Red Bull Bonus Track Brought Snowboarding’s Elite To Wisconsin

The historic dumping of snow the 2022-23 season brought across many parts of the U.S. have kept resorts out West open far longer than is typical.

But in the Upper Midwest, where the snow season at local hills is always shorter and sweeter than in places positioned above sea level, summer is in full swing. In fact, in April, multiple towns in Wisconsin set new record highs with temperatures in the mid-80s.

If one were looking to hold a rail-jam-style snowboarding contest in June, then, Wisconsin wouldn’t seem like the first place that would come to mind. But that’s precisely what Red Bull did with its Bonus Track event at Trollhaugen Resort in Dresser.

On June 10—with the day’s high temperature reaching 74 degrees—a field of 32 snowboarders, including top professionals and elite riders local to the Upper Midwest, paired up to ride a wooden rail course in the forest of Trollhaugen that was designed, built and maintained by the resort’s park crew. Frequent Red Bull collaborator Frankiebird Inc. served as the production company on hand to bring the vision to life.

The crew’s level of preparation and dedication included cutting and curing the wooden features in May so that they would ride smooth while also storing away piles of snow at the end of the ski season that were then trucked back onto the hill the day before the contest.

On contest day, each two-rider crew had five hours to ride and film the course, cramming in as many unique lines and tricks as they could, and then two hours to edit together a 60-second clip of their best content. Rather than the contest being judged as it happened, the judging panel (Dew Tour Gold Medalist Alexis Hernandez-Roland, professional snowboarder Dan Liedahl, snowboard videographer Justin Myer and Torment Magazine co-ownerf Jon Stark) solely considered the video submissions.

The who’s-who list of riders included Red Bull Athletes Benny Milam, Grace Warner, Luke Winkelmann, Brock Crouch and Craig McMorris, as well as 2023 Red Bull Heavy Metal winner Pat Fava, X Games silver medalist Ryan Paul, 2023 Video Part of the Year Winner Mike Liddle and Dew Tour silver medalist Egan Wint.

(The full list of competitors can be found here.)

There were no set guidelines for filming. Some pairs had a designated filmer and a designated rider and used both follow-cam and fixed-cam techniques. Others saw both riders taking to the features.

At the event’s afterparty at the historic Trollhaugen Chalet, the riders enjoyed premiered their videos to a cheering crowd.

The judges selected Sam Anderson (Cross Plains, WI) and Pete Croasdale (Lakeville, MN) as the winners of the $5,000 grand prize—and bragging rights. Anderson and Croasdale got together in the days before the event to nail down a cohesive vision for their edit.

“We wanted it to have a beginning, middle and end so it wouldn’t just feel like a collection of clips,” Anderson said. “We wanted it to be cohesive, and luckily we ended up finding a song that had some of these qualities. From there, we laid out how many clips we wanted in each section and started thinking of trick ideas.”

The creativity and editing in their clip were what helped seal the deal for Anderson and Croasdale. In addition to snowboarding clips, they intercut shots of them riding their bikes through downtown Minneapolis with their snowboards strapped to their backs.

Anderson explained that he and Croasdale have different riding styles that complement one another and contributed to a more well-rounded edit. Croasdale didn’t waste any time stepping up to the scarier features, while Anderson focused on smaller, more technical riding and tricks.

“One of my favorite tricks I did was a 50-50 backside 180 to switch 50-50,” Croasdale told me. “I originally wanted to spin more, but I almost hit the tree. It worked out for the better and the 180 looked much cleaner!”

With 10 minutes left in the contest, Croasdale was eyeing an ambitious 50-50 front 3 50-50 on the battleship rail (up-flat-down). Anderson was somewhat apprehensive, given how tired the pair were after nearly five hours of riding. But after some warm-ups, with one minute left in the contest, Croasdale landed the trick on the first try, solidfying the ender to their clip.

“It was a real last second buzzer-beater clip!” Anderson said.

“I really liked the edits with a lot of personality,” judge Hernandez-Roland said. “We know that all of these riders are really good, and they all have really solid tricks, but what put the winners over the top was the creative personality they put into their edit. That’s not to say that the snowboarding wasn’t top level! These wooden rails made for a gnarly course! Most of us ride steel rails all year, and those are smooth. But wood is bumpy and kind of wonks you around, so every trick out there was legit.”

Egan Wint and Sierra Forchheimer took second place and a prize of $2,000. The two best trick prizes, for $500 each, were awarded to Rob Roethler for a switch backside 360 gap to the downrail and Cole Solner for a stylish kneeslide on one of the wooden bars.

The contest was loosely inspired by Benny Milam’s “Enchanted Forest” project with Red Bull last year, a video that highlighted not only Milam’s skills but also the creativity often engendered by Midwest riding.

The Chisago City, Minnesota, native was more than happy to have a full crew join him in the forest outside Trollhaugen this time around.

“Filming for Enchanted Forest was an incredible time, but the only downside to it was having to snowboard by myself,” Milam told me. “Obviously there were some homies there, but there’s something different about having them watch you versus riding with you. Everything is better with friends, and that’s where the Bonus Track concept came in.”

And in spite of its lack of powder, the Midwest has earned respect from big-name pro snowboarders for its assortment of streetstyle features and rail riding, or jibbing.

“Believe it or not, that 300-foot vertical hill we call Trollhaugen is a Mecca for rail snowboarding,” Milam said. “So having big names come through is not uncommon, at least during the winter. [But] it was really cool to give these guys a taste of how we do it in the summertime. Not only did we slay the fish and have back-to-back bonfires, but we listened to Prince while doing so.”

“Could it get any more Minnesotan?” Milam added. “Winkelmann even caught a walleye!”

Since he moved to Minneapolis last fall from Madison, Wisconsin, Trollhaugen has been the main hill Anderson rides. (Dresser, Wisconsin, is located just over the border from Minnesota.) And even though Trollhaugen isn’t Croasdale’s home hill, he grew up participating in contests there.

All the riders emphasized that this event would not have been possible without the dedication of the resort’s park staff.

“[Mountain manager] Adam Mahler and his team do such a great job with events like this,” Croasdale said. “Even the Buck Hill Cat driver, Miles, hopped in the Cat and started pushing snow because they were behind schedule.”

Events like this are helping shed more light on the midwest snowboard scene, Anderson said. “Even though the Midwest doesn’t have the tallest hills, there’s so much talent and passion for snowboarding that isn’t always seen.”

And Croasdale, who started out in contest riding but now films street video parts, has appreciated having a low-key competitive outlet with Red Bull’s emphasis on smaller rail-jam-style contests. (The brand has also recently held streetstyle events like Red Bull Heavy Metal, the Slide-In Tour and Red Bull Rail Yard.)

“For a while I’ve missed getting together with everyone and having friendly competition, but these Red Bull contests have filled that void perfectly,” Croasdale said.

As for how the winners plan to spend their prize money? “We tried to honor the 10% rule, but the hotel bar was closed, so I guess it’s just going in the savings account,” Anderson said.