TJ Schiller walked out of his hotel room into the inviting Bend, OR sunshine and said, "It's the end of the season and my body still feels good. And you know, I've had a great season." It was a subtle way of saying what we were all thinking: "I'm not going to be the guy to guinea that jump today." The big jump of the PBP park shoot at Mt. Bachelor measured in at 110 feet from lip to knuckle and was touted by the Bend Bulletin to be the "largest jump ever built at Mt. Bachelor." It seemed that we'd have to straightline from a half-mile up the hill from out of sight of the jump to make it to the landing. But maybe that straightline wasn't enough. Even worse, maybe that straightline would launch you into a huge drop to the flats well past the landing. Hard saying without ever hitting it.
With this in mind, TJ, Simon Dumont, and I took lap after lap, tucking into the jump only to side-slip up the takeoff instead of speeding off of it. Each time the first of us began another iteration of this routine, the other two would stand and watch, wondering, hoping, that that terrible first hit was finally about to go down. After about an hour of our posturing, Tim Durtschi showed up, speed checked the jump once, watched others speed check for about ten minutes, and then did a straight air to make TJ, Simon, and I feel perhaps a little too smart for our own good.
WATCH! Tim Durtschi guineas "largest jump ever built at Mt. Bachelor." NBD.
Minutes later, this dude sidled up to Tim, congratulated him for "actually having some balls," and got on the chair with him. He asked Tim several other questions during the chair ride, and skied with us to the newly established start point (for speed). By that point, we all figured that he must have been a buddy of Tim's. He stayed behind though, when Tim took his second hit and let all us other guys without balls follow him in to get the speed right. I guess he needed another second to think, gather his nerve, meditate, clear his head, empty his head, or whatever. On our way up the chair, we all saw this:
WATCH! Random dude hits "largest jump ever built at Mt. Bachelor." Kind of a big deal.
Soon thereafter, Tim ammended that he didn't know the guy, or consult with him about the jump in any depth or detail whatsoever.