- Features

360 Switch up with Kaya Turski

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 12:43:00 -0400

Before you go for the full

360 Switch-up, you want to be

comfortable doing Frontside

Switch-ups. It’s best to learn these

on a fl at down-box or a regular

mellow box so you can really get

the feel of gripping on the side of

the box and then doing the Switch

up—more on that later. You also

want to be able to pop off litt le

bumps/jumps on the slope and do

quick litt le 360s, this will help you

later on when you need to set and

pop quickly off the box.

As you approach the rail or

box, don’t get caught up thinking

too much about the Switch-up.

Oft entimes people think too far

ahead and end up messing up

the fi rst grind. Just ski in feeling

confi dent and land your grind.

Once you’re on the box or rail,

you need to think about gripping

the side of the box with the inside

edge of your front ski, making a

sort of a scissor shape with your

skis. You’ll feel your body want

to start moving in the opposite

direction to the way you got on

the box, so if you’re grinding

right foot forward your body will

want to move to the right side.

Once you learn this properly,

fully committ ed 360 Switch-ups

should be prett y easy.

As soon as you feel that grip,

you want to set your spin and pop

hard; you don’t have that much

time and want to get a full 360

rotation around before you land

again. Make sure you fully commit

to the trick. It’s a litt le blind when

you come around, but with a good

solid set and pop, trust that you’ll

make it around.

In the air, as long as you’ve fully

committ ed to the spin, your body

will be following your head. Since

it’s such a quick rotation, your

feet are probably going to hit at

the same time as you’ve whipped

your head around.

As with all rail grinds, you want

to land in a relatively low stance

with feet apart to have a good,

balanced position. Get to the

end of the rail/box and the rest

is up to you. You can spice it up

with a 270 out, which if you’ve had

enough time to get comfy on the

end of the box should be easy as

your body will have rotational

momentum from the Switch-up.

Kaya Turski is one of the brightest stars in women’s skiing today. Aft er a series of bad-luck injuries, Kaya stormed back onto the comp scene in 2009 and has yet to let up. Photographer Dan Carr caught up with Kaya at Camp of Champions on Blackcomb’s Horstman Glacier this summer and captured this 360 Switch-up—one of many newly perfected rail tricks that are guaranteed to appear in this season’s slopestyle circuit and raise the bar for women’s skiing.

Dan Carr Photo

Before you go for the full 360 Switch-up, you want to be comfortable doing Frontside Switch-ups. It’s best to learn these on a fl at down-box or a regular mellow box so you can really get the feel of gripping on the side of the box and then doing the Switch up—more on that later. You also want to be able to pop off litt le bumps/jumps on the slope and do quick litt le 360s, this will help you later on when you need to set and pop quickly off the box.

As you approach the rail or box, don’t get caught up thinking too much about the Switch-up. Often times people think too far ahead and end up messing up the fi rst grind. Just ski in feeling confident and land your grind.

Once you’re on the box or rail, you need to think about gripping the side of the box with the inside edge of your front ski, making a sort of a scissor shape with your skis. You’ll feel your body want to start moving in the opposite direction to the way you got on the box, so if you’re grinding right foot forward your body will want to move to the right side. Once you learn this properly, fully committ ed 360 Switch-ups should be pretty easy.

As soon as you feel that grip, you want to set your spin and pop hard; you don’t have that much time and want to get a full 360 rotation around before you land again. Make sure you fully commit to the trick. It’s a litt le blind when you come around, but with a good solid set and pop, trust that you’ll make it around.
In the air, as long as you’ve fully committed to the spin, your body will be following your head. Since it’s such a quick rotation, your feet are probably going to hit at the same time as you’ve whipped your head around.

As with all rail grinds, you want to land in a relatively low stance with feet apart to have a good, balanced position. Get to the end of the rail/box and the rest is up to you. You can spice it up with a 270 out, which if you’ve had enough time to get comfy on the end of the box should be easy as your body will have rotational momentum from the Switch-up.

Cole Drexler Radar

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 10:29:00 -0400

It’s getting hard to not hear

an echo when bringing up the

name Cole Drexler. With a

fresh diploma in his hand and a

recent handshake with Line and

Joystick, Cole is getting all the

arms he needs to reach the top

on his way up the ranks.

Originally hailing from

Waterloo, Ont., Cole moved to

Collingwood at the age of 11,

quit racing when he was 14 and

checked into the park scene

with a one-way ticket. Cole

is not your average jibber's

delight and best known for the

"deadlung, pivot" landings and

the "off that" trick inventions.

Opposed to the addictive

compulsion of dialing in a

comp run day-in-day-out, he's

creating next year’s trends and

documenting the rights to his

own success.

Cole’s had support getting

here, too. Growing up in a

family of skiers he may be

one of the only kids whose

parents approached him about

spending his grade 11 year in

Whistler—where he logged

over 120 days on the slay

mission. Last season he took

his quiver of tricks and entered

the first two rail jams of the

season in Collingwood, winning

both. Suddenly the local lift

line for Cole got a lot shorter

even on a busy day.

After making noise online, It

was inevitable he would link up

on a trail of destruction filming

for the Voleurz family. With his

local band of misfits behind

him and the industry turning

heads and pages, just make

sure you get front row when he

comes to a city near you.

It’s getting hard to not hear an echo when bringing up the name Cole Drexler. With a fresh diploma in his hand and a recent handshake with Line and Joystick, Cole is getting all the arms he needs to reach the top on his way up the ranks.

Ralph Damman Photo

Originally hailing from Waterloo, Ont., Cole moved to Collingwood at the age of 11, quit racing when he was 14 and checked into the park scene with a one-way ticket. Cole is not your average jibber's delight and best known for the "deadlung, pivot" landings and the "off that" trick inventions. Opposed to the addictive compulsion of dialing in a comp run day-in-day-out, he's creating next year’s trends and documenting the rights to his own success.

Cole’s had support getting here, too. Growing up in a family of skiers he may be one of the only kids whose parents approached him about spending his grade 11 year in Whistler—where he logged over 120 days on the slay mission. Last season he took his quiver of tricks and entered the first two rail jams of the season in Collingwood, winning both. Suddenly the local lift line for Cole got a lot shorter even on a busy day.

After making noise online, It was inevitable he would link up on a trail of destruction filming for the Voleurz family. With his local band of misfits behind him and the industry turning heads and pages, just make sure you get front row when he comes to a city near you.

Chili C the Paper Chaser from cole drexler on Vimeo.

Ally-oop Flatspin 360 in the Pipe with Mike Riddle

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:54:00 -0400

In the seven years that Mike Riddle has been involved with provincial and Canadian halfpipe teams, his skills have propelled him to almost a dozen podiums and wins at major events including the 2007 Telus World Ski Invitational in Whistler where he not only took home first in the halfpipe and the superhit contests, but also emerged victorious in slopestyle. Known for keeping the aesthetic aspect of his pipe runs front and centre even as technical difficulty rises, Mike is gearing up for yet another successful year on the contest circuit. Photographer Dan Carr cornered Mike in Cardrona, New Zealand, this summer and had him spill the beans on his latest masterpiece, the Alley-oop Flatspin 360.

Dan Carr Photo

I put this trick into competition

runs on a regular basis because

if done right it’s one of the best

looking tricks out there. Before

attempting the Alley-oop Flat 3 you

should be able to ski the pipe both

forwards and switch proficiently,

and it helps to be able to do Backflips

and Flat/Rodeo 5s on jumps. If

you spin left, you will want to do the

trick on the left wall and vice-versa.

Coming through the flat-bottom

on approach you should be in

a low and forward position with

your hands in front. Be strong with

your legs and extend them slowly

through the transition of the wall

to a full extension at the top.

Set the trick and then grab/roll

it over: It is important to set this

trick with your hips and shoulders

open to the sky, much like a Rodeo

on a jump. The set is in-between

that of a Backflip and a Rodeo.

Think of taking off, then grabbing

and rolling over your left shoulder

simultaneously while keeping your

hips open to the sky.

The grab is very important in

making the trick easier. I do a

Bwarrow but other grabs work

just as well (try a Japan or a High

Safety grab). You don’t need that

much air when learning this trick

but you should try to be at least a

couple feet out of the pipe.

You will be able to spot your

landing quite easily in this trick.

The takeoff is blind—as with any

Alley-oop trick—but as soon as

you grab and roll it over you will

be able to see the wall and your

landing approaching.

Once your feet touchdown

make sure to not look at your feet

or the transition will for sure get

ya. You can spot up briefly but

make sure as soon as possible

you look over your shoulder as

the next wall will be approaching

fast. Look over your left shoulder

(uphill) if you want to spin down

the pipe on the next hit or over

your right shoulder (downhill) if

you want to spin Alley-oop.

You have now stomped one

of the styliest tricks that will be

a mainstay in pro pipe runs in X

Games and Dew Tours for many

years to come. Matt Hayward was

the first person I ever saw do this

trick but you can thank T-Hall for

popularizing it.

I put this trick into competition runs on a regular basis because if done right it’s one of the best looking tricks out there. Before attempting the Alley-oop Flat 3 you should be able to ski the pipe both forwards and switch proficiently, and it helps to be able to do Backflips and Flat/Rodeo 5s on jumps. If you spin left, you will want to do the trick on the left wall and vice- versa.

Coming through the flat-bottom on approach you should be in a low and forward position with your hands in front. Be strong with your legs and extend them slowly through the transition of the wall to a full extension at the top.

Set the trick and then grab/roll it over: It is important to set this trick with your hips and shoulders open to the sky, much like a Rodeo on a jump. The set is in-between that of a Backflip and a Rodeo. Think of taking off, then grabbing and rolling over your left shoulder simultaneously while keeping your hips open to the sky.

The grab is very important in making the trick easier. I do a Bow and arrow but other grabs work just as well (try a Japan or a High Safety grab). You don’t need that much air when learning this trick but you should try to be at least a couple feet out of the pipe.

You will be able to spot your landing quite easily in this trick. The takeoff is blind—as with any Alley-oop trick—but as soon as you grab and roll it over you will be able to see the wall and your landing approaching.

Once your feet touchdown make sure to not look at your feet or the transition will for sure get ya. You can spot up briefly but make sure as soon as possible you look over your shoulder as the next wall will be approaching fast. Look over your left shoulder (uphill) if you want to spin down the pipe on the next hit or over your right shoulder (downhill) if you want to spin Alley-oop.

You have now stomped one of the styliest tricks that will be a mainstay in pro pipe runs in X-Games and Dew Tours for many years to come. Matt Hayward was the first person I ever saw do this trick but you can thank T-Hall for popularizing it.

Jamieson Irvine Radar

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:27:00 -0400

Talk about home schooling.

Born and raised in Barrie, Ont.,

Jamieson “Jamo” Irvine still

lives with his parents in the

house where his dad built him

a backyard ramp setup years

ago. These days he skis out of

Mt. St. Louis Moonstone and

Blue Mountain.

Jamo’s interest in skiing

started at age three. Although

he flirted with the idea of taking

up snowboarding, he stuck

with what “felt right” and spun

his first 360 and slid his first

rail at six years old. His parents

began to see the interest and

talent that the young freestyler

held in the palm of his hand and

decided they could fit some

two-metre-tall scaffolding in

the backyard to help him learn

his trade. Five years later, that

same setup had grown to eight

metres tall, with a jump, a few

rails and a box. Jamo would get

up at 6 a.m. every morning and

head straight to the backyard

to train until it was time to go to

school. Neighbours complained

of being woken up by the sound

of ski boots climbing the metal

scaffolding and spotlights

beaming in their windows.

Competing in moguls at a

young age was also a critical

catalyst in developing Jamo’s

incredible air sense—he was

doing Backflips in the bumps

at nine. After five years of mogul

competition, however, he

transitioned over to focus all

of his time and talent on park

riding. It looks like he’s made

the right move.

Talk about home schooling. Born and raised in Barrie, Ont., Jamieson “Jamo” Irvine still lives with his parents in the house where his dad built him a backyard ramp setup years ago. These days he skis out of Mt. St. Louis Moonstone and Blue Mountain.

Jamo’s interest in skiing started at age three. Although he flirted with the idea of taking up snowboarding, he stuck with what “felt right” and spun his first 360 and slid his first rail at six years old. His parents began to see the interest and talent that the young freestyler held in the palm of his hand and decided they could fit some two-metre-tall scaffolding in the backyard to help him learn his trade. Five years later, that same setup had grown to eight meters tall, with a jump, a few rails and a box. Jamo would get up at 6 a.m. every morning and head straight to the backyard to train until it was time to go to school. Neighbours complained of being woken up by the sound of ski boots climbing the metal scaffolding and spotlights beaming in their windows.

Competing in moguls at a young age was also a critical catalyst in developing Jamo’s incredible air sense—he was doing Backflips in the bumps at nine. After five years of mogul competition, however, he transitioned over to focus all of his time and talent on park riding. It looks like he’s made the right move.

Two Four 9.1

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:11:00 -0400

Percentage of Whistler females between the ages of 20-35 that claim they are friends with a pro: 97.9%

Number of swear words bleeped out of the song “My Friend Is A Pro”: 14

Number of hours Jon Symms and Colby West spent locked in an elevator to film “My Friend Is A

Pro”: 2.25

Number of YouTube hits for “My Friend Is A Pro”: 54, 617

Number of YouTube hits for the “My Friend Is A Pro” remake: 12, 776

Number of jib-able rails in downtown Montreal: 37

Number of jib-able rails in downtown Haines, Alaska: 0

Population of Haines: 1,811

Population of Montreal: 1,620,693

Time it takes to drive from Montreal to Haines: 67 hours, 49 minutes

Number of times you could watch “My Friend Is A Pro” during that drive: 762

Number of Crown Royal bott les needed to make a complete chess set: 32

Cost for a “low-end” heli ski trip in Haines: $4597.96

Number of 26-ounce Crown Royal bottles that could buy: 170.61

Number of chess sets that could make: 5.33

Number of hangovers those 32 Crown Royal bott les will cause: 297

Estimated number of winter tires sold in Canada every winter: two million

Percentage of drivers that swear before hitting the ditch on a slippery back road: 86%

Percentage of drivers that say “Watch this, and hold my beer”: the rest

Number of skis featured in the Buyers’ Guide that would rock the powder in Haines: 31

Number of skis featured in the Buyers’ Guide that would rock the rails in Montreal: 39

Average profile, in millimetres, on a powder ski: 141/127/135

Average profile, in millimetres, on a park ski: 109/86/113

Profile diff erence, in millimetres, between a powder and park ski averages: 31/41/22

Behind the Lens with Dan Carr

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 12:12:00 -0400

So Dan, is the ski season pretty much over for you?

Winter ski season is over , but that still leaves the spring/summer ski seasons! I have a sunset jump shoot at Whistler Blackcomb tomorrow night actually. And another one next week with the Poorboyz crew.

After that I will shoot at the glacier summer camps here in Whistler for a while and then I'm trying to line up a trip to South America. With a bit of luck, winter will finally be over in September.

What happens then?

I go surfing!

That's sick! What other action sports are you into? Do you shoot any surfing?

No I haven't shot any surfing before. I love to be in the ocean, and I'm sure I'd enjoy it but I haven't had the chance to give it a try yet. The waterproof housings for my camera are about $4000 so it's not something you can just give a quick try. Shooting from the shore doesn't really interest me so much, that's too much like what I do in the winter. I enjoy shooting mountain biking too.

Basically I enjoy shooting all the things I actually like to do myself. I think that's really important. If you don't love and understand what you are shooting then you will quickly lose motivation.

How old were you when you got into action sports and photography?

My dad gave me a film SLR when I was about 14 or 15 but I didn't use it too often at that time. I didn't really get into photography until I left university when I was 22.

What were you studying in university? What got you into photography at that point?

I have a degree in Aerospace Engineering. I guess I got into photography so I could do something that was a little more fun than that!

That's not quite true actually. I got into photography because I fell in love with living in Whistler. I came here after I left university and wanted to find a reason to stay. Being a ski photographer seemed like a good idea! I was working as a ski tech in a store and I knew I couldn't do that for very long.

What did you do to make it happen? Becoming a pro photographer is definitely not something that happens overnight.

No it does take time. To begin with I really just concentrated on making a good portfolio. I didn't worry about anything else. I ignored things like "how do you submit to magazines" and "how do you get to shoot the top pros" I knew there was no point in tackling those other questions until I had a good portfolio that I could build a reputation on. so i just went out and shot as many photos as I could for a year and then narrowed them down to a handful and built a website. After that things gradually fell into place and another year down the road I entered the Pro Photographers Showdown in Whistler. I was surprised to be picked for the final, but it really helped get my name out there.

Tell me about that experience and how it changed your career.

It didn't really change the direction I was heading, but it probably jumped me forwards a couple of years. After that a lot of people knew who I was and I had a good online portfolio to back that up with.

Sitting in the crowd at the Showdown 2 years ago had been one of the things that really made me want to pick up a camera and start shooting, so it was cool to be on the stage that time, alongside some other photographers who I really admired.

What were your thoughts on this year's showdown?

Well it must be popular because I couldn't get a ticket to see it! I heard Brian killed it though

In your opinion, what is the difference between an amateur and professional photographer?

A pro is someone that will always come away with a shot, no matter what the conditions or what problems arise along the way.

I read a great book recently called Vision Mongers by a travel photographer named David duChemin. In the book he writes an interesting section on this question. He points out that the word amateur comes from the root of the French word amor, or love. An amateur is someone who does their craft for the love of it and in theory a professional is simply someone who does it for money. I still do it for the love of it, not really the money. I could probably be making more money putting my degree to use. His point was that professional has come to simply mean someone that does their craft for money

His point was that perhaps people shouldn't be post-holed into amateur and professional because there are also a lot of amateurs out there doing better work than some of the pros. It's just something to think about. I'm not sure I entirely agree with it because as I said earlier a pro is someone that will always come away with a shot, no matter what the conditions or what problems arise along the way, and that is why clients come back again.

It just goes to show you that it's not black and white

Not at all, if anyone is thinking about becoming a photographer I highly recommend the book by the way.

What advice do you have for someone wanting to take photos for a living, in terms of both the photography and business side of things?

You need to quickly realize that you will spend far more time on the business side of things than actually taking the photos. I always tell people to take a business class instead of a photography class.

For example, no amount of painting classes are going to turn me into VanGogh, but there is a lot to be learned on the business side of things, then let your photos speak for themselves.

Talking about websites, how important do you think keeping yours updated with blog posts, reviews and how to's is?

I wouldn't say its necessary to be successful, but it doesn't hurt. It builds your "web presence" and that's never a bad thing in an industry that is really overcrowded.

Plus I kind of enjoy it! I have a huge box of camera equipment being delivered tomorrow for testing by B&H photo so I get to try new things and make sure I have the best equipment to do the job.

What are your thoughts on where photography technology is going? Do you think it's going to change the way the industry is run in the future?

I don't think it's the photography technology that will cause the change. It's things like the iPad that will change it, as people will always need photos but where they will end up getting displayed is going to be different.

The only photography technology that is causing much of a change is the video/stills conversion. So far it has been film makers adopting DSLRs for shooting video and not photographers shooting video instead of stills. There are a few exceptions of course, but for the most part I think very few people have made the switch. Being able to shoot video is nice, but to do it well is still very hard.

As it becomes easier over time, do you think photographers will need to learn to do both well or will it always just be icing on the cake?

That's going to vary. Photojournalists will eventually need to do both, but for what I shoot, I don't think it will happen. Simply because some of the things I shoot are not instantly repeatable and I can't shoot video and stills at the same time. If someone skis a sick line, I can't ask them to do it again so I can get the video. For me there will always be someone next to me shooting the videos and I will concentrate on the stills.

Enough about technology and speculating about the future, let's talk about your season. Can you give us a quick recap?

Edmonton urban trip with Poorboyz. -30 Celcius, urban destruction, police helicopters, LJ Strenio, Matt walker, Leigh Powis and Mike Henituk.

X-Games. SIA trade show lots of driving back and forth between Aspen and Denver.

Japan. Dane Tudor, Sammy Carlson and Henitiuk. Pow, sushi, pow, sushi, Schmuck and more pow.

Whistler sledding missions. Charley Ager doing intense things backwards, Dane doing intense things forwards and Henituk styling through the pow.

Alaska. Durtchi, Pep, Tudor, JP , Julien Regnier. Ridiculous lines, avalanches, motel rooms, more motel rooms, cheese sticks and helicopters.

What was your favorite trip of the year?

AK without a doubt. The scale of that place is something you can't really describe. In Haines, the terrain is like nothing else I've ever seen. Crazy snow features like spines with bus-sized pillows all down them.

Do you plan on going back next year?

I really hope so.

Looking back on your career as a photographer, is there one trip/photo/experience that has had a big impact on your career?

I think its hard to narrow it down to one thing. Every photo and every trip combines together to make one six year-long experience.

If you had to shoot one type of skiing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Definitely powder freeskiing, as there is far more variety on locations. It's much harder work to get a shot and so many more things have to come together. Snow conditions, rider sticking the line, light, and the challenge of physically getting to the locations. With park and urban most of that other stuff is easy and they can repeat it until they get the trick. I'm not saying the photos are easy, but things like weather and snow conditions don't matter so much.

What about athletes? Do you enjoy shooting with a certain group of riders?

I have a few people who I know I work well with. When you find a rider who is on the same wavelength you can make a lot of things work, but sometimes things can get stressful so if you are with people who you know you can rely on then it makes it way easier. Dane Tudor, Leigh Powis, Jossi Wells and Max Hill are some of my favorite guys to work with. With those guys, I don't think there is a shoot I have done where we haven't got something published from it.

What about working with other photographers? Have you done a lot of shoots where there have been other people shooting too? Generally how smoothly do they go?

The only time that might happen is a big jump at a park shoot or a competition. It's not ideal, but sometimes it can't be helped. Almost all the ski photographers out there know each other well enough so it's pretty easy going...most of the time.

You mentioned you shoot a lot in the spring and summer and also surf, is winter still your favorite season?

Absolutely. I love everything about it, the cold and the constant anticipation for the next dump of fresh snow.

What's it like shooting snowboarders? Do you notice a big difference in the way things are done?

I don't shoot a lot of snowboarding so I'm not really sure I can compare. I doubt there is much difference but the snowboarders I have shot are not up to the same caliber as the skiers I work with so it's hard to say.

What are your thoughts on ski movies? What do you think it will take to be one of the best movies this year? What are your thoughts on the hordes of up-and-comers trying to make a name for themselves?

I think next year we are going to see some crazy doubles in the backcountry, well in fact I know we are as I have seen some of it! I'd like to see that kind of skiing from people who are good all-round skiers and not just someone who is good at dubs and nothing else. I want to see them ski lines and hit jumps. As for the up and coming movie guys, I would say the same thing as so many of them are heavily jib oriented, at least a lot more than the main movies out there at the top of the pile. I think it's great that there are so many companies because it shows off the young talent to the sponsors, but if they want to step-up a level and try and compete with the big guys, then they need to get more lines and more powder.

I would add to that, the only movie company that moved up the ranks in the last few years was Jeff Thomas and his theory 3 crew. Now of course they got swallowed up by Poorboyz, but until that happened they were consistently upping the number of movie sales until they ranked up there in the top 5 or so companies. Their movie always had park, urban and a ton of powder and Jeff was a one man show for the most part. It would be good to see another one of the younger companies follow along that sort of path.

What do you think? You're an east coast guy and a lot of the filmers are out there.

I think the top guys are beginning to understand what it takes to be a pro movie. They can no longer put b-shots in the film and since they don't have the terrain here on the east coast, they put a lot of effort into getting creative with their urban and really focusing on the cinematography of each shot. It's no longer ski-porn to rap music, but an actual movie with a story and good flow.

In terms of am movies, I really like what ESK Media is doing in Quebec. They have been filming with some OG's like JP Auclair but also have a great line-up of young riders who are going to blow up in the next couple of years. Other than them, the Montreal NSF crew have some of the best am urban riders around.

Interesting.

What are your thoughts on all the amateur photographers trying to make it big?

Well it's not often that you see or hear of a new face on the scene really, which is a shame as there's always room for some friendly competition. Part of the problem is the money I think because magazines are paying less and less and I think it dissuades a lot of younger guys because initially that's where you look to get some money and to get a feeling of hope that YES you can make a living doing this. Obviously it takes time to build up to the commercial clients, so you need that help from magazines to begin with but unfortunately the mags are getting smaller and using less photos.

It's not going to be easy to break into it.

Are there any magazines that you are stoked on? In terms of overall impression, writing, photos, etc.

SBC! I have always liked the writing in Powder too.

Where do you think the future of print magazines is heading?

I think its going to split in two. Personally I think there will always be people (at least for the next 5-10 years) that want printed paper magazines, you know, something you can quickly buy on a whim at the grocery store or at the airport. At the same time there is going to be developments in the electronic magazines too for people who want to use things like the iPad. The problem is going to be that to begin with, development costs for magazines like that might be high and a simple port of the printed version to digital would be fine, but to really take advantage of it there needs to be an element on interactivity and multimedia.

Magazines like the New York Times, Wired and National Geographic won't have a problem, as they will have the budget to develop these within the next year I think, but that will only serve to widen the gap between them and the smaller mags, and that could be a problem as it's going to hurt some of the smaller mags. I don't know if any of the skiing magazines have the budget for anything like that, but I doubt it. For them the printed mags will still be a big thing for a while longer and if someone can get a jump on everyone else it could be beneficial.

Any closing thoughts?

Check out my blog at www.dancarrphotography.com and don't hesitate to ask any questions you have!

Martin Boulais Radar

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:26:00 -0400

For some, standing out in the talent pool that is the Quebec park scene can be an arduous task. Differentiating yourself from dozens—perhaps even hundreds—of other up-and-comers can be a demoralizing, patience-draining experience. Don’t ask Martin Boulais about that though—he’s not familiar with getting lost in the crowd.

The 17-year-old, also known affectionately as Marty Bullet, has spent the past couple of seasons steadily making a name for himself throughout Ontario, his native Montreal, and the Whistler glacier scene, and is now showing signs that he’s ready for the big stage. Boulais’ standout performances in his segments and web edits with Quebec-based NSF Productions is the antithesis of the status quo and have resulted in early recognition by sponsor heavyweights such as K2 and mentor Anthony Boronowski’s Joystick.

This winter, Martin plans to continue his ascent, hitting as many of the major slopestyle competition stops as possible, continuing to film with the NSF crew, and likely filling his winter with more pretzels than a South Philly bake shop. Keep an eye out for Martin this winter, chances are you won’t have any problems picking him out of the crowd.

photo: www.jmousseauphoto.com

thumbnail: Charles Spina

Behind the Lens with Mason Mashon

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:38:00 -0400

Before getting started I'd like to say that your slideshow during the Pro Photographer Showdown was fucking badass. Congrats on doing such an amazing job with it.

Hey thanks man! I'm pumped you enjoyed it.

When and where did you find out you were going to be one of the invited photographers? What were some of the initial thoughts that went through your head?

I was driving my truck in downtown Victoria in mid March and when I got that phone call, I just started fist pumping and honking the horn! I couldn't believe that I was chosen and at that point I knew I had a huge task on my plate and had to step up my game big time. The ideas just started flooding my brain and I instantly started making phone calls.

How much time did you have to prepare for the showdown and how much did it change your current plans?

I had four weeks to prepare the slideshow, and upon being selected, I dropped my shifts at my job on a days notice and started cruising around BC meeting up with friends to shoot. That trip took me back to Vancouver Island, up to Kamloops and Spences Bridge and all the way to the Sunshine Coast.

Did you try and focus on one aspect of photography or just tried to cram in as many trips in as possible?

I really wanted to round out my portfolio in each of the disciplines that I enjoy shooting, so I tried to mix things up as much as possible, enabling a wider variety of images and locations. One element I focused on was my POV perspectives, which transcend across each of the disciplines I shoot.

In the one month, I shot surfing, mountain biking, skiing and snowboarding. Which was only made possible by our beautiful province, and it's localized climate zones.

Is there any one discipline you enjoy shooting more?

That's a tough question...I'd like to say that I enjoy shooting mountain biking the most, because I still shred super hard when I'm carrying my camera bag, which tends to be a bit risky sometimes. But at the same time, going out sledding to shoot skiing and snowboarding is so much fun, especially when its deep.

In terms of the end result, are you more stoked on your mountain biking work or something else?

I'm really happy with all of my work, especially my most recent, but I think that my mountain bike work has become a lot stronger because of my participation in the sport as an athlete. I also think that with mountain biking, there's a lot less conditional influences such as the weather, which make it easier to produce banger images.

When did you get started in actions sports?

I've always been into action sports in some capacity. I started skiing when I was four, snowboarding when I was nine, started competing in downhill mountain biking at eleven, started surfing when I was seventeen. I need to be outside and doing something pretty much everyday, or else I go crazy.

What got you into photography?

I've always enjoyed taking photos, but it wasn't really until I crewed up with Voleurz in University when I decided to take it to the next level.

What did it take to make the step from amateur to pro?

Getting accepted into the Pro Photog showdown.

Do you have any advice for aspiring photogs on how to make that happen?

My biggest piece of advice is to make sure you take the extra steps to get to those sweet angles. If it doesn't look quite right, move around, re-frame, and make sure the compositions are perfect. There's obviously more than just taking pictures in the job of a pro photographer, but having strong imagery is the first step.

What's it is like to ride and hangout with the Voleurz crew?

It's always a very positive and entertaining experience. We're constantly cracking jokes, and poking fun at each other, while high fiving and enjoying the shred missions. Everyone is super close friends, so it makes it easy to communicate our ideas to each other.

Do you plan on spending a lot of time with them over the summer and next season? Or do you have some big trips planned already?

I'm going to be tied up in mountain biking a lot this summer, but I'll be working with COC this year as a mountain bike coach, so we're all going to be here in Whistler this summer hanging. I do have a couple trips up my sleeve and I'm in the works of getting them written on the calendar. I'm going to be working closely with Voleurz on the video side of things and I'm trying to push Darren to produce a mountain bike video with me.

What was the most life changing trip/photo/experience/etc you have experienced over the years?

I've only been at it for a couple years now, so I don't really have a ton of experiences to reflect on, but I would say that my one month journey before the contest last week was one of the most life changing experiences for me. I've never had so much fun traveling and chiseling off ideas from my bucket list. I explored more new zones and places in that condensed period of time, and produced more photos that I was really proud with than I ever have before in that kind of time frame. Then being able to present my entire body of work in my home town among my peers and my friends, that was a life changing experience in it's own.

Tell me about that experience, it must have been quite special being the youngest out of the bunch.

I don't think I've ever been more stressed than I was two hours before the show. I'd been having troubles uploading my show onto the computers they use to project the presentations all week and went through probably 15 different compressions to try and get it to work. Luckily I had Jeremy to share the stress with, because his wouldn't work either and we literally had to go down to Function Junction and buy an adapter so we could play the shows off of a laptop. Finally, with only a few hours to spare, they got it to work, and the stress began to dissipate. Being the youngest was definitely an honor because having my work sit next to some serious veterans and be appreciated on the same level was definitely an injection of self-confidence.

How much of an impact do you think being part of the pro photo showdown will have on your career?

I think there will be a huge impact from this. The contest instilled credibility in my skills, as well as provided worldwide exposure to my name, and in which case I am now setting up my own business so that I can pursue photography as a full time gig. I had been patiently waiting for the right opportunity, and this contest was it.

Where do you see yourself in a year from now? in 5? in 10?

I can't forsee more than a year, but I'd like to have my hands in all of the pies in the future. From mountain biking, to surfing, to skiing and snowboarding, I want to travel the world with my camera, and by doing fun-filled activities I don't think there's any better way for me to fulfill that dream.

Sounds like a pretty rad lifestyle. Will you always call Whistler home?

Whistler has so much to offer in such a short distance geographically, so I think I will stay in the Sea to Sky region for a long time. It's hard to leave once you've been here for a while.

Are there any destinations you really want to check out soon?

I'd like to explore more of Vancouver Island and get down to Utah sooner than later. I'm also interested in hitting up Sweden for mountain biking this summer.

In terms of shooting video or photos, do you have anything you are really excited to try out? Can you give us a sneak peak?

I'm really interested in shooting surfing from in the water. Voleurz is shooting a surf video this year and we will be ordering a housing for that, so you can only imagine I'm keen to give it a whirl.

I'm excited to see what you can produce in the water. The pro photo showdown was a real eye opener in terms of the surf side of things for me.

I figure my surfing experience should help a bit, so it will be an exciting undertaking.

What was it like growing up in Vernon? Do you think you would be where you are today if you grew up elsewhere?

Vernon was such as awesome place to be growing up. The mountains were super close by for skiing and mountain biking, and the supporting community surrounding those who enjoy the outdoor lifestyle is amazing. It's tough to imagine what life would be like growing up elsewhere, but I think that the friends I made there have a huge impact on where I am today. Not to mention, they're kicking some serious ass on their skis these days. Oh, and Kalamalka lake is also the best lake in the whole world for those who don't know.

I didn't know that! You going to be around Vernon this summer? I might have to couch surf for a bit.

Summer volympics yo! Come jam with us.

How did the Volympics go last weekend?

Dude, so kick ass.

What are the Volympics all about?

It's all about reuniting our close group of friends, partying, having fun, playing games, comradery etc.

Peep Voleurz.com for an update on Sundays event.

Thanks a lot Mason! Anything closing thoughts?

Don't link to my website. It`s a work in progress and I plan on having the final product up and running over the summer. That`s if I can find some time in between riding and shooting.

Behind the Lens with Grant Gunderson

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 02:07:00 -0400

Grant Gunderson is one of skiing's most talented photographers. He has shot for nearly every snow sports publication, is the standing photo editor for The Ski Journal, recently won the Salt Lake City Photo Shoot Out and was named one of the worlds top 50 action sports photographers by Red Bull. He does all this while still managing to ski 200+ days a year and brewing one of the finest beers around. This is what he has to say about photography, skiing and his career.

Well to start things off I would like to congratulate you on your slide show at the Pro Photographer Showdown.

Thanks man. The pro photo showdown was a pretty cool event to be part of, especially this year with such a deep pool of talented photographers in it.

When and where were you when you found out you got invited? What were some of the initial thoughts that went through your head at that time?

I was at my house and had just gotten back from one of my many trips this year, I've been on the road so much it all blends together. I was pretty blown away to find out that I had gotten double-invited. This was the first year that I submitted a slide show to the search, and they called saying that I earned a spot with the slide show, but that I was also on their list as one of the three invited photographers as well.

Not bad at all! Did you have to shift things around to put together your slide show? Were their any particular obstacles you faced when trying to pick and choose which images to use?

Definitely. The slide show prep was during my busiest time of the year with photo deadlines looming, as well as coinciding with one of the best pow cycles of the year at Baker. You could say the timing was not so great. That and I bought finalcut to put my show together and it took me longer than expected to learn how to use the software.

As far as picking shots go I had a few in mind that I knew had to be there, but I knew from experience it is always best to have someone else help edit your shots. As a photographer you get too attached to your work and just like a writer always needs an editor not familiar with their work to check for grammar and such.

Who ended up being that person?

My girlfriend Re Wikstrom. She is a pretty amazing ski photographer specializing in chicks that rip and also the assistant photo editor at Backcountry.com so she is pretty well qualified. That and the fact that she is my girlfriend, she didn't have much of a choice.

The end result was amazing, so I would say she did a pretty good job. You were alright too I guess. Was there any photographer you considered a major threat before the competition?

Brian. I knew that the rest of us didn't have a chance as soon as I saw that he was in it. The guy is a legend in surfing and has been a pro surf photographer longer than I have been alive.

His work was definitely on another level. Were there any other photographers that really impressed you?

Seo's flash work always impresses me, but I am really good friends with him so I was already really familiar with his work. Mason was pretty amazing, I had never heard of him before the show and he displayed a LOT of potential at a young age. I think he will do well in the years to come.

What were you doing when you were his age (24)? When did you start taking your photography seriously?

Hmmmmm, that was six years ago. I have to stop and think what was I doing...

Ah, that would put me in my 6th out of 7 years of engineering school. I was going to school full time, managing a camera store full time and shooting full time. That was also the same year I spent the summer interning for Powder. So I was pretty well into ski photography at that age, I had already had three or four covers and was shooting a ton. At the time I was definitely one of the youngest guys shooting, but I feel like there was a crew of us that all started about the same time. Things were also way harder then since we where still shooting film.

How hard was it making the switch from film to digital? Do you see similar technological advances having as big of impacts as that did in the near future?

I personally liked working with with film as you had to get it right in camera, and then you were done. It was easy for me to switch to digital after shooting film as it has a huge tolerance for fuck ups, but I am still not stoked with the immense amount of time that you have to spend sitting in front a computer to make your digital files look like they should. Even if you do everything right in camera, the digital files still look like shit until you tweak the levels a bit.

As far as new technological advances, that's tough to say and I am not even going to try to predict the future, but the prototypes I have been testing for Canon definitely show the potential for new ideas. Now if Apple would just make a computer fast enough...

Could you offer any advice to those amateurs trying to make the jump to pro? Whether it be in terms of shooting, personal goals or even the business side of things.

That's a big ball of wax to tackle and it would take a full book to just touch the basics. That being said, here is what i think the key is:

1.Only show your best work

2.Try new things. Don't imitate others

3.Be as professional as possible. Take a business class and learn by asking other photographers advice. Most importantly don't bite the hand that feeds you, that is what killed Wheels and Wax.

Personally I think the key to my success so far has been being nice and trying to learn as much as possible at all times. That's the cool thing about photography, no matter how much you learn, there is always more.

Thought that was a tough question, wait til you hear this one. What were some life changing trips, experiences, photos, etc that have shaped you over the years?

Every trip I have ever done has changed my life, as I have learned from every single one. The goal is to constantly strive to do better than you did on the last shoot, but the two most life changing things have been my internship at Powder and my star trail shot at Alta. Reddick is an amazing photo editor and I learned a LOT from him. I think that image was truly special at the time and did a lot to further my career, that being said I am the first one to admit it is not perfect and that there are better photos yet to be taken.

Let's stray away from the photo side of things for a bit, because I skiers are important in the whole process also. What are your thoughts on the industry at this moment in time?

SKIERS are the most important part, you can't shoot any ski shots without skiers. The industry... It's changing and it's interesting. Some of the biggest players in the game are no longer key players and there are a lot of upstarts that are starting to do quite well for themselves. As always it's really important to keep an open mind and be aware of how things are changing.

What do you see your role being in the future?

Our role as photographers has changed from documenting the sport, to helping drive the creative and artistic aspects of it and trying to showcase the fun of skiing to a broader audience. It is no longer about documenting the biggest air or the biggest named athlete. Personally I hope to see my role evolve to working with more brands to help define their image and culture through new and creative imagery.

Anything else you would like to touch upon?

The only other thing is that I would like to see our industry get away from focusing 90% on video parts and focusing more on imagery and creativity. Sure video has an important role, but personally I am not interested in seeing the same trick after trick. I would much rather watch video and film move in a more creative direction where it is more about the aesthetics of cool lines, tricks, etc and not about who does the most spins or who does the craziest dance on the same rail.

Are there any film companies that you think are doing a good job of going in this direction?

I got to be careful here so that I don't piss off any friends, but I think Jeff Thomas has done a great job of pushing the edit and ideas. Unfortunately the snowboard film crews seem to be light years ahead of any of the ski film crews. I do think there are a bunch of younger film makers and I can think of one crew in Whistler for example that is trying new things. We will have to wait and see if they succeed.

If there was one discipline of skiing you had to shoot for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Big mountain freestyle. Note I did not say freeride. Nothing gets me more stoked then shooting beautiful mountain terrain and seeing amazing skiers produce rad imagery with tricks that will compliment the terrain.

Which athlete would you take with you on that never-ending mission?

There is not a single athlete, every skier is different and that's half of what makes ski photography so interesting. However two skiers that really impressed me this year were Zack Giffin and KC Deane. Both have amazing work ethic and are equally at home in the big mountain or park environment and possess the skills to perform the trick that best compliments the environment we are shooting in.

Now for some shitty generic one liners.

Haha, go for it!

Favorite band/artist?

None, whatever is randomly playing on the ipod.

Best powder?

Mt. Baker

If you had to pick one ski to ride at all times, what would it be?

Lib Tech, more companies should use magne-traction. Or Black Diamond for touring.

Best beer after a day of powder?

Newcastle, only if i have no home brew.

Best snow sports publication

You really want me to answer that? The Ski Journal. Well ummm I mean SBC of course ;)

Of course!

Depends on who is buying more photos!

Good answer. Any closing thoughts?

Is it time for more beer?

It's always time.

Probe: Kaya Turski

Mon, 31 May 2010 13:55:00 -0400

Despite setbacks, skiing’s heiress to the women’s Slopestyle throne is back and ready to dominate again

Depending on your perspective, Kaya Turksi either came completely out of nowhere to take the slopestyle world by storm, or was pegged as a favourite to rise to the top of the ranks quicker than anyone in recent memory. It’s Kaya’s inline-skating background that gave those who’ve known her from those days cause for the latter. And those expectations have likely been exceeded over the past three years, even with two career-threatening injuries that kept her sidelined for almost two seasons in a row.

Kaya won the Slopestyle at the Vermont Open in 20TK—the first competition she ever attended—with a run that would still stand up in most of today’s events. Success continued with victories at Whistler’s Stompede and the NZ Open during pre-season training in the Southern Hemisphere. Then, at the ICER Air, the first comp of the next season, Kaya came up against some extreme bad luck. A significant chunk of the landing was exposed on the poorly constructed jump at San Francisco’s AT&T Park. When Kaya caught an edge on her ski out, the injuries were severe, including a bruised lung, lacerated kidney, and torn pancreas. Complications with the resulting three surgeries put her on the couch for months. Then, early on in her return to the slopes, she faced a new trial: a blown knee. With a lot of determination and rehab she eventually got over that as well. This past year was relatively injury free—a minor shoulder issue sustained at a Dew Tour stop, and five chipped teeth at the X Games during a snow-covered slopestyle training session. Kaya managed to win the overall Dew Tour title, and settled for third in her first X experience. Fair footprints on the comeback trail. The born-and-raised Montrealer sat down over dinner this summer to talk about her career to this point, her plans for the coming season, and some of the issues facing women’s freeskiing.

Seo Photo

With your history and level of success in competitive inline-skating, were you confident that your skills would cross over?
Well, yeah. I tried skiing and really liked it. I think it came easy because I had the skating background. I had some ski experience from when I was little, too, so I wasn’t a total junk show on skis. It was just a matter of getting used to it again and the longer air time. But skating is essentially the same thing; they’re very similar.

So you moved out to Whistler?

I started thinking about skiing during my last year of high school. I wanted to move out to Whistler and give it a shot, but couldn’t find any friends that wanted to join me. Luckily, I had a family friend from Poland living in Squamish, B.C., who I stayed with that first winter. It worked out super well; I wanted to work at it and see where I could go with it, and things really progressed quickly.

Did you feel pressure to do well in the ski scene?
No. In skating I had sponsors and was doing comps and there was definitely pressure there. But when I started skiing it was nice because no one was expecting anything of me. When I competed in rollerblading I was stressed out all the time. When I entered my first ski competition—the Vermont Open—it was like, “I don’t have anything to prove, this is awesome!”

And you hadn’t even planned to compete that year?
Yeah. I moved to Whistler to take six months and ski and have fun. But I was speaking to Felix Rioux who I’d worked with through D-Structure back in the day, and he was doing some work with Sunice [clothing] who were looking for a girl. He suggested the Vermont Open and I decided why not just go and try? I was feeling good on my skis at that point, pretty consistent, so I went and I had great time.

You won the Slopestyle there, then Whistler’s Stompede and the NZ Open during pre-season… things were going well, weren’t they?
Yup. And then I went to ICER Air the next year. That was the first comp of the season, and I got wrecked. My dreams were shattered. I was so excited, and then heartbroken when the doctor told me I couldn’t ski for a year. I’ve never been so shocked in my life. Bad timing, bad injury.

The phrase “cheap shot” comes to mind when thinking about what happened there.
I feel like I was robbed. It was my first comp [of the season] and I’d just signed on Salomon International and I was stoked as hell. I really felt good and it didn’t cross my mind to pull out [because of the poor constructed jump]. I just went for it. I did my practice run and did my Five perfect and it just messed up the second time.

Internal injuries, three surgeries, out for months. So you had a lot of time to miss skiing?
I had so much time to miss skiing. And the worst part was, I get a trainer and a whole year to think about what I need to do, and the fire inside of me is there. Then I go back to New Zealand and thirteen days later I blow my knee. It was like “Oh my god, no way this just happened again.” It was horrible.

Worse than anything that could happen in skating?
So many people think skating is gnarly because it’s on concrete. But in skating you get scra

pes and broken bones, but you don’t get your foot caught on something and tear ligaments. Long skis on your feet and getting stuck in the snow, that’s where you start to tear things.

Did you get anything out of the extended rehab experience?

It wasn’t a good thing but I definitely got some positives out of it. I started working with the best trainer ever and when I finally got back on skis my mental game was there. I had two years to think about my takeoff, my landing, how I need to do things. A huge part of any trick is just thinking about it in your head, knowing you can do it, being able to visualize. When I got back on snow, things felt better than ever. That’s when I realized I really did get something out of this.

How did the injuries affect the business side of skiing for you?
I’m not going to lie and say people were stoked. I was upset and everyone was bummed out—but it was good that I had the year that I did coming into skiing. That gave Salomon a lot of reason to believe in me and they kept me around, which is really appreciated. And Oakley was super cool—I wasn’t even signed until I was injured so that’s been great. I’m grateful for everything.

Any interest in the type of mainstream media exposure that women like Kristi Leskinen and Sarah Burke have gotten?
It’s something I’d like to expand into, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of my skiing; having MTV follow me around all day isn’t something I’m really interested in. Posing half nude for a magazine also isn’t something I’d like to do, but I don’t hold it against anybody. As far as what Kristi did [ABC’s The Superstars], I think that’s really cool. Some people are going to hate on it but in the end you’re getting paid to do what you love and some people don’t think about what it would be like to be in that position. I think it helps the sport and it gives us some recognition and I’m totally down for what she did.

What are your thoughts on the push by female athletes for more equality in prize money?
It definitely pissed me off that I was winning $3,000 and the guys in skiing—plus everyone else around me in every other sport—were winning $15,000. I understand that the guy’s pool is much bigger and it’s hard to place, but in the end we work really hard and I don’t think we should be penalized just because there’s not that many of us. Give us some credit—we’re hitting the same jumps as the guys. Look at any sport, the men are better and that’s that way it is. Why should it be different in skiing? What does it matter that Jon Olsson is better than me? I’m not competing against him. I’m not trying to be as good as Sammy [Carlson]. I’m trying to be the best at what I do in my division, and right now that’s women’s Slopestyle.

You’ve solidified your position atop the slopestyle heap. Is there halfpipe in your future?

Yes. This year I’ll do slopestyle to fortify my style and my tricks and make sure I have a really good base. And then, at the end of the season, I was thinking I’d work on halfpipe. I definitely want to be able to go to the 2014 Olympics, but it’s not like I’m expecting to just enter X Games pipe and do well. I’m going to go to Woodward this summer for skating and skiing. Do some foam-pit jumping and a lot of vert foam-pit stuff, too—just try to get the feeling of the transition. Maybe compete in p

ipe a bit but take it easy. I’m also going to try to take time to do some more backcountry skiing. In my opinion, [film] segments aren’t complete unless you’ve got some good backcountry stuff, so I want to get out there and kill it.

Like any sport, skiing is full of cliques. As a bit of an outsider, have you been supported by the other women in the sport?
Definitely this year I bonded with quite a few girls. Keri [Herman]’s cool and so is Kim [Lamarre]. I got along super well with Kristi—we had a good training program going and she motivates me. She had a place in Breckenridge and I stayed with her early-season. I think she’s trying to get a place in Mammoth this year and I’m pretty sure I’m going to move out there for the season. Kim and I were side-by-side, 24/7, skiing all day every day together until X Games; then she got hurt and I lost my partner—a real bummer.

Seo Photo

Misty 450 Off with Leigh Powis

Thu, 20 May 2010 13:40:00 -0400

With plenty of experience riding the unforgiving plastic dryslopes in his native U.K., Leigh Powis took time out of his busy schedule slaying the Blackcomb Terrain Park to explain how to get crazy off everything from rails to the canon boxes popping up everywhere from the X Games and Dew Tour Slopestyle courses to your local hill.

Dan Carr Photography

If your goal is to do a Misty 450 off of a rail, the first thing you want to think about is attempting some Misty 5s off of some smaller jumps to learn the rotation. I also find Flatspin 5s really help with getting your head around this trick.
The best feature to try this on is a mediumsized up box with a nice steep landing that provides some good hang time.
Once you’re dialed and ready to try it, you want to come into the box strong and not be thinking about just the flip—otherwise you might forget to slide the box! You want to visualize and think about the trick in the order you’re actually going to carry it out, so get on the box for a second and then set yourself to throw the axis you learned on the smaller jumps.
At the point where you’re setting your rotation, spot the landing for a split second before you throw the flip. This will all happen very fast at first so be ready for it!
Make sure you focus on popping, and as you roll over, leading with your shoulder, you want to spot the landing as soon as you can when you see it. Don’t stop or hesitate in your rotation at this stage—you may feel like you want to— but just keep going with it until you are all the way around.
Once you have the landing fully in your sights, as you touch down, you want to force your arms forward to keep you upright and to stop you from landing on your ass.
Put it down, stay strong, bang it, throw out some gang signs to your friends, and go do it again!

Crystal-Rose Lee Profile

Wed, 19 May 2010 20:16:00 -0400

A self-proclaimed “girly-girl,” Whistler’s Crystal-Rose Lee loves shopping, nice clothes, and dressing up. She also enjoys kicking ass on the international freeskiing circuit. Despite her mother’s initial attempts to redirect her interests to piano and dance, Crystal wanted to make her music in the mountains.

Crystal’s wellrounded competitive career spanned everything from racing to park and pipe before finding her current home in big-mountain skiing in 2007. After a successful initial season on tour, Crystal proved she wasn’t just a flash in the pan in 2008 by posting solid results with a third at Red Mountain, two more top 10s, and her second SICKBIRD nomination during the U.S. Nationals Super Finals. Finally, a first at the World Tour Championships in Alyeska, Alaska, secured her second place overall standing on the IFSA World Tour.

Crystal was on the podium again in 2009 with a third-place finish at the World Tour Championships in Alaska. Crystal has fallback positions if her ski interests change again in the future, with qualifications in coaching, instructing, park and pipe, and avalanche safety. As you can see, her name is very appropriate—she has a sparkling future.

The Milkman: Photographer Eric Berger Delivers Right to Your Doorstep

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Eric Berger likes to laugh. He also likes to do it with style. He doesn’t just scheme about epic trips to far-flung locations; he schemes about epic trips to far-flung locations with all the proper accoutrements, accompanied by the right people to ensure the trip is, in every conceivable way, the best it could possibly ever be.
Like an assignment in Northern British Columbia: three trucks, six sleds, prearranged heli and hotel; gourmet chef buddy in Smithers; Eric Pehota, Dan Treadway and Shane Szocs. You’d think he had even pre-arranged the weather—serious storms interspersed by spectacular bluebird.
Or an assignment in Bella Coola: The Swede, Chris Davenport, Dan Treadway; 10 days, all the fishing gear and fish and powder you could ever want; a little bonus budget for a few bottles of fine wine; one side trip to a remote hot springs, another to catch Dungeness crab for dinner. Saddled up in the hotel like the guys from Matchstick? You kidding me? Tweedsmuir Lodge private chalet all the way, baby. Berger likes to call you “baby,” especially when everything’s going his way. It usually is.

A native of Montreal, Berger is a youthful 44. Which probably has something to do with the fact that he doesn’t have any kids… yet. He’s a Libra, which, as far as he knows, means balanced. Oh, yeah, creative and artistic too. His hair—from his perspective—looks good. “Because I’m so tall you can’t see the top,” he chuckles. A little grey with salt-and-pepper sides. George Clooney style, he’d tell you. But he ain’t that slick. It’s unkempt and not coiffed; he doesn’t complicate things with hair product.
    He appears fit. Though The Swede once said to him, “You ski like my grandma.” Berger’s quick rebuttal was handing off his loaded-to-the-tits camera bag to the chastiser. “Holy shit,” replied The Swede. “It’s heavier than you.” That’s right, Berger keeps it tight. Tight but not light.
    “My workout is my lifestyle,” Berger says. “I do a lot of moving around and activity. My wife’s got me on this moola bandha program. It’s where you pull up the whole sack and package, and as a result it turns the keg into a six-pack.”
    Right. But back to the pack. Berger never leaves home without being prepared for everything and anything. Need a Leatherman? He’s got it. Every lens ever created? It’s in there somewhere. He saves weight by not eating.
    “I don’t worry about what I eat, but I don’t eat a lot either,” he says. “I love chips. Right across the board, I’m always trying to keep it fresh. Lay’s is a good base.”
    His athlete comrades call him “The Milkman.” Treadway, one of his favourite subjects, will tell you it’s because rather than going into a zone to bang off one shot, then move on, Berger finds it efficient to really work an area for all it has to offer (i.e., milk it).
    Berger, however, has a different explanation: “As far as I’m concerned, they call me The Milkman because I always deliver.”
    Fair enough. He’s prolific, publishing photos in ski, snowboard and outdoor magazines around the world. Not to mention work with numerous corporations.
    “I’m pretty successful,” he comments. “I could work harder and not change much, put a little more out there, but I choose to do enough work to maintain the lifestyle and keep a lot of freedom so I can have some fun with my wife and friends. Pretty full-on in winter, summer not so much. I’m not that driven by money—I strive for balance and enjoying life. I like to say I’m training for retirement.”
    Milking life, quite possibly. Makes sense given his preferred vice: sleeping in. If it’s not snowing outside his Whistler post-and-beam chalet, he’s probably still hanging a leg out from under the duvet at 9:45 a.m. And he relishes it.
    “My office is 30 feet from my bed,” he says. “I allow myself to sleep in because I don’t commute.”
    After a traditionally late start, Berger takes pleasure in listening to Vancouver traffic reports while checking e-mails. Relishing in the apparent style of his life. When it comes to shooting, though, he knows how to hang it out there.
    Berger rose to notoriety in the early ’90s after making frequent trips to Alaska back when it was fresh.
    “Best place I’ve ever been to ride in the world,” he says. “For a lot of reasons—size, stability, just the beauty of the wilderness is mind-blowing.”
    When he first went to Alaska, in 1992, it was as senior photographer for Transworld Snowboarding, a position he held for 10 years. Travel budgets were big back then.
    “My first trip I was really green. I’m from Montreal, so my big-mountain experience was limited to Whistler. Up there it was a whole other level, humbling and exhilarating at the same time, very addictive working on these huge slopes. From a photo standpoint, it’s dramatic and an awesome place to work. From a skier’s point of view, it’s an amazing place to rip. Of all the places I’ve been, it’s still the best. I’ve had most of my near-death experiences there.”

Pioneering Alaska is perfectly in line with Berger’s motives to do every trip right. He can rough it, but he’s going to rough it in style. Like busting out a Thermos of Crown Royal, Earl Grey tea and maple syrup in the middle of nowhere—when some photographers won’t even carry water to save weight. Little things that add to the experience.
    “It’s all about getting creative in putting your package together right,” he says, with conviction. “I certainly like that. More comforts and bonuses really add to everything. It helps you get more out of your athletes, creates a better vibe. It’s not just about getting out there getting photos and making money; it’s also about experiencing the travel and people. If it’s not fun, it’s not worth it.”
    Little things like the odd hand-rolled cigarette, Berger’s second-favourite vice. Like most young people in Quebec, he smoked back in high school. Smoking actually played a role in his seeing the light. Fresh out of college, he was working in a Montreal photo studio, what he explains as a predictable transition job. He stepped out of the studio to have a smoke and a coffee one day and remembers being blinded by the light. A definitive moment.
    “I realized I didn’t want that life, so I quit smoking, left my job and moved out West,” he says.
    The hand-rolls crept back in when he started setting up long shots—sitting there waiting for the light or the athlete to get into position. Now he just smokes on occasion. And only in the field. Another dash of style? Oh, yeah, and all with confidence.
    His images are bold and clean. They often let the athlete do the talking. Subtle, not too artsy, but really good, and technically perfect. The confidence might come from the fact that Berger decided to get into photography during high school. He figured he could earn a decent living and travel. Which, by all intents and purposes, he did.
    “Being able to look back and appreciate that I made it happen has given me a lot of confidence. Reflecting on my work and feeling good about it fuels the inspiration to get out there and try new things. If I love a sport and understand it, shooting it comes easy. When I step out of that comfort zone I can be a little timid. Maybe that’s a mileage issue. When that happens I try to focus on capturing things as I see them. I look for what comes naturally. When I left Transworld in 2001, I was known for big-mountain shooting. But at the time there was a shift in snowboarding towards more freestyle and urban stuff. When I tried shooting that, I struggled. I had a tough time relating, and it was not as much fun for me. I didn’t regain my groove until I got back to shooting what I was stoked on—big-mountain riding. It basically cost me my position at Transworld. But moving away gave me freedom to do whatever I wanted.”
    Moving away also saved his soul. Back then he snowboarded.
    “It’s just another sport. Another feeling. Another experience,” he goes on. “I don’t surf, and I never have. When I snowboard I feel that’s as close as I’ll get. I try to keep an open mind to the different experiences.
    “I do take exception to BigFoots,” he says. “Except if you use them to hang behind cars in the winter.”

Different experiences. It’s probably what landed him in what The Swede calls “Clown Town.” Berger arrived in Whistler in the mid-’80s, back when few knew just how golden things were Out West.
    “The best advice I ever got was from my raft-guide buddies back in Quebec. They all told me: Go straight to Whistler—don’t stop in Banff.
    “And today? Well, I’m at the number 1 resort in North America,” Berger says, where he’s enjoyed a longtime gig as one of Whistler Blackcomb’s contract photographers, not to mention the perks that come with being a stylish photo dude in a stylish town. When asked about the growth Whistler has experienced over the years, he answers: “If you think it’s going to stay stagnant with no progress, then you’re kidding yourself. You have to take the good with the bad. There’s lots more lift-accessed terrain available now than back then. The backcountry is still here, and it’s just as easy as ever to get away from the crowds if you know where to go. This is the Coast Range; there’s plenty to go around.... It’s definitely harder to work on the mountain and still make it look fresh, but it’s doable if you know where to go. And I know where to go. I love the fact that I live in a small town with big-city dining and nightlife. You just have to accept the changes; once you can’t accept it anymore, then it’s time to move on.”
    Still, Berger doesn’t just eat at La Rua and schmooze with his heli-pilot buddies (although he does do that quite a bit). He loves to rip, too. Which is better, though: epic day or epic shot? Tough question.
    “There’s no doubt that epic days with friends, when you’re hitting everything, are unreal,” he says. “Those days always stay with you. But as a photographer, you get real exhilaration out of nailing an epic shot. Standing back and letting the athletes hit their line, capturing that, it’s very intoxicating. To me, it ranks equal. Maybe photographers can really only understand that. It doesn’t happen all the time, just like an epic day of skiing—that’s what makes it so special.”
    Like everyone else, Berger joined the digital revolution after years of shooting film, another testament to his ability to adapt. To rise (albeit long after the sun’s come up) with style, to a new day.
    “There’s a bit more room to breathe with exposures,” he says of digital, “which takes the pressure off a bit. You can experiment and shoot more without the big expense of film and processing. I used to really dig working in the darkroom in college; I even had one at home. When I went to slide film, I lost that. Now I’m educating myself to the power of digital editing. It’s cool; I feel like I’m in the darkroom again.”
    But he’s not in the darkroom when it comes to today’s super-competitive photography paradigm, what with all the young bucks trying to be the next Blake Jorgenson, Paul Morrison, or Eric Berger, for that matter. But he’s cool with that. He realizes he’s fortunate to be recognized and respected in the winter-sports world.
    “I’ve certainly gone through times where I’ve felt threatened by the young bucks. But the last few years, everything has fallen into place. People recognize that I can deliver quality consistently. That comes with time and experience. So I’m not as threatened by up-and-comers now. How you are as a businessperson, what you’re like to work with and the quality of your photography are what count. If you’ve got that, it doesn’t matter.”
    On the road Berger is the consummate pro: he can talk a D9 cat driver at Kitwanga Junction into a toothless smile like he were a paid model in downtown New York. He respects his subjects. He respects other shooters out there. He respects the athletes, the little things in life, his past, the future, his home, his wife, the road, balance, the moola bandha, Crown Royal and Earl Grey. And all this The Milkman delivers straight to your doorstep in the world’s best winter-sport mags: fresh, tasty and always plenty.

When Stars Align

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Jeff Pensiero doesn’t look like he could ever be famous. Shit, he doesn’t even look like a guy who would be allowed to hang out with anyone famous. The kinda shortish, baldish, close-to-40 Italian-American grew up eating hoagies and lasagna in one of America’s least attractive cities, Cleveland, Ohio. (“My childhood was an escape plan to get out of Cleveland,” he says.) Son of a salesman, the Black Sabbath– and Black Flag–loving, Republican-hating kid’s story is as unlikely as his partner’s.
   Jim Fraps doesn’t look like he’d even pass as a roadie. Also shortish, with callused palms attached to fingers bigger than the street-meat sausages sold in his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Fraps looks more like that badass gym teacher you remember from high school—the guy with the dirty Steelers baseball cap riding up high on his head, all old-school dad style, who laughed like crazy when you got pegged in the face playing dodgeball.
   Paula Pensiero is a different story. A beautiful, sweetheart mother of two beautiful, sweetheart girls, Paula has ski-racer roots. A born-and-bred Canuck, Paula’s the type who takes any bullshit flying her way, gracefully repackages it and then fires it right back double-time. Less eminent than enigmatic, more pleasant than illustrious, she’s the rudder in a ship steered by the two aforementioned dirty-American-city-bred dudes.
   Put the three together, however, and you’ll discover a story of paradise found that, though intertwined with the lives of high-profile individuals, has usurped their fame on its own merit.
   The Pensieros and the Fraps are the founders and current owner-operators of Baldface Lodge, a decidedly renowned cat-ski operation located high in the Selkirk Mountains above Nelson, BC.

Andy Marhe. Fredriksson photo

Today, a decade after they envisioned the business, the three are riding the tumultuous ocean of the commercial backcountry industry in a ship few others can catch. Baldface has become one of the most exalted names in the North American cat and helicopter snow-riding game.
As a testament to their business’s meteoric rise, the trio was voted as some of Outside magazine’s 2005 “Top 25 All-Star Coolest People.” In the same year, Baldface made GQ’s list of “Top 10 Hippest Hotels” and was featured in a major New York Times article. However it happened, in the nine relatively short years since opening its doors, Baldface and its wildly down-to-earth founders have catapulted to the forefront of the world’s ski and snowboard scene. To anyone who has ridden there, it makes perfect sense, yet in some ways it’s a head-scratching tale.

On a regular midweek afternoon in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, in the fall of 1997, Jeff Pensiero ducked into Sierra Nevada Pizza to get drunk with a couple slices of pepperoni. Fraps, who owned the bar at the time, asked in his matter-of-fact way why Pensiero was drinking with all the drywalling scumbags in the middle of the afternoon. He explained that he’d just quit his job as a snowboard rep because he was sick and tired of working his ass off to make other people money. They talked and drank, and then, in a moment that would change both their lives, Fraps showed him the maps.

Henrik Windstedt. Fredriksson photo

At the time, the two were classmates enrolled in Lake Tahoe’s Sierra Nevada College: Fraps was taking hotel resort management, and Pensiero was taking ski business management. Along with his buddy, Fat Tony, Fraps had been working on an idea but needed more manpower to get it off the ground. With a number of years working in the snowboard industry under his belt, the newly unemployed Pensiero seemed to be the perfect fit.
    Fraps wanted to start a company called Bigland that would have a high-grade variety of lodge-based outdoor experiences around the world.
    “The idea was to have this unique company run by bros, with all these adventures to choose from, but branded under the same name,” explains Pensiero. Bigland would have a yacht charter, a surf camp in Panama, powder skiing in British Columbia, a fly-fishing lodge in Idaho, and mountain bike tours in Moab, Utah.
    Fraps, an avid skier, had already started researching the powder-skiing part of the plan. The maps he showed Pensiero that night were of big peaks and deep drainages in the interior ranges of BC. It just so happened that Pensiero’s then-longtime girlfriend, Paula, had recently skedaddled up to Nelson to, as he delicately puts it, “sow her oats.”
    Larger forces were at play. Not surprisingly, Pensiero was interested in the Bigland concept—especially the Nelson part. When it came to researching the feasibility of a backcountry ski lodge, they immediately leveraged his love-in-hiatus connection with Paula, who at the time was working at The Express, a Nelson newspaper. Paula went to the government offices to get more maps and sent them back to Lake Tahoe, where Fraps, Fat Tony and Pensiero began building the Bigland business plan.
The oddly concocted group began looking at parcels of land throughout the Purcells, Selkirks and Monashees. Inspired by Pensiero’s desire to reconnect with Paula, they put all their energy into Stage 1 of the Bigland empire, which would end up being Baldface Lodge.
    “The research process gave me an excuse to get back in there with Paula,” says Pensiero. “I ended up going to Nelson quite a bit back then.”
    They whittled down their selection to three chunks of mountain wilderness above the north shore of Kootenay Lake, BC. Fat Tony was down in the U.S. looking for money. Everything was going according to plan, or so they thought.
    “Little did we know that Fat Tony was ripping us off,” says Pensiero. “He ended up being a pretty bad dude.”

Fredriksson photo

But just as one road soured, another turned sweet. Through the process of applying for the land tenure, Pensiero hooked up with John Buffery, a longtime Nelson resident and one of Canada’s most experienced mountain guides. Buffery was interested in the emerging Bigland idea of a cat-ski operation based at a high-elevation lodge, situated in a stunning, easily accessible collection of rolling ridgelines and subalpine peaks near Mount Grohman, a mere five-minute heli ride from Nelson. Buffery saw the opportunity to get involved on the ground level with what would end up being Nelson’s first commercial backcountry operation. The Bigland crew saw Buffery as another crucial link to making their dreams a reality. At the time, Pensiero was working as a handyman in Northern California.
    As they threw the idea out to the notoriously guarded Nelson community, the backlash began. Pensiero and Fraps got defeated at a number of public meetings by local residents opposed to the proposed five-star lodge, citing mainly environmental reasons. Having dropped Fat Tony, however, the pair remained stalwart in having the community involved.
    In November 1999, after a series of meetings, they finally received tenure to 36,000 acres of terrain in the Baldface and Grohman drainages. More miraculously, Pensiero sealed the deal with Paula and got married. They moved back to Tahoe, where he owned a house, and he used his handyman skills to renovate the property in an attempt to raise the equity needed to start developing the business.
    “I was flipping myself into wicked debt to get money for the company,” recalls Pensiero of those early days. “We didn’t have an investor. Things definitely weren’t easy.”
    That’s was when the stars finally began to move in concert.

Fredriksson photo

One of Pensiero’s good buddies, Canadian Olympic snowboarder Mark Fawcett, whom Pensiero knew through his days as a rep, gave the business the keys to his big-ass Dodge truck. Tim Ripple, the famous Everest soloist and Nelson resident, also gave Baldface his blessing.
    Then, even more out of the blue, in February 1999, Pensiero returned from a day of snowboarding at Tahoe to find a message that would change his life. On his answering machine was the voice of the late, great Craig Kelly: “Hey, Jeff, my buddy John Buffery tells me you got a really cool thing going in Nelson. I’d love to come up with a photographer and [snowboard pro] Tex Davenport, and we can get a heli and maybe go check it out. We’ll be up there in a week.”
    “We flew all over the place,” says Pensiero of that definitive trip, which was actually his first time heli-skiing the tenure. “We got a feel for how good the place would be for cat skiing. Buff was excited, Craig was excited, Jim was excited—it really solidified that this might just work.”
    But Kelly wasn’t just interested in a photo shoot. With his own love interests in a Nelson girl, Kelly wanted in. All of a sudden, the boys had the best, most talented and respected snowboarder in history on their team, not to mention Buffery, who would end up being Baldface’s lead guide for three years.
    The stars didn’t stop there. Through other circumstances, Arlie John Carstens, an associate of Pensiero’s, told Foo Fighters bass player Nate Mendel about the project and how it needed funding. Mendel relayed this to Dave Grohl—the band’s famous frontman and ex-Nirvana drummer—and the two became Baldface’s first investors.
    “We used Nate and Dave’s money to buy our first cat,” says Pensiero. “We were rockin’ after that.”

Fredriksson photo

Having sidelined their Bigland concept to focus solely on Baldface, soon Kelly, Buffery, Fraps and the Pensieros were toting local skiers like Moss Patterson up into their tenure. Then, the proverbial hack into the Selkirk bush began. Pensiero and Fraps finagled clients on Nelson’s Baker Street, convincing them to jump on a boat and head into the wilds above town for $225 per day—Cleveland-style hoagies included.
    Their business plan then made it onto the desk of Rob Loughan, a dot-com millionaire in Tahoe, who in turn wrote the first “big boy” cheque to get the operation up and running.
    “I had to buy out Fat Tony’s shares before we could get Rob’s money. Soon after that, we built the lodge.” says Pensiero.
    In 2002, Kelly died tragically in an avalanche elsewhere in the Selkirks.
Undaunted, but with heavy hearts, Baldface forged on. Kelly was a small-percentage owner, and Baldface has since passed on his share to his wife and daughter.
    In the six years since the construction of their timber-framed lodge, Baldface has expanded to three cats and has built seven timber-framed chalets. There’s a sauna, a badass Swiss chef, and more than 160 kilometres of cat road accessing some of the best powder in the province. Runs like Cheeky Monkey, Scary Cherry and Moss’ Garden keep riders coming back year after year. Five minutes from the lodge, atop a thin ridgeline, guests step out of the cat and into an endless panorama of mountains whitened by the clutches of winter. Snow-encased spruce stalagmites picket slopes where massive cornices curl over peaks and ridges like frozen waves. Huge bowls and steep-forested valleys spread in every direction. The lines are endless.
    But it’s not just the riding that separates Baldface from the rest of the class. Most cat operations in British Columbia are well endowed when it comes to vertical and powder. On any given day at the lodge—located at 2,050 metres and just a five-minute cat ride from Cherry Tops, a 900-metre, super steep, north-facing Selkirk classic—you might find yourself sharing a cat with some of its regular, albeit famous, clientele: legendary surfer Gerry Lopez, skier Sage Cattabriga-Alosa, snowboard legend Victoria Jealouse, or even the Foo Fighters themselves. Davis Love III, the badass pro golfer, is a regular client, as is JG, the preeminent Burton snowboard designer. Palmer West, the independent movie producer responsible for Requiem for a Dream, is in love with the place.
    “Our energy has mostly been devoted to that old Field of Dreams cliché: Build it and they will come,” says Paula, who, between raising two small girls, is still heavily involved in the day-to-day happenings at Baldface. “The three of us have, for better or worse, always been completely immersed in the task at hand: nurturing the business, growing the Baldface family and keeping a positive vibe running through it all. Then, when the snow flies and we are able to just sit back and witness the powder magic that unfolds year after year, I’m always surprised—especially when some of these truly inspiring, revolutionary folks come our way. Over the years, these people have, in one way or another, melded into our motley crew, and they continue to be what fuels me to keep working away at this dream.”
    The press and accolades also keep coming. Baldface is the first cat operator in the world to develop a summer freeride mountain-bike program modeled after its cat-ski business, an initiative featured on recent covers of both Bike and Mountain Biking magazines. By summer’s end, Baldface had already sold out for the 2007-08 winter in a provincial market grown increasingly competitive by the existence of more than 20 cat-ski operators.
    “These people could go anywhere in the world, and they choose to keep coming back here,” says Pensiero of the pop-culture brass that continually rolls through his front door. “They have a good time, every time, like everyone who comes here, famous or not.”
    And how couldn’t they, given what the man who blindly risked it all has helped to build?
    “We didn’t know what we were doing when I had three mortgages on my house,” he concludes, “but we knew it had to be fun no matter what. And it totally is.”

baldface.net
(250) 352-0006

Friends, Maybe: A pro ski trip to Sentry Mountain Lodge turns up deep snow, deep bonds and the occasional stray ski

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Click. I was landing in chest-deep powder, and it wasn’t the sound I wanted to hear. As I tumbled forward, I was already worrying about finding the ski. When I finally came up for air cursing, everyone else was laughing. I felt bad about making everyone wait on an epic day and kept expecting them to take off while I hunted unsuccessfully for the ski, but when I finally looked up, exasperated, I saw pro skiers Eric Hjorleifson and Chris Rubens, photographer Damian Cromwell and videographer Tim Grey in different spots probing and digging. There may be no friends on a powder day at a resort, but out here, where it’s both bottomless and endless, friends were just that.

Our home for the week, Sentry Mountain Lodge sits at 2,110 metres in the middle of funky, rolling terrain just north of Rogers Pass and is accessible only by helicopter. Above are peaks and alpine bowls, below are well-spaced old-growth cedar forests full of deep, protected snow. Abundant variation in altitude and aspect around Sentry ensures that you can find good snow any week of the season, and the benched terrain is tailor-made for touring.

Friendly pillow talk with Rubens. Cromwell photo

Our original plan was to take pampered superstars into the rugged backcountry and make them suffer for their shots, but Sentry made it too easy. There were no long approaches—you either skied right from the lodge or right back to it with no wasted time or effort. You earned your turns but made a killing on the deal. To make it even easier, a guide named Dave broke trail and showed us the path of least resistance. He had no idea what he was getting into and was forced to watch us launch airs, drop pillow lines, and ski general gnar while he planned out what a rescue would entail should something go wrong.

Just as Dave was starting to get comfortable with us, Eric found a monster cliff—a solid 15 metres, which, in December, looked like the biggest drop any of us had ever seen. We humoured him with “Looks great, buddy,” when the truth was it looked ridiculous. Tight trees led into a long launch that wasn’t steep enough to gain speed unless you brought it with you. The takeoff was around a snag, with brittle old branches waiting to grab a jacket. The landing was steep and deep, but only if you didn’t go too far. Coming up short also wasn’t an option—it was less a cliff than a disjointed tumble of sharp rock. As Eric skied into the behemoth, it looked like he was going too fast, but as he left the snow it was obvious he was confident and perfectly balanced. His hands didn’t move, and his skis were pointed perfectly toward the landing. His calm movements and the sheer size of it all gave the illusion of slow motion. The snow detonated in a violent cloud, but Eric popped out in perfect form. Even Dave cheered.

Hjorly gets friendly with the locals. Cromwell photo

We only had five days and needed to get after it. The boys found a super-booter rock in one of Sentry’s many boulder fields and challenged each other to a send-fest. Eric launched a lofty, picture-perfect Backflip. Chris stomped a Corked 720 but wasn’t stoked on his form. His next shot was different—a sickly steep slash above a cliff that I pictured being a slow, controlled couple shots. Chris saw it differently. He came in hot and laid into the turn. Sunlit crystals fanned out from his skis. Trees, rock and blue sky framed his dialed stance. He carried all the speed off the cliff, flying right over me with a stylish Safety grab and greasing the landing.

Both MSP stars were using Alpine Trekkers so they could tour on their usual skis with downhill bindings. Stashed in their packs on the way down, they added to the weight of skins, food, water and other extra gear. The heavier packs were a hindrance when flipping and spinning off monster airs but were necessary in this setting for safety. Alpine touring gear wouldn’t do because of the possibility of injuries. And if sleds or helis were around, they could get you out of a place quick if shit hit the fan, but a rescue while ski-touring was a huge effort. How far could we really haul someone up a hill covered in chest-deep snow? There were no machines around, and calling one in from wherever would be a crapshoot. The truth was, you couldn’t afford to get seriously hurt up here.

Hjorleifson finds a friendly neighbourhood. Cromwell photo

On our final day we rallied out late and climbed to a high ridgeline, tearing our skins off on a small peak. We hadn’t skied here yet, and Dave took a moment to explain the terrain and what to watch for. All I heard was that there was 600 vertical metres of well-spaced trees on a steep pitch. Before Dave had even finished his directions, Chris and I were off. It was going to be a friendly race for pure fresh. I skied as fast as I could but couldn’t ditch him. Our laughter and yells grew louder as we skied through corridor after white corridor at reckless speed. The guy behind couldn’t see anything between face shots and spray from the other skier. With a maniacal laugh, Chris accelerated past me. I’d pointed it in retaliation, accelerating in a desperate, blind attempt to get ahead when… click! But Ullr was on my side this time, and I’d found the ski instantly. Kicking into it, I heard the others coming. I wasn’t sure my binding was on properly, but I had to go. Friends or not.

DNA
Golden Alpine Holidays
(250) 344-7273
goldenalpineholidays.com

Birds Of A Feather

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

With it’s lush greenery, sweeping landscapes and low-key resort scene, all New Zealand needs to break bigger on the international ski scene is a more media coverage, a good snow year… and a few less birds..

Riding shotgun is an unnerving experience. I’ve never been comfortable with putting my life in someone else’s gloves, especially when that person is driving a right-hand drive spaceship. Sure, ‘Spaceship’ is only a trademarked name for one of thousands of notorious orange rental vans on the narrow roads of New Zealand’s South Island and not an intergalactic vessel. But it is piloted by Kevin Hjertaas and we are driving up one of the country’s many ski-hill access roads. If that doesn’t sound scary, you haven’t driven a New Zealand ski hill access road before… or seen Hjertaas ski. My hands sweat profusely. I dry them on my pants as subtly as possible but the Banff-based ski mountaineer still notices, laughing gleefully. Mine is a valid anxiety, however, with the void below inviting the top-heavy vehicle to plunge down the steep mountainside and bounce off the many switchbacks before coming to rest in the cliché herd of sheep. The road doesn’t help; gravel, pockmarked with potholes and teeming with Kiwis who grew up driving the barrier-less lanes, it seems like a recipe for death down under. Despite my timid nature (read: pussy), I realize the roads are only a warm up for the country’s burly skiing. What have I got myself into?

Mike Berard photo

I’ve landed in Christchurch, capital of the South Island after a long flight from North America and am making my way south on Highway #8 through a dramatic Lord of The Rings landscape. Similar to Western Canada, the terrain here is huge--wide open spaces and vertical mountain walls that give the Rockies a run for their overvalued money. Along with Hjertaas and Sunshine Village local/part-time ex-pat Tim Haggerty, we’re en route to Wanaka. If there’s one destination in the Southern Hemisphere that can claim ski-mecca status, it’s here. Wanaka is to New Zealand as Whistler is to Canada, minus the crowds and weekend stabbings. It’s the sort of place where Jakob Wester orders Butter Chicken next to you at Bombay palace or you pick up TJ Schiller hitchhiking. There’s a charming small-town feel that only smitten tourists like myself can truly appreciate. It’s also the sort of place where you can ski in the morning and wakeboard in the afternoon. Ski legendary resorts or grab a heli deep into the high ranges of the Southern Alps. Wanaka is ground zero for all these reasons, but mostly because of Snowpark
   Thirty-five klicks out of Wanaka, we pilot the Spaceship across a cattle gate and up a dry, dusty road on our way to New Zealand’s newest and most innovative ski area. Snowpark was established in 2001 by Sam Lee, a former pro snowboarder. Lee saw the need for a NZ area that would support the time-intensive task of maintaining a top-level terrain park. Fast forward seven years and park skiing is all Snowpark is known for. The area has become an off-season training facility for the Northern Hemisphere’s best skiers and boarders. Basically, Snowpark is a big deal. As the Spaceship crests the still-dry ridge—NZ is having one of its worst winters in history—and enters the deep mud of Snowparkinglot we see what all the fuss is about.
   The actual area is small, but what it lacks in acreage is made up for in sculpted terrain. The entirety is a terrain park and a star-studded one at that. Within minutes of gearing up, I’ve spotted four pro skiers and three pro snowboarders. Twintips are the only ski of choice. Two halfpipes remain permanently busy, with 3-4 kids working each one. Snowmaking equipment is everywhere. Rage Against the Machine pumps from speakers all over the hill, something most ski-area marketing departments shy from. But Snowpark is clearly not most ski areas. It’s an anomaly in our tight-ass industry; a haven of freestyle dedicated to the kids and damn their stodgy old dads.
   Of course, there’s more to Wanaka than park skiing. Two of the country’s premiere resorts, Cardrona and Treble Cone, are located within sight of the idyllic, lakeside town. With a serious case of jet-leg, we make our way to the latter in search of steep lines, something TC holds as an OB ace up its more reserved in-bounds sleeve. Wanaka local and freeskier Janina Kuzma is our guide and it happens to be the day she’s preparing for the upcoming New Zealand Freeski Open (which she’ll go on to win). The 22-year-old Kuzma has been a fixture on the Canadian freeski circuit for the past few years. Needless to say, she rips—hard. Despite the lean snow year, Kuzma does her best to show us TC’s hidden stashes. We don’t ski many lines due to warm temperatures and rising avie danger but the potential is there. As I stand atop a couloir that seemingly drops all the way to the green valley bottom some 2,000 metres below, my knees shake and scrotum tightens; outside the boundaries of its moderate resorts, this country is fucking steep.

Dan Treadway, Treble Cone, NZ. Mattias Fredriksson photo

Meat pies and Speight’s Gold Medal Ale, two icons of Kiwi culture that I felt I already knew intimately despite having never experienced either. Here I am, on TC’s deck at the end of the day enjoying both under the watchful gaze of Keas, beautiful but pesky giant mountain parrots that populate all of NZ’s ski areas. Extremely intelligent, one of the bastards tried to pull the zipper open on my camera bag earlier in the day. When I walked over, it backed off just far enough that I couldn’t kick it, and then taunted me. I’m an animal lover but this bird’s attitude was unacceptable. Like a bad comedy sketch I chased the inquisitive little fuck around the mountaintop, fruitlessly kicking and throwing stuff at him. Now, as I try to enjoy my cold beer and steak and bacon pie, another one (maybe the same one) lingers behind my head, waiting and praying. Who said parrots are charming?

Mike Berard photo

I’m eight pints deep and all I can think is “I flew 14,000 kilometres to drink in an Irish pub in New Zealand?” I’ve never been to Ireland but they are apparently so prolific at drinking that the entire world has modeled their bars after the lilted drunks. One look around the establishment and a convincing argument can be made for the alcoholic fortitude of kiwis as well. Maybe in Ireland they have New Zealand-themed bars? We’re in Queenstown, a thriving adventure-tourism centre southwest of Wanaka. The lakeside town of 10,000 boasts jet-boating, bungy jumping and two ski areas, the Remarkables and Coronet Peak. Apparently the breathtakingly beautiful landscape here is where much of the Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed, though every NZ town I’ll visit has claimed the same. One thing for sure: if Wanaka is the Kiwi Whistler, then Queenstown is the nation’s Banff, plastered from one end to another with signs promising ADRENALINE and GETTING A RUSH! Meanwhile, high-end clothing and jewelry stores keep the financially adventurous excited in their own way.
   In Queenstown we find a culture of backpackers and fellow Spaceship crews in search of snow and beer. The beer is plentiful; snow, not so much. On our way up yet another sketchy access road to The Remarkables, we encounter more dust than snow. When we get there, we’re relieved to see an imposing and eponymous mountain range with a decent covering of the white stuff. Haggerty, who has patrolled at Mt. Ruapehu on the North Island for years and knows NZ well, shows us around. Our first step is a trip up the Shadow Mountain chair and a short boot-pack to a couple steep chutes named Elevator and Escalator. Haggerty points out different features in what is Kiwi skiing legend Geoff Small’s personal playground. From the top, a huge array of chutes, couloirs and cliffs dominate the panorama; with a pair of touring skins and a solid set of lungs, the options are endless. Dropping in, we’re surprised to find soft snow in the steep chutes and link fluid turns all the way to the shores of frozen Alta Lake. The rest of the day is spent lapping the resort’s slackcountry borders and marveling at the possibilities. At one point, we stop to shoot photos of Hjertaas and Haggerty boosting a cliff band onto substandard landing conditions. On first try, Hjertaas gets cocked sideways in the air and augers in upon landing. He ragdolls down the suncupped slope and swears. To the sound of the Kea birds mocking laughter, Hjertaas picks up his yard-sale and starts climbing towards redemption. After a few tries, he nails it and we all call it a day. I turn to put my camera back in the bag and there, just far enough way to avoid taking my ski boot in its beak, is another (or the same) damn Kea, poking around my bag. It looks askance and defiantly stares me down. If Wanaka is Whistler, and Queenstown is Banff, Keas are the dirty, garbage-dump crows of New Zealand.

Nutcracker. It sounds painful, and destructive. But the aptly named metal contraption is key to the country’s most unique skiing experience, the Club Field. Trying to explain the “clubbie” to a regular resort skier is like trying to explain proper usage of the word “eh” to an American—impossible. The basic premise involves minimalist surface-lifts servicing ungroomed, barely patrolled ski areas with meager amenities. There are no high-speed quads and better, no shitty skiers. The whole Club Field network breeds strong, dedicated skiers and is a godsend for those with no time to wait in line for Johnny Daypass and his six whiny kids. In fact, it’s for people who don’t like lines at all because there are none. The catch is, you need to be able to ski deep powder and rutted bumps exclusively, two things the club network has in spades. You also have to be extremely fit. Of course, hiking to the lift every morning should cover that for you.
   We arrive at the parking lot of Broken River ski field after a long drive through a dense forest not unlike Fanghorn. It’s a confusing place, a small lot surrounded by trees and no snow to be seen. A mysteriously unmanned, cable-run “goods lift” is waiting to take our skis and boots to the lodge while we start the hike to the base area. When we arrive, sweating in our ski gear, there’s still no snow. My gear is there though. So is Laurie TK, a former RCR employee who I’d met in Fernie B.C. before. It doesn’t surprise me. The ski bum path between Auckland and Vancouver is a well-trod one, proven by the prevalence of Kiwi accents throughout Ski Town, Canada and direct winter flights offered by Air New Zealand.
   Still wondering where the hell the snow is, I sign out a belt and a nutcracker, the deadly combination that will enable me to access Broken River’s small but challenging terrain. After hiking up through more trees the trail opens up into the alpine and we see the vast potential of the club field system. A tiny ski area in the midst of a huge range of mountains, Broken River members have a ridiculous amount of skiing surrounding their alpine fortress. After five tries and a vertebral readjustment, I master the art of the nutcracker and am off at full speed, rocketing up the mogul-infested lift track. At each tower, the cable (which you’re essentially part of) runs through a pulley system. Keeping your fingers means keeping your fingers far away from the pulleys. To the apparent annoyance of the local behind me, I pull the cable off each and every pulley trying to avoid looking like a retired woodworker. I leave the cable hanging in the air to prove once and for all that tourists are douchebags. The rest of the day is spent trying to keep up with Hjertaas and Haggerty through the bump-field descents and not piss off too many locals on the way up. It’s humbling. Although I can’t see it, somewhere a Kea must be watching, and laughing.

We’re sitting in a hot tub overlooking the Southern Alps. Outside the window, New Zealand’s most prestigious golf course is lashed viscously by a wet winter storm. After a quick round of golf where Hjertaas laid one up into the parking lot and Haggerty one-upped him by actually hitting a car, we’ve decided to stick to what we do best, drinking in preparation for skiing. We’ve come to world-class Terrace Downs with the vague promise of heli-skiing and the good life associated with it. Unfortunately, the sparse snow season has been rough on the heli-ski industry and no one is willing to take three dirtbags from Canada for free. Regardless, we still have the four-star suite, the braised lamb shanks and Mt. Hutt. Boasting the “lightest, driest powder in Australasia,” we decide to try the resort out in lieu of the helicopter than eludes us; it seems all birds in New Zealand despise us.
Located 35 minutes from the town of Methven (more jet boating, probably more LOTR) and an hour from Christchurch (Rugby, beer, more meat pies), we soon find out why Mt. Hutt is the most popular resort on the South Island: a well laid-out lift system and consistent fall line make for long, fun-runs full of booters, cat-track airs and steep mini-chutes. We put in lap after lap of high-speed skiing. The snow gets softer as the day goes longer and the quality of the turns is reflected in our smiles.
Later, enjoying a good cold beer on the deck of the lodge’s bar, sitting with two friends after an incredible day of skiing, I almost forget that I’m halfway around the world in another country. Until I hear a shuffle on the railing behind me and come face to face with another damn Kea. And this time, staring into its reptilian eyes, I’m pretty sure it’s the same one.

On The Plus Side: Revelstoke Mountain Resort

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0400

The snowbanks looming over us as we drive into Revelstoke, BC, say it all.
   First off, it has been a winter to remember in British Columbia, with storm after snow-charged storm barreling in off the angry Pacific, dragging its ass over various mountain ranges and dumping large pretty much everywhere. Like many areas of the Interior, Revelstoke and its well-known alpine galaxy of local touring, sled, cat and heli-skiing have benefited from the meteorological largesse. But then the mountains surrounding Revy always seem to come out on top in the Western Canadian snow equation. Even in years where the warm, wet coast suffers the depression of low freezing levels, where the Southern Interior is shut out by a split jet-stream of storms tracking everywhere but, and where the perpetually thin Rockies cry full Chinook foul, this historic Victorian-styled town and gateway to Rogers Pass lodged on the western slopes of the fabled Selkirk Range can still be counted on to taunt the entire country with reliable steep and deep.
   The town itself isn’t all that high, though. Situated on the Columbia River below 500 metres and pinched between large lakes that rarely freeze, adding moisture to storms but warmth—and fog—to the valley, snowbanks here usually rise and fall with the frequent temperature tides of coming-and-going air masses. Though it’s snowing on the mountains, right now snowbanks around town bear the grey muck of a serious ebb.
   The telling sign, however, is that they’re still double overhead.
   Great for us, but an even better omen for Revelstoke Mountain Resort.

Berger photo

First it was on, then it was off, then it was so on, you could almost feel the faceshots. But after the idea went to sleep again for a decade, everyone seemed to forget about it. Until 2004, that is, when British Columbia’s government, starry-eyed with the impending 2010 Vancouver-Whistler Olympics, started green-lighting every slumbering resort proposal on the books. Now it seemed nothing could stop the birth of Revelstoke Mountain Resort on Mount MacKenzie, BC’s much ballyhooed billion-dollar dream hill. Except money. And criticism. And leaseholders.
When an initial capital investment of $270 million was announced, however, with investment revenue of $800 million based on projected real estate sales, it seemed the single-lift Powder Springs ski hill that had operated since 1969 on the lower 330 metres of Mount MacKenzie would indeed soon be transformed: the 1,829-metre vertical drop would be the biggest in North America—edging out Whistler’s 1,624 metres—and fourth in the world. An annual snowfall that consistently topped 12 metres would set RMR in the top ranks of North America’s snow leagues. The modern all-season resort would have 21 lifts, 115 trails, and 16,000 beds—one-third the size of Whistler and more on par with Big White or Sun Peaks, popular family resorts of the Interior.
Things moved significantly forward when they brought in Paul “Bones” Skelton, former mountain operations manager at Whistler Blackcomb and a man who knows a thing or two about opening up badass terrain. But, of course, the promised money would have to be raised. And then there was the airport issue and long-standing arguments over where the skiers would come from—with Vancouver 630 kilometres to the west, Calgary over 400 kilometres east, and even Kelowna some 200 kilometres distant, Revelstoke is a long way from anywhere. And what about Cat Powder Skiing, which had held tenure on the upper mountain since the ’70s and had taken over the floundering town hill in 1999? All would have to be appeased. And it would all take time. Triumph seemed all but comatose again. Almost.

Chris Eby. Berger photo

Significantly, the problematic Cat Powder was acquired in April 2005, and development silently inched along until the final wake-up call: Jan. 16, 2007, the resort announced a partnership with Leitner-Poma Canada to install a gondola and chairlift that would be functioning by this winter. The fabled hill is indeed alive, and the dream appears to be coming true. But real skiers don’t really care about condos at the base of the mountain, underground parking, cobblestone-heated pathways and a coming plethora of bars and restaurants. They want to know about the skiing. Pure and simple.
So far as RMR went, this is the great unknown. There were criticisms from core skiers that Mount MacKenzie will just offer up to another “loser cruiser,” of which BC already has plenty. Sure the heli, cat and sled-skiing book-ended by the Monashee and Selkirk ranges is awesome, but what will a ski hill in Revelstoke be like? Does a sled-head town have what it takes to be a major resort? We all want to know.
Out comes the mental plus-minus column.

Karla Rizzuto. Berger photo

The first day on the mountain our small group is alone in the cat with Bones and Cat Powder’s longtime lead guide. We grind upward from the 800-metre staging area of Powder Springs—current site of the new gondola base and RVR’s future upper village—for what seems hours. We top out well above 2,300 metres, on a ridge overlooking a tasty series of scalloped, windswept bowls. The guide points down. We tip in to find blower knee-deep tearing at our legs.
    Plus.
    We scatter like cold-smoke cockroaches. Someone is hooting and hollering. It’s the guide. “I didn’t think it would be this good,” he says.
    Plus.
    At tree-line we angle into some natural chutes, suturing V-drainages and popping pillows. So far so good for a cat-ski outing. But wait, this will actually be in the ski area. The cat-skiing operation attached to the resort will be moved to adjacent terrain on the next mountain over.
    Plus. Plus.
    On our second run we push a bit farther out the ridge. Bones wants us to look into North Bowl. We scramble to the edge and peer into a gnarly piece of chute-addled terrain whose complexity rivals any North American ski-area alpine. It’s an unexpected wow.
    Plus.
    We drop into the bowl and angle back around into the frontside trees again. They seem kind of tight.
    Minus.
    “We cut a few runs in summer 2006, but mostly we did tons of glading,” says Bones. “We’re planning on even more glading this summer, and we’ll get to these ones eventually. Add in the vertical here, and in classic Selkirk style, I think this mountain will be all about trees.”
    Strike that: Plus.
    Bones manœuvres us through the forest over to the lift-line cut for the high-speed quad that will run from 1,600 to 2,245 metres. It’s completely untracked and as much fun as you can ever have skiing a cut-line. It rocks and rolls, without a single bench being flat or lengthy enough to stop the freefall.
    Plus.
    At the end of the day Bones and I skim down some cut runs and onto Powder Springs’ offerings. The snow is heavier below, but it’s all sweet, thigh-burning cruising. No losers here.
    Plus.
   These days Revelstoke isn’t just about dropping into untracked lines. It’s about dropping into untapped potential on every front. Ski types of every stripe have been percolating into Revy for a few years now. Dan Treadway, of big-air and big-sled fame, was one of the first of the gang to drop in and buy a place. The Whistler exodus had begun. Joe Lammers also bought here, and he’s glad he did. He has a mobile home on a town lot. Basic housing. His neighbour has the same sort of thing going on two lots. They are, all of them, both expectant and patient.
    “I figured it would be really cool to be in on the ground floor of a project like this,” Lammers tells me before our first day of skiing, summing the feelings of many. “Revy has been the heli-ski epicentre of the known universe forever. That speaks volumes about the type of terrain and snow and that there should be on a ski hill here.”
    Longtime Whistlerite Jason Worby and wife Tash bought a restaurant outside town on the Trans-Canada called the Great White North Bar & Grill, and we all gather there for dinner one night.
    “It’s been an adventure,” says Jason, surrounded by some seriously cool Canadian kitsch that includes a Terry Fox poster, Wayne Gretzky jersey and a talking scale model Bob and Doug McKenzie SCTV set. “But it’s really just starting.”
    Bones moved here from Whistler to take over the project after 20 years in the coastal Shangri-la where he drove a groomer and patrolled before moving up to mountain manager at Blackcomb in 1996. He went over to Whistler when the two mountains merged the following year. Then he heard Revy calling a few years back. He’s a pilot and flies back and forth from the coast over the vast mountain barriers of the Interior, but can’t hide his enthusiasm for the project he’s deeply immersed in.
    “The thing I’m most excited about right now is that everyone consistently underestimates the size of the place. Even the guys installing lifts are saying, ‘I didn’t realize it was so big...,’ ” he enthuses. “Everyone asks me to compare the development here to Whistler Blackcomb, but you can’t go there. Let’s give Whistler Blackcomb its due—they’re fantastic mountains with huge bowls and a ton more alpine terrain. We’re big too, but we’re not them. We’re big and we’re different.”

Chris Eby. Berger photo

On the second day our cat-load also includes two Quantas pilots, a heli-company owner who does work in ski-area development and a banker involved in backing the entire operation. They’ve been around the cat- and heli-ski block and are still impressed with every aspect and line. There’s more terrain than any of us had expected, and some short faces plunging off ridges into deep valleys are steep as shit.
    Plus.
    The quad line was so good, we decide to ski the newly cut gondola line; it’s narrower and more varied, dropping over small cliff-bands, waterfalls, boulders and lay-about lumber but, again, completely untracked. And it goes on and on and on and on. The vertical is serious. Actually, it’s ridiculous. With the line’s over-summer widening and a fresh top-to-bottom snowfall it would be insanity.
    Plus.
    A day of sampling the powder and tree offerings of Selkirk Tangiers Heli Skiing, acquired by RMR in spring 2007, proves that the one-two-three punch of hill, cat and heli—which will comprise 515,000 acres altogether—is going to vault this resort into a league of its own.
    Plus.
    For the upcoming season it will still be a bit of a Little League as things coalesce and get rolling. Still, lift ticket and season pass prices are set, the Dec. 22 opening is looming, and a huge amount of glading has ensured that 500 of an available 1,500 acres of terrain this winter will comprise natural and man-made glades. (“One of the cutters on the crew, who’s a lead cat guide, keeps calling me on my cell after he thins something out and says, ‘I can’t wait to ski this with you this winter!” relays Bones.) The vertical of 1,446 metres includes newly cut upper trails as well as some steep mid-mountain trails that Bones claims are so steep that “I don’t think we’ll be able to groom them.”
    Double plus.
    In fact, on the whole, the only minus for Mount MacKenzie and RMR seems to be that skiers will probably flock to the mountain like flies to cowpies, and since the place won’t be fleshed out in one shot, it might get momentarily crowded around town until the bed-base expands. But if that helps soak up some of the bazillions of shredders stealing all the powder in Whistler and Fernie, then that would certainly be… well, another plus.

DNA
• Revelstoke Mountain Resort, Revelstoke Cat Ski, Selkirk Tangiers Heli Skiing: discoverrevelstoke.com
• Great White North Bar & Grill: (250) 837-3495, greatwhitenorth.bc.ca

Everybody Hates Toronto

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0400

It’s true, it seems, though inhabitants decry the lack of reasons proffered by critics. Still, one only has to read between the lines of the signs leading into this city of 7 million inhabitants to understand. There, in plain English (if not on the lips of many), lies the subtext of existence in the Centre of the Universe: Welcome to Toronto—Now Fuck Off.

It’s called the T-Dot, T.O., Smoke City, Hogtown, the City that Fun Forgot. Many outsiders sarcastically deem it the Centre of the Universe. From the miraculous CN Tower (soon to be second-highest free-standing structure in the world) to the forever-marginal Maple Leafs, Toronto’s got mediocrity all sewn up. Perhaps that’s why, nationwide and to the individual, Canadians believe Toronto sucks. The Newfies hate it, Haligonians and Calgarians too, while Vancouverites, between bong hits, vehemently agree and talk constant shit about it. So what if none of these people have actually been there—are skiers any different? Of course not.
    Perhaps nowhere in Canada is the term Onterrible (that refers to the province of Ontario, of which Toronto is capital) more celebrated than in ski towns. And though 95.5 per cent of everyone in a ski town, other than French-Canadians and Aussies, are generally from in or around the Big Smoke, there’s still a lull of awkward silence and sympathetic compassion when you announce yourself as a Torontonian; with no good rejoinder, the silence is usually broken by someone announcing back, “Leafs Suck!” Which, either brilliantly or fortuitously, can’t be argued.

    The reasons Canadians cite for hating Toronto are as vast and varied as the multicultural hordes who inhabit it. Albert Nerenberg, a Montreal filmmaker whose latest documentary, Let’s All Hate Toronto, examines the issue closely (and humorously), uncovered strangely polarized reasoning: it’s too white, it’s too multicultural; it’s too uptight, it’s too liberal; it’s Canada’s media centre, it’s the financial capital; it thinks it’s New York, it thinks it’s Hong Kong; the Leafs suck, the Leafs suck.
    Yup, seems everyone has a different schizophrenic reason to despise Canada’s largest city. “You can blame anything on Toronto,” says Nerenberg. “You split your pants? It’s Toronto’s fault. It’s raining? Toronto’s fault.”
    So if Toronto truly sucks, why cover it from a skiing perspective? Because it can be argued that while Toronto may not be on the radars of western or Quebecois skiers, it still matters. It’s not a destination for skiers, but rather the country’s largest breeding ground for them. And if ski-tour operators, equipment manufacturers, and the country’s flagging resorts can milk the teat of Toronto’s financial success through the skiers it churns out to populate the nation’s hills and almost-hills, then beauty. They gotta come from somewhere, eh?
    Everyone hates Toronto, but everyone loves money, which is why the city will always matter.