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.

Fall Color

Well Saturday was a big day with Sarah and Sam's wedding, and then the annual Backcountry.com Adventure Party. Waking up early on Sunday was not, "plausible" to say the least, AND IT SNOWED in the mountains that night, too. My roommate had the awesome idea of hiking up to Cardiff pass, figuring the snow might melt by the afternoon (you know, by the time we all woke up) since it is south facing and open to the sun. There was still snow on the top third of the trail on account of the lingering clouds, but the fall colors were AMAZING, especially with the contrast of the new snow. The Pfiefferhorn looked especially majestic with it's new white coat of snow. Anyway, not too much to comment on, just a nice hike with some A+ Wasatch scenery.

The photo is Alta's High Rustler through the gold aspen trees, just a quick snap on my point and shoot.

re's meditation

I went for a hike up to Sunset Pass today since my bike is out of commission at the moment. I took the ipod shuffle for the hike up, but once i hit Catherine's Pass i turned it off to just take in the mountains. Upon reaching sunset pass I took some time to just appreciate the mountains, the green alpine meadows, the granite cliffs, the single track that is usually buried deep in the winter. And then i remembered what i actually like about hiking and running, and if you know me, you know I would much rather ride my bike than go jogging, but it's the pensive time. The time to let your thoughts wander, weigh the options on certain issues, contemplate everything from old friends, to new surroundings, to goals for the winter, for the year, for the next ten years.

I am not really into yoga or meditating, but i realized, this is my meditation time. And since i didn't have the Wasatch Back Relay to train for this spring, i went straight into biking, and have been neglecting my inner thoughts.



I jogged most of the way back down in the cool autumn air as the sun was retreating from the yellow and orange glow of the aspens and there was this awesome sense of peace and well being when I reached the car.

Women's Ski Jumping

It was kind of a last minute addition to the forthcoming issue of the Ski Journal, but they decided to run Vanessa Pierce's story about the exclusion of women's ski jumping in the Olympics. I was stoked for the opportunity to shoot a feature like this, but there is one minor issue.... it's August!

As i came to find out during the days i spent shooting, ski jumping is one winter sport that is actually a year round event. While they have twice as many competitions in the winter, they still do somewhere around 8 to 10 in the summer (maybe up to 15, I am spacing out on the number right now). Pretty cool, eh?

It was an honor and a pleasure to shoot these girls. Ski jumping looks to be about the closest thing to flying on skis. So these girls are tough, and they can virtually fly. I love it. What I don't love however is their exclusion from the winter olympic games. The more i learned about their fight to be included and every reason that gives them every right to be there, and awesome facts like "Lindsey Van holds the hill record on the new jump that was built FOR the 2010 olympic games" and they still aren't included, the more upset i became with every factor working against them. I think most of the girls have resigned themselves to the fact that they will not be jumping, and are probably sick of the whole thing and would rather go out and jump than be worried about the politics, but as a new-comer to this controversy, it was really upsetting to say the least. A make-you-want-to-punch-things kind of upsetting.

After all that though, I am happy to have had the opportunity to do my part in trying to bring more equality to the olympics. Be on the lookout for the article "DENIED" in the fall issue of the Ski Journal!