The 2007 - 2008 Winter Tour Begins!

Posted Monday, November 26, 2007

BEST'S 2007 - 2008 Snowkiting tour is officially underway!

Jacob Buzianis is the BEST Bus's newly crowned "King of the Mountain". Jacob and his snowkiting team will be taking us, with them, on their snowkiting journeys throughout the Rocky Mountains!

Friday, November 16, 2007

Billy and I had a late start driving towards Montana today after the meeting. We are headed out to the first weekend of snowkiting. Utah’s snowkiting hasn’t started yet…we pray every day for snow and wind! We were desperate to snowkite so we met the local snowkiters in Motana and Wyoming. On the way, we stopped at a small café called Me & Lou’s in a town called Malad, Utah. It was the best homemade dinner we had ever had…

Saturday, November 17, 2007

We were on our way to Gravally Mountain in Montana. When we go here, we stop in a town called Charmon. We couldn’t find the road that goes up to the top of Gravelly; so we asked one of the local Game & Wildlife Agencies to make sure that we had the right road that would take us to the top of Gravelly Mountain. The Game & Wildlife Agency gave us directions and gave us a warning about going up there. It is Elk-hunting season and they had recently received a report about a bear sighting in that area! We figured that we have bright kites that would help us avoid being shot down or mistaken as a elk, and big kite to scare away the bear…we hope! During the 40 minute drive up, the road turned into a dirt road, then into slushy snow and then into steep, icy road climbing. We came to a stop at where the snow was getting deeper and deeper until the point that my truck couldn’t go any further. We almost made it to where we wanted to snowkite, but not quite!

Behind me you see a ridge above the tree line … this is where we want to be.

Gravelly Mountain has huge meadow and large open areas to snowkite. Due to a storm coming, and the snow being too deep for my truck to go any farther, we decided to turn around and head back before it got any worse.

Sledding down Gravelly Mountain in a truck ….AAAAHHH!!

The 2 and a half hour drive down Gravelly Mt., was all about sliding down, not driving down! We did not have snowchains on the tires, so I put the truck in low gear to keep it from sliding too much. Each turn and steep area gave you loss of control. I had to just “go with it”! Finally, we arrived on the paved road and we decided to have short celebration. That was one of the scariest drives I have ever had! Since there was no luck snowkiting at Gravelly Mountain, we decide to head to Bighorn, Wyoming.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

YEAH!! We arrived in Bighorn, with a huge welcome of snow and nuking WIND! We jumped out of the truck, pumping up a 7, 10, and 13m Bularoo. Thanks to the EZ pump for the warm up workout. Without the EZ pump, I would be frozen! We had a great day in the wide open meadows, nice cornices, and great terrain!

Billy getting stoked up to go snowkiting!!

Me warming up for the upcoming snowkiting season!!

Me having some fun plowing thru the cornies with 13m Bularoo…welcome the “waves of the winter”!

Billy’s having fun and styling tail grabs with 7m Bularoo.

This is the best wide open meadow for snowkiting. Big cornies, big snow drifts, and steep terrains to carve through.

That evening we met up with one of the local kiters, Todd, and his girl friend Heather. They both treated us to a great Wyoming hoedown of an evening out, complete with a token drunk local girl, someone next to us getting arrested (drunk girl's boyfriend), and some time pitching snowkiting to a cop! We would have loved to stay and share such a great evening out…but we needed to get some rest for the next days kiting! I think Todd’s going to share his stoke with more local friends…and with the epic terrain the area holds, he could bring as many as he can find.

~ Jacob Buzianis

Don't forget to check our Forum Calendar to see where we're off to next !