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Summer has come and gone, fall lingers, and snow is on the way. Time has a way of racing by, but there are many memories that last forever. This summer was interesting, fun, exciting, had its ups and downs, but remained  full of love,  and positive vibes. Traveling around the west, hanging with friends and family I spent time capturing some of these moments with photography. this is the first selection: the following shots are from an annual trip to the Black Rock Desert.

Excerpt from the commencement Address to the Class of 2009, University of Portland, May 3rd, 2009 By Paul Hawken. For the full address, (highly recomended) click HERE.

Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich. The first living cell came into being nearly 40 million centuries ago, and its direct descendants are in all of our bloodstreams. Literally you are breathing molecules this very second that were inhaled by Moses, Mother Teresa, and Bono. We are vastly interconnected. Our fates are inseparable. We are here because the dream of every cell is to become two cells. In each of you are one quadrillion cells, 90 percent of which are not human cells. Your body is a community, and without those other microorganisms you would perish in hours. Each human cell has 400 billion molecules conducting millions of processes between trillions of atoms. The total cellular activity in one human body is staggering: one septillion actions at any one moment, a one with twenty-four zeros after it. In a millisecond, our body has undergone ten times more processes than there are stars in the universe exactly what Charles Darwin foretold when he said science would discover that each living creature was a “little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars of heaven.”   (Continue)

second installment in the  AK POV series. Join Dana, Seth, and I as we get dropped off, and then shred the steeps.

After sitting through day after day of bad weather… watching radar, pacing back and forth, and snacking non-stop, it can be confusing what we are doing here. But glimmers of blue skies keep us hungry and focused so we occupy our time with “the little things”.

1. Go for a “Ripinsky” mission

Haines America

2. Go Maddd at the pioneer bar

3. Over produce some “head shots”

4. clone yourself

5. Ring the bell

6. Go out on a Fishing boat

7. Eat fresh crab…and salmon

8. Shotgun some beers

9. check out a totem pole

10. Dream of places like this…

Riding in Alaska is a unique experience, snow creates formations that seem to be out of this world, and huge pillows, spires, flutes and spines create an alien playground. The skylines are riddled with endless peaks, huge glaciers separate drainages, and distances are hard to gauge. With no visual references like trees or structures, to evaluate size, it’s easy to mistake a 2000-foot face for something much smaller. Cliff airs that appear to be ten-foot rocks turn into 40-foot drops. Only When the helicopter flies towards the face to drop off a friend do you finally get perspective of the size.

The posse is comprised of a world-class production crew from TGR, photographers Flip McCririck, and Adam Clark, Athletes, Seth Morrison, Tanner Hall, Dana Flahr, and myself. Several Other riders have cycled through here already this year too, Erik Roner, Ian McIntosh, and still photographer Mark Fisher just wrapped up the first leg of filming here.

I rolled into town early and had a string of blue bird days with them; the first window the crew had seen the whole trip. Plugging in with the group halfway through their session supercharged my re-immersion into the terrain. We quickly stepped into big zones after a day of snow assessment.

The crew was on fire, charging fast, with mad enthusiasm. Snow Was deep. The deepest snow I’ve ever skied on AK’s steep fluted terrain. Face shots were unavoidable, and on top of the normal challenges vision was spotty, you were forced to plan wayyyy ahead.

Erik Roner ski base