If you haven't seen Benny Milam's latest edit for Red Bull Snow, let's start there:
Benny Milam's name has found its way on the global stage several times over the past few years through Red Bull Snow, but Benny Milam has always found a way to embrace the Midwest Snowboard scene. From shredding a makeshift lake house on a frozen lake to airing out some hay bales in a snow-covered farm field, Benny is a prime example that you don't need more than a couple of hundred (or none!) vertical feet to become a great rider or skier.
The Enchanted Forest Project:
Yesterday Benny did it again, creating another banger edit for Red Bull Snow, Re Bull's snow sports YouTube page. This video followed Benny as he ripped through the summer woodlands at Trollhaugen in Dresser, Wisconsin. A ribbon of snow just wide enough to get to a snowboard on carved a path for Milam to hit several jibs and features, but how did they pull this off?
Filming the Impossible:
Although the video looks to be one seamless shot, this was done across multiple days and took hundreds of hours of labor to pull off. Snow was pulled from a snowbank piled high from late last season. Adam Mahler (Mountain Manger) and his team at Troll covered a large pile of snow at the end of the season with hay and wrapped it with a white tarp. This protected it from the sun and helped keep it preserved throughout the summer months. This snow has traditionally been used as an unofficial ski season kick-off during Trollhaugen's Open-Haugen, but it seems they have found another use for it. Since many of the filming spots were in tight locations, snow was wheelbarrowed to each of the features, which took hours of labor each morning. It took an entire week in June to pull off the shoot, and of course, the weather happened to be hot! Temperatures were at or above ninety degrees throughout the week, which added to all of the work.
Building the Features:
Milan crushed the riding in this piece, but it made us wonder was how those features he was riding on got there in the first place. That question is best directed to Matthew "Boody" Boudreaux, who spent weeks leading up to the shoot, designing and building features throughout the woods of Trollhaugen. He would end up building over thirteen different features using timbers sourced right at Trollhaugen. Even more impressive Boody used rope to build all but a couple of the features, adding to the natural esthetic of the piece. And before you go looking for all of these features, they have already been dismantled for the safety of the winter guests.
Don't Fly Over These States:
Benny Milam is yet another excellent example of how the Midwest can shape some top-level snowboarding and skiers. Although we may not have five thousand vertical we make it up with our rope tows, hard work, and maybe a couple of PBRs.
If you want to watch some of Benny Milam's other pieces, you can check those out below.