Very pleased to see this image on the new cover of Skier’s Buyers Guide issue. Chad (Sayers) and I took this image during Whistler Blackcomb’s Deep Winter Photo Challenge this past January. It was shot as a horizontal, but cropped to make a vertical for the cover. Most of the time I try to use natural light when shooting, but sometimes a little artificial light can make all the difference, as it did with this shot. John Irvine from Arcteryx (a machine on a bike, and an avid photographer himself) helped out with the lighting on this one, so thanks to John.

I am really fortunate to have just returned from an amazing trip to Newfoundland, invited by Mike Jones and Andreas Hestler for some riding and photography (which we’ll be turning into a few different articles). Although the riding wasn’t as developed as we’d hoped on the west coast, it has incredible potential. I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to many beautiful parts of the world, including Antarctica, and I can say that Newfoundland has one of the most beautiful coast lines I’ve ever seen. Mind blowing really. From the epic scenery, to the gracious and warm people, to the historic sites where vikings first “discovered” North America, it was a trip to remember and dwell on for quite some time. I can’t wait to return.

This blog is way late, but better late than never I suppose. In August I was invited to participate in the Saint Deep Summer Photo Challenge hosted by Whistler Blackcomb. It is basically the same format as the Deep Winter contest that I have been a part of the last 3 years, except in the Summer, mostly in the Whistler Bike Park. I joined Mike Hopkins, Darcy Turenne, and Thomas Vanderham, all really talented athletes. Thomas and I grew up riding together in highschool on the shore and haven’t really taken any photos since his ascendency to super-stardom in the mtb world, but finally we got a chance and we got some great images. I decided that I wanted to theme our 5 min show around the Whistler Bike Park trail crew, invading their world in order to show people what goes on behind the scenes in the most popular mountain bike playground on the planet. It paid off and the judges awarded us 1st place, which we were all really happy about. Special thanks to the trail crew for making it all happen!

An unlikely place for a mountain bike story, I found myself in Grand Rapids, Michigan this week on assignment for Bike magazine profiling members of the extinct mountain bike company Nuke Proof (circa 1990s). One of the most interesting parts of the trip was wandering around the old train yards and steel transferring buildings that facilitated manufacturing in Grand Rapids. Nowadays, the manufacturing economy is all but dried up and one lonely employee we met wondered “why I still have a job after 25yrs”. Though, he’s probably fortunate to have one at all.

I’ve just finished up a 3 day shoot with Mountain Biking UK magazine, covering Squamish, Whistler, and the Chilcotins. The last day we drove to Tyax Lodge on Tyaughton Lake where Dale Douglas gave us a lift (in his Dehavilland Beaver float plane) into Warner lake and rode back the 40-50km on amazing single track. We were lucky enough to see a big healthy mother Grizzly with 4 cubs(!!) along the way. I love being up there it is ridiculously amazing.

I’ve put some new images up throughout the galleries on jordanmanley.com – from Guatemala to India, to overhead aerials above Vancouver, cruise through and check them out.

The July issue of Bike magazine has just dropped and it looks like they’ve given us the cover in addition to the feature story Andrew Findlay (writer) and I gathered during our wild trip to Guatemala in January (see blog post, “Guatemala: a-diversion-from-winter”). The cover is a different breed of toning I applied to the image that I normally do, but it seemed to work with the environment, and seemingly the photo editor at Bike magazine.

I’ve just returned from a week living on the Freshfield Icefield, located between Golden, BC, and Jasper, Alberta. It sits on the continental divide, and has a huge amount of beautiful terrain above 10,000ft. I was tagging along with the hugely talented/creative Rocky Mountain Sherpas film crew as they worked on their 2 year project, “All I Can”, with athletes Callum Petit, James Heim, Chris Rubens, and Eric Hjorliefson. I was working on some editorial and commerical still photography as well as shooting video for my final Arcteryx/Goretex web episode this season. While we had to wait 5 days for the weather in order to fly up onto the icefield by helicopter safely, once we were in there we enjoyed cold temperatures (full on winter!), and plenty of sun. We spent 6 days touring and climbing lines, skiing, and shooting with great stability and blower pow.  It was a thrill to hang out with such a talented group of people, and live for a week in that spectacular environment.

The view from our camp, at 10,000ft.

6am after a nice 10cm reset of snow.

Chris Rubens and James Heim dwarfed by “Cocktail” peak.

May? Cold temps.

Eric Hjorliefson ascending.

Minutes after getting off the Glacier: l to r, Eric Crossland, Chris Rubens, Eric Hjorliefson, Malcolm Sangster, Dave Mossop, Callum Petit, James Heim, Moi

This past fall I got an assignment from Bike magazine to shoot close ups of gear for their Bible  issue. I spent a couple days by myself on the trail tinkering about mounting cameras on different places on the bike shooting brakes, wheels, forks, tires, and cranks. Stoked to see they put the self portrait fork shot on the cover!

There are some days that make me think I just might have the best job in the world. Yesterday was one of those days. For the last stop on our Skier assignment (see last post, below), Dan and I went up to Campbell River on Vancouver Island, then took a water taxi back across towards the mainland through Desolation Sound, up into spectacular Toba Inlet. In Brem Bay we met Kevin Fogolin, an avalanche consultant who contracts out to forestry and hydro firms operating in the area. It is steep, complex, wild, and stunning terrain. After meeting Kevin, we hopped in the heli with 5 x 25kg bags of prepped anfo explosives and did some heli bombing! It was one of the most exhilarating things I’ve done in a while and I felt really lucky to get to not only fly into such a spectacular zone, but also to gain a unique view into a Kevin’s world (thanks Kevin!). We closed the day with a sunset flight across Desolation Sound to Campbell River. I’ve sailed up in there a few times, but to gain an elevated view with such nice light was something special. What a day…

I was really in and amongst it here in the machine, cuddling 125kg’s of explosives.

Kevin’s office. No big deal. Peak # who knows.