Well over one hundred splitboarders gathered in Venture’s hometown of Silverton, Colorado for a long weekend of pow riding and hanging out. The seventh annual festival started out with a dump of fresh San Juan powder on Thursday night. It stayed sunny for the remainder of the weekend and quality springtime pow shredding was in full effect!
The Venture crew explored a solid sampling of the San Juans throughout the weekend. Powder, pillows, and big alpine terrain were all green light and ready to ride. The crew included Venture team members from throughout Colorado, Montana, and even New Zealand. The quality conditions and good weather yielded some great motivation for the crew.
Each night attendees headed over to the Kendall Mountain Lodge to hit up the buffet, Ska Brewing kegs, and to grab demo boards for the following day of riding. Since the event was sold out there was a full house of psyched riders. Venture had a full fleet of the new 2018/2019 board models available for test rides, including a carbon version of the Paragon.
The Silverton Avalanche School held various splitboard related classes throughout the weekend in the field. The classes included Avalanche Rescue, Splitboard Basics, and Advanced Splitboarding Technique.
Jeff Davis, a forecaster at the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, gave an awesome talk on Friday night about the state of the Colorado snowpack. On Saturday night Brad Sablosky of Wilderness Medical Associates International gave a talk about backcountry first aid and what it takes to be a Wilderness First Aid Responder. Then an absurd amount of gear and softgoods from the event’s sponsors were raffled off to the crowd with all the proceeds benefiting the Silverton Avalanche School and the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. More than $4,000 was raised for two great causes and the attendees went home stocked with some quality prizes. The weekend was a blast and plans for next year’s Silverton Splitfest are already in the works. See you next year!
