Mammoth 12/23/10

It’s been almost a week without seeing the sun, with storms pounding Mammoth and 11-17 feet of snow dropping on the mountain.  An insane week of snowfall to say the least.  But today the sun came out showing just how much powder is still available and the top of the mountain finally opened up.  Normally I’m behind the camera but today I was the snowboarder in front of the camera, willing to hike and hike again to get some shots of the recent powder.  So for the first time in my blog’s history, you’ll see the majority of photos of myself instead of from my perspective.

Joani, Justin and myself on the lift

[singlepic id=10373 w=500 h=281 float=]

I was working this morning but was asked to head outside on the slopes for filming, so I geared up and hit the mountain with our director of marketing & communications Joani and filmer Justin.  We got a couple laps in some powder on chair #1 and then headed over to chair #12.  Joani had to go in after a couple laps but I was able to stay out longer and get some more footage.   Brad Peatross is the art director and takes photos for the mountain so he joined us at the top of chair #12 to get some shots.

I watched as people hiked up from chair #12 but no one rode the perfect powder next to the hiking.  It was amazing because I was craving all these lines that others passed up and I couldn’t believe no one was doing it.  All it took was a hike that took maybe 10 minutes to get these lines and it was all mine for the taking.

My first line down the open powder field

[singlepic id=10375 w=1280 h=852 float=]

About to go into the white room

[singlepic id=10376 w=1280 h=852 float=]

Yeah in the white room!

[singlepic id=10377 w=1280 h=852 float=]

This is my third line and just as good as the first, second, fourth and fifth.

[singlepic id=10378 w=1280 h=852 float=]

We had the whole powder field to ourselves so I kept hiking up and we got this shot of me slashing up some snow.  You can barely see my helmet peeking out from the left side of the slash.

[singlepic id=10379 w=1280 h=852 float=]

Finally my favorite picture, this was the last run of the day.  I slashed the snow right into the sunlight and rode out of it, delivering up a white blanket over half of the picture.  It’s just amazing how much snow there is on the mountain.

[singlepic id=10380 w=1280 h=852 float=]

Before we headed in, I told Brad he should take a run so he handed off his super nice camera and let me get a shot of him in the powder.  Got this shot of him, I was just hoping I didn’t mess it up because photographers don’t get photos of themselves and I really wanted to capture him in the amazing powder.  I think I got it.  A huge thanks to Brad for the photos and allowing me to put them up on here.

[singlepic id=10382 w=820 h=452 float=]

At the end of the day, I did the sneak attack on my camera even though the battery was dying. I pulled it out, turned it on and somehow shot this photo before it died.  It’s my last line of the day and all the open powder still ripe for the taking next to it.

[singlepic id=10374 w=2000 h405 float=]

I’m still in awe.  It was the best Christmas present I could have asked for.  The powder was amazing, I earned my turns and got some great moments captured on photo out of them.  Now it’s the holiday weekend and I get to see my family!