Something a little different for me – this is my favourite trail to run and while I [like to] run often, I no longer live in Pemberton and I’ve never bothered to shoot photos of running.
With the arrival of spring weather, my girlfriend and I decided to head back to my favourite trail and shoot a couple photos, a little outside of my winter sports comfort zone.
With spring comes field season – my winter is officially over, and it’s back to camp for me. Once we get it built, that is…
I don’t think there is a better way to turn 28 than to heli into a zone dubbed “Chuter McGavin”, shoot photos from the bird of your best friends shredding badass couloirs, then drop into a line named “I eat pieces of shit like you for breakfast!” Toss on the skins and go for as many laps as your legs can handle.
Happy (Gilmore) birthday to me!
For some words by Jeff Slack, head over to Unofficial Networks. Some photos from the day below.
A pair of mountain landscapes, one from the summer and one from last week.
Winter arrived early and strong in southwest BC: I got my first pow turns on October 3rd, got chased out of camp by two feet in the valley bottom on November 17th, and could barely breathe nor see on Blackcomb’s opening day, the snow was so deep. And then, as fast as winter arrived, the jet turned off and the sky stayed blue for almost a month.
While my friends in Utah are still suffering from the early season doldrums, winter is back in full force in the Whistler area, providing badly needed powder for the Christmas vacation crowd and snow-starved locals. A combination of factors has led to the establishment of an uncharacteristically unstable coastal snowpack, making the new snowfall a maddening exercise in patience and restraint, as everyone is chomping at the bit to get out and into the gnar. Two BC skiers succumbed to injuries sustained after being caught in avalanches this week, a sobering reminder of the dangers that exist within our mountains.
Wanting to escape the holiday crowds at Whistler, but leery of the heightened avalanche risk, I headed out to a pillow zone off the Duffey Lake Road with the Surface Skis crew on a greybird photo / video mission. The lack of snowfall has left me with very little to shoot over the last month, and I was eager to get out for the first ‘work’ day of the season. The light was flat, but the snow was excellent and pillows well-developed, with plenty of protected stashes hiding in the forested shoulder of Joffre Mountain. Just another day in paradise…
Condolences to the friends and families of the two skiers that died doing what they love. May the powder be plentiful in the afterlife.
Atlin may be located south of 60 but is so isolated from the rest of BC that it may as well be a part of the Yukon. There is a real magic to the north – I’ve traveled to every corner of BC and have never felt the same electrifying attraction as the one that keeps drawing me to my childhood home. The south coast mountains may be where I live, but my heart will always belong to the vast wilderness of the north…
I spent the last 5 days visiting family in Atlin and find myself suffering from severe northern withdrawl. No one writes of the Yukon better than Service – I’ll leave you with this. Hopefully my vacation snaps do the words some justice.
I wanted the gold, and I sought it,
I scrabbled and mucked like a slave.
Was it famine or scurvy — I fought it;
I hurled my youth into a grave.
I wanted the gold, and I got it —
Came out with a fortune last fall, —
Yet somehow life’s not what I thought it,
And somehow the gold isn’t all.
Not a lot of time for blog posts these days… if you’ve been following my twitter feed you may have seen these photos, but for the blog readers here’s a couple photos from a whirlwind summer in the bush… more to come once the snow flies and the dust settles. In the meantime, peep some photos shot by my friend Jussi Grznar, another snowboard photographer from Whistler who’s found his way onto my field crew for the late season madness.
Other random note – I’ve moved to Whistler (although I’ve only spent one night in my new place, and likely won’t be around much til November. See you then?).
A quick post since I’m rushed for time – I spent the past 2 weeks in Cabo Pulmo, Mexico, where my friend Jake Cohn has an incredible place within spitting distance of the ocean. Not a bad spot for a skier to rehab from season-ending shoulder surgery, eh? That boy leads a rough life, I’ll tell you what…
I tried to take as much time away from the lens as possible, but eventually the orange glow that filtered through the window every morning pulled me out of bed to shoot as the sun rose. Unfortunately, the time flew by and I’m back in Pemberton, frantically unpacking my vacation bags and gearing up for another field season looking for gold [+copper +molybdenum] in the mountains of British Columbia. One night in my own bed and I’m headed into camp.
A few more photos can be found on my flickr.
When Intersection was announced as a new event for this year’s World Ski and Snowboard Festival, I knew it would become one of the premiere events of the festival: 6 film crews would get one week to put together a 5-7 minute ski/snowboard video, all filmed within 100km of Whistler. When I saw the $15,000 top prize and the list of crews competing, I figured it might establish itself as THE event of the festival, in it’s first year. My good friends with NuuLife Cinema, Voleurz, and Dendrite Studios were all sure to put together incredible entries, with Family Tree, Videograss, and Toy Soldier Productions rounding out the competition.
I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to work with NuuLife on their entry, a piece that showcased Whistler and the surrounding backcountry through the eyes of 4 local photographer: myself, Mike Helfrich, Kieran Brownie, and Mike Jones. I took the crew on a splitboard attempt of the Spearhead Travese – whiteout conditions halted us between Decker and Trorey, forcing us to hunker down there for the night and retreat back to Blackcomb the next day. We regrouped, lightened our packs and spent a full day filming and shooting in far better conditions around Joffre Lakes. You can see from John’s pole cam shot in the edit just how good Heartstrings was…
All of the crews put together incredible and diverse entries, particularly Voleurz and Dendrite. I thought our entry had a good shot at winning but the judges awarded the $15,000 to Voleurz.
NuuLife Cinema’s entry, “Relatively Unknown”
A couple photos from our poor visibility splitboard missions:
and the winning submission from Voleurz:
Needless to say, Intersection was a HUGE success and will be a marquee event of the festival for years to come.
I’m not feeling particularly wordy but wanted to post a couple photos I shot last week from the summit of Tremor Mountain, the highest point in the Spearhead Range. There are few things as humbling as travelling on skis through big terrain – note the two skiers tackling the spearhead traverse (bottom left) for scale.
Tremor was one hell of an adventure and I’m stoked we made it out there – the hourglass is a line I won’t be forgetting any time soon. I was quite pleased with how easy the trip was on my splitboard – I can’t imagine doing a day trip out to Tremor on snowshoes. Speaking of, anyone want to buy a pair of MSR Denali Evos? I won’t be using mine again… ever.
Splitboarding is the answer.
A few more photos from the trip to Tremor:
