Take the Rake x Beyond the Boundaries: Weekend for Women
This season, Trollhaugen’s well-known event, Take the Rake, looked a little different. For its fifth year, instead of spending an entire week designing and building a park set in Valhalla, alumni submitted their design ideas ahead of time and came together on Thursday, December 11th, to bring the plan to life on Tomtebakken. For those unfamiliar with Trollhaugen’s layout, Valhalla is the large, advanced terrain park, while Tomtebakken is a more beginner-friendly located directly in front of the chalet, perfect for easy viewing while sipping beer or hot cocoa.
Watching a terrain park come to life is always special, and this build was no exception. It involves many moving parts, from snow cat drivers pushing jumps and pads into place, skid steers placing features, and then diggers perfecting feature placement and sculpting take-offs and landings. Seeing that collaboration unfold in real time is a reminder of how much creativity and effort goes into the parks we ride.
This year’s Take the Rake was also extra special thanks to Beyond the Boundaries, a women’s snowboard camp that travels to destinations around the world, who hosted a ride day the second year in a row. Many TTR alumni joined the BTBounds session, which drew over 50 participants. With so few women’s snowboard events in the Midwest, the weekend created a valuable space to ride together, receive coaching, and build lasting connections.
The energy carried into the evening with a women’s and non-binary rail jam on the freshly built Tomtebakken park. While the temps continued to drop well into the negatives, these ladies stayed warm lapping the tow rope while professional snowboarder and TTR alum Egan Wint announced prizes and praised riders for getting out of their comfort zone. Over all, this event will be one of my favorites of the season I have no doubt.
