Me and Piers got in to Nelson 2 days ago and hooked up with Ben from Sweetgrass and Jesse Hoffman.
We got a nice and mellow start here in Whitewater yesterday. It was cold and blue sky with good snow. We took it pretty easy and did not shoot that much because Piers is sick and Ben has not got all his touring gear yet. The first part of the day Tobias Liljeroth from the Swedish ski mag Åka Skidor showed us around and took us to some good spots.
It’s a bit cloudy today so we are having a slow start but will head up soon to see if it clears a bit.
Here are a few shots form yesterday.
Two new covers dropped in and this time it’s French SKI Magazine and German SNOW.
The SKI cover is of Seb Garhammer skiing in Pemberton, BC at Backcountry Snowcats during our shoot for the Peak Performance catalog.
The other one is of Jon Larsson in Sestriere. It’s actually the same day as his cover last month on SKI Magazine, just about 10 minutes a part.
I’m in Spokane, WA now waiting for our ride to Nelson, BC. I have a massive jetlag from the 20h flight and have been up since 4am. I’ll post an update about the plans in Canada soon.
Here are the covers.
I had the pleasure to join Ben Sturgulewski, Johan Jonsson, Forrest Shearer and Stephan Drake last April on a camping mission in Hanies,AK.
Here is a short video from that trip that Ben and the Sweetgrass crew put together. Ben really know how to capture the right feeling and his eye for a beautiful shot is spot on.
I’m happy to join Ben on Monday again in Nelson, BC for the upcoming Sweetgrass project.
It has been snowing for a few days here in Engleberg but it has also been very strong winds. Everything was closed on Thursday but it did open up yesterday so we went up to Brunni for a few runs. We found some good snow but also ran in to very strong wind at some places.
It calmed down a bit yesterday evening and the snow should keep dumping so I think it could be even better up there in the next few days.
Here is a mellow video from yesterday.
After a pretty long storm cycle here in Engelberg it cleared on the 25th and we got a nice high pressure. The snow has been really good and it’s nice to see that it’s filling in well and most stuff good to ride. I have been shooting a bit with Mattias Hargin, Johan Jonsson, Piers Solomon and Lars Windlin and we got some good stuff. I can’t show anything great but here are a few leftovers.
Btw, it’s snowing again and it looks like it could be another good storm.
Winter has finally arrived for real in Engleberg. We have had several days with heavy snowfall and it still keeps on coming down. I have been out riding a lot to get my legs going.
Here are a few shots and a video.
Dumping
Yves Hüsler
Edward Berg getting face shot
Johan with a heavy mustache
Piers Solomon
Piers
It's deep in town too. Ski Lodge Engelberg is inviting for Apre ski
Two new covers just hit the news stand and both of them are of Jon Larsson.
I’m very happy for both of them but the Freeskiers Photo Annual cover is a big thing to get so I’m super stoked about that! That shot was taken on a catalog shoot for Peak Performance in Pemberton, BC.
The other cover is of French SKI Magazine. It was taken in Sestriere, Italy a few years ago, right before we got caught by the police for skiing off pist……
I did a quick trip to Val d’Isere last Thursday after hearing rumors about a lot of new snow. I hooked up with Piers Solomon and Patrick Vuagnat and the plan was to shoot some photos but we ended up skiing a lot and shooting very little.
It was a good call since it was the first pow day of the season for all of us so the motivation to work was not too high.
Now I’m back in Engelberg and it has been snowing all day. I think it can get good up there when it clears.
Here are a few shots from the trip and a video.
Patrick on his first pow day of the season
Piers trying a hand-drag but not enough speed
Two slappa fotbollstummar
The snow line got low and there were some huge snowflakes in the village today
It finally started snowing here in Engelberg. It’s hard to know what forecast you should trust, some of them are a bit too good to be true.
Here are two ads Audi did with my shots.
I saw that these two ads from The North Face and Peak Performance got printed.
The TNF ad is from a trip I did to Greece in February. We had really bad luck with the weather but we manage to get some good shots out of the trip anyway. Tom-Oliver was really delivering so I’m glad he got this ad.
I spent almost 6 weeks in Utah last season and shot most of the time up in Alta and Snowbird. The Peak Performance ad of Rachael Burks is from Alta on one of the coldest days last year, at least top 3 for me. It had snowed quite a bit and with very cold temperatures I finally got to ride the real Utah pow.
The last shot is of Johan Jonsson on another cover. That one if form a book about good touring spots in Norway.
Johan and me went up to Senja in northern Norway in May. We got super lucky with good weather and good spring snow for a week. The touring there is amazing, you start from sea level and skin your way up to some really good terrain. I will go back for sure.
I went to Milano last week with a few family members. The main objective was to watch AC Milan vs FC Barcelona in the Champions League and eat good food. I got exactly what I wanted when Barca won the game 3-2 and plenty of amazing food.
I’m back in Engelberg now and it’s still very dry here. It looks like there might be some snow coming end of the week and I really hope so because we need all we can get.
I just got the very sad news that my good friend Jamie Pierre was killed in an avalanche accident today at Snowbird in Utah.
Jamie was always the nicest and caring guy to me from day one. I remember the day we first met at the top of the Jochstock chair lift in Engelberg. He asked me right away if I wanted to join his crew to go shoot some photos. At that time I was pretty new in the ski photo scene and obviously got really happy to get the chance to shoot with him. A few hours later he jumped the biggest cliff I had ever seen. I was amazed of his energy and passion for skiing from the first moment I skied with him.
It’s a very sad day and my thoughts goes out to Amee!
RIP Jamie
The first day I met you Jamie
Haines
Always happy
From your last day shooting last year. It was a great day Jamie
I got very happy when I heard The Ski Journal was going to put my shot on their cover. It’s a magazine I really like with it’s high quality coffee table style.
The shot is of Johan Jonsson from our trip to Haines,AK last winter. It’s pretty funny this shot got picked because it’s Johan’s very first turns in Alaska ever. He had been injured almost the whole season and when I told him about the AK trip a few weeks earlier he said he probably would not make it.
35h before my plane left I got the call from Johan that he was on board. He had been doing a last MRI of his foot and got the OK from the doctor so he booked the same flight as me.
We arrived and got 2 cloudy days with no flying but then in the afternoon of day 3 day there was a break in the clouds so we jumped in the heli.
We all got dropped off at the same peak, me, Ben, Stephan, Forrest, Johan and our guide Rob. The face we wanted to shoot was further down the ridge so we all got to ride down a fun little face with no intention to shoot it.
However me and Ben had the riders go first one by one just in case there was something interesting. Johan took off for his first real turns in 3 months and first turns in AK ever. Just at the end of the run where it got a bit flat he hit a little roller and popped up in the sun, that’s where I got this shot.
I have also posted a short video from the second part of that trip when we went camping on the glacier. It’s not much riding action but at least some tent life.
