Cloudveil athlete and accomplished filmmaker Jon Klaczkiewicz started work last winter with our support to film the story of the Jackson Hole Air Force. This documentary style film, tracing the history of a renegade band of skiers who changed boundary policies and spawned some of the greatest all mountain skiers ever is due out this Fall. We’ll have more posts on it in the coming months to get you up to speed.

We just returned from Outdoor Retailer in SLC where we wanted to hold an event that promoted the film and brought a little of that Jackson heritage to the show floor. The answer, Gelande Quaffing. A brief history of the “sport”:

“In 1986, the skis were skinny and the snow was fat, and during a 14 foot storm, the infamous underground crew of the Jackson Hole Air Force was going stir crazy in the Bear Claw Café, waiting for the mountain to open. In those days, the bartender would send a freshly filled beer mug sliding down the bar to the patron who ordered it. One fateful night a beer mug slid off the end of the bar, took air, was caught seconds before a glass-shattering catastrophe, and promptly pounded. Gelande Quaffing was born.”

We talked David Gonzales over at thesnaz.com into coming down with his camera to film the festivities. Special thanks to the four teams that competed: Smith, Cloudveil, Mountain Khakis, and Horny Toad. After an action packed first round, Smith and Mountain Khakis faced off in the championship with the boys from MK coming out on top.