Andrew Strain Photography » touring

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.

Intersection

Strain — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 00:09:19 +0000

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.

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.

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!