land this, but it was still sick.
Yung Chron, aka Jake Selover drops in.
Jared Elston found out that one footed back flips are a really great way to tweak your knee.
Tanner broke the snow ledge and we called it lunchtime.
After a quick break for cold pizza, Randal took a truckload of us to Bachelor for some storm riding. A couple quick hours of pow slashing had us thirsting for more, so despite a rainy forecast at Hoodoo Ski Area, Randal convinced the whole to crew to make the drive north for night skiing. By the time we arrived at Hoodoo, temperatures had dropped and the skies were clear. If you’ve never gone night skiing or been to Hoodoo, do it. We had so much fun rallying pack runs and dropping cliffs that we only had time to collect this one group photo.
On the final day of the trip, we explored a local schoolyard and built some rail lines. Steady showers of rain made it difficult to keep the camera gear dry, but made it easy to mold the snow and set up our features.
Devyn Schnake locked into this long 5050 before most of the boys.
Jonah Owen landed this 5050 transfer to lip 270 out at least 8 times before he was happy with it.
The session ended with a showdown between Jonah and Justin on a double picnic table setup, as we tried our best to stump them with different combinations of ups and downs. We even threw in a watering can, but they handled it all with surprising confidence. Photos couldn’t quite capture the moment, so be sure to check the video for the clips.
With our bodies soaked and sore, we finally unlaced our boots and packed up our wet gear for the journey home. Huge thanks to Randie Seaton for housing the team and TM Kyle Richner for organizing the trip!
Be sure to check out more from the Tactics Snow Team by searching #TacticsSnow and following the crew on Instagram.
Words by Ross Druckrey, Photos by Kyle Richner and Ross Druckrey