Hey all,

Hope everyone has had a great summer, fall is in the air and the 2011-2012 season is right around the corner. I’ve been getting a lot of questions recently concerning our terrain park staff and the availability of positions for this season, so here are (most of) your answers. There are indeed positions available on this year’s park staff. The exact positions available and the number of these positions are yet to be determined, but they will be known in the coming weeks. There will be a number of entry level park crew positions open this season. These positions typically include daily terrain park maintenance, installation of new features, patrolling for proper terrain park etiquette and safety, and working freestyle events. In order to apply for these positions, please visit Toggenburg during pre-season operating hours to obtain and fill out an application. Applications are also available via the skitog.com website under the “Employment” tab. You must be at least 16 years of age with reliable transportation to apply for a terrain park staff position. The deadline for applications will be November 1st. Please wait to see what specific positions are available before submitting an application. Once the open positions are posted (within the next couple weeks), please indicate the position you are most interested in on the application. Applications can then be dropped off to the main office or mailed to Toggenburg marked “ATTN: Terrain Park”. Any further questions can be asked below in the comments or sent to toggparkcrew@gmail.com. Thanks for the interest and we look forward to another great season at Toggenburg!

Nick
Toggenburg Parks

So the first ever Toggenburg Super Sessions has come and gone. First off, wow. The four edits that were dropped for the competition were incredible. Four totally different styles, each one brining something super unique to the table. Awesome stuff.

All the edits were shown on the big screen this past Saturday night to a crowd of eager riders. Keith Carter took the honors for Best Vibe in his video, and Nate G-D held down the Best Photography award. As for the TOSS Champion, it couldn’t have been any closer, literally. Only 1 point out of 300 separated the first and second place finishers. But in the end, Sean Horan and Team Royalty Nine edged out Keith Carter and Team Gaper Squad to take the first ever TOSS title. Congratulations to Sean and all the filmers for putting together some sick edits that surpassed all expectations. Head over to the media page to check out the four entries, and keep an eye out for TOSS 2.0, coming back even bigger and better next season. Cheers!

Nick
Toggenburg Parks

Here is the complete run down of the Toggenburg Super Sessions, going down February 19th-26th. All teams must pre-register before February 19th by sending an e-mail to toggparkcrew@gmail.com with your team name and the name of all your team members. Discounted lift tickets will be available to all team members who do not have a Toggenburg pass for only $20 a day. Happy filming!

THE IDEA

The Toggenburg Super Sessions (TOSS) is based on the long-running event, The Jon Olsson Invitational. Professional Swedish skier, Jon Olsson, invites the best riders in the world to his home mountain to ride, film, and create video edits of the event. The athletes receive full rock star treatment and session some of the world’s nicest features. We may not put you up in the Hilton for a week, and you may not be hitting 120 foot jumps, but we will have the park in prime condition for your riding and filming pleasure. Teams will have 7 days to film at Toggenburg and create a video edit of their week. The event will culminate at the TOSS Awards on February 26th at 7:00PM where all the entries will be shown on the big screen in the mezzanine of the main lodge. One team will go home with the grand prize purse at the end of the night and awards will be handed out for sub-categories such as best filming, best editing, best theme, etc.

THE TEAMS

Each team will consist of a videographer, photographer, skier, snowboarder, and grom. The videographer will act as the team captain. The captain can choose to have a photographer, or they can act as the photographer themselves. They will also be required to choose one skier, one snowboarder, and one grom (any skier or snowboarder 15 years or younger). Riders may not be used by more than one captain and teams can not be changed after the competition starts. This means if there is an injury throughout the course of the week, no riders may be substituted. Choose your team wisely. And remember, this event is open to rider and filmers of all ability levels, it’s all about having fun. If you think you and your friends will have a good time, get a team together!

VIDEO REQUIREMENTS

There are some strict rules that need to be followed in the production of the video edits. All filming must be done at Toggenburg, between February 19th and 25th. Any video with shots from other locations will not be allowed in the judging. This is an honor system that we trust everyone will follow very closely. Edits may not contain any vulgar language, obscene gestures, or offensive material (this goes for both the riders and the music used in the edit). Basically, if you wouldn’t show it to your mom, keep it out of the video. The videos will be publicly shown at the TOSS Awards, any edit that’s deemed inappropriate will not be allowed in the competition. Keep it clean or don’t bother entering. Each team will be required to incorporate at least ten still photos into their edit. Creativity with the photo presentations will be rewarded. Videos can be no longer than 5 minutes and MUST be uploaded to Vimeo, no other formats will be accepted. A link to the video must be e-mailed to toggparkcrew@gmail.com with the subject “TOSS Video Entry”, no later than 8:00PM on Friday, February 25th. This is a strict deadline, no entries received after this deadline will be allowed.

JUDGING CRITERIA

Judging will be evenly based on five categories: videography, photography, editing, athlete performance, and overall impression (creativity, theme, feel, etc.). Each category will be worth 20 points, allowing for a maximum of 100 points. Take note that while the riding in the video is obviously an important aspect, the majority of the judging revolves around the talents, ideas, and performance of the people behind the lens. We urge all the teams to come up with creative themes, intros, and/or story lines for their videos. And even though everything must be filmed at Toggenburg, that doesn’t mean it needs to be filmed in the park. Venture outside of the terrain park and get creative with your riding and your filming. The run of the mill, day in the park edit isn’t going to cut it in this competition. Any questions about the Toggenburg Super Sessions can be directed to Nick at toggparkcrew@gmail.com

« Filed under Uncategorized »

I’ve been getting a ton of questions about the Goat Pen lately, the In-Saanen Park as well for that matter. First off, I apologize for the lack of a Goat Pen to this point. It was decided that it’s location last year was too narrow, so this year it was going to be moved just below last year’s setup in the meadow above trail 9. Unfortunately, snowmaking in the meadow did not pan out and it was just decided this past week that the guns would not be fired up again this season. This is why the Goat Pen has not been set up, with only a thin base of natural snow, there is no way to set up a park there. With that said, we will be moving the Goat Pen features into the In-Saanen Park this week. Look for them down skier’s right of the top section of the park. The other issue I’d like to address deals with the overall state of the In-Saanen Park. Up until this past week, we thought more snowmaking would be happening in the In-Saanen Park as well. Like the Goat Pen, we didn’t have a chance to hit the In-Saanen Park again. This is why gaps have been left without features, as they would have been buried had snowmaking occurred. We will be moving to our plan B park layout and we’ll have it jam packed full of features this week. Again, I apologize for the late Goat Pen opening and slow In-Saanen start, but at this point we have the green light to finish everything up without having to worry about the possibility of more snowmaking. Hopefully this has answered some questions that people have had so far this season, feel free to post any others you may have and I’ll be sure to shoot you a reply. I’m really excited to finally finish things up, I think you’ll all be stoked on the outcome. Peace…

Nick
Toggenburg Parks

2/10/11 UPDATE: A 5′ table and a 10′ table have been built at the top of the park and are ready to rip. The 2- 12′ flat boxes will be moved up to the top of the park as well, one as an up box and one as a flat box. One of the 24′ flat boxes will also be moved up the hill and set up nice and low to the ground, should be really good for learning new box tricks. We also hope to get the c-box in before the weekend. Back to work, should be a fun comp on Saturday!

Dropping a quick line to let everyone know that we’ve made some changes to the remaining events in this year’s schedule. We’ve rescheduled the box jam to go down on the same day as the air comp (2 for 1 entry), the An& Brand Togg Takeover has been pushed back to early March, TOSS will be going down as scheduled, and the two park jams have been combined into one mega event with a new twist for this year. Check out the events page for all the info!

Nick
Toggenburg Parks

With the first ever TOSS only a month away, I figured it was a good time to drop some more info about the event. If you haven’t heard already, The Toggenburg Super Sessions are a miniature spin off of the incredibly successful Jon Olsson Super Sessions in Are, Sweden. We don’t quite have the budget that Mr. Olsson has, but we will certainly have a sick park to ride and we know how to have fun. Unlike other competitions, this is a competition for the filmmakers. They will have a week to film and edit footage from the week of February 19th-25th. All filming must be done at Toggenburg within this time frame. We contemplated adding area urban to the criteria, but seeing how it is indeed illegal to shred handrails on someone else’s property, we thought better of it. Feel free to get creative with where you ride on the mountain, don’t think that the terrain park is the only place you can film sick riding. We encourage the edits to have some sort of theme/intro/unique feel. The stock day in the park edit isn’t going to cut it in this competition. The TOSS Awards will be held at Toggenburg on Feb. 26th at 7:00PM. All the edits will be shown at the awards show, and a winner will be crowned. So to all the filmers out there, get brainstorming. More information about rules, judging, riders, and prizes will be dropping in the coming weeks, so stay tuned…

Nick
Toggenburg Parks

Hey all, dropping a much needed update on the parks and everything that’s been going on. We’ve been prepping rails and waiting for the frigid temperatures that are on the way this weekend. After one more pounding from the snow guns, the Goat Pen will be opened with smaller features, the In-Saanen Park will be stocked full of jibs and 3 more jumps, and park passes will finally go into effect. After the guns are turned off early next week, it will be game on! The slopestyle course will be prime for next Saturday’s event, sponsored by the Ski Company. For the course, you can tentatively expect a down box/down rail option, into an up box/f-d rail option, into a 20-30′ step down, into a 30-40′ step down. We’re really stoked to finally have both parks open and jammed full of features, we think you’ll be pleased with the finished product. Get stoked!

UPDATE 1/27/11: Temperatures didn’t quite pan out for more snowmaking this week, so the slopestyle course will be rail option, rail option, jump. Short, but sweet indeed. Snowmaking is now scheduled for this weekend when temperatures are supposed to drop again. The parks will be jammed full of features right after the snowmaking is finished. Sorry for the delay, but it’s coming!

Nick
Toggenburg Parks

The first freestyle team session will be this Sunday, January 9th at 10AM. If you are interested in the joining the team, this will be the latest time in which you can pay and be guaranteed an official team issue An& Brand sweatshirt. Check the previous freestyle team post for all the information on how things will be run this season, cost, what is included, etc. Here are the dates of the 5 sessions, all on Sundays:

Jan. 9th
Jan. 23rd
Feb. 6th
Feb. 20th
Mar. 13th (Session and Team Party)

If you are interested in signing up, please contact Nick at toggparkcrew@gmail.com or 683-5842 ex. 24. Thanks!

Nick
Toggenburg Terrain Parks

Just wanted to drop a line to update everyone on this season’s park safety program. If you aren’t familiar with our past programs, here’s a little rundown. We implemented a park pass program two seasons ago which made it mandatory for all riders to obtain a park pass before entering the In-Saanen Terrain Park. In order to get a park pass, all riders needed to watch a 15 minute safety video as well as fill out, sign, and return a waiver to Toggenburg. This program proved to be successful and eliminated many of the problems that were occurring in previous seasons. With the majority of our riders having sit through the safety video already and cooperating with our safety program, we feel it is no longer necessary to have the video as a requirement. This season, riders will simply need to read through a short park safety summary and submit a signed safety waiver in order to obtain their In-Saanen Park Pass. If you have a blue pass from last season, it will still be valid this year (despite the ‘09-’10 date on the pass). If you do not have a blue pass already, you will need to complete the easy requirements before entering the In-Saanen Park. Park passes will go into effect once the Goat Pen Progression Park has been opened. In an effort to continue spreading the good word about terrain park safety, we will increase the number of safety oriented signs displayed in and around the terrain parks. Simply put, terrain parks are one of the most dangerous places on the mountain, but with everyone’s cooperation we can make ours a safer place to ride. Join the park safety movement!

Nick
Toggenburg Terrain Parks

Happy Holidays! Christmas is here, snow is everywhere, and the park has officially opened! The In-Saanen Park had a “soft” opening yesterday with 4 features in addition to the 3 rail garden features at the bottom of main. You probably noticed that the 4 features were spread out in random spots along the way down. This was done in order to accommodate even more snowmaking in the coming days. The park will continue to be hammered with snow starting this weekend and going straight through the week. We hope to be back in the park shaping for the “grand” opening mid to late week. You can expect to see the In-Saanen park growing for the next couple weeks, as well as the opening of the Goat Pen park. Right now, the name of the game is snowmaking, so hang tight and you’ll be shredding top to bottom sickness in no time! Don’t forget that the Holiday Rail Jam is this Tuesday. We will be setting up a 3 feature deck at the bottom of the In-Saanen Park on Monday which will be opened Tuesday morning for practice. Merry Christmas!

Nick
Toggenburg Parks