I had a great weekend with a good foot of fresh in Utah followed by two sunny days. On saturday I went out with two filmers, Photographer Stan Evans, fellow 4Frnt Athlete Wiley Miller, and 4F Mob Boss Matt Sterbenz with the goal of getting photos for my, Matt’s, and Wiley’s 4Frnt magazine ads for next season. We took a long walk starting at Alta and ending after sunset at Brighton exhausted and happy, having gotten a bag full ‘o shots and a bunch of fun jumps in. The next morning was a little slower with no need to try to get out to any freshies first, but Matt and I did manage to crank out a 4Frnt tech talk real quick before partaking in the inagural Alta game of snowshoes (horseshoes in snow.) I’ll have some video up in the next couple of days. Until then, thanks for reading.
Does anyone else think this winter is just kinda weird? It’s been like spring time for the last week, then all of a sudden she flips the switch and winter falls in fluffy white abundance once again. Not that I’m complaining really, I love spring skiing and pow skiing almost equally, but it’s been going on like this all damn season. I don’t really feel like the winter has even kicked off and here we are tuning up the bikes, digging up the shorts, buying new flip flops, and planning the first surf trips. I just hope the summer is less indecisive than the winter. I suppose it might be the nature of things though; sometimes you flush, sometimes you bust. Just when you think you see a pattern forming the whole thing flips over on it’s back.
Looking out the window just north of my desk I can watch the snowflakes flash and disappear in the glow of the street corner light on their finite journey to the ground, a flat reminder that it ain’t over yet. That tomorrow when I wake up to a foot of new snow and battle the driving masses, each just a little more entitled than the next, landing finally at the base of Alta and rush my way to the lift line excited and anticipatory, feet sore in my new ski boots, sleep still lodged in the corners of my eyes, and coffee fresh on my breath, it will once again be winter. And even though it might well turn right back to spring again on Monday and bake the snow to an unpredictable mashed-potatoey consistency, I plan to ring out the last lonesome juices of this little winter that could, and enjoy it for all she’s worth.
I hope I see you in the lift line..
Well, first off I have been asked to inform everyone that backcountry is having a sale and that if you click on this little link here than you will get early access to the sale (as in, today, instead of next Monday) so click on it and check it out, and if you buy anything than the BC guys will think I’m doing my job… Thanks..
Ok, on to travel time. A coupe of weeks ago I ran into Grant Gunderson out in Denver and he asked me if I wanted to come out to Shasta (CA) for a Powder feature that he was shooting out there in the near future, but he wasn’t sure exactly when. Well, the near future turned out to be right after I got back from Colorado, so I took one day in SLC to get my life together a little bit and then jumped behind the wheel of the Corolla for a long drive west. Er, a kind of long drive. The first leg was Salt Lake to Tahoe for some shooting in a zone that Grant’d had success in before. History became tradition, and we killed it about as hard as you could possibly ask to for two days in any zone. After two days though the cosmic vibes of Shasta were calling out our names and we had to hit it for a few more hours north. Decent snow + bad weather + good photographer = Great photos. Another two hard days of working what we could, and we came out with surprisingly good photos for a Powder feature about Shasta. Shasta is a mellow little town, away from most things, with a surprisingly backwoods feel for the fact that I-5 runs right through the middle of it. Upon arriving into town I showed up a little bit before the other half of the crew, so I wandered around for a bit, and within just a few minutes met the Uncle of a good friend from back in SLC, who owns a really rooty little ski shop right in Shasta called Shasta Base Camp. If you find yourself in town there is no better place to get your gear fixed up, and you might just get invited to climb on their shop bouldering wall and if you’re really lucky the local brewmeister will bring by some of his latest fare.
After two days in Shasta with no improvement in weather ahead we figured we could either stick around and try hard to get more of the same shots we already had, or we could call it and if we really need more we’ll come back in the spring to hit the summit. Easy answer there and we’re back to Salt City..
Here are a select few snapshots from along the road.
Boom Boom! Winter park (rugged) and done. Asked everyone that I could think of for a ride home and it finally paid off! I got a ride home with a rep that peddles discrete and got to see my lady for a day before she high tailed to Telluride for the big mountain comp there. Salt City has been a busy bit of business however, because in a day I am leaving for Shasta to go stare at crystals, search for alien gods and ski pow while shooting for a Powder Mag story… Here’s a couple of photos of the Discrete booth and the Ghostland Observatory show in Aspen because I’m not in the mood to write a thousand words.
