Jordan Manley
Conditions in cham havent been very inviting so I’ve watched a lot of movies. After going thru my usual classic like “natural born killer” or “american beauty” and other “usual suspect” …i went back to the outdoor world and re watched All the Jordan Manley films. Those are still, by far, the best ski movies i have seen EVER. Well, to be fair, It is not your usual ski porn however they always take me somewhere with a well build atmosphere, good storyline and perfect imagery and most of all no bragging. They inspire me. To travel, go ski but also to maybe get into filming. More of a documentary/ski/poetic type stuff.
Unfortunately jordan is injured at the moment so nothing is new…but so good.
Argentina: A Skier’s Journey EP3 [Season 2] from Jordan Manley Photography on Vimeo.
Dubai: A Skier’s Journey EP2 [S3] from Jordan Manley Photography on Vimeo.
Baffin Island: A Skier’s Journey EP2 [Season 2] from Jordan Manley Photography on Vimeo.
Iceland: A Skier’s Journey EP3 [S3] from Jordan Manley Photography on Vimeo.
Japan: A Skier’s Journey EP1 S3 from Jordan Manley Photography on Vimeo.
A whole lot of nothing
It is spring , i am not working. My list of proud “tik” off that dream bucket should be huge by now. Not. I didn’t do shit. I tried a few time. Waited for a window, 8 hours at the top of the midi. I skied absolutely nothing worth writing about. But i hung out a lot , talked to a lot beautiful people. Partied a little. I had a spectacular last run down grand montet face on acid at sunset over a multicolored cloud. Hung out more. Good times really. The current conditions are not easy to read if you are on the lazy side of things…I am. it is good. Maybe i will score before it is too late. Or not. It is Ok.
Arolla-Zermatt-cosmique ridge
I got another side job, this time as a sherpa on a Corey Rich -marmot-polartec shoot. Being around another successful outdoor director was interesting. Especially Corey who was a bad ass climber/photographer bum living in a van back in those glorious yosemite days. His path is very unusual. Talented and hard worker his resume now goes from shooting gnarly climb up trango towers to apple ads and other nikon ads…impressive. check his website: coreyrich.com.
This time we had a drone which was fun to see those operate up in the alpines…not so practical but if you know what you are doing the footage from it are sick! To operate them isn’t all what you need , sean the pilot is a full on engineer able to trouble shoot and fix whatever bug there is on the drone or connections or fix the liaison between the drone and the monitor and so on. full job. Remote control operator could be a good idea for a lucrative career if you are into that. it is going to blow up…
Warren Miller entertainment. arolla
I was invited to follow Seth Morrison, Tim petrick, Heather Paul Featherman, Tom Day, Matty Moo herriger , Mike hattrup on a warren miller film segment shoot here around cham. The guide was Miles smart and the sherpa oli herren. The weather forecast was the typical spring unpredictable crap but Miles was able to make the best out of that, taking the crew to
arolla
where we were able to skin up to the refuge des vignettes ski a bunch of cool stuff. Next days heli ski the local classic couloirs with local young gun Gille Sierro. Back to cham on a very hot spring high pressure we went with helis back to swiss land ski some other classics . I managed to forget my ski boots on one of those epic heli days, ah , i will put it on my tiredness after working round the clock between that shoot and my nightshift desk job . It was all good times and pretty fun for me( ordinary ski bum) , to hang with people who have been shakers and movers in the ski world for quite sometimes now… We met with 1 swiss legend André Anzévui , the first to ski the north face of cervin among other beautiful swiss summit…I love flying with choppers, i won’t deny that. I should get my pilot license. 70 000$ -anyone?
another swiss legend
back into the Alley and a pretty shitty Y
Luca had the brilliant idea to go back to the Miage glacier and ski the domenech couloir. A couloir barely visible on the picture which was intriguing to me.
It was skied a week before so we could ski it on sight and take the leisure to go from the refuge, have a nice late start, sweet skin to summit and drop in. Mika , a Finn came with us. Finns like to rush so i had to tell him to breath in breath out at time whilst waiting for luca dealing with heinous crusty traverses on split board .
To start from the top was brilliant. This couloir sorts of zig zags thru the rocks and i was in awe at every corners as we were diving deeper and deeper within the mountains. Rocky faces, spires, gullies: A gigantic gothic cathedral. The snow was variable but skiing almost became secondary or just a tool to access this corridor in a ludic fashion. Half way in the run i was amazed we were only half down. Once i could finally see the end, i was pleased. At The bottom, the release of focus felt like after sex and we all high fived each other squirting the jeez of stoke into the universe.
My plan was to link that to the black week end, a 3 days yearly bacchanal organized by black crows ski. I realized one party was 40 euros the other 30 not including the various party flavors. Pretty much costing my monthly salary. I decided to go ski instead. That is free. With Eva and my alaskan friend Gabe new in town. We thought after all that sun the y couloir on argentiere basin would be spring snow. Wrong, the snow barely transformed and it was a pretty shitty challenging descent. Once again in a gorgeous couloir with rock spires. Sometime slow skiing makes you look around and enjoy the place …
Back to grand montet, the black week end was still going. Finally A free party! I looked around see if i could score free Lsd or 2cb or something. But people were mostly charging on booze. Oh well! i stayed there enjoying some minimal tech house in a unusual environment until the dj started playing some poppy vocal house stuff which is when i bailed…
Couloirs Alley
Since i came down from the west face of mont blanc and ski thru this glacier (miage) i always wanted to come back. My idea was to get one of those domes tent and post up there for a few day skiing couloirs everyday. there is such a concentration of awesome couloirs…It never happened of course.The only people skiing regularly there is the italians crew. They scored some of the most beautiful couloirs around. (check snowhow.it) link. Until today when finns and scottish were stoked on skiing the uber classic Bonatti in one day. The conditions were top: amazing powder and long day.
Kirsti Lehtimäki hiking-1-2
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- Kirsti Lehtimäki
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- ross hewitt
some of the awesome couloirs which never get skied
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- ross hewitt
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- ross hewitt
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- ross hewitt
this and that.
Another few days off work in the land of nod. Nothing special, everything normal. The routine. I am pretty broke so no after skiing naked chicks dancing at the moo-bar or elevation …
storm powder day crowd.
niclas ferin
Sam Favret
sam favret
in the cosmique with Davide demasi
in the cosmique with Davide demasi
in the cosmique with Davide demasi
epaule du tacul with ross hewitt
epaule du tacul with ross hewitt
epaule du tacul with ross hewitt
a midwinter spleen
Things didnt assembled as planned for this season so i find myself with 5 € to spent this month and the few next. I am Stuck Working a night job only 3 nights a week. That means no coffee, no drugs, no booze… Sounds healthy and happy? Well, it is not ukraines or anything but all of a sudden i dont have any distractions. I see everything as it is- #no filters. And I have plenty of time to reminice…
I miss dwelling in my van . In the desert along the 395 desert rd. Driving up and down, choosing the best mountain. Skin up it. Lunch at the top and ski down. Drink a 6 pack . Find a sweet spot to park and watch the sunset. Go to bed . Repeat. Simple.
I miss the sierra rythme as well. In chamonix , it seems everyone is in a rush always. It is a perpetual rush hour. Everyone loves to be in the mountains but rushes to be back in town by 2pm. Faster, more runs, laps laps laps. There is the february crowd, the march crowd. sometime it is too much. More more more. Faster. Faster.
On the 395 desert road, you get to the base , skin up. Spent quality time at the top just chilling , eating drink a beer maybe. Enjoy time. Slow pace. Then ski. Get back to the car , drink a six pack…watch the sunset.make a fire. Sleep. repeat.
i miss the hot tubs
i miss the joie de vivre, the leisure class. the simplicity of it all.
rant- {In cham everyone is a prorider. You go ski your run fast, meet at the bar. Talk about the gear and your respectives hashtags. Go home , post a picture of that couloir, that radical rap…hashtag-me hashtag-me hashtag-me..thanks this thanks that oscar acceptence speech…all the identical hashtags “like” the picture. Instant gratification. Hashtag is happy.the cult of self. self importance. People are hashtags. Skiing is a vector. Greedy, vain and ambitious skiing personalities (riders,filmers,photographers,industry) are dominating the chamonix ski scene more and more. This is the celebration of Image over substance, of illusion over truth. This is not why I started skiing. In fact, this could be why I stop. or move…
Skiing lost its soul. Everybody is a prorider, a film maker , an actor , a model. Not for creativity, to share a vision or experience but to promote their hashtags. Skiers became live billboard.”The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle” . It feels like walking down hollywood boulevard at 2 am. Except on hollywood blvd there is always the dude with a bottle of wiskey in one hand a cig in the other, the pocket filled with all type of gear. Its comforting to know the dude is there….}-end of rant.
Anyway, tmrw is another perfect powder day…
Foehn week and the Föhnkrankheit
A Föhn or Foehn is a type of dry, warm, down-slope wind that occurs in the lee (downwind side) of a mountain range.
It is a rain shadow wind that results from the subsequent adiabatic warming of air that has dropped most of its moisture on windward slopes (see orographic lift). As a consequence of the different adiabatic lapse rates of moist and dry air, the air on the leeward slopes becomes warmer than equivalent elevations on the windward slopes. Föhn winds can raise temperatures by as much as 32 °C (58 °F)[1] in just a matter of hours.
Winds of this type are also called “snow-eaters” for their ability to make snow melt or sublimate rapidly. This snow-removing ability is caused not only by warmer temperatures, but also the low relative humidity of the air mass having been stripped of moisture by orographic precipitation coming over the mountain(s).
Föhn winds are notorious among mountaineers in the Alps, especially those climbing the Eiger, for whom the winds add further difficulty in ascending an already difficult peak.
Anecdotally, residents in areas of frequent föhn winds report illnesses ranging from migraines to psychosis. The first clinical review of these effects was published by the Austrian physician, Anton Czermak in the 19th century.[2] A study by the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München found that suicide and accidents increased by 10 percent during föhn winds in Central Europe.[citation needed] The causation of Föhnkrankheit (English: Föhn-sickness) is yet unproven.
la palud, italy, mikka merikanto
la palud italy
la palud, italy
minna riihimaki
luca pandolfi
la palud, italy, Nikolai Schirmer
la palud, italy, nathan wallace
nathan wallace
la palud italy, ross hewitt
la palud
Tof Henry, Ollie Herren, Seth Morrison
luca pandolfi, Davide Capozzi
nathan wallace , tom burt
nathan wallace , tom burt, luca pandolfi
Seth Morrison, Ollie Herren, glen Morden
Seth Morrison, Ollie Herren, Nathan Wallace
Fluid mag
Its a very nice French ski mag. that edition focuses on chamonix With a few sweet articles, one written by Antoine Grospiron about last year steep season, another about remy Lecluse and the “le zoo de chamonix…” written by young gun Arthur Ghilini painting a fun-razor edged description of the chamonix scenes!
And of course a few of my pictures 😉
Also Sam Favret portrait of a chamoniard!
not my picture just the cover
just another 50 and its perfect.
Again i went to the midi with no specific plans or partners. I ended up following Oli and Hugo. A sweet run down granver. james bonding it back to cham, That is sweet. Then a rond to les bossons exit which needs another 50cm layers of snow to be perfect …I could have done a third run, Im working tonight so i had to go take a nap.
Oli Herren
Hugo Harrisson
Hugo Harrisson
Hugo Harrisson
FWT
Powder day 2
7.30. Midi info at 11, gm 9.30, brevent 10…what should we do. fuck. what should we do. ok. chill out , drink coffee , wait for info. wait wait. maybe we should go to gm…ah crowded. brevent. too thin. wait. gm? . brevent . maybe GM. ok! grand fuckin montet. Gear in car,
Hugo Harrisson in car, Birthday oli herren in car. drive. meet with thor and nate. grand montet. boots on. walk . too crowded. boots off. Hugo , birthday oli in car. drive. brevent? midi? brevent ? midi? midi still closed. brevent then. drive. boots on. lift up. ski lowers. ok, pretty good. midi is open. boots off. Hugo , oli in car. drive. park. lift up. ski lowers . oh oh …good . wow. good. waoouh …very good…oh shit trees …trees ..cliffs. upside down . stuck ..jungle. bushwack , rock bed. back down. lift up.ski lowers. real good. rock bed. back home . go to work.
Again, skiing with oli and this time Hugo, nate tof and thor …they are too fast. no riding pictures. life style …AH!!
powder day
7am. I go thru my usual world wide web morning lurking. Nate sends ” ah? so? probably stay local today. ” Ok . GM then. Meeting point sole boot with seth, nicklas and olli, Nate. I will pick them up at 8.30. Sharp. I go thru my morning routine. head to my garage. The cham sud apt complex is a huge maze and i can’t find my fuckin car. Remember REMEMBER…maybe it is stolen or maybe brett took it to geneva. For 30 min all kind of fantasy fly around whilst i aimlessly walk around the maze. I can’t find it. Its a powder day, i will worry about it later. I forget my transceiver and go to sole boot, vaguely explain the situation. We end up in brevent which will not open until way later. Rosenbarger , clark, hagen are here and we all patiently wait at the bergerie restaurant listening to soft house music, drinking coffee, talking shit, dancing, enjoying the scenics…until its too long. The hagen crew split. we wait. 11 am. they open. we go up. “UP” looks wind effected with a reasonable amount of snow …Nate , olli, seth ski the ENSA-link. Me Nicklas and Daves’s crew will ski the next one over-link. It was good, i didn’t take any pictures. I was a little stressed out. I could not erase the picture i took of Martin widen’s last turn in that same zone a year ago, precisely. My camera is in my bag the all way. Rosenbarger triggers a few small slabs here and there on a over all pretty good powder run. Olli got sluffed out by incoming skiers in the ensa. Lost a few things on the way but ready for a run up the midi. I get my transceiver and glacier kit. Head to midi. Everything looks wind fucked , we head to the rond-link . After hearing olli and rosenbarger making that heinous scratchy sound at the top of the rond and the bottom not looking that much better, nicklas and myself opted for a soft exit down the gros rognon flat glacier hoping to find soft goods. it was all enjoyable despite being wind fucked. Back at moo bar with nachos, beer hearing all the epic stories of people getting stuck, sloughed out, or having to do 3 raps in a forrest run. Every one is back alive. Rosenbarger’s crew call me from the tunnel asking if my car keys are near my car. My car being at the tunnel and they need a ride back in town. I FOUND MY CAR. Great day.
2 days in la palud
So it was overcast, snowy at time, not very good for pictures and the skiers were too fast. I don’t have many riding pictures. i skied with seth morrison (who is becoming a local. ) , met another legend tom burt –link. And hang out/skied with a lot of good friends,old, new , locals and not. So, a lot of hanging out pictures. This is what we do mostly, hang out. we ski epic runs in between, but really, we hang out. Its awesome!
tof
glen
glen
tof
first powder day
It felt like the first powder day.The vibe. The aiguille du midi isn’t my own private resort anymore. The fixed ropes are up and today everybody is here. Not many tourists yet: All familiar faces, riders, friends. All Here for the “grande mess ” to celebrate skiing and enjoy powder snow. It is nice too. I like it. I was not with anyone nor did i have any plans. I’m just going with the flow. At top it was hectic, i hate those fixed ropes. I decided to follow the wallace prod crew. But ..err…seth morrison and Tof decided to straight line the entire run. It was cloudy, i couldn’t take any pictures. The second run was a white out, my goggles froze , i regained orientation somewhere alone in the middle of the valley.I then found thor. I took a bunch of shots whilst waiting.
seth morrison
dusan benes
Cedric Bernardini 