Spring time, POV time
I’ve been rocking the POV helmet cam here at Whistler the last few days and I’m just learning to edit the clips together with my IMovie. I’m hoping that after this weekend sometime I’ll be able to post a quick edit with some of the lines I ski’d this week.
Today Callum, Kye, Nick and I made our way up the Stairmaster for a noon lap on Yusumi (I really should check around for the official spelling). The snow was good and we lucked out at the top of our climb when the light got good.
Spring is in the air. Hopefully the snow has been holding up in your neck of the woods. Get amongst it brethren.
My best turns of the season. Day two at Cortina, Japan.
A little system blew through Cortina after our first day of riding so we decided to go back for seconds the next day. Our tracks had blown in for the most part but the freezing level rose and the traverse from the backside started to get noticeably heavier. After lunch in the gigantic hotel at the base we made our way back out and dropped off the frontside into the trees just out of visibility from the chair lifts. If we were caught skiing this are we would’ve most likely had our passes taken again. An infinite field of fresh, light snow through typical Japan trees with the added thrill of not being seen made for my most enjoyable day of the season so far. Japan has the goods, I will definitely be going back next year!
Cortina Resort Pow Poachers.
On the third day we hopped on a bus for half an hour to another resort called Cortina. When I arrived in the parking lot at the base of the hill the first thing I noticed was a massive hotel hovering high above the ski lifts. Skiing at this place was like something out of my dreams. Two chair lifts going straight up the mountain and a traverse at the top that you can drop in on either side. We spent the morning shooting in the trees off the backside of the resort. There were maybe two locals that ski’d this area, the rest of the people stuck to the groomers and mogul runs (this made for never ending powderific lines for our lucky group of foreigners).
Spring snow, ski patrol and sirens. Day one in Hakuba.
Our gang arrived at around 2 in the morning at the Morino Lodge in Hakuba after a 4 hour bus ride from Tokyo. In the morning I was glad to learn that the mountain was a 5 minute walk from where we were staying. After a light breakfast we made our way down some switchbacks from the lodge to the base of Happo Mountain. The light was good but it clearly hadn’t snowed in a couple of days and warm temperatures made for some slushy snow. Our crew took about three runs to scope the mountain and look for some good areas to shoot. We ended up skiing a run called Onigiri (named after the triangular rice snacks) that was apparently closed. Near the top we heard a voice come over a loudspeaker and by the time we reached the bottom of the run the local ski patrol were arriving on a snowmobile complete with sirens and a flashing red light. They explained that the run we had ski’d was in plain view of their patrol hut and that it was a permanently closed area. They took our day passes and we had to ski down the mountain. After a little reflection on the walk home we realized that we’d have to be very stealth on our trip if we expected to ski full days. Time for some ninja missions.
The long journey in…
Well I finally arrived safely in Hakuba. The light looks really nice here today and I can’t wait to get the ski’s on and poke around. Yesterday as I arrived in Tokyo from Vancouver I noticed a very large crowd in the airport, complete with film/photo crews and a mob of people with their cell phone cameras handy. I thought obviously someone had tipped off the press that I’d be arriving and as I pushed my cart through the lobby I waved like Queen Elizabeth would. It was then that I heard the crowd start screaming and I turned around to see none other than Tom Cruise, his wife Katie Holmes and their family. I snapped a couple photos myself and carried on. Well, time to go shred, ttfn!
Heli Drop on Blackcomb Peak Feb. 26
Thursday could’ve been one of my best days at Whistler/Blackcomb ever! First of all, it had snowed the last few days and on in the morning I woke to a flawless blue sky. Blue bird powder days are a rarity in Whistler and luckily I had plans to get out and shoot with photo legend Eric Berger and skier Chad Sayers.
We started the day with early lift access on the Peak chair where we made use of a head start on the public by skiing some great pockets of snow. We made our way to Harmony and got permission to do some hiking in Feltchers before the chair even opened. After our first run we lapped Harmony back to the top and milked our way back down to the chair being sure to shoot anything that looked good and fresh along the way.
After a quick snack we jumped in the helicopter and flew from the top of Emerald Chair to the Blackcomb Peak. After scoping our lines down an untracked Disease Ridge we landed on the highest possible point of Blackcomb Mountain. Our first turns out of the bird were amazing and before we knew it we were breaking trail through waist deep powder to ski our lines. We worked our way down Disease Ridge and followed the cornice to Lakeside Bowl. An eerie layer of light fog rolled through just as we finished up around 4pm and we ski’d out the Seventh Heaven road to the valley where it was time for a stretch and a brew. Thanks for an awesome day boys!
Here are some pictures I took throughout the day along with some pictures from Eric Berger. Check his site!
“China by Chauna” A Historical Adventure.
The next morning we hopped on a bus and drove a few hours to a village called Chunkor where we transferred our gear to six chauna’s (horse drawn sleighs). It was then that we started on our unsuspecting journey to Kanas Village.
One of our guides had found a stone pictograph the summer before that had an ancient drawing of a horse and a skier. This discovery dates skiing back three thousand years. The Beijing Museum is buying it from him this May. Our mission was to seek the place where skiing as we know it was invented and document the contrast between our modern styles and their age old tradition.
View from the bus
After two days of traveling by horse North through mountain passages we arrived at a farm called Axialbak. The only people there were a Mongolian family who were very welcoming despite the fact we arrived out of the cold, late at night. We all unrolled our foam pads and sleeping bags on their woven mats and it was lights out. As I fell asleep I wondered what kind of terrain we would find to ski the next day.
Our cook with the host family.
We spent two nights at the Mongolians cabin. During the day we would tour from their backyard into the hills and shoot in the light powder snow that blanketed the side of the mountain. We would follow them on their home made ski’s with horse hide skins into the hills and watch as they pointed it straight relying on one single pole as a rudder. Both groups had fun and it was apparent by the universal language of smiles and laughs.
We got back on the chaunas and continued on; we arrived in Kanas that evening. In Kanas we met with some locals and sessioned a snowy hill behind some of their houses. The sun was shining and having finally made it the whole 108 kms from Chunkor our spirits were high. That night Kanat, the head horseman, laid a soundtrack on a local string instrument.
Here’s a shot a snapped of a man making repairs to his shovel. I noticed that many of the tools around town were all hand made.
Here’s a picture of the typical house in Kanas. Many people used motorcycles in the snow, I didn’t see one snowmobile but I could imagine the look on their faces if someone road in on one. Priceless.
I met a young boy that got a blast from stepping on my skis with his shoes and sliding down a small hill in the village. I had Akbar our guide/translator ask him whether he had some ski’s at home that he could use if we went to a bigger hill and he said that he’d go get them if I came along. I followed him down a trail that led over the Kanas River bridge and down to his farm. He showed me around his animals and his two little twin sisters were following us around with toy whistles, they must have been about 3 or 4 years old.
China was an exercise for my mind, body and soul. I was born a skier and I’ll die a skier. To travel thousands of kilometers from my home mountains to pay respect to the birthplace of my sport, and my lifestyle was an honor and a privilege.
Huge thank you to Chris Patterson, Collin Witherill, Ilja Herb and Chris Anthony. What an amazing experience; I learned so much! Also, without the help of Akbar from Kashgar Mountain Adventures our trip would have been nowhere near as successful and smooth, cheers buddy! Big ups to Josh Haskins at Warren Miller! To everyone else that we came across along the way, thanks for the great food and hospitality.
Lapping the park before heading far East
Skiing with Austin at Blackcomb from rossignol on Vimeo.
Last few days in the Blackcomb park have been pretty good, check out the video for an interview and some skiing. Off to China soon! Check back for a full recap in a couple of weeks! Cheers.
The "shack booter" on Blackcomb
Revelstoked! Jan. 13-16
Team trips to Revy from rossignol on Vimeo.
We arrived in Revelstoke on Monday night after skiing a full day at Valhalla. On Tuesday I took the day off skiing to stretch, play my guitar and work on some emails. By Wednesday I was ready to jump back on the S7′s and go shredding! After hearing the buzz for a couple of seasons, I was pumped to finally ski at Revelstoke. Mike, Sage and I went on a photo mission with Blake. We had to get creative because the light wasn’t ideal but it made for some fun shots with the flash kit.
Sage and I after a quick boot pack
Thursday however, was a different story altogether. We were still in the fog when we parked the trucks in the morning but by the time we were 2/3 of the way up the Stoke lift we hit sunshine. The sky was blue and mountain peaks pointed out above a thick sea of clouds. I snapped a lot of photos, here are some of my favourites:
Portrait of a snow ghost
Sage on the traverse to North Bowl
The sea of clouds
View into North Bowl
Check out this fracture
Whitewater Mountain @ Nelson BC. Jan 9 & 10.
One of the most gratifying things abour skiing to me is getting away from masses in the valley below and really getting a feel for sliding down the snow and exploring higher and further from the people around me. Every now and then I come across a ski area that makes me admire what it’s like to enjoy the basics of skiing. Whitewater Mountain or simply WH20 is one of these spots. There are no crowded lift lines, full parking lots, massive restaurants, or high speed quads. There are two rickety old two person chairs each ascending up either side of the valley from the main lodge, one of them accesses the southern aspect slope and the other the northern.
On Friday Sage, Ian, Kye and I shredded Whitewater all day in an effort to get our legs back under us and log some vertical. Aaron, one of our friends from Freeride Entertainment, showed us a few of his favourite runs and in the afternoon we even did a couple of road laps down the “Backside.” To cap off an awesome day we refuelled at the main lodge with sweet potatoe yam fries and a pint of Nelson’s own Faceplant beer.
On Saturday our crew ski’d Whitewater again, this time with Brian Ralph behind the camera lens and Eric Crosland on video. We re-visited the road lap zone and had a great time stepping out a few airs in the trees. If you’ve never been, I suggest you take a trip to the Kootenays and visit Whitewater for some good snow, quick laps and awesome food!
Early season. Good friends. Good Times.
What’s up shred bros and sistahs?? Hope everyone’s ski season has started out well. It’s hard to believe it’s December here in Whistler, there isn’t any snow on the ground! Obstacles that are usually hidden deep beneath our coastal snow pack are protruding out in all directions. While this can be somewhat dangerous, it also adds a certain entertainment factor.
Yesterday Kye, Callum, Pierrot and I made use of the two runs open on Whistler Mountain by linking together some natural features. We had a quarter pipe up top, a perfect backflip jump, a hefty fence gap, a giant snow wall perfect for presses and a roller section at the bottom that made my legs feel like rubber. Today we spun laps of Blackcomb’s Highest Level park airing off the knowls getting our 360s back.
If you haven’t already tried them, get out and ski on a pair of Rossignol S7′s! I’ll tell you the same thing I told the handful of people that commented on them at the mountain, “they’ll change your skiing, and change your life.” The reverse camber style ski is the hottest thing since cheese graders!
Shout out to everyone that still went skiing/riding today even though we woke to the sound of rain on our rooves. It’s refreshing to see so many people all sharing their love of the mountain and the sport, even with the lack of snow in this town. Let’s all send some energy to Mother Nature so she’ll grace us with some big flakes soon. I know I’m dreaming of a White Christmas!
Kamloops, BC
So you’ve got every issue of Powder memorized from cover to cover, you’ve worn out your copies of the latest ski flicks and you’ve been bouncing off the walls as you count down the days until the snow flies and your resort opens up? Sounds like a lot of people I know during the fall months, myself included.
In November 07 I got a call from Jeff Thomas at Theory 3 who said it had just snowed in the city of Kamloops. So I jump in with rail master Frank Raymond (who lived three houses down) and we head for the city. This was my first urban trip and I was anxious to try sliding some big rails and hopefully get comfortable doing some tricks I had worked on in the park. Our photographer Dan Carr was as excited as we were to get out the gear and make some magic happen.
We drove around to different buildings with our radar out for decent sized rails to get nasty on. When we found a long, smooth down bar to hit we got to work. First we had to salvage some scaffolding from a construction site up the street. We then set it up on a grassy field and there we had ourselves a starting ramp for speed. Frank made sure to stress that the building of our jump on to the rail should be little more than a couple shovel fulls of snow on the hard concrete step. This makes for a good ollie on style jib. I also learned that removing any snow from the stairs makes for a better picture (and makes the consequences a little higher for falling off, luckily that never happened).
One day we went to a local college and set up an interesting wooden hand rail that Jeffy had scoped earlier. I had never slid wood before but the others assured me it was mellow as long as you didn’t catch the edge of your ski. After a couple minutes of looking at it I gave it a go and things went smoothly. The rail was right next to a rock retaining wall and an old pick up truck with a flat tire that made for an interesting back drop.
Combine that with a decent sunset and there you have all the ingredients for a cool rail slide photo.
This trip definately raised my interests in rail sliding and gave me ideas for new tricks I wanted to work on once I got home and the mountains opened. This year I hope to continue the tradition of making my way to the first city in BC that gets snow in their town to seek out some interesting set ups and get a few photos along the way. Keep checking in at my blog to see where this years rail mission will be.
Here’s a couple great candid shots of our crew on the last night as we made our way home. Thanks for the good times boys!
Check out this clip of “B Reel” shot’s. Some of the rails from Kamloops are in there as well as a couple pow pow shots from a day of sledding in the Tricouni area of Whistler, BC. Special thanks to Blair Richmond for the editing.
Dubai, UAE
In May of 2007, I flew to the opposite side of the world to visit Ski Dubai, the world’s largest indoor ski area. The city was unlike anything I had ever laid eyes on. Thirteen percent of the world’s construction cranes stood tall against the horizon as we made our way from the airport to the Kempinski Mall of the Emirates on our first day.
The hotel is a whopping 1.3 million square feet. Inside you can find everything from designer clothing outlets to 5 star restaraunts to cars for sale. The project took 10, 000 immigrant workers 3 years to complete. The interior was an amazing example of the pride they take in keeping their 6 star hotel looking good around the clock.
The pool deck was a great way to unwind before heading down to the dome for a few turns. Eating burgers at the swim up bar was a luxury I had never experienced.
One day as we scouted locations by car I snapped some pictures of some of the many projects in the works in downtown Dubai. The architecture was very unique; I caught myself staring at some buildings trying to understand how they would have been built.
This buiding reminded me of the Emerald City that Dorothy and friends visit at the end of their mission through Oz.
This is Burj Al Arab, the only 7 star hotel in the world. We entered the front doors with camera equipment and were immediately told that if we weren’t guests, we couldn’t stay. Needless to say security was tight.
Here’s a shot of me and my partner in crime, Andreas Hatveit (08 X Games Gold Medalist). The large slanted building in the back? You guessed it, the ski dome. At night, the ring that circles the hill lights up in a series of colors. It’s a wild site.
One afternoon we made our way to the water. I like to make a point of swimming when I’m visiting a new country or body of water. This time around I checked the Persian Gulf off my list.
Some locals were surprised to see the cameras but warmed up when we let them take a peek at what we were shooting.
At one point during the trip we took an elevator to the top of a building to see what the scenery was looking like. We were lucky enough to be observing on a day that had little wind because wind storms in the desert make it impossible to see very far.
You can see the world’s tallest tower in the reflection of this shot. Luckily enough Collin was there to capture it all on film. Atta boy.
The hottest afternoon of the trip was when we visited the desert. We drove for about an hour and a half before we arrived at a small shack hidden in the rolling dunes. The temperature inside the van read 44 degrees celcius, the hottest I’ve ever experienced. A kind local lent us his toys and before I knew it Andreas and I were chasing eachother around on atvs under the blaring sun.
After a good rip around the dunes we cut the motors. Before heading back to the city we made two very special new friends, Mr. Jones and Mr. Sheelah.
Thanks to everyone at Warren Miller Entertainment. Especially Tom Day, Josh Haskins and my man Collin. Thanks to the Ski Dubai locals for being so welcoming and Andreas Hatveit for being an awesome room mate and one cool cat!
