Alta Patrol hard at work on the Gun tower

This past week has been a little like living in a war zone. It seems that our greatest alia , Mother Nature, has decided to wage war on the state of Utah. With huge storm totals of inconsistent snow densities, followed by ripping winds, and now sunny warm temps, it seems as though she has decided that Utah residents are going to have to learn to use some self control this season, much like our neighbors have to do every season in Colorado.

The week kicked off with an early morning wake up to beat the LLC closure and get early chair with Re Wikstrom, Paige Brady, and Pip Hunt. We were able to stand by while the Alta patrollers waged their war with mother nature. It was an incredible experience, to stand so close while they shot off round after round of chest pounding, ear ringing explosions into the adjacent mountain sides. After getting amped for the day with a little explosive energy boost, we had a great morning of shooting, powder, and as always great laughs.

Re Wikstrom letting her camera do the talking

While the backcountry remains an ominous landscape of usually popular lines that are still laying untouched, the inbounds ski has proven to be quite exceptional and if you can get to the resorts that aren’t hit as hard as others you will be hugely rewarded with tons of powder and fresh lines still awaiting a good slasher turn.

Page Brady (Right) Pip Hunt (left) enjoying the sounds of war

Yesterday, I went to Brighton to shoot with Steve Lloyd. It was the first time I had skied in sun shine since before my journey up to BC about three weeks ago. The skies were crystal clear and Weston Deutchlander, fellow Trew rider, Colter Hinchliffe, and I were out trying to get the shots.

We skied some killer sunny sky powder and Weston and Colter sessioned a sick natural kicker. The day ended with a sweet 35 footer  onto a relatively flat, but deep landing, or shall we say splat/ hot tub zone.

All and all a great week to be back in Utah!

All and all the trip was rad. We had a great crew of ripping female tele skiers and the sickest photographer, Re Wikstrom documenting our every turn. We got pounded with snow which made for some great pillow lines and even inspired me to drop a 60 footer before the Heli picked us up on saturday.

If you look real close you can see my 60ft. bomb hole just bellow the cliffs

The skies broke our for our last morning

Endless Pillow Lines!!

The view from the heli ride out

The sun cutting through the pines in Golden

Our time in Fernie was equally exciting with a short stay at Martha Burley’s house and an evening tour out of the Resort for some sweet pow turns and beautiful light, as the sun descended in the BC sky.

Martha Burley- The biggest Celeb in Fernie

Re Wikstom getting a nice taste of the Fernie Spray

Sunset over Fernie

The trip home was quick and relatively uneventful as we all tried to get our heads looking towards the week ahead of Outdoor Retailer, Sundance film festival and fresh Utah powder!

Page and Candy Road tripping

The Cockpit

First Blue sky we have seen in a long time

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My day started at 7:30am when my phone started going off with friends eager to share the powder stoke. Thank god for those calls, because I had forgotten to set my alarm and was in bed sleeping the morning away.

I was a little tired from a late night, but the minute I opened my eyes and saw the snow piled over the porch, my lack of sleep was no match for my insane excitement.

I pulled on my clothes, went outside and started digging out of the house.

Whitney pulled up at 8am and we took off heading towards Little Cottonwood. We had survived the sketchy drive down Parley’s and up Little Cottonwood.

It was about 9:30 by the time we pulled up and to my surprise and excitement they weren’t loading the lifts yet. It seemed as though mother nature was trying to see how messed up she could make our snow pack and with a fully upside down pack every rollover was cracking. So we got our rightful place in line for the Wildcat lift and waited till they opened the lift at 11am.

It was well worth the wait! The snow was bottomless and not your typical Utah blower. It was a little firmer, which allowed it to feel as though you were getting a ton of energy out of each turn.

Everyone was popping off little hits, some were biting it. others were stomping everything.

It was a rad day to be on the hill! Can’t wait to do it all over today.

(Sorry for the lack of photos, I lost my camera but will have another one soon to keep the B log interesting)

So I went right to bed and before I knew it I was turning the alarm clock off and getting all my gear together. The plan was to meet at the top of Little Cottonwood at 4am. That would give us enough time to get to the top of the ridge and set up the shot before it got too light.

It was a beautiful night, with snow falling ever so lightly and still winds. I remember the skin up being so calm and beautiful and the whole time just being in awe that my life choices had lead me to such an incredible place and that I was hiking up a mountain at 4am to go ski and shoot with athletes and a photographer I had looked up to for years.

I guess it is when you feel the most ballanced and your spirit is in such a possitive place, that magic truely happens.

We set up the shot with remote flashes, but with the cold temps and the dead tree in the way the flashers weren’t working right, making only about 1/4 of the shots actually happen.

It just so happened that on my turn the flashers went as planned and my body was in the right position. The minuit Lloyd took the shot he said it was a winner! I knew that if Steve was saying it was it good it must have been.

Since that evening there have been different percentages that Steve has given me for the probability that the shot would make it into Powder, but I never counted on it being a sure thing…. Well, until I got the Powder Photo Annual on Monday and saw it for myself.

Photo: Steve Lloyd