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Struggling to shove an extra set of goggles into a bulging board bag hours before a flight from DIA to Sea-Tac, I was overwhelmed with anxiety. This would be my first time attending something I’d read about since I was a kid. I should’ve been excited, but instead I felt shitty. The uneasy and unwelcome feeling in stomach stemmed from reasons unrelated to the event. I imagine it’s a feeling pills are prescribed for, if you’re into that sort of thing.

But what’s always worked better for me than Xanax or its generic forms are snowboarding and being around people who value it in a similar way as myself — those who have used it to solve their own problems at one time or another. Each day further into the six I spent at Baker, the issues which seemed so imminent as I packed dissipated further. My stomach knotted only when I heard my name announced in the start shack, and if you don’t get butterflies when that happens I don’t believe you’re human.

Shortly into my time postholing around the perimeter of the course pointing my camera at the riders on its berms, I decided I’d let others display the action at Mount Baker while I focused on the faces that make this event unlike any other in snowboarding.

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Dakine’s Digital Marketing Director and perhaps the fastest woman in the industry, Colleen Quigley, is immune to desk legs and susceptible to sunburns.

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If you find yourself at a banked slalom event, the probability of seeing Tucker Andrews is high. Keep an eye out for a regular-footer leading a pack of boarders off sidehits and laying out backflips. Or look for a blue SkiGee on a pair of leather mitts.

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Baker local and 686 Team Manager, Pat McCarthy, gave us some goods from his garden to make our trip more enjoyable. Thanks, Pat.

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Maxwell Carl Scott has seen his share of sloppy situations and understands the value of staying dry.

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Beer and snacks are cheaper in the lot than the lodge. Chris Brewster, Dave Marx and Johnny Brady know.

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The salmon aren’t the only ones getting baked during LBS. Chris Cloud finished his plate at the annual salmon bake with ease.

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A consistent face and contender at any banked slalom, Bryan Fox looks toward the start shack as Jake Blauvelt says his prayers.

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When rad dad Kyle Kennedy gets away from the family for the weekend there is only one certainty: chicken wings will be consumed by the pound. The rest is a roll of the dice.

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The slight grin hiding beneath the balaclava of Bonfire and Nikita Team Manager, Jenna Kuklinski, is probably because she made finals on Sunday.

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DC Snow Marketing Director, Bobby Meeks, has a song he likes called Hernando’s Hideaway. Look it up, and you’ll have it in your head for the rest of the day. You’ve been warned.

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Nick Larson is another one of that handful.

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This is face of the fastest man in snowboarding — arguably. Harry Kearney, one out.

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Johan Malkoski has instilled a lot of knowledge in his sons, Mac and Milo. Here, Mac gets a lesson in how to properly scrape a board.

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Underneath Andrew Geeves’ Salmon Arms mitt is a hand that looks just like that mitt.

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Homeschool Marketing Director, Chris Owen, tries the ol’ give ’em a banana tactic to no avail.

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Alex Andrews and Kit Hendrickson at the Coalpad bowl in Glacier. The night before, the whole thing was wet, but rumor has it Jamie Lynn and crew remedied that with kitty litter and a blowtorch. Whoever dried it out, thank you.