TRI-MODAL CHALLENGE 2005 By James Robb

It was a dawn of a new era... the three families of mountain sliding putting aside their differences to attain a higher level of combined skills. From the original old school Nordic styles; The Free-Heel Telemarkers, from the surfing beginnings to today’s massive pipes came the Feared Funky Snowboarders, and from the steep high alpine slopes came the Deadly Downhill Skiers. For too long had these groups fought for territory and respect in the mountains, they needed UNITY! TEAMWORK! and most of all… CHALLENGE! Low and behold, a triple threat of action arose to provide such a challenge to all the families.

And so it came to be that the Tri-Modal Challenge was born. A first of its kind, thus many sceptics queried “Can this be done?”, “A reconciliation of past grievances?” Well, the skiers, boarders and telemarkers quickly realized this was the chance to unify and have a helluva lot of fun together.

The event was open to one and all - all ages, all abilities - which follows with the philosophy of the Evergreen Outdoor Center who initially came up the concept and ran the show (so to speak). The Tri-Modal Challenge, as the name implies, allowed competitors to race either as a team of three or as individuals competing in all three modes. For the team competitors it was not the fastest that wins, but the team with the three closest times or shortest time spread. Therefore even first-timers could potentially take the gold. The solo sliders had a different goal, the one with the fastest combined time was crowned the Tri-Modal Challenge. So as you can imagine the competition was fierce, as everyone wanted the loot of awesome prizes, not to mention the fame and respect of all present.

The location couldn’t just be any place. They needed a big arena to host the race and a course hard enough to challenge these three families. There was no other choice than centrally located Happo-one Ski Resort. Situated in the heart of the Japanese Alps in Nagano Prefecture, Happo-one is the largest and has the most vertical of any resort in Japan. It lies directly above scenic Hakuba Village and was the host mountain for the skiing events of the 1998 Winter Olympic Games. The exact location of the Tri-Modal Challenge was on skiers left of Panorama Double Chair with the Finish and Events Area right in front of Panorama Lodge - one could not have asked for a better place to hold the race.

As luck would have it “Uller” the Norse God of Winter was smiling on all his devoted riders for the weekend of the event. We were blessed with two days of back to back blue skies, sunshine and no wind. April 9th was the Demo and Clinic Day for the race. At the events area we had two MC’s rapping to the masses in Japanese and English, DJ Mighty Mark the original DJ from Nagano City and various sponsor tents set up so competitors could try the latest 05/06 gear. For those who were trying a new mode of sliding Evergreen had instructors teaching clinics in all three modes. The gathering of snow sliding enthusiasts from Jykk and Spicy also brought up a contingent of snow-bikes, snow-scoots, snow-skates, and a variety of sledding toys so the sliding was going off the hook! For the entire day the course was open to all competitors to practice their skills on and get psyched out for the race day on the 10th. What gathering of like-minded sliding hooligans would be complete without an outdoor BBQ party and pre-race booze fest followed by a rock band and DJ’s? Not this one, that’s for sure. Almost everyone made it out to throw back a few dozen pints, watch the day’s action on the big screen and bust a move on the dance-floor.

Right off the bat, the spectators and staff could see it was going to be a close race. Racers joked with each other and there was an air of friendly competition, yet when they came to the start gate everyone had their race face on and ripped through the course like they had cops on their tail. This mentality, as you may have guessed, resulted in some sweet bails as racers pushed themselves to the limit in each mode.

The course carved by man and machine was part Olympic Giant Slalom (curvy gates to go round), part boarder-cross (BIG banked corners and rollers), part big-air jam (one huge kicker before the finish) and part water park (the 4m pool). Few could resist the temptation to shoot across “The Swamp” and for the most part everyone made it across relatively dry…however there were those who just couldn’t quite get enough speed to clear the water hazard and ended up taking a cool dip in the ice filled pool. Then there were some tough and/or twisted folks who threw caution to the wind and dove headfirst or skied backwards into the glacial-like pond. Geez man, hypothermia is for wimps!

It must’ve been the cheering crowds, the pounding DJ beats or the sheer thrill of the challenge but the event brought out some real wild mo’fos throwing down some SICK tricks (how about 540 misty-flips??!!) The snow sliding communities stayed true to form by performing even more kooky antics like pounding beers mid-run, wearing tutu’s, flashing some ass, snow-skating across “The Swamp” and fire-hosing competitors.

With the sun still blazing the last of the team competitors crossed the finish line, dragged themselves out of the frigid waters to the cheers of the spectators and posed as the shutters snapped. The times were collected and calculated and soon enough the prize ceremony was underway.

We had many highly trained and experienced riders who felt at ease in any of the three modes, but experts and novices alike took home a virtual smorgasbord of prizes and giveaways. With the generous sponsor contributions there were prizes for not only the first three individuals and teams but; Best Team Costume(s), Worst Costume, Best Air, Worst Stack, Longest Swim, Fastest One Run, Fastest Team, Slowest Team and Best Nordic Style. Giveaways included T-shirts, Tri-Modal Stickers, Hoodies, free dinners, DVD’s, backpacks, and a brand new snow-scoot! Lucky B#%*@rds!

Finishing in 1st place in the team event was “Team 420”, 2nd was “The HotDoggers” and 3rd was “Team Ski Japan”. In the individual event, Morito Nishizawa took 1st place, Tomoyuki Yamamura took 2nd, and Randall Middlebrook took 3rd.

Many people who entered or just attended experienced a new-found respect for the skill and competence required to really master skiing, telemarking and snowboarding. Yes, some of the techniques are transferable between modes but each has its own unique form and definitive style. One competitor remarked, “Man, telemarking is bloody hard!, but so damn fun to do!” This somewhat encapsulates what the event is about…trying new things, challenging oneself and working as a team. It seems that by the success of this multi-disciplined event, the skiing, tele’ing and boarding worlds are recognizing what each of the others has to offer and finding out how much pleasure can be had doing each sport. The families here in Hakuba, Japan have realized that the power of 3 is a power to be reckoned with. TRI-MODAL FOR LIFE!