The Glory Days
A Brief History of Killington Snowboarding Brooke Geery reflects on her Killington roots and The Beast’s influence on snowboarding’s (r)evolution
photos by Gary Land & Tim Zimmerman
F
or me, Killington is where it all started. It was where I progressed from side slipping to linking turns. Where I learned to hit jumps and ride a halfpipe. Where I discovered that there were people who got paid to snowboard. Where I really fell in love with the sport and decided it was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I was just a teenager who could barely air out of the pipe when I started a snowboard website called Yobeat on free space that came with my AOL account—just two megabytes. At first I used it to cover the Killington scene. Now, 18 years later, Yobeat is my full-time job and one of the biggest snowboard websites in the world. And I feel like I have the mountain to thank. It wasn’t just the terrain, or Killington’s strong support of snowboarding culture, but the scene and the people that truly inspired me to pursue snowboarding as a job. And I’m not alone—a lot of people who rode at The Beast in those early days are still involved in the snowboard biz in some capacity.
Ian Spiro, vintage method. Gary Land
110 A Brief History
Right place, right time? Definitely. If not for growing up at Killington, I have no idea what I would be doing right now. But I can pretty much bet it wouldn’t be nearly as awesome. www.killington.com