Andrew Strain Photography » blackcomb

Deep Winter 2011 Slideshow

Strain — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 03:59:15 +0000

It’s been almost a year since I managed to steal third prize in Whistler Blackcomb’s Deep Winter Photo Challenge. Today, I was out on the mountain scouting some stuff with Jussi Grznar, who is making his own run for the title of “King of Storms” next week, bringing back all kinds of wonderful memories like shooting in such heavy snowfall that my camera completely iced over. Or, sitting in the Glacier Creek bathroom for an hour trying to de-fog my lenses with a hand dryer (a more detailed re-cap here).

Would I do it again? Hell yes. I live for Whistler’s storm season. In the meantime, enjoy my 2011 slideshow, and get your tickets for this year’s event before it sells out. January 14 @ the Fairmont. See you there.

Tremor

Strain — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 04:15:48 +0000

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:

Sun Days

Strain — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 22:47:00 +0000

Sunday has lived up to its name the past couple weeks, giving me plenty of opportunity to shoot photos and work on my increasingly well-defined goggle tan. Two weeks ago, (after the storm-of-the-season week came to a close), I spent the day out in Lakeside Bowl on Blackcomb with the NuuLife crew with the intent of staying out all day and shooting some pow shots at sunset…

John Swystun getting it done on both sides of the lens:

Read the full post for a story about how easy sledding is and a short whis park video from Eric Poulin:
———

…Unfortunately, Dave Craig suffered an equipment malfunction on the landing of a step down and had his board double eject (wtf, I know) and take off ghost rider style down to the bottom of the bowl. With his board a 500 feet below us, we decided to bugger the sunset shooting and call it a day.

This…

…turned into this:

Is this why we’re supposed to wear leashes?

Fast forward a week to last Sunday – the weather was prime again so I took up an offer to head out on a sled trip into the Whistler area backcountry. I’ve always heard people say how much of a bitch sledding can be when you first start out, but I was not prepared for the beat-down my body was about to receive.

Making matters worse was the fact that I wasn’t actually sledding up to the zone – I was being towed, wakeboard style, into the alpine. I like to think my legs are in pretty good shape, but my arms? Please. I’m a photographer, not a longshoreman. Now I feel like Stretch Armstrong – and don’t even get me started on the roller coaster ride up to Tricouni…

Complaints aside, once we were up it was about as glorious as it gets. We had some rad laps in the trees to start out, then hit some mellow terrain in the alpine and built up a perfect huck-anything step over.

Eliel Hindert found a nice spine area in the trees to rip:

My prior sledding experience is almost exclusively ice fishing trips. Not today.

Andrew Narkewicz, double or nothing:

Gideon Baldridge plays backcountry chauffeur for Eliel:

When we arrived at the trailhead in the morning it was an absolute zoo, so Gideon got a little creative with his parking skills. It cost us when we got down; the snow he parked on had melted under the heat of the car and refrozen after the sun set, pretty much welding his Land Rover in place. It took a bunch of digging and a pull from Hockenstein (thanks buddy) before we were on our way back to the city… we rolled home 15 hours after we left in the morning, dead tired and super-stoked.

Meanwhile, back at Whistler, Eric Poulin did some filming and threw together a little edit of how he spent his sunny Sunday – check it out!

Last Sunday from Eric Poulin on Vimeo.

Winter, is that you?

Strain — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 08:03:00 +0000

Good times shredding with Jake Cohn on Blackcomb today. Is winter finally here?

Pond Skim

Strain — Mon, 26 May 2008 21:57:00 +0000

Who needs a beach to go skimming and swimming?

Matthew Marchuck pond skim, Blackcomb:

More photos after the jump:

Eric Poulin with a water slasher:

Jake Cohn pond skim layback:

All shot with the D200 / 14-24 2.8, lit by a Vivitar 285 on the left and an SB800 to the right.

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