Archive for the 'travel' Category

cold rush

Hanging out in Canada is always fun, People are great, and the environment is amazing. Winter or summer the lush forests and great mountains provide a perfect setting for skiing and other activities.  I was lucky to go on a dream road trip through bc in January and was equally excited to get to go back last week for the Red Bull cold rush contest. The  comp was held at Retallack Cat skiing 2 hours from Nelson and was scheduled for three days with three different venue options.

The three categories of terrain were jumps, cliffs, and lines. The crew sculpted 6 different jumps of varying size all with powder landings for the first day and an amazing session went down. after each of us had our two judged runs we began sessioning the jumps, people were flying off the jumps like popcorn, Dane Tudor and I had a near collision when we both dropped in on two different jumps that had intersecting in-runs.

All the action was captured by Freeride entertainment’s film crew.  Our two first hits were edited at the end of the day, and at night we all sat down, watched the footage and then judged each others runs. This was a difficult task, everyone had great runs, and our only judging guidlines were on a overall impression of each rider.

Day two was stormy so after some inspection of the next venue we went freeriding, ripping up Retallack’s steep tree runs that are heavily featured with pillows and airs everywhere. The next morning we awoke to patchy skies with big blue holes, and we mobilized quickly to get the “line” portion of the day underway. The mini golf zone had great snow, and was full of options. Everyone had sick runs, clouds came in and out and many holds were required before everyone got there two captured lines.

after a exciting morning we headed over to the last venue which was a heavily featured cliff zone with pillows and airs everywhere. we decide to wrap it up with one “comp” line and then took a few runs to cap off the day. we wrapped up the night with final judging, awards, and late night partying. Kye Petersen took the event and it was obvious to everyone before the results were even in that he was on top. Next to him on the podium was JP Auclair in second and myself in third. It was an amazing event, super fun session and I felt really lucky and honored to be a part of it. Many big thanks to Retallack and their crew, the Freeride Posse, and Red Bull for putting on the event. More photos and videos can be seen at newschoolers.com.

Red bull cold rush at Retallack lodge

Red bull cold rush at Retallack lodge

Cold rush saftey breif

Cold rush saftey breif

cold rush start gate

cold rush start gate

under the tent at

under the tent at the Red bull cold rush

gettin some air durring the Jump session

getting some air durring the Jump session

dinner at Retallack lodge

dinner at Retallack lodge

Freeride Paradise part 1

 southern Utah…

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The terrain…

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The Hike up…

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Farther up…

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Perched on top…

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The way down…

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Carefully down…

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The crypt light…

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The chill nights…

East coast movie tour and family visit

I headed back to New Hampshire to do a little TGR movie tour and hang out with my extended family as well. I arrived in Concord NH where I have relatives from both sides of my family.  The first show was arranged by my Uncle Alan Cattabriga and was in a cool new non-profit theater in down town Concord called the Red River Theater. The shows were packed, people were stoked, and I had large contingency of family in the house!

The next two nights we went to Nashua NH, and then up to Burlington VT. Both show went great lots of stoked east coast fans. As always the fans on the east coast are insanely pumped up for winter, and skiing. Its inspiring to see people who are really passionate even though they don’t always get deep snow or have gnarly mountains so easily accessible like we have in the west.

After the tour I spent some time with the family, Alan and I went on a canoe paddle down the Merrimack river with some beautiful fall colors. Then we took a hike up Huntington’s Ravine, climbed around on some wet rocks and enjoyed the mountains as  a snow storm rolled in. It felt great to be in the cold, wind, and snow, my first storm of the year, and we also got a good look into the famous Tuckerman’s Ravine. Now I can finally say I have been there!

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My Grandfathers shed… a historical spot

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12 days in the desert

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Sunsets and rotars

Sunsets in Chile are,” all time”. Nearly every night as the day faded, the golden light turned into reds, yellows, oranges, lavenders, blues, and eventually grays.

Morning brought new snow, and clear skies, so we assembled the team and headed for the heli pad. Chopo, Forest, Stacy Thomas, and I  were beyond stoked to go helli skiing and boarding with these conditions.

The Andes are impressive ,the landscape is big, peaks are jagged and rocky, and the mountains looked extra impressive with a fresh coat of paint. We had a perfect day, riding lines, billy goating, chilling and over all, enjoying our time in the mountains.  chileb61.jpg

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Carlos Ferrer and I stoked to fly!

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we didnt fly in this helli, but it looked preaty cool.

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Our steller guide

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The crew, Stacy, Chopo, Forrest, and our guide…

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Night reflects the santiago lights skyward

South Faces

Its seems strange at first, looking for the good snow on the opposite side of the mountain. As if in some parallel universe, up is down, winter in the summer, backwards mountains… No not a bizarro world, a very real world in the southern Hemisphere called, Chile. In the middle of August all it takes to get excited is thinking of snow . Wishing for powder, not caring if it was hard pack, as we headed into the mountains I  knew that it was going to be fun.”

First turns down the several day old pow felt  too good to be true, fresh, soft, boot top deep. Off the couch the crew rallied, shredding 10 runs or more after a red-eye flight into a crack-o-noon start.

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Santiago, 6 million people…wow

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where am I ?!?! isn’t this august…

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our sweet ride North Face Rossignol official athlete car…

Summer Nights

Night photography is really fun, challenging and interesting. using a long exposure and a tri-pod brightens up the night turning moving objects into blurred images, and moving light into long streaks. This summer lots of opportunities have arisen for night shooting, my favorites have been at music festivals. Shooting without the flash tends to capture the feeling of the experience more so than the details.

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POW

Protect Our Winters is a non-profit devoted to the mountains and snow we love. By funding renewable energy education programs, changing consumer habits, and re-thinking how the winter sports industry does business, we are making a difference where we can. We’re not perfect—we know—but another thing we know is it’s all about Starting Somewhere. Like hiking in fresh pow, it’s all about that first step. We all love to ride it and we all can help protect it. Get outside, mean it, and start somewhere.

I met up with Jeremy Jones, Nicolas Muller, Eric Brandit, and Billy Summers for a commercial shoot to help raise awareness about POW. The commercial will be used in several formats, web, TV spots, and will be played before both TGR’s, and Absinthe films, new movies. I am excited to become more involved in this program, and to help spread the word.

For more info check out the link on the side bar of this page, or go directly to Protectourwinters.org.

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Jeremy in the hot seat.

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Mount Rainer, still loaded with snow.

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The crater on top of Rainer, my flight home gave a unique perspective of this massive mountain.

The wild west

Wyoming is awesome, big mountains, gorgeous rivers, lush flora, good people and home to Teton Gravity Research. Driving over Teton pass I was stunned by the bright hillsides covered in native wild flowers. And surprised by the amount of snow still clinging to the upper ridges, and bowls. But luckily as the road wound its way down the snow rapidly disappeared leaving the trail head of the famed “Jimmy’s Mom ” jump trail seemingly clear. While the mission to Jackson was primarily to work in the editing suite with the TGR crew, the alterer motive was riding the bike. I look forward to biking in Jackson all year long, the Jump/DH trails there are top notch, and there is a big community of riders that are super fun to shred with.

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Sunsets in the West…

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New tram under construction!!!

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TGR headquarters…

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Todd Jones and Corey Gavitt farming air

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This is where it all gos down, edit one with Tate MacDowell. Countless hours are spent here pouring over footage, interviews, music, and at times Jack Daniels. It is a unbelievable task that goes on behind the scenes here, Mad respect to all those involved in turning hundreds of hours of raw footage into a 5o min snow masterpiece.

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A critical roll in the post production team are the interns, they get a crash course in every thing related to making a ski movie from shipping to editing, here the interns and I are getting a camera loading lesson from Josh Nielson.

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loading film into the camera is a delicate task made easier by interrogation style lighting, once proficient film loading must take place with littte to no light and in a cold winter environment.

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Loaded up for some MTB good times!

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Tate got this photo of me sending one of the funnest jumps on the trail.

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Josh Neilsen unwinds after a day in the office.

Summer has begun

The feeling of warmth, sun beating down, a warm breeze ripping by, is so relaxing. The road has been my home lately and the transition between winter and summer has been smooth. there is something awesome about hanging on the West coast, good vibes, good people, and good times. Winter was fairly wrapped up with the Targhee session, but when I returned to salt lake a large snow pack allowed for some late season recreation. Chris Collins called me up excited about his recent snowmobile adventures, with plans to do it again as soon as I arrived. Naturally I was pumped to get on the sled, and riding in the spring is great because you can access terrain that’s normally untouchable in winter. The weather is so nice that a hoodie is all that’s needed for warmth, and the snow is slushy, soft and grippy.

After a few days of riding with Chris I headed down to So-Cal to hang with some friends and check out a really sweet music festival called Lightning In A Bottle. It was a three day festival outside of Santa Barbra. I had assumed that California was going to be warm, so when rain clouds socked in the area I was not very well prepared. After a retreat to town, with breakfast, a movie and a shopping session we returned to the party and the weather improved.

So-Cal was great I hung out with my friend Pete at his house in Huntington Beach for a few days after the event and finally the feeling of summer really set in. Chilling on the beach was so nice, people watching was hilarious, and the only thing on our egenda was to hang out and eat. I rolled out, back to SLC for a few days before heading back to California again, this time to San Fransisco. SF was fun, I met up with the TGR crew and went to the premier of their surf movie called “Out There”. Hung for extra day in the city and now I am enjoying central Oregon hanging with friends, riding bikes, playing disc golf, and generally chilling out. -things aren’t so bad.

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Lightning In A Bottle, Treehouse stage

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California at night

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San Francisco city scape

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bustling California streets

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TGR crew Steve Jones, Matt Herriger, and Corey Gavitt out side a dank SF oyster bar

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Steve Jones and I in the venue

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A Packed surf premier floor