Snowboarders from as close as Glacier and as far away as Australia celebrated sunshine and soft snow by surfing down the Natural Halfpipe at Mt. Baker Ski Area in the Legendary Banked Slalom finals on Sunday, Feb. 9.
“I want to thank Mother Nature for showing up in the nick of time,” said Mt. Baker CEO Gwyn Howat during the awards ceremony Sunday evening. “I seriously was contemplating building a race course with chainsaws two weeks ago. I don’t know what we did to bring the magic here but this past week was possibly one of the most beautiful weeks at Baker that I can remember in a long time.”
Professional rider Shawna Paoli of Glacier agreed, saying she thinks Sunday may have been the first sunny finals day she’s experienced in half a decade of racing the LBS, which is the longest-running snowboard race in the world.
Started by a handful of riders in 1985, the race is now in its 36th year, with a few years off due to COVID-19 or poor snow coverage. Last year’s postponement meant riders were even more excited to get back on the course over Super Bowl weekend.
The Legendary Banked Slalom combines elements of gated racing, halfpipe and freeride as riders compete to see who can finish the fastest. All racers take two timed runs on the same course and a person’s fastest time determines their final placing.
“There are very few athletic events where a 10-year-old can compete on the same course on the same day as an Olympic gold medalist, and both are challenged by it,” Howat said.
The group of 400 racers was winnowed down during the qualifiers on Friday and Saturday, with the top quarter of entrants in each category progressing to Sunday’s finals.
While there is always a handful of favorites going into the race, Howat said she can’t ever predict a winner.
“It’s anybody’s game during finals, and that’s a big reason the pros keep coming back,” she said. “It could be an all-mountain rider, it could be a half pipe specialist, it could be a gate racer.”
Harry Kearney of Telluride, Colorado, and Mary Rand of Glacier claimed the win in the pro men’s and women’s category, respectively, and took home the infamous gold duct tape trophy representing the patched-together gear of the sport’s progenitors.
Gallery: Legendary Banked Slalom returns
The youngest racers on the course during qualifiers were 10-year-olds Ronin Edwards and Bodhi Cooper, both of British Columbia; the oldest racer was 70-year-old Kevin Boyce of Bellingham.
Ken Achenbach, the founder of the Camp of Champions summer snowboard camp in Whistler, British Columbia, raced in the inaugural LBS, and he was back at it in 2025, placing third in the super masters category.
“[Baker] gave us a place when snowboarding wasn’t even a thing,” Achenbach said. “When I see this today, it’s like we won.”
Julia Tellman writes about civic issues and anything else that happens to cross her desk; contact her at juliatellman@cascadiadaily.com.
