Grand Targhee Super Session
By: Todd Jones | Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Grand Targhee is best known for being one of the top powder riding mountains in the world. This spring TGR and Targhee are collaborating to build some crazy super features with Targhee’s amazing backdrops. Sage, Dylan Hood, Wiley Miller, Dash Longe, and Sammy Carlson are the crew. We have 3 spots we have been scoping and building. This shoot is unique in that the features are being built into the natural terrain of the mountain, not a terrain park. It is really cool to be doing this shoot in TGR’s backyard, at the resort where 13 years ago, TGR filmed it’s infamous cliff hucking segment that helped launch us into the action sports film world. Another cool tidbit is that Sage was on hand as a grommet that day 13 years ago, unbeknownst to us, watching the boys throw down at his home mountain. Now we get to bring Sage back home and reunite him with the mountain where he grew up riding and got his wings. Check back for more updates from the Targhee Super Session.
Influence
By: Pete O'Brien | Sunday, May 04, 2008
Influence
Story and Photos by Pete O’Brien
It’s been a few years since audiences for TGR’s High Life witnessed Jamie Pierre and Dan Gardiner’s film segment. Since then Jamie set a world record cliff drop and put a first descent in the Cathedrals near Haines among other things.
When Jamie called everyone out to “just try” in High Life people got excited, offended, inspired and appalled all at the same time. Either way viewers had an opinion and it was entertaining. Which is exactly why we shot it.
This season Jamie held his airs sub 100’, got a little more tech and tried to show the audiences that he can ski, even though everyone that knows him already knew that.
It’s amazing to see what has happened since that High Life segment. It seems alot harder to get those same hits in the backcountry before anyone else does, even with early ups and sleds. Some of the gnarliest lines out there are getting tattooed before 9 am.
Like it or not, you’ll get a taste of Jamie’s skiing in TGR’s Under the Influence next September. Check it out.
Pete
pow pockets, ak highlights
By: Sage Cattabriga-Alosa | Thursday, May 01, 2008
Despite a ugly north wind, we managed to find some good pockets of snow during the last few days of the trip. Haines delivered the goods this year, we had some down time, and some sick times, but most of all we had some fun.
It was tough as always to pack up and leave Haines. Ak is a magical place and I am thankfull to have ridden there again.
enjoy the photos, a little highlight reel of moments durring the whole trip.
AK Withdrawl
By: Dana Flahr | Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Restless nights, bad motel coffee, and seemingly endless amounts of fear and anxiety. Man do I miss it.
I'm back in Pemberton BC now, where life is easy, and the air smells like spring. Mt.Currie is still caked in snow, and Blackcomb Mountain hasn't even thought about starting to melt. I just want to go back home, to my motel room at the Captain's Choice. Life was as simple as it gets. My room filled with ski gear, a skateboard on a PVC pipe, and music. That's all I need. Not to mention every single one of my neighbours in the motel were not only the world's best skiers, photographers, and cinematographers, but some of the coolest people to hang out with and kick around a soccer ball.
Here are a bunch of photos I've been staring at since I've been back, in a small attempt to take me back to a place that tought me more about everything than you would ever believe.
heli wars
By: Sage Cattabriga-Alosa | Monday, April 28, 2008
Rarely does the forecast in Alaska predict sunny skies, not to mention
forecasting a week of blue bird, but that is exactly what we saw on the
horizon. Each person slowly confirming with some one else, “did you
check the sat? The Roner forecast looks good. ” The “Roner forecast” is
really just the weatherchannel.com’s super basic prediction, Roner
constantly checked and called out blue holes with amazing accuracy
during the first part of the trip. So we focused now on this becoming a
reality, with only a week left in our trip we needed a break. Sure
Enough just as projected the storm glassed off, moon came out and we
kept our fingers crossed it would be clear in the morning.
To add to the pressure we decided to implement our secret weapon, a
second helicopter with a Tyler mount camera rig shooting super 16. We
had enough budget for three filming days within a 10 day window, and
since we were entering crunch time we decided to bring it in. The Tyler
was mounted into a Jet ranger and flown by Coastal Helicopters top
pilot Jim Wilson, or as CG would exclaim, “OLD MANNNN WILSON!” The
Helicopters only passenger, Todd Jones camera operator extraordinaire.
Haines beach
By: Sage Cattabriga-Alosa | Monday, April 21, 2008
When its sunny it seems like it will last forever, when its gray it
feels like it will never be sunny again. Day upon day of overcast or
rainy weather forces us to lay low, occupying our time with all sorts
of activities, Indoor exercise, lounging, gaming and cruising around
town. Every thing is in walking distance and there are some great
locations to shoot photos, do interviews, and soak in the AK culture.
With little road access most of Alaska is connected by air, and water
ways, the car is merely a local transport vehicle. The harbor and the
pier have been our favorite places to roast the day away.
Photo 1: Pier sessions, from left to right, Cory Gavit, Todd Jones and Josh Nielsen from TGR.
photo 2: The Pier
Photo 3: Contemplating where these massive snow chunks came from, did they wash ashore?
photo 4: out to the Bar with the boys.
photo 5: After many down days we finally got out for some turns, this is our
lead guide Jim Conway getting out for a slope evaluation. We had a
break in the weather and got in a few runs this day before a storm set
back in.
Photo 6: Ready at a moments notice, the gear is stacked, radio and other
electronics are charged, getting poised for it to pop blue. Photo-self
portrait.
Photo 7: Going Mad???
AK Mega Day!
By: Jeremy Jones | Monday, April 14, 2008
We have been waiting a long time for this break. I pushed my departure back three times to get this day and I took full advantage of every minute. It has been a long time since I have seen conditions this good.
Photo 1:
Do to the heavily fluted face and sluffed out aprons we were able to hit this classic spine wall right out of the gate with very little snow assessment.
Photo 2:
I hiked in from the right, cutting the cornice along the way. My entry was 1 foot to the right of the big hanging cornice. I swear I could have thrown a snowball and got the big one to drop. It took 30minutes to got 30 ft but it was worth it. Conditions have to be perfect to ride spines this steep and today they were.
Photo 4:
A classic line that has alluded me for years. This was the one line I wanted to hit this year in Haines. When I first saw it 8 years ago I was mentally not ready to step up to it. Now its considered a party run.
Photo 5:
Walking the fine line from falling off a big cliff on one side and getting sluffed or slid down the other.. pic Roner
Photo 6:
This is the moment I live for. Warmed up, snow tested, cameras ready, and seconds away from dropping into a line I have been looking at for 8 years. It is lines like this that help me get through the dog days of summer.
Photo 7:
Seth Morrison told me this was the best day he has had in AK. He said for years he had looked at all these spine walls but was with the wrong crew to session them. He fits well with our crew and I hope to have many more days like this with him in the future. This is his 10th and final run of the day. check out www.tetongravity.com to order next years movie Under the Influence. Check out jeremyjones.info for more epic blogs
Clean Up! Haines, AK
By: Seth Morrison | Friday, April 11, 2008
This season in Haines has been the best trip of my life. The crew, the guides, the heli pilots, and stable snow. At this point I have been here for a month and have 2 weeks to go. Have ridden with some of the best riders in the world on this mission. Jeremy Jones, Sage Cattabriga-Alsoa, Erik Roner, Jeremy Nobis, Ian McIntosh and Dana Flahr.
This day was in the true sense of chasing the "White Rhino" as Roner liked to say. We flew out into cloudy conditions in hopes of finding some holes of blue that would hold long enough for us to bang off some lines. As we started to access a zone, the clouds were playing with the ridge lines and blocking the sun and it looked as if our day was coming to a close before it even began. A few runs were skied to check stability of new snow fall, as well as get ride of some bed sores from previous down time. We played around with a few pow shots and one group heads in, thinking the day was over. Sure enough we see a big blue hole to the West. Land and get out wondering what to do. The second load still shooting some stills sees this hole and they go and check it out. The rest of us jump in the cars and move to 33 mile, which is the center of all heli activity up here.
Park, reboot, heli lands, load and go! As we start to fly in we head for the first lines we see, there are people on it. Over the headsets we hear "Is that 204?" The number of our ship, so of course people know what we are up to. We fly on and are bordered by cloud banks to the South the Canadian border to the West, a new "new no fly zone" and mellow terrain to the north, and the White Rhino West where we came from. Fly over our group #1 that was taking a SAR as we went on recon. Mostly what was seen was places that were more morning light runs, to what ever was in the sun was tracked, people on it, to tech gnar that required much more time than what we had to access stability wise and line selection. We opted to land and bring the group #1 over to discuss what to do.
Dounut hole of blue with every freeskier and film crew here in a zone the size of a few large ski resorts. As we debriefed, 2 helis flew over us and we look around at tracks and on coming clouds. The ski area vibe over came me, but we are in AK land of vast and untouched mountains! 3 plans were made, we went for plan A to get some scraps on the first thing we flew by where a group had called our ship out. At this point I was over the emotional roller coaster, but you got to keep your head in the game.
Skied a run while group #1 flew over to see what was left to at least have some fun in the sun. Sure enough there was some lines left over from some people taking free runs. Here are some pics of what I shot and a trail map of the lines Sage put together. Enjoy!
sid
****Note: Goto Large Images To See The Fly On The Wall Shots****