Apr 8: Spring Storm

The season is changing. It's full spring one day, deep winter the next.
A big spring storm nailed the Wasatch, providing some terrific late season skiing.

Cait Morgan rips it through the trees.

Then it became so snowy that the camera could barely see anything. What it did see, however, was strange...
This guy has a tree for a head. (Nate Blouin)

And this guy only has a head.

Wet and gray, the camera stayed in the bag the rest of the day.

April 5: Early Bird

Early tram laps at the Bird, with Cait Morgan.
Ever had a 125-person tram to yourself?

I recommend it. It'll make you feel like this:

At the top, though, the wind was whipping!
Sand blaster to the face.

No wonder the tram was empty.
We got some cool shots but we dropped the gear after a few loops and took a couple fun laps.

Mar 11: More FWT

Freeskiing World Tour @ Snowbird.

Vanessa Aadland's run, shot with a long lens. It's cool to see the variety of images taken without moving positions.

She put down a sick line. We thought it would score very well. The judges didn't quite agree. Hmm.
She still finished in the top 10 and advanced to the next round.

Mar 9: FWT Snowbird

The Freeskiing World Tour is at Snowbird this week.
The weather was crap today, but it was still fun to watch.
Here are some images from the Day 1 Qualifiers.

Erin Bragg, working through the terrain.

Another competitor finds her line.

This fella airs one out.

Another drop.

And some style.

Yeehaw.

Compare this one to an image posted by FWT (by Billy Swan). We were ~15' apart, with similar lenses.

Leave a ski at the top --> Uh oh!

Here's the lower half of a double stage. (click to enlarge)

Jan 21: New Ideas

It's fun skiing new terrain, finding new features, meeting new athletes, and trying new ideas.

Snowbird was pretty tracked out, but we found a few small lines with clean snow. This one got hit just before we arrived, but Becky still makes it look good.

It's impossible to ignore that slash down the middle, so we looked for other isolated features.
Alan found this, but the rock and ice entrance was too sketchy to ski it well.

Becky found a few turns on the other side.

I can't help but put in a photo tip....
Check these two images, taken from opposite sides of the same line.
The first one, shot as a landscape (wide), stretches the terrain horizontally, diminishing the height of the drop. It makes it look small and flat.

The second one, shot as a portrait (tall), stretches the terrain vertically, increasing the height of the drop. It makes it look tall(er) and steep.

Include a chairlift in the background, (and a blue sky), and the second image is much more interesting.
Neither is very special, but it's good to compare images to see what works and what doesn't.

To get something special, we found one open patch and hit it two ways.
(Consider this a teaser for a concept I am working on.)

Another good day of skiing and shooting.
More tomorrow.