Andrew Strain Photography » kootenay

Whats in the Fridge? teaser

Strain — Mon, 17 May 2010 00:35:00 +0000

Whats in the Fridge? is the 2010 release from Jah Raven Creations. I spent some time causing all kinds of trouble in jah kootenays with jah raven this winter and if this teaser is any indication, this movie is going to be all kinds of awesome.

“Get ready to get that gold sticker blown off your new era hat and that check ripped right off you new unscuffed nike sneaks because here comes a teaser of biblical proportion. Displaying the talent of the raddest most real shredders, sledders, and fresh soy cheddar in jah kootenays mon. So turn up jah volume to max and hold onto you keyboard because your about to get slapped. Right in the face.”

Whats in the Fridge? A Teaser. from Jah Raven Creation on Vimeo.

Surface Tour – Whitewater, Day 2

Strain — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:05:59 +0000

I’m willing to bet you have absolutely no idea where Ymir is. Neither did I, until I rolled into town in the Surface truck, looking for the house of a friend of a friend who had offered up their floor for us to crash on for a couple nights. Amazing how that works in the shred world; share a lift, ride, lap or beer and a complete stranger becomes a good friend.

Cruising back up to Whitewater from Ymir, it was pretty obvious that we made the right choice sticking around for an extra day: the storm had let up overnight, and by the time we got to the parking lot there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. For the first time, we were able to take in the incredible setting surrounding Ymir peak that makes Whitewater a no-brainer destination for anyone willing to get a little sweaty accessing a line: trees, pillows, bowls, chutes, spines, cliffs… the Whitewater slackcountry has it all and then some. I was giddy with excitement, both to shred and shoot – when was the last time you saw a photo from a bluebird day on my blog?

After spending the morning in the same zone as my all-time lap the previous day, Eliel and I rallied at the truck, kitted up with our touring gear, and headed off into the alpine in search of cliffs basking in the late afternoon light. Mission accomplished – although I know El wishes he found some stupid big triple stager to send off of. Watch him go for the glory in the Whistler backcountry in the Dendrite Studios video, dropping this fall.

We spent 2 days at Whitewater, but it only took one lap for me to be sold on this undeveloped powder gem. It isn’t for everyone – you can count the park features on one hand, and many of the good lines lie beyond the resort boundary. Don’t show up unprepared for backcountry travel.

For my friends: picture shredding with me on a whis pow day. Take away everything that sucks about where we’re riding, and you have Whitewater. Yeah, I figured you’d be stoked.

Where the Log Driver Learns to Step Lightly

Strain — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:09:37 +0000

Partying the night away in Fernie presented us with an interesting problem: Shayne and I had done some serious damage to our bar tab (and livers) and while driver Eliel stuck to water, we still had to be at Whitewater the next day to run another demo. We were still drunk when El managed to wake Shayne and I at 5am, setting us up for my favourite past time – being drunk in a car travelling through the dark, windy mountain roads of southern BC. Fortunately Eliel was still paranoid of black ice and had mercy on his half inebriated, half hungover passengers, taking it easy on the potentially treacherous road. His suspicions proved accurate when we tried to get gas in Cranbrook: a right off the highway turned into a straight slide. We powered through to daylight and filled up in Creston.

A quick check of the road report in Creston showed that the Kootenay Pass was closed for avalanche control (a promising sign for the conditions at Whitewater) so we made the snap decision to take the sneak attack route on the ferry across Kootenay Lake and through Nelson. El took advantage of the downtime to catch up on his sleep – I took advantage of Nelson to buy more PBR and hot dogs.

As soon as we rolled into the Whitewater parking lot, we could instantly tell we were going to like this hill. One day lodge, no accommodation, 2 double lifts, total whiteout conditions, the muffled THUD of avy bombs… right up my alley. My first thought was, this is just like Baker, but more low-key. Theres something magic about these small, relatively unknown powder enclaves. Everyone is there for the same reason – theres no park scene, no big egos, no multi million dollar slopeside condos – just straight up, no frills no bullshit pow shred.

If you’re in the business of demoing fat, rockered skis, a hill that gets 40 feet of snowfall a season is a damn good spot to set up shop. Even without our fancy Surface tent – theres no way we could set it up in the howling wind – we were down to just park skis in mere minutes, which meant it was time to spin a lap. Local guidance took us to a spot that I’m not likely to forget any time soon. Easily the best run I’ve had all season, it was a good 400m of sustained drop through a zone of perfectly spaced trees, with endless pillows, chest deep pow, and no tracks in sight. I quickly lost everyone and tragically had to shred the line in one straight shot without stopping for photos.

The line popped us out onto the access road, a couple kms away from the resort. Board off, thumb out… within minutes we had a ride back up in the box of a pickup – a ride of doom that was significantly more thrilling than the shred down. I’m not sure how we made it up alive (or without taking out other cars), but our ear-to-ear grins of satisfaction were a clear sign that the risk was worth it. We kept lapping through the day, rotating off one guy to keep tabs on the demos.

Eliel was so amped on Whitewater that he never wanted to leave – even going to extremes like sinking the truck into a ditch full of quicksand snow. Strike 2 – the Kootenays really wanted that truck to stick around. We didn’t really want to leave, either, so we set up camp in the metropolis of Ymir for the night and postponed our Red Mtn demo a day. Little did we know, Ymir was about to become our home away from home… more on that next post.

For those of you still scratching your head over my post title, peep this extraordinary piece of Canadiana. The log drivers waltz pleases girls completely…