Andrew Strain Photography » backcountry

Mountain Landscapes

Strain — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:04:41 +0000

A pair of mountain landscapes, one from the summer and one from last week.

Off and On

Strain — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 23:49:46 +0000

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.

I’ve been busy…

Strain — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 03:00:31 +0000

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?).

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:

Joffre touring

Strain — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 16:16:27 +0000

I went on an exploratory day tour on tuesday up to Joffre Lakes with Unofficial Whistler‘s Jake Cohn. Neither of us had been before but wanted to scope the area because of its excellent and easy access from the Duffey Lake road. A short climb and a couple lake crossings and we at treeline in a riding paradise – steep couloirs and chutes, 1000m glacier descents, massive pillow fields and mature forest presented up and downhill options for any conditions.

We tried to gain access to a great looking couloir but short of booting up the gut, couldn’t find an ascent option we were comfortable with and decided to back off to a different line. We were again shut down trying to get on top of the Heartstrings zone when the weather socked in, eliminating our ability to navigate above treeline, in an area with more than enough death-gnar to do around… not the kind of place you want to be moving blind. Entering the line further down the ridge, we were rewarded with a playful and pillowy 600m descent to the valley bottom.

Of note: I was able to ride my split all the way back to the lower lake with ease, making Joffre the most splitboard friendly tour I’ve done off the Duffey to date. A quick transition to put skins back on, and I was first back to the car – doesn’t happen often when touring with skiers! Despite being turned back of our two objectives, our exploratory mission was a great success, and you can bet we’ll be back soon…

No blogging on a powder day

Strain — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 16:38:37 +0000

February was good. Wasatch touring, 2nd in the SLC shootout, storm of the season in Whistler, and a backcountry hut adventure to end the month off.

It’s snowing again, hard. I’ll try to write some stories when the snow stops falling.

Fall Snow

Strain — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 19:31:22 +0000

A few more photos of October snowfall in the upper reaches of the Lillooet River / Salal Creek. Hopefully my next post will be less of a tease and more about actual snowfall.

It’s coming…

Strain — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 23:03:14 +0000

Winter is almost here. Are you ready?

Salal Creek, NW of Pemberton, BC.

Spring Touring – Cerise Creek

Strain — Fri, 07 May 2010 06:36:00 +0000

I went on a touring mission up Cerise Creek / Mt Joffre with a couple friends last week. Conditions were… interesting over the first half of the approach, where for the first time since I bought them I wasn’t cursing the uselessness of my snowshoes. The crampons bit into the choppy ice of the forest floor far more effectively than climbing skins, but I’m still buying a splitboard this fall. Snowshoes suck.

We thought the snow might be a little sloppy up high, but avoiding sun-baked aspects led to a late April powder harvest. Gotta love that spring crop!

Pre-season shred

Strain — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:31:32 +0000

I posted a while back about the pre-season jitters that overtake the snow world as the days get shorter and the snowline drops. I know many of my friends have been dying to get back on a chairlift, whether its at Whistler this weekend (opening 2 weeks early!) or Baker (which opened today with bluebird skies and 6 feet of fresh), but I’m not the kind of person who likes to wait.

With word that storm after storm had hammered the local alpine, myself and several other hungover shreds dragged ourselves over 1000m up Blackcomb mountain at the crack of noon in search of our first pow turns of the Olympic season. We weren’t entirely disappointed – there was a good 2 feet through the terrain park, but below that coverage started to get spotty, fast. Luckily, none of us took any major board damage on the way back down to base 2… even after riding a snowbase that petered out to less than 2 inches where we finally unstrapped. Theres something about straightlining a sloppy mix of wet snow, grass, mud and rock with a crew of good friends that just feels right, ya know? Probably the worst conditions I’ve ever ridden in, but if that wasn’t fun I don’t know what is.

Park laps anyone? Taylor, Eric, Ryan, Sam, Taylor (theres 2 of em) and Steve strapping in at the shack:

Gunning up for the season:

While riding rocks may be fun, riding deep snow tends to be alot more enjoyable. With a scouting report in hand that the Elfin/Red Heather area had at least double the snowbase of Whistler and the snow continuing to fall, I busted out the snowshoes and headed out into the Squamish backcountry with a posse of skiers on Remembrance Day. We may have been an hour late, but we observed a moment of silence followed by a chorus of O Canada on top of Paul Ridge just after noon. Lest we forget.

The site of our snowy memorial ceremony:

Last year, I opened the season in the same area – here’s the post if you need a refresher. That was November 23 – snow depth, less than 2 feet. Yesterday, I probed 160cm on Paul Ridge. I don’t think we hit that last season til February or March… yeah, I’m excited.

Love the late afternoon light on this random party skinning up from a run:

Eliel Hindert warms up for a season of sending with this deep pillow line:

I love being in the backcountry hiking around and earning turns, and I’m pretty thrilled that I’ve beat most of my friends to the first day of the season, but I’m super stoked to have a chairlift doing all the work again this weekend at Whistler. See you there! I’ll be shooting photos of the opening madness…