On Thursday, the controversial Red Bull Supernatural snowboarding contest opened in the Selkirk Mountains in British Columbia. , the project includes more than 80 jumps and ramps set into the side of a 45-degree slope. Construction required clearing and topping trees on public lands and has upset some in the snowboarding community, including Utah snowboarder and backcountry advocate Warren Smith. “I’m not a bleeding heart tree hugger, Smith to Red Bull, “but I’ve sat in meetings where land managers, politicians, and conservation leaders point to unsanctioned structures as reason to ban tax-paying recreationalists from public lands.” Seventeen of the , including Terje Håkonsen and Nicolas Müller, are scheduled to compete. The contest will be filmed by helicopters and broadcast as by NBC as a two-hour special on March 31.
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