Monday, April 23

First Annual K2 Festical Goes Down

By Dave Finger

What other company would rent out a mountain for their people? All your favorite stashes left to track up at leisure, no frantic chase for the first lift after a big dump, and no cowboy skiers from the 80s getting in the way of you hitting the perfect roller or standing on top of a hit you so diligently carved from the soft spring snow. Imagine having this exclusive access at Mt. Baker for three fine days in a row. Now throw in a free K2 Sympatex jacket, three free meals a day, all the beer you can drink at night, and the K2 pro team including Travis Parker, Chris Englesman, and Katrina Voutilainen jumping crazy cat track gaps, handrails, quarterpipes, and cheese wedges right in front of your eyes. Not enough? Then add BMX jumps, a 6-foot mini ramp, a circus tent for partying, and amazing live entertainment to enjoy each night with all your friends from K2. Sounds good huh? For snowboarders this sounds like a close to perfect experience. For 300 lucky K2 employees and their retailers this experience turns into a reality April 16th through 20th at the first annual K2 Festical. Take one part festival, other part spectacle, then mix them together for an extra strength dose of non-prescription K2 fun.

This event, put on for the first time by K2, is a celebration of their company ethos and a show of appreciation for the retailers that make it all happen for this manufacturer of fine winter fun toys. People fly in from all over the world to congregate in the upper parking lot of Mt. Baker and take part in this unique event. Taking a tour of the huge heated tent supplied for arriving guests to sleep in, I hear Japanese, Italian, and German being thrown around like I am in the baggage claim at Heathrow International Airport. Luckily, the global language of B.O. was fought by an 18-wheeler full of clean hot showers waiting by the tent each afternoon. We can't forget the bevy of 10 person hot tubs for relaxation after a hard day of riding, there's nothing like hot water on a cold mountain. After being cleaned and relaxed we must give big props to the Mt. Baker staff for fixing up such fine food for all the hungry guests.

Official entertainment is provided nightly by K2 pros hitting rails and hand built booters, ripping BMX kids launching off of a big metal ramp jump, skateboarding demos on the 6' mini ramp, mullet competitions, BMX jousting, and musical guests like Portrait of Poverty, City Soul Collectives, and Spearhead. Unofficial entertainment is provided nightly by guests who drink too much free beer. Hanging out by the K2 mobile RV headquarters I run into Geoff Rittmeyer, category director of K2 softgoods.

"I think K2 is one of the few large scale companies who can pull something off with this much low-tech fun," he says. This is demonstrated clearly by the "camping with friends and beer" vibe of the upper parking lot, good job K2.

During Spearhead's sound check I catch up with Gin Yang, from K2's marketing and PR department, where she tells me about all the people that came together for this event. It takes coordination all across the boards, from getting the pro riders here and working through their busy travel schedules all the way down to buying enough firewood for the invitingly warm evening bonfires. Gin adds with a sly grin, "We just want the people invited here to have a good time, and yesterday there was 10 feet of fresh pow for everyone," service with a smile. She dutifully takes me on a tour of the parking lot talking to K2 Team managers and pro riders. This is where I hear the story of Luke Edgar, K2's Sales manager. He climbed three hours to the top of Herman's (an incredibly beautiful and steep peak just north of the parking lot) to track himself a fresh line after writing "K2" with organic food coloring big enough for everyone to see. That's company pride.

While taking in the incredible view of Mt Shuksan and reflecting on the one of a kind nature of the Festical, I run into Walter Lacey, K2's Colorado Team Manager, getting in a few last stylish methods before the sun goes down. He breaks it down on how K2 gives back to its retailers, "Have you ever been to Mt. Baker and had the entire place all to yourself?" No I haven't, and that is what makes the Festical special. Judging by the turnout and the enormously high smile-to-person ratio, I bet other companies will be scrambling in the wake of the Festical to match the forward thinking and giveback attitude of K2. An exciting time and job well done from our friends on Vashon Island, thank you K2 for giving your people the Festical experience!