Alaska Girls Kick Ass...and show a little too.

May just made up for all of the powder days I missed in April. With school and work finally winding down I've been able to make the most of my weekends including an unexpected trip to the Ruth Glacier, a beautiful day with my good friend Sherrie to climb and ski Ptarmigan Peak, and fun spring day trip up Pastoral with some kick ass Alaskan ladies. Thank goodness for the plentiful snowpack this season and some beautiful May weather.

K2 Otter

Denali on the left and Mount Dan Beard on the right

A tour into the Great Gorge with the Mooses Tooth hiding behind a cloud

Gwenie with Denali hiding behind the clouds

Big Avalanche off of Barille

Rachel skiing up for a few turn with the Don Sheldon mountain House in the background

The wear and tear of being a bush pilot

Kellie flying out

Too hot for Gortex!

Five chicks on top of Pastoral

Gretchen

Jen Mac

Sherrie booting up the last few hundred feet to the upper ridge of Ptarmigan Peak

Beautiful view of Ptarmigan Peak and the Suicide Peaks to the right

Sherrie making her first jump turn on the ice crust at the top of the S Couloir

Oh great! 2000 more feet of ice chattering roller balls.

Sherrie making it look more fun than survival skiing.

Back in the sun.

Grass touring... denial that winter is over.

Ski Patrol Pictures for the Sitzmark

"Gordy" and "Zug" at Gun 2, Alyeska Ski Resort

This was taken in April 2008, of Gordon Scott and Peter Zug at the old Gun 2 mount. They are both vetrens of Alyeska, working on Ski Patrol for over 30 years. Summer of 2009 Alyeska rebuild this gun mount and covered it with a small building. I feel lucky to have captured this picture when I did.

ISO 160, 1/200 at f4.5.

"Gordy" sighting Gun 2

Gordon Scott, artillary expert, sighting Gun 2. Its really common for most of the gun missions to happen in the dark or in storm conditions. All shot points are determined by pre-existing numbers calculated from previous missions. The coolest part of this picture getting blown up so large, is that you can read the Tube number and 105 Howitizer and its completely sharp. I didn't even realize it was there and luckily had my camera focused on it.

ISO 160, 1/200 at f5

"Pad" hunkered down at an LZ ontop of the headwall

Scott Pattison, longtime Ski Patroller and Girdwood local, hunkered down after getting dropped off ontop of the headwall.

I just finished matting and framing three large prints, 18" x 24" that will soon be hanging in the Sitzmark Bar at the base of Alyeska. John Byrne, owner of Alyeska, contacted me last week and picked out his favorite three Ski Patrol pictures. He had seen one of these at a show I had last winter at the Java House, all taken in 2008, my last year of full-time season of ski patrol. I'm excited to see them hanging the next time I stop by for a drink.

Paul and Whitney's Wedding

I was honored to be asked to take photos of Whitney and Paul's special day. The ceremony was at Dr. Harmon's beautifully handcrafted home/office with all kinds of interesting worldly artifacts everywhere. It snowed the entire weekend or should I say it dumped, which didn't help the already dim tungsten lighting. I must admit it was one of the more challenging lighting experiences I've encountered in awhile. It definitely makes me want one of those new fancy D3s or a D700 for the ISO quality and more importantly the full frame sensor to eliminate the wide angle digital distortion... and of course some faster glass. I did however rely on my flash for some of the more important moments, but I'm just not a big fan of this kind of hard light even with a little diffuser.

Recently Published in The Ski Journal

November 2006

Fuji Provia 100
Nikon N80
Months before I switched to digital

Check out the latest issue of The Ski Journal. They published my photo in their Special Edition Photo Book Vol. 3, N. 4, 2010. You can order it from http://www.theskijournal.com/


In November 2006, Ryan Hokanson, Jason Kwiatkowski, Karen Hilton, and I left the small town of El Chalten in southern Patagonia with a broad objective: Our primary focus was to kite ski and possibly climb some smaller peaks on the Southern Patagonia Ice Field. We planned for 18 days with a few extar days of food and spent our first four days battling crazy winds and sideways rain and snow; a preview of more to come. We were fortunate to enjoy one of only three nice days ski kiting around the western side of 10,000-foot Cerro Torre in an area known as Circo de Los Atlares-this ended up being the highlight our whole trip.

Two Strokes to Freedom

Seattle Creek Headwall

Jeff about to navigate a cornice hazard along the Headwall

Rob ripping it up in Resort Bowl

Rob

Kris

Nick

View from Resort Bowl

Big Chief

Luke skiing on the bottom left ridge in the foreground

Lauren and Cassie

Lauren with Turnagain Pass in the Background

Cassie

Jeff and Nick

The poor mans helicopter... Once again I've found myself wanting one more toy I can not afford.

These are all pictures from early February in Turnagain Pass Snow machine skiing with some of my favorite Girdwood locals. This is the end of a two week high pressure, super stable snow pack, and all kinds of people getting after it. I was thrilled to see the Girdwood women pushing this terrain with their own snow machines and ripping lines. It's nice to see the red neck side of the highway gaining a little more gender balance.

Friends, Family, and Powder Skiing in Canada. Couldn't Ask of Anthing More.

First Glimpse of the Mountains in Rogers Pass, BC Canada

First - I have to thanks my folks for their endless support towards my skiing addiction and year two of them sponsoring the transportation for an epic adventure to British Columbia. Schweitzer, Whitewater, Revelstoke, Rogers Pass, and Kicking Horse... I don't think we could have packed one more place in. When Kris and I started looking into this trip, we both decided to not make any solid plans and promised to let the snow conditions and weather forcasts be our guide. A few days of wet storm skiing at Schweitzer and Whitewater pushed us north until we found ourselves in Rogers Pass with blue skys and our very own Canadian guide and dear friend Ken. I met Ken at Alyeska a few years ago, while he was on a ski patrol exchange from his home mountain of Kicking Horse in Golden, BC. Ken's knowledge of the terrain and snow pack was a re-assuring asset as we climbed 5 or 6 km up into some of most beautiful backcounty I have ever seen. Not to mention he brought his sweetie Wendy and two more local ripping chicks -which made the adventure that much more unique. I always enjoy it when the women out number the men in the mountains.

The following day we were joined by two of my favorite friends in the world, Brooke and Mike, both Girdwood Alaska locals, whom happened to be in the area for a hut sking trip. That evening Ken and Wendy opened their home to all of us for a few days and gave us a full tour of the slackcountry on the edges of Kicking Horse Ski Area. On our final night in Golden Ken's mom threw a fondue party in our honor and we took full advantage of the steam room and hot tub at Kickinghorse resort. Now that's a Vacation!

For those who might not be familiar with some of the skiing slang I've used here are a few definitions.

"Ripping Chicks" Bad ass chicks that like to have a great time on their skis
"Slackcountry" Ski touring from a ski resort with an open boundary policy
"dropping the cornis" jumping off of a steep a wind affected feature on a ridge

Taken from below Little Sifton - Peak Unknown ?

Wendy skinning, Rogers Pass, BC

I just love all of the lines in this picture

Rippin Local Chicks from Golden, BC

The final Skin Track up Little Sifton

Our fearlous leader Ken, scouting out the descent

Lisa making the powder look extra yummy!

Wendy

I just really liked the clouds and trees in this picture

Brooke

Mike

Kris dropping the cornis into the "Toilet Snake Chute" Slackcountry of Kicking Horse.

Wendy, Brooke, and Heather (Me)