The Heat is O-Off

I decided it seems silly to turn the heat on just yet when we own things like long sleeve shirts, hoodies, fleece jackets, down jackets, hats, slippers, blankets.... especially being a skier, and being one-with-the-cold and all. And being one with a "gear problem" the money I could be spending to heat my home would much better be spent on gear and say, cornbread for Thanksgiving. The temps in here have been hovering around 60 anyway. Currently it's reading 56. I thought it was warm in here yesterday, I thought maybe my roommate had given in and turned on the heat (though I should know better) but it was still off, just reading a high of 61.

Women's Skiing!!!!

If you are a female with a subscription to Skiing Mag... rejoice! The december issue will have your copy of the 3rd annual Women's Skiing issue. In this issue you will find a photo essay full of ripping women all shot by yours truly. I am deeply excited for the opportunity that Skiing has given to both my work and to the wonderful athletes I shoot with in showcasing our images. I hope you all enjoy the images along with the rest of the issue!

November Powder

I have a portrait of bad-ass skier and snowcat (amd 25 ton dumptruck in the summer) driver Alaina Huestis in the November Powder along with a couple shots in the White Highways piece.

I was beyond stoked when I heard they wanted to do my story idea on Alaina. We did two portrait shoots. For the first one she picked me up at 4am on the bypass road for a ride back up to the top of Snowbird just as the sky was starting to get light. She connected the winch cat near white diamonds in Mineral Basin, spun us around facing down the mountain, and we plunged over the edge, weeeeeeee! Since I don't get to do this kind of thing every day for my job... I thought it was super fun! We did a bunch of shots at the bottom of that pass, a bunch at the top, a few flash shots, and a few more of her driving. The sunrise wasn't as colorful as I was hoping for so we scheduled another day to shoot and decided to go for a sunset this time. The colors cooperated fully providing for some gorgeous warm tones in all the surrounding rock while the snow went a deep electric blue. The shots here were not used in the Powder article but are from the two days we shot.

I am also stoked on the couple shots in the White Highways piece. I have always thought if i wasn't a ski photographer I might live my life in a permanent road trip photographing everything along the way, especially the roads themselves and the fleetings views you get through the window. I call it drive by photography, haha. I will never forget those first couple cross country road trips and how i went crazy photographing everything. (crazy in a good way, of course!)

Bike Thieves

ARE JERKS. Get a real job and buy your own bikes. Or whatever you were really stealing bikes to pay for...or here's a novel idea, get off the drugs.

My garage was robbed of 5 mountain bikes. My dearly beloved Cannondale Prophet 2000 with the raw aluminum frame that has taken me on adventures through countless rides in Brian Head, Moab, Fruita, Stanley, St George, and up and down the Wasatch will be sorely missed. As well as Liz's fantastically orange Yeti 575, Dan's plush Rocky Mountain Switch, and Jamon's anodized black Yeti 575 and his big Giant Faith (Faith Hill we called her). Very much missed.

I hate to sound all materialistic but when you steal someone's bike you are stealing so much more than just a bike that can be replaced. That was my gym membership. My social outlet. My endorphin-producing, sun-providing, sanity supplement. My summer love. My weekend getaway. An on going challenge for both riding and fixing. An excitement for teaching other friends the love and joy of mountain biking.

There is this strange bond we have to our bikes sometimes and mine had been on-going for a good 3 or 4 years with this particular bike. I'm starting to get excited about the prospect of a new bike, but it's such a hassle when the one I had was damn near perfect for me. We'd been through warranties, replacements, tune-ups, flat tires, broken saddles, brand new gore cables, a recent brake flush, shorter stem.... dialed. In fact picked up from the local bike shop the morning of the night it was stolenafter being out of commision for a week and a half. I hardly go 1 or 2 days without riding usually. harsh.

The weeks following i was completely consumed with scouring ebay, and checking every city's craiglists within a 1000 mile radius. But it's gone. Gonna have to move on. So now i've moved into super bike nerd mode and have a spread sheet listing my bike, every other bike i've ridden to compare to it, and the bikes i might be interested in riding/buying. Of course the last week i could have demoed any bikes i was sick. and then it started dumping snow in the wasatch. So i guess I can move into ski mode now. But what a lame segue! I'm sure karma has something in store for the bike thieves at least.