how do you get to chad's from the bottom of alta?

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this will go down in the history of NS
 
Wow! This had to be the best NS Christmas Present ever. Montanakid returns.

This thread has taken on a life of its own. You should peruse the saga again. It is pretty amazing. Hard to believe that any other thread on any other forum can come close.
 
Watch T-Hall break his ankles (heels) 100 times. Ask yourself am I ready to go full goat. If you are ready for the consequences then......... Go to the highest lot. Take a picture of you and your friends (it might be your last moments together) then find the gate and hike straight out for 30-45 min keep your bearings straight and look on your right for the last five min you should see this huge snow lump and that is chads gap.
 
http://freeskier.com/stories/how-chads-gap-became-skiings-most-iconic-jump-spot

Beginnings

Before Chad came up with the idea, it was a double hit. People would

hit the first little knoll, land on that and go right into the second

one. Pro snowboarders, like Jason Brown back in the day, had sessions

where they doubled it. But once Chad opened everyone’s eyes to it you

could see the potential. Chad told Kris Ostness about the idea and

Ostness basically became the pioneer of the Utah Gaps, Chad’s and also

Pyramid and Leviathan, further up Grizzly Gulch. I had started working

alongside Ostness and I was shooting other guys at Red Bull Huckfest, so

I went out to shoot.

The first session was a little weird because it was basically just

Chad. Candide had been shooting further up the canyon. It wasn’t until

Chad had tried it a couple times and he thought he couldn’t make it that

Candide came down and asked Ostness for permission to hit it. That’s

when Candide cleared it the first time. I was pretty surprised when he

cleared it, that’s for sure. That gap doesn’t give anything easy. Anyone

who’s cleared it or gotten tricks on it, they’ve definitely earned it.

618_timdurtschi_chadsgap_brentbenson_ut.jpg


Tim Durtschi shot by Brent Benson.

Highlights

The following year Candide came back with the mindset of D-spinning

it. The Collins brothers got involved too. People probably don’t

remember Chris Collins. The first day that year, Candide was unable to

clear it. But the Collins brothers, they were teeing off on it. Chris

did a huge frontflip and landed it perfectly smooth, deeper into the

landing than anyone had ever gone.

Obviously Tanner’s session was a highlight. Unfortunately people

don’t really talk about the tricks that Tanner was doing over it before

his injury. 'Cause the crash is so blown up. He did cab fives and the cab nines, but the cab fives were just mind blowing. That was definitely a highlight.

There’s a lot of crashes that stand out in your mind too. I remember

Eric Pollard came down and he thought he was gonna just throw a 180 over

it. That was right when he got really fat skis, if I remember

correctly. First hit the wind caught those things and he got thrown onto

the back of his head. That was a one hit and done situation.

The Process

The build is one of the major things that’s changed over the years.

When the Collins brothers hit it with Candide they actually built the

jump and hit it all in the same day. From there, it’s progressed to

where when we did it with Tanner we built for over five days before they

hit it. We did a totally different in-run for Tanner and Jon because

they wanted to hit it switch. We built it from a slightly different

angle so they had more flat before the lip. With Durtschi, we had a crew

of about 15 guys building for four or five days to get it right. If you

want to get a big trick on it nowadays, I would say it’s at least five

days of construction. The construction is very involved, there’s no

question about it, and you need a lot of people.

That’s why Candide’s D-spin is so amazing. He just went up there by

himself with an avalanche shovel and threw a bunch of snow up. The

Collins brother joined him and helped build it up a little bit, but I

don’t remember it being more than a few hours of digging before they

started hitting it. The fact that they were clearing it and then

ultimately, Candide got that trick, with the size of the jump, was

pretty surprising.

Durtschi

We were hitting it for a TV show on Mike Wilson, but you just can’t

do it with a small crew. Wilson was cool with Tim hitting it ‘cause it’s

easier to session together. It was the only time Chad’s has had no

tracks in the middle of the gap. We had to talk to every backcountry

tourer that came up and ask them as nicely as possible to go around.

Shockingly everybody did. We went up for sunrise and Tim got the trick,

but he wanted it cleaner. He ended up getting pretty badly concussed and

having to go to the hospital. He’s got a double over it and that’s something pretty impressive.

Gratitude

I’ve been honored to watch all these guys hit it. To see their

reactions when they get over it is really rewarding. People probably

don’t know that Charles Gagnier cleared it on skis he’d done rails with

for a week. No one thought he had a chance in hell of getting over it,

but he got a three over it. There are a lot of good memories there. —

Steve Rozendaal

 
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