I'm an avid snowboarder. Not the greatest snowboarder, but it's one of my biggest passions, so it's only natural that I'd want to capture as much about it as possible with my camera.
Snow is a challenging environment to shoot, but it's also a ton of fun because, on a bright, sunny day like this one, the colors seem to be a bit more dramatic and everything is lit up evenly. I will benefit immensely from the use of a polarizing filter, once I can pick one up, but all in all, I feel pretty good about the quality of these pics.
Since Arapahoe Basin was the only resort in Summit County that was open, and there was fresh snow the previous night, the place was pretty crowded and the lift lines were a sight to behold. It was a Friday; I would not have wanted to be there the next day. Thirty minute lift lines are bad enough.
The above pic was taken at the top of the Black Mountain lift, which takes you half way up the mountain. What you're looking at is the top half of the front side of A-basin. The snow looks fantastic, but this portion of the mountain had not been opened yet. This is a really fun section, but as you can see, it's shaded in the afternoon (I think I took this shot around 2:30pm), so in marginal conditions, the light can be very flat and it can be difficult to see where you're going. It can also get remarkably windy at the top, so in the shade of the afternoon, the lift ride to the top, on that slow triple chair, can be...brisk.
This is a portion of what is called The East Wall, a hike-in only section that's skull numbingly steep and is obviously for experts only. The couloir at the right of the picture is one of the more popular chutes on the East Wall.
Above is just a random kid I saw sitting at the edge of the run. I liked the lighting on the trees behind him, so I asked if I could take his picture, and he obliged.
Below is a shot of the mountain on the other side of US 6, which you can hike to from the top of Loveland Pass. Some intrepid skiers made the trek that morning and were treated to the earliest untracked powder this state has seen since I started riding 15 years ago. That's one hell of a run, too.
About halfway down the run, I came upon this roller that guys were just hucking themselves off of, so I parked it and started using the burst function on my camera, to take multiple shots of each rider as he jumped. None of this was staged, I didn't have a tripod so my shooting was very discrete. I wonder how much bigger they would have gone if they had known I was shooting?
This is just a sampling of the shots, I chose some of the better ones but I probably took 150 pictures while I sat here. The jumpers kept coming, one after the other for about 30 minutes, and I was hoping I'd get some shots with two of them in the air at once, but they spaced themselves out well, which is the smart thing to do. If your buddy wrecks his landing, and you jump directly after he did, you wouldn't know he was lying there until you were in the air, rolling down the windows and bracing for a catastrophic landing. This roller drops off sharply, so the riders would just drop, I had about a 1 second window to capture them airborne.
The park was CROWDED, but I expected that one a day like this one, with every brah in Summit County on the mountain, on such a nice afternoon. It made the shooting much more prolific as well, and the caliber of riders was really good. They hadn't set up any jumps, just rails and fun boxes, but it was still a lot of fun to photograph these guys.
I wish I could have shot more from this perspective above, but there were 150 riders milling about in a small area and I didn't want to get clobbered. As the season progresses I'll be able to take more interesting park shots, especially over at Keystone, which has a massive park complex.
This was an awesome day. Warm, sunny, and no wind at all. Wish they could all be that great...
A-Basin has one of the best bars I've been to at a ski area. The bar itself is small, but there are a bunch of big, round tables with nice, comfy armchairs around them. Perfect for throwing back a few after a day with your friends. The bar has great microbrews on tap (namely Avery IPA and Backcountry IPA), and bacon bloody mary's, poured strong. They have a mug club, which I had wanted to join but was already sold out...on day 5 of the season. Bummer.
Arapahoe Basin has always been a favorite of mine because it's one of the "locals" hills, so there are no condos, fancy restaurants, or trendy bars on site. They serve good food, though, like handmade pizzas, green chile, and breakfast burritos, and it's not wildly expensive. It's a breeze to get to as well, only about 50 minutes in good weather and traffic conditions (I live on the west side of the Denver metro area, and right off of I-70), if you're willing to drive Loveland Pass. Which I am, and actually prefer over taking the highway into Dillon and doubling back. People will tell you that Loveland Pass is dangerous, but I have seen far more accidents on the downhill approach to Silverthorne than I've seen on the pass, regardless of weather conditions. So what if avalanches routinely bury the road in heavy snows? Big deal....
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