Snow Ghost

Brandon and I learned some lessons today:

• Drive up the canyon either before it closes or well after it opens.
  
• If it rained the day before, dry your gloves.
  
• Then put them with the rest of your ski stuff.
  
• If you see the chair switch from grid power to diesel, think twice about riding it because it may not run long enough to get you to the top.
  
• Always bring a lunch.
  
• Never set up the strobe exactly where you expect the skier to come though the shot.
  
• Always tighten the wireless trigger to the hotshoe.
• Tape the bag over the strobe.
• Drive down the Canyon either before it closes or well after it opens.
  

Shed a Little Light

The image above is one of my first ever with an off camera strobe and I think I'm gonna like it. Brandon and I went up to Wolverine Cirque on Sat to ski some chutes and play around with the strobe, but I couldn't get it to work.  We were in a steep shaded chute and I would place the flash, slip down a little and test... all good.  Then Brandon would drop in and I would release the shutter...no flash pop...huh...test again... it works...ski again... nothing.  It was difficult in this steep snowy place.  In the shot below the flash was supposed to fire, that's why it is so underexposed.

Here's another where the flash didn't fire....

It was supposed to be exposed the way this beautiful test shot was...

We did get some nice chute skiing in.  

Flashin' at the Dolla Bill Cafeteria

We had a blast on this hot mid winter day.  There was cold, inverted and smoggy air down in the valley so we headed up to kicker central with some friends new and some friends old and spent the day building jumps and roasting things on the bbq.  Brandon stomped both of his smooth spins.  I was not really jumping very well on this day.  I was like a backseat driver of my own skis.  I was still having trouble with my strobes which was a little frustrating but last night I think I fixed them.  It was super cool to have the radio, bbq, couch, cameras, jumps and friends all within a 100ft of each other.  We were all in heaven.

Great White North

Jill and I went to Ottawa for Christmas and visited her father and brother.  Look at these piles of snow! We went on a walk

through the arboretum on Christmas day and later we visited the Canadian Civilization Museum. I was blown away by the Northwest aboriginal culture such as totem poles and cedar house

 building.  I guess I  haven't been around it that much or wasn't as aware of it in Seattle or Pulsbo.  The style, craftsmanship and ingenuity are amazing.

Click into the Season

Ski season is starting to get rolling.  I feel like I'm in pretty good shape but Mexico and Ottawa have been two fairly large breaks from training.  Next year I need to continue to find better ways to keep a training schedule during vacations.  My new boots are fitting well, but I hope they dont pack out to much more.  Im excited about the wireless triggers and strobe I have coming.  There will be a lot of good skiing and pictures this season.