May 1: Speed Check

Here's a brief teaser from 6 days on the Green River.

On day 5, I finally found a good line with a nice landing.

Stepping out the in-run. (Removing thorns.)

Waiting for the light. (Cursing the wind.)

Speed check?  It's already been speed checked.
Ahh... fuckitsendit.

Thanks to TJ for the camera assist.

April 11: Spring Cliffs

Spring is trying to break through, but the skiing is still so good!
We made some beautiful deep turns, then focused on a few cliffs.

Standing under this cornice is not as scary as it looks. But approaching the steep blind lip of this cliff is scarier than it looks. (So said Nicole, Sarah and Cascade [pictured].)

And yes, as I was setting up my camera some backcountry-Bob tele-beater put that ugly turn in the foreground. *sigh*

We hit this a few times, and a couple other ones too.
Then it warmed up and turned into water skiing.

More snow due this week.

Apr 10: Red Rocks

Forecast called for heaps of snow in southern Utah.

We chased it. Drove 5 hours through rain wind graupel ice...

Saw one car spin off I-15 @ ~70mph. Crazy!

Got there late, took a sunset lap, and returned through this sparkly boulevard.

Camped at 10,500'. Headed out at 5am. Made a good plan, but skinned in a huge %#$*-ing circle and ended up back at our original skin track, right at sunrise. Made a left instead of a right. Whoops.

Then we looked across and saw our line.

3..2..1..Dropping!

Oh, crap, we're still 2 miles away?

Much discouraged, we started over. We still found some really cool terrain.

Matt scouts a line.

Looking in from the top.

Nate works through the (unskiable) pepper entrance, as Matt lowers the skis.

We also found some simpler terrain that matched my photo style.

We returned to the car when it started getting warm.

The aspens were amazing, but the snow was too soggy to ski them.

5 hr drive. 2 hr sunset ski. 4 hrs sleep. 8 hr tour. 4 hr drive home. A handful of interesting photos, and 1 helluva good time.

It was my 4th sunrise tour in 7 days. And we're going out tomorrow for another one. It's been a good spring.

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)

Feb 11: Play Ground

It was a backcountry playground today. Recess at ski camp.

Great snow, great features, great fun.

The snow is a bit thicker than the last few days, but a little surface hoar makes for tasty cold smoke.

2 turns before, all I could see was Dave's pole. That image turned out way cool.

Here's another taste, 3 clicks after the shot. I love that Nicole has gloves to match her helmet.

The next little feature turned into a game of H.O.R.S.E.

Dave goes first.

Nicole follows. I think she wins this round.

Not to be left behind, Cascade finds a different spot.

Cowabunga dude!

Nicole comes flying out of the obstacle course.

Watch out for that rock!

Next we play truth or dare.

I dare Dave to ski next to the old dead tree. There is literally no entrance, and some stiff bushes in the way. Cascade clears a path and Dave manages to get through.

He totally sticks the landing.

Ta-daaa.

I don't know how to score Cascade's last line. It doesn't break records on the style scale, but it is off the charts on the fun scale.

The bell must not have rang, because we were all late getting back to class.

Detention? Whatever. It was worth it.

Feb 10: Double Shift

I had big plans for today, but no athletes to accompany me.
Instead of giving up, I packed 2 Pocketwizards and a tripod.

I did double work today. I was the photographer and the athlete, simultaneously.

I tested out my system on a simple safe line. It worked perfectly on this first set. Nobody would guess that this is a pocketwizard self portrait. Prettly slick.

On another set, it didn't work so well. These are consecutive frames. It appears I missed something in the middle.

I figured out my mistakes and got the system to work better on the other lines. It actually worked so well that I dare not post the photos. One in particular might be my new favorite of this season.
I will give a teaser though.
My clothes are so bright that my lines turn yellow.

And, yes, I hauled a beer all the way up there. After working 7 hours simultaneously at two different jobs, it tasted mighty fine.

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.