At first glance, you might think this is just another weird slopestyle course. It’s not. It was dreamed up by Austrian snowboarder Clemens Millauer, who tasked himself with a specific accomplishment: to get through a perfect run.
Getting through a slopestyle course without any hiccups isn’t all that rare, but once again, this is more than just another slopestyle course. It’s a snowboard version of an American Ninja Warriors Gauntlet.
“Clemens had this idea of like a Ninja-style course. Something that was tight. Every feature going straight to the next,” says park builder Charles Beckinsale.
For reference, the typical slopestyle course you’d see at the X Games has anywhere from six to eight features extending through a 1,700-foot-long track. A regulation Olympic slopestyle course must be at least 30 meters wide.
Millauer’s course: 10 features, just 400 meters (~1,300 feet), and only four meters wide. All of that leaves room for absolutely no errors, no loss of momentum, and no room to veer even slightly off course while transfering from one feature to the next.
“When I rode the course for the first time, I immediately realized it was going to be a huge challenge. I was actually a little nervous that I might have taken on too much,” he said. “Then suddenly something clicked. Once I made it over the wall for the first time, I started to get a better and better feel for it.”
The balance beams and wallrides, by the way, were in the first half of the entire course. It took around 20 attempts to get past them both for the first time.
“You know why I’m so angry?” Millauer asks after attempt number 25. “I’m so angry because every time I fail, I know that I need to go back up this ladder and then jump over the balance beams. That’s the worst. Like it was all for nothing in this moment.”
