East Meets West
by Shanti Sosienski
(January 16, 1997)

B.J. Kaser. Photo: Jimmy Clarke

It was going to be an Alpen-small kind of day photographer Jimmy Clarke told me last Thursday afternoon when I had Mt. Baker dreams. Conditions had been excellent the last two weeks in the Northwest, but of course I had been sitting in rainy Tahoe waiting for an imaginary storm. After a few days of bluebird in Washington, the incredible early season snow storms (which were becoming the norm for this year) quickly sank to disappointingly icy crud. The non-stop snow over the last month had given Baker a base of over 130 inches. Alpental had less snow than Baker (only about 90 inches), but was only a 45 minute drive from Seattle. The choice was obvious in light of the unpredictability.

Yuki Yamazaki, a Lib Tech rider from Tokyo, was visiting Jimmy. This was his first trip to the Northwest and he was lucky enough to catch some of the more epic days earlier in the week when the sky had first opened up and the Northwest saw some rare sunny days. Then when the boilerplate took over, Jimmy introduced him to a little of the Seattle skate scene while they waited for the snow to fall again.

At 8 am on Friday a warm wet front was moving through Seattle, and that convinced us that going local would be the best choice for immediate snowboarding gratification. We had no idea what we were venturing toward. Reports we heard from previous days were grim. An Alp local named BJ Kaser assured us on Thursday night that the snow was falling, and by the time we got to the hill the ice would be sufficiently masked.

The rain fell the whole way up to the mountain and our spirits momentarily slumped. We were less than fifteen minutes from the mountain with water was still slapping our windshield, when without warning, we had stepped through the closet door into Narnia. Big flakes of snow were sticking to the road and we were in the winter wonderland BJ had promised.

BJ Kaser is a janitor by profession, and a snowboarder by passion. He lives a few blocks walk away from the base lift at Alpental. He spends his evenings cleaning up after urban scum like myself who litter the lodges with old lift tickets, candy wrappers, and over-priced, half eaten slices of cheese and tomato covered carboard. As a reward for his diligence, he sees more days on snow in a season then Iive seen in my entire life, and it shows in his riding. He skillfully maneuvered us past all of the tracks to find run after run of fresh, untracked, knee deep puffs of soft snow through out the day. We also learned that ski resort safety measures like ropes and signs that say "CLIFF," don't mean a thing to locals like BJ. If there is snow in front of him, the line is wide open and his for the taking.

BJ rides a nice new K2 El Dorado because he was fortunate enough to have been noticed by the Vashon clan to get the goods kicked his way every once in a while. Minus the board he is just another local dirt bag snowboarder working his way onto the mountain every day because he loves to snowboard. He owns the mountain he lives at by knowing it like the back of his hand. When all the candy-assed city slickers on their weekend outings are searching for freshies, he's snaking in front of them every time getting first tracks. Heis not looking for photo incentive either with his torn and worn jacket, crazy hair flying in every direction, and a smile complete with a gap where his front tooth should be, he's looking for a non-stop stoke every minute he's not working.

Our Japanese friend Yuki on the other hand is a pro snowboarder. This means his clothes are spotless, his board is shiny, and sponsorship stickers are thoughtfully pasted in places that they will be most noticed. Nothing about Yuki is dirt bag. His smile is innocent and fresh, and his sponsorship choices reflect Jamie Lynn adoration.

Yuki wears a color coordinated Session pants and jacket outfit, Dragon goggles, and rides a 148 Jamie Lynn. Even though his board was shorter than mine, but he managed to keep the nose up in spite of the heavy powder we rode through. And his riding style was a lot like his clothes: clean, trick, and camera ready. He definitely rips and is confident in foreign terrain, but it was obviously a new experience to ride with the likes of BJ. He handles the Northwest like a pro though, hucking himself blindly off hits that we are guided to. And in spite of the language barrier he figures out what Jimmy wants to shoot every time and blindly trusts BJ's lead.

Our first run took us straight to the top of the mountain. I was on the lift with Yuki who was completely silent.

"You like cliffs?" I asked him in Tarzan-speak. He smiled and sort of bobbed his head in a way that told me he had no idea about what I was saying. I pointed at the 30 foot cliff band we are approaching. "Cliffs. You've go those in Japan, right?"

His eyes widened, but he still smiled politely. "No criffs in Jopon," he stated. I wanted to explain that we probably wouldn't be popping off of those, but figured it was better to just not talk. Instead I smiled and mimicked his earlier head bobbing. I did manage to find out that this was his first visit to the U.S., and that he had a chance to visit the Mervin Manufacturing factory in Seattle where his pretty Jamie Lynn was made. (If the cliffs at Alpental make him nervous, I can't help but laugh for a second thinking about how the chaos of Mervin must have made him feel.)

On our first run BJ led us to Internationale, a run that requires a skillful regular heelside traverse across a well carved ice path to a whoop-de-doo flat run out. This ends up at the top of a nice tree patch though, which then led us back to the upper chair (there are only four chairs at Alpental and only one that takes you to the top of the mountain). The snow was nice on that portion of the mountain dispelling any fears of boilerplate spoiling the day. We hit ice a few times on the traverse, but in the trees more than enough snow had fallen in the last 24 hours to cover the tracked out runs people had been complaining about.

The next run BJ took us back toward Internationale, but we passed our previous tree run and continued until the path we were on came to a dead end steep, little chute. The only way was down, and it was untracked.

The run was surprisingly icy on the edges, and it was hard to do more than slide. I traversed across following the others and two turns later was in perfect snow. Jimmy pulled out his camera and began shooting. BJ warmed up with a nice frontside grab, and Yuki followed his lead. The hit promised more in appearance than it offered in reality though, so we quickly ventured on.

The snowfall and lighting weren't the best for finding picture-perfect hits, but what we found was sufficient enough that BJ rocked a huge method flying high over my head. Of course he ate shit on the landing, as did Yuki who made a very large powder splash, in spite of the fact that he wasn't much taller than me. He came up sputtering snow and smiling big, his goggles completely white with snow. He was happily speaking the international language of fun and obviously enjoying it. No big "criffs" for Yuki, but he knew how to throw himself off of rock and get a face wash for the camera.

A few more runs and we found another Alpental regular, Clarke Hurlbut. Clarke rides for Lamar and true to his namesake, knows how to hurl. He and BJ flew down the mountain as if in a mock Banked Slalom competition. They found hits where I saw nothing, launching high into the air, landing backside 360s effortlessly, and then flying in and out of the trees narrowly missing eating bark for lunch.

The day passed quickly and before we knew it BJ had to leave to get ready for work, and unfortunately we needed to split as well because rush hour in Seattle was fast approaching. It was a good day, as most days snowboarding are. We were lucky once again hitting the mountain on a day when most Seattlites were sitting behind their desks dreaming about the weekend. BJ was about to spend the weekend evenings cleaning up after these folks, but he'd get them back run after run during the day by tracking up the secret stashes before they even had a chance to find them.

Yuki would spend the weekend shopping in Christmas crowded malls so he could take many new trinkets home to his friends when he flew back to Japan on Monday. I wonder if he'll tell his friends back home about the Alpental "criffs" and the guys who ride them. I wonder how you say "janitor" in Japanese. I wonder if BJ will ever get to look for "criffs" in Japan with Yuki.