Tragedy at The Snowboard Test
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“Back from The Snowboard Test, a week of the highest highs and lowest lows. Thanks to everyone. K, you're in our thoughts.”
In a twitter post less than 140 characters, Ian Sansom, the organiser of The Snowboard Test, the UK's annual industry get together and en masse hardware review session, summarised what was an epic but tragic week.
At the end of each winter, distributors, shops, media and riders get together for one final week in the snow, to sample the next season's snowboards, bindings, outerwear, goggles and more – and overindulge in Jaegermeister. For the last three years, it's become an independent event – rather than magazine run – held in the remote Austrian glacier resort of Kaunertal, altitude 2750m, under the stunning shadow of the 3150m Weißseespitze peak. For one week in the beginning of May, UK snowboarders jostle with local downhill ski schools and a few core park regulars to take over this unspoiled spot.
100km from Innsbruck, it's an insider's resort, which boasts a small but perfectly formed park, superpipe, pistes littered with spots to play on, and, for the last three years, occasional big dumps of powder on it's many open faces.
Like kids in a sweetshop, for the next week the forty or so testers have the envious task of riding as many snowboard, boots and binding set ups as possible – on as much varied terrain as they can. Then in return for suitably sampling box fresh kit, they write an honest review, rating each out of 10 for it's suitability for carving, pipe, park and powder. All these opinions, comments and thoughts are then collated for the UK snowboard media to sample for their 09/10 product guides.
The Brits may attract the largest crowds, but The Snowboard Test is the biggest UK only industry event – where, away from the stress of trade shows, and with stock buying long done, the real family spirit that is snowboarding comes across: Burton reps are spotted riding Lib Tech bananas; K2 sales guys are stoked on Santa Cruz's efforts, DC are sampling Thirty Two's latest foot gloves; or completely mix it up. In a resort tiny enough for you to take a drag to the top, shred some powder, take a left through the park, jump off natural obstacles on the piste below, ride more powder, play or hoon it down to the base, then take a chairlift to the top to do it all again, it's pretty much perfect.
Follow that with apres activities like the Whitelines magazine and Lib Tech rail jam, Westbeach's infamous hog roast, the annually debauched highlight that is the Analog party plus nightly drinking games with Jagermeister to lubricate conversation, and it's a recipe for combination of business and pleasure.
Except this year a poignant tragedy occurred. The last week of winter for many, understandably the entire test were stoked when it started to puke snow at the beginning of the week. With fresh available everywhere, the more experienced riders were exploring the chutes, cliffs and cornices of this quiet corner of the Austrian alps, fully equipped with transceivers, shovels and more.
On May 5th, easy traverses to fresh snow were everywhere, and excitement at an epic day was high. Until news reached the testing centre that disaster had struck just a few yards away. After hiking to the peak of a fresh face, British snowboarder Keith McIntosh, 36, rode down first, but barely went 60m before the whole side fell away and engulfed him. His friends - Vans rider Will Hughes, Quiksilver's James Stentiford and Mint Snowboarding coach Tammy Esten - were standing at the peak waiting to take their descent, so saw the full horror of avalanche unleash below. Fully equipped with avalanche equipment and a highly respected instructor/coach for McNab Snowsports, Keith was buried under six feet of snow and rocks, reported The Daily Record, and was alive when the teams of rescuers found him but died shortly after.
It was a shocking, sobering moment. Personally, I'd never met Keith, but as soon as news travelled that he was buried, the subsequent collective concern and shock, proved he was a very well loved, inspiring individual who I wish I had known. A coach on the annual summer Kommunity Camp's (who are now to award the ‘Keith McIntosh Memorial Award’ to the Most inspirational Camper) he'd worked with the junior teams, training up a large majority of the UK snowboard scene's success stories, as both a father figure and friend who exuded infinite, positive energy, who'd followed his passion for the mountains when he moved to Chamonix full time in 2002. Even more sad, is that he leaves behind his wife of seven years Mel and young son Arren, who a trust fund has been set up for at the Bank Of Scotland in Ayr.
For a select few of the 70 strong snowboard test crew, avalanches were a harsh reality they'd been faced with in the past. But for the majority of us, who's passion for powder is fearfully not matched by our safety knowledge of the mountains, it was a stark wake up call. The volatile dark side of mother nature is not a myth, but a very real threat – that can claim anyone at any time. Tragically for this snowboarder, in fate's cruel twist, his was up in the environment that he loved the most: Keith, we will never forget you.
Read more about the trends, highlights and weirdness of next season's snowboards in a series of weekly exclusive focus features on huckmagazine.com soon...
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Tragedy at The Snowboard Test (text) by Gemma Freeman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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