DC MOUNTAIN LAB - A REVIEW

By Ben Fee

This year proves to be the year snowboard movies have gotten sick of themselves. Their old ways are getting kicked further and further to the curb by embracing destinations, teams, and privately owned snowboard wonderlands as DNA over the formulaic cut n’ paste banger/lifestyle part.

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The DC Mtn. Lab video reinvents the snowboard film, and it’s pretty bitchin’. In order for Ken Block (DC CEO) to achieve the masterpiece he originally envisioned, he called upon Pierre Wikberg (Former Robot Food wizard) to bring it to fruition. The Mtn. Lab video radiates the character and skill that made Pierre the most emulated and revolutionary snowboard filmmaker in recent years.

For those of you unaware of what this project is, it goes like this: DC, in order to make their R&D department the best it could be, purchased a mountain with its own deluxe base lodge. They riddled this mountain with a menagerie of rails and jumps. Then they called in their team for stints of on-hill product testing while flexing their strength as a unit. If they were a muscle, they would be the gluteus maximus of a skier babe—firm, dedicated, large, talented and often funny to watch.

The viewer gets to see the construction of new shreddable entities such as a through-house runway to box-to-drop and a line of cat gaps. Like the Robot Food movies, The Mtn. Lab balances laughs with, “Holy Crap’s.” Travis Parker and Todd Richards get hot n’ neon for some pipe slaughtering in between hula-hoop shredding and jump killing. Travis Rice does his Rice thing—finding infinite amounts of lines and possibilities on the mountain. Eddie Wall drops jaws with a line that would wow the gold medal winner of the Canadian Snow Triathlon (I will not divulge further). They don’t just stick to their lab, they venture to contests and take road trips to show how they fare off their home mountain.

Watching the Mtn. Lab video is like watching a bunch of 10 year olds get dropped off at a Toys R Us with no employees in sight and telling the kids to do whatever they want. Supposedly there are 1.5 hours of extras too. Definitely the surprise video of the year. Air five to DC, Pierre, and all parties involved.

Reader Comments

Posted Mon May12, 2008, 1:40 PM — By adam mcninch

DOOOODS the dc mt, lab was so sweet, goin to in and out all dasys. all day long with dubble mess no animal house. next time i get there i hope there is more snow. but hopefully t\heree wuill be peaec doods.

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