Cover – After a lengthy road trip from San Diego to Mammoth to South Lake Tahoe to North Lake Tahoe to Gig Harbor, WA to the Olympic Penninsula to Seattle to Mount Baker, WA to the Summit, WA, and back to Tahoe Emma was very excited to see Roan Rogers poke the hell out of his tail. If this were motocross in the X Games Roan would take the tail whip event right straight out

Tanya from Omatic talked of a spot in Tahoe called the Helltrack, a totally do it yourself park built and maintained by snowboarders and all hand built. We are not talking just any shredders either; even Roan Rogers  is in the crew. Wait what, Roan Rogers? Yea, Roan Rogers from back in the day, OG legendary snowboarder from early Mack Dawg classics like the Hard the Hungry and The Homeless, Upping the Ante and more. What's really inspirational actually is to see Roan still killing it! While many people give up on the good things in life as they age, they think having kids is death sentence; Roan is a respected carpenter in the Tahoe area, has a family, a home and still manages to build jumps (by hand) and shred after work. Why call it Helltrack? Whats the big deal with some jumps in the woods? Well the jumps in and of themselves are not too gnarly but put em close together super tight, winding through trees and so on and it takes true skills to link them together. Think super tight mountain bike style course but with Ryan Nyquist mega X Games dirt jumps through out and it's intimidating. The location is secret but you could build a rad set up near your home with your friends, make it happen. Besides, if you know any of the guys shown here, own a shovel and wanna help they would probably be into letting you in on the secret. Thanks to them for letting me document their exploits and capture some soul of snowboarding.

The crew with the proper tools to create some diy madness, l-r, Dane Leonard, Matty McInnis, Roan Rogers and B.J. Baur. Missing from the session this day was Kevin who also leant a lot of shovel power throughout the season

B.J. Baur snaps a stalefish

Dane Leonard readies to drop into some Helltrack goodness

Matty McInnis gets slobby

Roan Rogers dropping in

Roan Rogers launching frontside

The course they set up is ridiculously long; it would give many resorts park envy. I mean if 5 guys with a shovel can build and maintain this sort of thing after work, why can't many resorts maintain a decent park? A few small rhythm jumps lead into the first berm

The jumps launch you pretty high with shorter gaps and close together, it takes a rhythm to get through the Helltrack - Dane Leonard. You can see the landing getting collapsed, it takes constant work to maintain but it looks worth it, doesn't it?

little berm, duck between some trees and bam—more jumps

B.J. Baur going through the trees with style

Some hella big kickers

B.J. putting in some sweat equity, lift ticket price = zero dollars

B.J. reaping the rewards of his work

Matty McInnis busting out the cross rocket!

What the hell? Roan busts out a back 3 in a tight spot

Dane Leonard

As the day warmed up, so did the snow and it got to slow to clear the jumps. That did not mean the end of the day though as a mini quarter pipe session ensued, Dane Leonard – pivot to fakie

Society says that adults should not pick their nose – Roan Rogers

Matty McInnis with one hand planted and one grabbing the nose

B.J. Baur air to fakie

Roan Rogers negotiates a frontside air on the 2 foot wide qp

Dane Leonard with one of the last hits of the day before the qp made like frosty the snowman, kinda melted, softened and fell apart

If Roan Rogers cracks his tail on a log in the woods next to my face, do I go deaf?

Check out Zak Shelhamers vid

www.omaticsnowboards.com/2010/03/helltrack-snowboarding-fun/