evoTeam | Behind the scenes of a Poorboyz Production Trip w/ Collin Collins

Day 1

Things started off well in Tamarack Idaho. Vibes were beyond good when I met up with Ben Moxham and PBP Filmer (and my good friend) Ross Reid. The first day we woke to thick fog and damp conditions, but as we ascended the final chair to the top of Tamarack, we broke through the clouds into perfect bluebird! The snow up top was very good, despite not being deep or fresh, but we were able to find some amazing stashes and get some good shots. Tamarack is Moxham’s home stomping grounds, so he had it on lock down, and pretty much every run was spent hiking out of bounds along the North Bowls where we would drop into untouched bowls and ridges with countless spines, cliffs, and pillows. The natural terrain here is so amazing and I was so excited, right up my ally, I love natural playgrounds.

After scoping several cliffs and zones and just shredding pillows everywhere, we set up a session on a nice little cornice stepdown. It was my favorite kind of hit, flat take off nice gap out and drop down. I struggled with some 180’s before finally stomping a couple, very satisfied, and watched Moxham slay 360’s, 540’s, and 720’s off the hit. Beautiful.

We finished the day with a hike north out of bounds, where we shredded multiple rad zones of drops and the most endless run of pillows I ever seen. tired and happy as all hell, we called it a day, well after the lifts had stopped running.

Day 2

We wake up to perfect weather, the fog has cleared and it’s solid bluebird. We instantly go to the top and drop back into some of the north bowls, attacking a few cliffs and lines. Today was summed up by pillows, pillows, pillows, everywhere, lots of them. I did one big drop that was quite fun. stoked. we ended the day in the same gully as yesterday, bubble land, pillows for a mile! I choked while moxham slayed the bubbles.

Day 3

Day 3 started a little late, mostly because we reloacted to Mccall, a little further away. We were joined by our amigo and PBP intern, andrew thomas, giving us a second angle. We finally built a jump, which looked great, but we found speed was a little sub-par. Despite not being able to go as big as we would have liked, Ben and I both squeeked off a few shots and we moved on to the north OB bowls. Over there we found more amazing pillows and a very notable cliff drop/tree tap, which was the highlight of the day! Ben had hit it in the past and led the charge gapping off the cliff and barely tapping the snow mushroom on top of the tall tree stump. I followed it up with a 360 nose bonk, and we headed down through the pillows.

Day 4

The last day in Idaho and my expectations were high. We were both jonesin for some booters, and after the mini sesh with slow speed the day before, we were determined to get some bangers. Right off the first chair, we built 2 jumps pretty much side by side. After bout 2 and a half hours of building, we start hitting both, and find more inadequette speed issues! We tried a few times hoping speed would get better and we could get some shots, but twas not the case. The sesh came to a definite end when one of my skis took off down the slope due to a faulty brake, and pointed it for a good 300-400 yards, where it crashed into the trees. Luckily I found it, but with my toe piece broken off. Tired, sweaty, and disappointed, I followed the crew down the hill. I grabbed my park skis and we made a few park laps before calling it a day. We said our goodbyes and left Moxham and Andrew to continue on to Whitefish, Montana!

Day 5

We got into Whitefish at 4 in the morning… ouch. caught a quick 5 hours of sleep and we headed up to the mountain! We linked up with homies and fellow shred-dogs Luke Tanaka and Andy Connelly. Once again it was foggy and cloudy, but we busted up through the fog and clouds into beautiful bluebird and very warm temps. There was a wicked inversion, providing us with perfect weather up top, I wish the same could be said for the snow.
This place has some of the most beautiful scenery I’ve ever seen, Snowghosts spectacularly cover the entire upper half of the mountain. If you don’t know what a snowghost is, they are very weighed down, very snow-covered trees, which make for glorious jibbing obstacles.
We dove straight into snow ghost terrain, the snow was crusty and pretty nasty, wind blown, sun baked, and re-frozen. But where the sun cooked for a while, the snow softened up very nicely and we punched a few cliffs. It was great to get some nice air shots right off the bat. We spent the majority of the rest of the day jibbing and jumping over snow ghosts galore, it was just too fun and too easy to get cool shots.
There was also a run with what I will call THE MOST AMAZING groomed, rolling, knolls ever made by man on a mountain. So, you could say we got some shots, spreading butter and dragging hands all over those rollers!
That night we took advantage of Big Mountain’s night skiing, which quickly laps the lit park. Very fun, until, last run i smashed my shin into a rail, somehow catching perfectly between the bottom of my knee brace and top of my boot. I’ve never seen a contusion like that, ever. I don’t even know exactly what a contusion is, but i’m pretty sure I had the epitomal example.

Day 6

I was worried if i’d be able to ski my 2nd and final day in whitefish, but woke up feeling good, with more perfect inversion weather, it was actually extremely warm.
We hiked some small hidden zones, taking advantage of The-Resort-Formerly-Known-As-Big-Mountain’s unique terrain and snowghosts. We wrapped the day up and i jumped back on the road down to Bozeman, to stay with my old friends and then trek back to SLC.
I shredded a day at Big Sky with all the old homies on monday before driving back to SLC. It was such a beautiful day, sunny, warm, and the park and pipe were going off! It felt great to have such a nice day back in the old stomping grounds. Big Sky has got an amazing jump line and just finished up a very nice half-pipe, so spirits were high and tricks were going down!

The trip was fun as hell and I feel we really got some awesome shots! Keep your eyes peeled for a Webisode coming out from PBP, and huge thanks to Ross Reid, Tamarack Mountain, Whitefish Mountain Resort, and of course Chris Shalbot @ evo.

peace and love,
Collin