Coldsmoke in the B.C. Interior (with a Mt. Baker encore)

Written by Adam

Tuesday, 30 March 2010

It takes about five flights and 50 hours of travel to get from the tropical diving paradise of Saipan to the interior of B.C., but such epic travels are possible with the right motivation. In this case, Grant Gunderson had been invited to compete in the Coldsmoke foto face-off sponsored by Kootenay Mountain Culture and he extended the invitation to me, on the condition that I could get back from the tropics in time. For this, no problem! The idea was for five photographers to spend from March 2 through March 5 shooting images that documented Kootenay mountain culture, and then present those images in a slide show in Nelson on the 6th. Our team was the only group of Americans (my Canadian citizenship apparently didn’t’ count) and consisted of Grant, and three other Baker locals (Zack Giffin, Dustin Geesaman, and myself). We added K.C. Deane, a Lake Tahoe extremo, to round out our team. We all rendezvoused in Gunder’s new pad in Bellingham and prepared for the road trip to Revelstoke, where we would begin our mission. There was a minor case of Déjà Vu happening in Revelstoke for the Baker contingent as it seemed that the four of us had just been up here (see “Revelstoked” in the Coreshot archives). The snowpack all throughout the interior was extremely tourchy but armed with our previous experience and a healthy dose of fear, we were able to work on some mini zones while minimizing our exposure. Of course, shooting images is not quite the same as ripping lines but it’s quite gratifying to nail the shot. Here’s my “2nd Angle” cam documenting Zack and K.C. doing their thing. We would have loved to stick around Revelstoke but the show must go on, in this case to Great Canadian Heli-Skiing, which is located just over Roger’s Pass. I hadn’t been over this road in nearly a decade (and the last time was at night), so there was quite a bit of rubbernecking on my part. Here’s K.C., Zack and Dustin following us over the pass. I don’t care if you’ve been in helicopters a million times before or if it’s your first time; it’s always a super awesome feeling when the heli comes in to pick you up. Gunder and Zack are veterans and I’ve had a few days under my belt, but this was K.C.’s first trip in a bird. The grins are the same. The avy conditions were as scary as we’ve ever seen, but our guide Paddy was still able to find some good terrain to work with. K.C. certainly didn’t complain. And then, just as quickly as it started, our heli time was over. We once again hit the road and headed to Nelson and Whitewater for the last two days of shooting. Of course we would have loved to stay in heli-land but we were on a mission and we had to keep working. Nelson may be the Earth Muffin/Yoga Chick capital of the world, but that’s not why we were there. We were there to find a different kind of action, and we gave it our best shot. On the first day in Whitewater, K.C. and Zack really wanted to jib a snow-ghost. We found one and a bit of effort later, gave it a shot. Once again, the feeling of nailing something that you put a lot of effort into makes it all worthwhile, even if you’re not the person that is actually in the shot. It’s a team effort. We then continued up the flanks of Ymir peak and found some other little zones to play with. Good times were had. On the way back down from the ski area both Gunder and K.C. noticed their trucks were acting a bit funny, so instead of an early morning alpine start assault on the mountains on our last day of shooting we were first in line for the auto parts store. One set of brakes and one set of headlights later we were back in business! We spent the last day shooting in a “secret” zone that’s about five minutes away from the groomers and in plain sight of everyone. Why this zone hadn’t been skied heavily was beyond us, but we weren’t complaining. Perfect snow, perfect lines, and it hadn’t snowed in three weeks? Really? Eventually the sun sank below the mountains and that was it, our last day of shooting was over. It was time for an all-nighter to edit the thousands of images and put together a coherent slide show. The sync is a bit off from what we intended, but we were happy with our resulting slide show and pleased to tie for 2nd place in the contest. Here’s what we submitted. Grant Gunderson Kootenay Coldsmoke from Mitchell Scott on Vimeo. The five slide shows were going to be played in the evening of the 6th, so that gave us a free day of skiing. We went back up to Ymir to get after some of the lines we had been looking at but couldn’t justify skiing with all the camera gear. The Coldsmoke party was excellent and all of the photographers put together amazing slideshows. We would have loved to stick around the interior but the snowpack was a bit too touchy for our tastes and Baker was looking like it was going to get hit. K.C. had previous commitments in Tahoe so we headed south to the land of the free. As luck would have it, we scored a perfect March week at Baker. The snow was copious and cold and it was great to just be ripping around with friends and not worrying about shooting or contests or whatever. Here’s a sampling of Baker life for your viewing enjoyment: Zack gets upside down off the rockstar cornice Molly Baker likes to ski pow Out the Arm and keep going for the best run of the year? Zack, Molly, and Gunderson (notice the empty camera pack) skinning back from a stellar tour We now know that if Mattsquatch is up at Baker and says he’s been on E since Glacier but he’s pretty sure he can make it back to Maple Fuels, he is incorrect. Luckily hitching down 542 is not a problem. There’s not much to do in Glacier after hours except chill out with your friends, dry your gear, and make pizza. A week at Mt. Baker is not complete without a solid Tap Room session with the Howats, the pro patrol, and the rest of your friends. I’m pretty sure Gunderson wasn’t as stoked as he looks about having the biggest Tap Room bill in history, but whining to Duncan won’t solve anything. After such epic bar tabs, the only thing left to do is… buy a car? This is documentation of a shady transaction involving Kalix, Dustin, and one dead Subaru. Molly seems excited about it, anyways. The best way to get over the epic Tap Room session from the previous night is to go for a skin. Mark, Rene, Barney, Tory, Kirsty Exner, and I walked it off on a mission to Table. Mark drops in and all becomes clear From the right we have Tory, Barney, me, then Mark. Kirsty is making bigger faster turns than all of us and Rene is waiting for us up top. We cycled back for a couple more runs and then called it a day. All in all it was a wonderful two weeks of powder and friends but now, work calls again. Next stop, Kauai!