The House

When Burton calls and asks if you want to go to Vail for the US Open, you drop everything and you answer with a “Yes.” We got that lucky call this year and Amanda and I got to tag along to one of the best snowboarding events in the world. From the moment we got picked up from the airport to the moment we dragged our butts off the plane, the weekend was absolutely epic. Here is our day to day account of what it’s like to party with the best of them at the Burton US Open.

Day 1 – Thursday

Our alarms were blowing up at 5:30am and it was time to get this party started. We made it to O’Hare to meet up with the rest of the crew and we headed out. We touched down in Denver and immediately hit the road to Vail. There was a full day of fun ahead of us and we were ready to get moving. We didn’t make it in time to ride, which was a bummer, but we did make it in time to attend an invite-only Burton Girls Apres Ride event that was incredible! We walked in the door and were welcomed with glasses of champagne and a killer sushi bar. One room was set up for massages and the other was filled with the lovely ladies of the Paul Mitchell academy.

So let me recap this for you – champagne, sushi, massages and free hair services? Yes, we had died and gone to heaven. We owe all the ladies involved in that event a HUGE thank you. And an extra special shout out to the massage therapists and the rad ladies from the Paul Mitchell School for hooking up our hair!  After the ladies event wrapped up, we were carted off to the Burton Vail house – a gorgeous cabin in the woods that filled to the brim with all the demo Burton gear you could ever imagine, a built-in keg orator in the garage and a sweet mini-hatchet that Amanda found. Drinks with the fam ensued and the highlight of the night was getting to control the tunes on the Turtle Bus.

Day 2 – Friday

We woke up to blue skies and the best spring temps you could ask for. We planned to catch some of the slopestyle finals that day so we wanted to hit the gondola first thing and get in as much riding as we could before the contest started. I’ve been all over Colorado but this was my first trip to Vail and the place is incredible. After a few hot laps we made our way over to where the Open was taking place.

Seeing a 70 foot jump in person is NO joke! We were treated to the full VIP experience and can’t thank our Burton Fam enough for the amazing hookup. We had a killer viewing area where we could watch the majority of the comp on a jumbotron and were able to see the final jump from where we were. After a full day of some truly impressive riding, Jamie Anderson held it down for the ladies and Kyle Mack took it home for the guys. The rest of Friday was filled with some fun tree runs and just an all around awesome day on the mountain. We showered up and it time was party. Big Grams was everything we hoped they would be live, and we wrapped up the night with some friendly dice games at ‘Club 107’.

Day 3 – Saturday

Time really does fly when you are having fun.. Saturday morning came fast but there’s no time for hangovers when it comes to snowboarding. After all, fresh air is good for that, right? I was able to link up with one of my oldest snowboarding homies and we hit it hard Saturday morning (despite the headache) and boy was it worth it. Blue bird skies for the second day in a row and temps in the 40’s had us feeling much better and the day was off to a perfect start. Making it over to the half pipe was a priority so we linked up with the rest of the gang and headed to the finals. The pipe finals were pretty amazing. Seeing that level of speed, air and awesome in person is pretty incredible. Chloe Kim continues to absolutely blow our minds and Shaun came back in real hot after a few years away from the spotlight. And I always have to give all the style points to my guy Danny Davis.

Side note – probably my favorite part of the weekend was witnessing a massive pipe poacher run. This happened.

We were treated to one of the most incredible sushi dinners after an amazing day of snowboarding and at this point in the trip, things really could not get better. We cleaned up for the big closing party and got after it. Quote of the trip “We had ALL the fun”.

Before we knew it, that turn down alarm was going off and it was time to throw up the white flag. The 6am wake up time was getting closer and closer and missing that damn shuttle was NOT an option. We said goodbye to all our Burton fam and headed in for the night.

We can’t thank our Midwest Burton fam enough for bringing us along to this year’s Open. The hospitality we felt from start to finish was second to none and the entire weekend was SUCH a blast.

We hope you all enjoyed reliving this hilarious weekend with us! Until next year…NIPS!