PICTURES BY ROB NORBUTT
Probably the first things you’ll notice are the contrasts: the brilliant cobalt blue sky against terracotta red mesas, flecked by juniper green dots. Or you may notice the billowy cottonball clouds against the dry air, strongly scented with sagebrush. But come the middle of October in Virgin, Utah, the biggest contrast – the one everyone has come here to see – is the age-old ‘man against mountain’. More precisely, Red Bull Rampage is ‘man against desert’ where as Edward Abbey predicted: “An increasingly pagan and hedonistic people (thank God!), we are learning finally that the forests and mountains and desert canyons are holier than our churches.” The Church of Freeride is holding its annual pilgrimage.
Glamping it is not.