I spent the middle of February jumping into a bit of a different role, producing a commercial for Tourism Whistler. I spent 2 weeks collecting a range of images on the mountain and in the village. It was a big learning experience, shooting with both a Red cam and then directing a cineflex shoot in the helicopter. Fortunately we had the best weather we could have possibly hoped for – our shoot coincided with the best weather of the year in Whistler with about 2m of snow over a week.

Here is a new cover I shot with Kip Garre (seen en rappel) during a shoot for Mountain Hardwear in Chamonix, France last winter. Good times in the Poubelle Couloir!

Alongside Chad Sayers, I have begun producing the second season of the Arcteryx/Goretex sponsored series, A Skier’s Journey. This time we’re in Terrace, BC, focussing on Shames Mountain and the community cooperative model being proposed in order to save the ski hill. With some challenging weather at Shames we headed an hour north yesterday to see if we could find some softer snow. We have been skiing with our gracious host, Brad Zeerip - owner and operator of a fishing lodge here on the Skeena River in Terrace. At 52, Brad might just be the most energetic and enthusiastic skier I’ve ever met. He and friends Mark and Matt took us up a logging road with Brad’s trusty 20yr old snowmobiles before we toured and climbed to some exciting, and untrafficked terrain.

below (top), Brad Z and Mark. (bottom) Chad Sayers in an unnamed, [most likely] unskied couloir.

I recently got a call from the Wall Street Journal (actually it was an email) to shoot an assignment about Whistler. Here is the final product from last weekend’s Travel section of the paper.

Here is a Tourism Whistler commercial that features some of my images [animated still photos]. The first 15 seconds worth of images, and the last image are ones that I took during Deep Winter Photo Challenge contests in years past and other ski days around Whistler and Blackcomb.

Last fall, over a tasty beer with my friend Tobin, we found ourselves discussing a friend of his: Kevin Fogolin. Kevin has one of the cooler jobs in the world. He controls avalanche paths around the province, but predominately above the coastal waters of Toba and Bute inlets. He’s one of the only guys up there on skis, regularly, dropped off via helicopter, checking out the snowpack and making sure whatever projects going on down below are somewhat safe from avalanche activity above.

A few more gulps of beer later… [I thought] He’s not the only guy with a fascinating job in that field. I thought of Scott Aitken and Doug Tuck on the Duffey Lake road, working for the Ministry of Transportation, and have been skiing ‘the duffey’ (their office) before virtually anyone else . And who else could there be? What about exploring the careers of a few avalanche professionals that work outside of the ski industry, but both rely upon skis to conduct their work, and are driven by a desire to ski day in day out. I ran the idea by my writer-friend Dan Kostrewski from Seattle, and we pitched it to Skier magazine, and off we went. It was an amazing opportunity to try to learn from some of the most seasoned avalanche professionals in BC, and get a privileged look into their day-to-day worlds.

Check the article out on Canadian and US magazine stands (or HERE), and watch the little video I put together during our time with Scott Aitken & Doug Tuck , Kevin Fogolin & Rich Barry (Chris Stethem & Associates), and Eric Dafoe & Jim Phillips (Parks Canada, who work in conjunction with the Canadian Military, Rogers Pass – Trans Canada Highway).

From the UK. Cody Townsend shredding the Toyabe Range in Nevada last year. Sometimes a photographer wishes there were less pasted graphics on covers to show things like the trees that make that place so special…

And here is one from Aka Skidor in Sweden. Chad Sayers on Mt Matier off the Duffey Lake Road, BC.

Here is a cover from Bravoski’s Fall Line Photobook in Japan. Chad Sayers getting off the gondola at almost 4000m elevation in Gulmarg, Kashmir.

I’ve spent the last week with the Colorado go-getter Chris Davenport, Pat Sewell (as well as Chris Tatsuno) in Aspen, Colorado, shooting for the Aspen ski company. It has been great to check out the Rockies and ski and photograph in a new zone. Definitely a different snowpack that I’m used to but fortunately we received a foot of snow upon my arrival, and a subsequent week of mostly blue skies. As per usual, I’m a sucker for the forest so the best part for me was being in the Aspen trees and trying to capture what is unique about skiing through.

Pat Sewell on Aspen Mountain.