What’s going on

May

2009

Heli-skiing Steep Faces in St Moritz

Mattias Haunholder throwing down some big turns near St. Moritz in Switzerland.

Last weekend was spent down in St Moritz skiing around Corvatsch and heli-skiing on the border with Italy. The mountains down this way are beautiful soaring peaks with long steep faces. I was graciously invited to go on the trip in order to shoot with big mountain skiers Martin “McFly” Winkler and Matthias Haunholder. Martin and Matthias certainly stepped up and put in some great lines. The snow stuck beautifully to the faces allowing them to ski some steep lines.

: Route planning with the guides and heli-pilots before the flights.

: In the air over St. Moritz, Switzerland.

: Big Mountain Skier, Martin McFly Winlker

: Big Mountain Skier, Mattias Haunholder

: Martin McFly Winlker sending it through the rocks in the mountains near St. Moritz, Switzerland.

: Mattias Haunholder throwing down some big turns near St. Moritz in Switzerland.

: Big Mountain Skier, Martin McFly WinlkerBig Mountain Skier, Martin McFly Winlker

: Leaving camp in search of the good snow in the Swiss Alps near St. Moritz

: The helicopter swings around for a landing, Switzerland

Apr

2009

Spring Ski Sessions

Spring time has arrived in St Anton which means its back-country kicker time. The weather has been warm and our generous snow-pack from the season is disappearing rapidly. The warm slushy conditions has made for some great kicker sessions. The kickers have been built up around St. Christoph Am Arlberg. It’s a great slope for building on. It catches the afternoon sun and has some great views down the valley and over the town below.

The next few days are supposed to hold a bit of rain which means some downtime from the mountain and a chance to catch up with a few projects which I have had planned for sometime now.

: Mathias Gschwandtner, St. Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

: Matias Perez 720, St. Christoph am Arlberg, Austria

: Nick Hayter, St. Christoh Am Arlberg, Austria

: Simon Holzknecht, St. Christoph Am Arlberg, Austria

: Simon Holzknecht, St. Christoph Am Arlberg, Austria

: Looking towards Switzerland from Stuben in the Arlberg range.

Feb

2009

Generation Flinga

The last few days I have had the pleasure of shooting with a couple of Swedish girls known as Generation Flinga as they travel around the world in search of adventure and snow making an all-girl skimovie.

Sara Orrensjö and Janette Hargin passed through the Arlberg with cameraman Marcus Hansen in tow. Together with Nick Hayter and Adam Widen we spent a couple of days shooting around St. Anton and Sonnenkopf. Their timing here was well blessed with one of the best snowfalls that we have seen here this season. The girls certainly put the fresh snow to use with a few big drops and some beautifully deep powder turns.

The girls adventure will continue on Monday as they head off to Japan. You can follow their travels at www.generationflinga.com and be sure to watch out for the movie “Catch Us If You Can” when it comes out.

: Sara Orrensjo, Sonnenkopf, Austria

: Sara Orrensjo, St. Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

: Janette Hargin, Sonnenkopf, Austria

: Sara Orrensjo, Sonnenkopf, Austria

: Janette Hargin, St. Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

: Janette Hargin, St. Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

: Janette Hargin, St. Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

: Sara Orrensjo, St. Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

: Janette Hargin, Sonnenkopf, Austria

: Janette Hargin, St. Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

: Janette Hargin, St. Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

: Janette Hargin, Sonnenkopf, Austria

: Janette Hargin, Sonnenkopf, Austria

Feb

2009

O’Neill Big Mountain Pro

It has been an interesting week here in St. Anton.

The start of the week saw the O’Neill Big Mountain Pro come through town. The contest takes 6 of the worlds best snowboarders, Jeremy Jones, Mitch Toelderer, Xavier de la Rue, Fredrik Evensen, Thomas Eberharter, Eric Themel and 6 of the worlds best skiers, Cody Townsend, Loris Falquet, Thomas Diet, Richard Permin, Jeremie Heitz, Arnaud Rougier and puts them to work on various faces throughout the Alps for prize purse of US$60,000. The interesting thing about this contest is the fact the it is a movable contest and travels to wherever the snow may be and the conditions are best. This year the contest travelled between St. Anton and Saalbach further to the east.

I managed to catch the first run in St. Christoph. The face that the organisers chose had some good conditions though I would consider it to be an unusual choice for a competition with the words big mountain in the title. The face is around 100m vertical. Short though it may be the face provided numerous drops and hucks for the riders to hit and some good snow.

The contest has moved off towards the East where they have found some nice powder. I have heard that they may be returning here for another session this week which will be great as we have just had some fresh snow. Hopefully I shall get another chance to shoot with these talented riders.

: Xavier de la Rue competing in the Scott Big Mountain Pro in St. Christoph, Austria

Feb

2009

Fieberbrunn Big Mountain

Yesterday I made a trip out to Fieberbrunn near the Tyrolean/Salzburg border to watch the qualifying round of the Big Mountain Freeride Tour. With a total of 10,000 Euros prize money, the contest has attracted 76 entrants from around the world all hoping for their chance to qualify for a spot on the prestigious ski and snowboard freeride world tour. Though the majority of riders come from Europe the contest has also attracted riders from as far away as New Zealand. The winner at Fieberbrunn qualifies for the Nissan Freeride de Tignes which starts on the 8th of March and has a prize purse of 40,000 USD.

Clouds had hampered the previous day with only 5 riders being able to ski due to the diminishing visiblity. Yesterday the weather was clear and cold with the temperature being around -12° at 9 in the morning. There was a biting wind blowing which dropped the temperatures even further. Conditions were quite mixed on the course and a bit more snow would have been welcome as a few rocks were uncovered after a big landing or a heavy turn. Although the majority of the riders kept it safe there was a few throwing down a couple of big drops. The final will be held between the 7th and the 15th of Feb (weather depending).

I am not sure if I will get to make it back to the final as this week in St. Anton the O’Neill Big Mountain Pro kicks off with some of the world’s top riders but if the chance arises I will definitely be making the trip back to Fieberbrunn to watch the final (and I shall be sure to take a bigger lens).

Nov

2008

St. Anton Ski Season Opening

It’s been a busy weekend for me out shooting the Season Opening for the St. Anton Tourist board. St. Anton is a great ski resort tucked into the Austrian Alps

There was a couple of races running including one of the longest slalom courses in the world through 140 gates and a vertical descent of 1000m. There was a selection of workshops running covering things such as avalanche transmitter training, ski training to the preparation of pistes which they asked me to cover. These photos will then be forwarded to various press agencies around the world for use in newspapers and magazines. Here’s a small selection of some of the shots.