Earlier this winter, TGR sent skiers Nick McNutt, Ian McIntosh, Johnny Collinson, and Sage Cattabriga-Alosa on a backcountry trip in British Columbia’s Purcell Mountains. The team spent ten days cruising around the area in search of powder, and found it in no short supply.
Having established the presence of highly-skiable snow, the crew set up a backcountry base camp. With such an experienced group of backcountry skiers it’s no surprise that base camp was a pretty serious installation. Ben Dann, one of TGR’s cinematographers on the trip, highlighted the importance of a well thought-out campsite. “It was miserably cold in the mornings,” he recalls. “We’d wake up and it would be 20-below—our tents would full of gnarly crystals from our breath freezing overnight.” Luckily, Stellar Heli hooked the team up with a woodstove-equipped tent. “We were able to keep our ski gear and camera equipment warm thanks to the stove, which eliminated the most unpleasant aspects of winter camping,” Dann said. “It was actually quite civilized.”
Related: TGR On Location - Alaska
Base camp might have been a firmly entrenched facility, but camping further afield presented opportunities for more creative and less secure tent spots.
Aside from camping, the trip also involved a decent amount of skiing. “We actually got two of the trip’s best shots on the last day,” remembers Dann. “It was a lot of work to shoot on the same day that we were breaking down camp and heading out, but the ends more than justified the slightly-hectic means.”
Check out the athletes’ social channels for more behind-the-scenes content from this trip — and check out Winterland this fall to see the final product!
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It all began with a dream and a little cash scraped together from fishing in Alaska... Since 1995, we've been an action sports media company committed to fueling progression through our ground-breaking films (37 and counting) and online content.