Backcountry Kicker Sesh Part II

After our last kicker session in the Jackson Hole backcountry, we decided it needed to be about twice the size in order to get better shots. Riders David Duffy and Andy Jardine spent over five ours building up a new beast. We headed out yesterday morning to get some shots. The inversion layer was a bit higher than I would have preferred, but we still came out with some success.

Andy Jardine marks the jump with some iced tea so the riders could see the lip.

David Duffy hikes up in a balance of moonlight and an orange sunrise.

Heavenly views of Jackson Hole.

Andy Jardine sends it.

Aaron jumps into the mist.

Burgess Custom rider Halina Boyd.

Christmas in the Park

First of all...Merry Christmas! It's been a pretty crazy week, like most weeks are leading up to holidays, but it's definitely been fun. After a grueling five days of shooting photos of tourists, I was able to have Dec. 23-25 off to unwind and celebrate. I was ready to get out and shoot some real stuff. Luckily Jackson Hole has installed a decent little park for us to play in. David was kind enough to buy me a new battery for my 1D Mark II N, a much needed Christmas gift. With my new battery in, I realized that my pro camera is quite the powerful instrument. You hardly miss a shot with 8.5 frames per second. I set up shop at the biggest jump in the park and watched David do his thing, all the while firing off my machine gun of a camera. The jump isn't that big, but David was somehow able to pull off backflips, backside 540s and backside 3 tailgrabs. It was a blast and it felt good to get some shooting of my own in. Enjoy!

In case you wondered how my Christmas was, I will give you the low down. On Christmas Eve, we went snowboarding. David and I could hardly wait to open presents so we opened eachother's that night. Obviously like I mentioned David gave me a new Canon battery for my beast camera and I got him a down jacket (pretty much essential for JH living). Then we drank delicious eggnog cocktails and roamed around the city looking at the lights in town square. Christmas morning was present time and we checked out what our families had gotten us. I definitely scored some pretty great gifts this year (thanks mom!). We went shredding again and came home a little early to start cooking dinner. I invited my friend Alex over to share David's mom's recipe for a traditional German dish of bratwurst and sauerkraut with potatoes. Then I made my mom's heavenly holiday mint pie for dessert. The night was filled with fun stories, good food, wine, and friends. Being with family would have been unbeatable, but I think we had some good times anyway. So long for now!

Snow King Jump Session #2

Checking in from another icy night here in Jackson Hole. Current temperature: 21 degrees. Forecast for this evening: Lows of 2 to 7 with a 20% chance of snow. Brrrrr!!!!

Icicles on my truck.

Today's rider. He's a hottie, I know.

After walking around with friends "downtown" last night and realizing that it was snowing about an inch an hour, David and I figured that another jump session at Snow King would be in store. Giddy with the fact that the snow cats hadn't yet plowed down all of the big mounds of snow, we got our gear together and hiked up.

Jump construction.

Today's jump turned out way better than yesterday's. David was able to cut into one of the big mounds of snow and form a nice little lip. The landing was also good, as it was the opposite side of the snow mound. It wasn't long before David was sessioning. Luckily, my flash decided to fire today! Maybe it was because I put the batteries in my jacket for as long as possible. On the flip side however, my 1D's battery was loosing momentum fast. I couldn't even take advantage of the 8 frames per second sequence shots because the battery was just drained. Looks like I'm going to need to invest in another one of those. Lame. Luckily I had my 20D with me so I did get some decent pics.

Yep, I got sprayed with snow in this one. David, stalefish.

The last shot from the 1D. It was the second frame in what should have been a sequence.