Well, the jumps were already wet, and the 24 hour forecast was continued wetter, so last night was declared a party night.  Where Jordie may or may not have been giving out free tattoos with a shishkebab skewer and bic pen ink.  And I may or may not have pics…but I admit to nothing.

This is something I think we can all agree on.

As good as that party was, we couldn’t lounge around the lodge all day.  Time to get this train rollin’.

The Fest jumps may have been too wet, but you just can’t keep these guys down.  Here’s that inimitable Sorge whip, and a big no-hander from Doerfling.

Buehler led the train down to his line behind the lodge, while Gnargus looked on.

All that before lunch.

After lunch we went up a bit higher to check out the sub-alpine.  Still kind of greybird, but I think the boys liked it.

Almost as much as they liked this tailings pile.  I think it’s cute the way the new schoolers are into the old school steeps.  I’m thinking we may be seeing more of this kind of action as the week goes on.  Doesn’t look like it’s going to dry out anytime soon.

Wanna see what some of those jumps look like in action?  Here’s a vid that Mitch Cheek over at Solos Productions put together last year for the lodge.

Well, it’s time to get the party started. Except that Mother Nature is really not co-operating. The track needed a ton of work. Good thing we had all these high end athletes at our disposal.

It’s like a union gig or something.  Nico was gettin’ er dun, so really we didn’t have much to do.

However, it was looking pretty damn good by the afternoon.  Enough so that the boys thought about it…

…and Alex greased  it.

That’s one hell of a sender to be a guinea pig on.  The pic does NOT do it justice, especially when you consider that the in run was the consistency of plasiticene.  Jordie had a gnarly case and crash from it.  Even Aggy hung it a bit, and that kid knows a thing or two about poppin lips.

To give you a better idea of the conditions and the track layout, have a gander it this:

Hoff Fest 2014 Course Preview from fest series on Vimeo.

After one day, Alex Pro is our leader on points. Not sure who’s assigning the points, but that guy is killin’ it out there.

Well, this should be entertaining.   Kurt Sorge and bunch of other high end freeride sorta guys have gotten a bit fed up with the contest circuit and are trying to bring sexy back to the world of skill based mountain biking.  I totally agree.  Everytime somebody comes up with a great new angle on any sport (think sea kayaking or freeride biking), a marketing guy gets a hold of it and turns the whole endeavour into a contest or a race.  The edge of the envelope is gnarly enough without the added pressure of results.  The Fest Series is about getting together and going BIG first, and maybe somebody goes a bit bigger and gets some recognition, but the main thing is that it’s riders first.  Sort of like how in my opinion Rampage should be judged by the participants.  It’s the first year for these guys, and I hope it works out.

Everyone rolled in during the late afternoon, including yours truly, so we loaded up the van after dinner and went and had a big bonfire up at the jumps.

…and maybe a couple of beers too.

We were actually trying to dry the jumps out a bit.  After a record dry spell, the balance has returned and things are looking a bit damp.   There’s a lot of jump to dry out, too.

Just a bit of advice. If you have a bunch of pro bike athletes over at your place, ya might want to limit their late night access to your kitchen…