unicorns dont fucking exist
For a ski bum photographer like me to go on a heli ski trip in the ski dream land haines alaska is a pure phantasy , a dream alike seeing unicorn shitting rainbows. That was until i met with christian cabanilla in chamonix ….after a few days showing him the best of chamonix , a road trip thru switzerland and a month worth of a platonic internet relationship he made it clear that i will enjoy the AK powder this year. Wether i want it or not. i am happily kidnapped. He hooked me up with seaba (south east alaska backcountry adventure) , organized my itinary , paid for my lodging and a month worth of food. When i arrived in juneau, we immediatly floated to haines where i met with the seaba crew and the fort seward lodge . I was thrilled and exited , everyone there is hearthy, genuine and are characters. The guides, the cooks , the owners every one is the embodiement of awesome. There are no plain , boring persona. The fort seward lodge is unique and it is clear that you are here to ski. You could easily compare seaba/ fort seward lodge with chamonix. It has the same vibe the same kind of people. A skier’s dream. The first 5 days were shitty weather :we went slednecking , met with awesome locals. Chris was sick for 2 days which i spent making a cattrack with nick trimble (one of the owner of seaba) for future catskiing. When the first clear day came up, i was hired by guests to take picture of their day. That day was my first day skiing AK, my eyes wide open looking at the endless snowporn in front of me. . The second day, cab and myself were given a seat with 2 AK locals who come and ski here frequently. They are good riders so the pace is fast and the runs bigger and steeper. I am skiing the dream: Haines, AK. Cab is so stoked to see me having a blast . living the dream. …. But. Unicorns dont exist and the fuckin ridge broke off. In 3 seconds i fell off from heaven thru the 300 meter asshole of hell and with no rainbows. Its like a nightmare, an out of body experience. I could see my body bounce off stuff and fall thru darkness. Painless but frightening. Cab is dead. And im here in haines ak, in his house , in his bed, in the middle of his clothes . Broken up, heart broken and completly lost. I was not expecting a 7 days trip in haines. it was more a month worth of skiing a safer-than-cham snow heaven . but destiny decided otherwise i guess, the bitch. why so short? why chris?. WHY now?
The seaba crew and guests helped me a lot recovering, trying to see the light. I m poping oxy like candies. Drinking beers smoking. Trying to figure out what to do, what to think, what to understand. What did i learn from cab’s death, from that fuckin accident. Nothing really. Or nothing i didnt know already. I will go back to haines . To the fort seward lodge skiing with seaba. (well! without cab’s loving generosity it might just stay a dream. )
Time will take care of the my loss: Chris Cabanilla. my beloved friend. my brother in arms. it’s been way to short, i had important stuff to tell you . you had to show me your playground. fuck. it sucks. rest in peace.i am swimming in a dark cloud.
For now, i am trying to heal and I cant wait to get back on my skis and honor Chris Canabilla with skiing the rad and fast.
here are some pictures. unfortunately, i only had 2 days riding and i thought i had a months shooting lifestyle…so its limited to a few runs…
FLOATING FROM JUNEAU TO HAINES
christian cabanilla. floating juneau haines alaska
Christian Cabanilla floating -juneau-haines.
stylish cabanilla and his truck and sled.
David Sundnas
David Sundnas
David Sundnas
tom Konop
christian cabanilla
christian cabanilla
christian cabanilla
tom wayes
tom konop
tom wayes
tom wayes
christian cabanilla
christian cabanilla
christian cabanilla
christian cabanilla
christian cabanilla
this is the very last picture of Christian Cabanilla. we are both so stoked , this run looks sicko. we are going to get wasted tonight. 10 seconds later.game over.
what we fell down
heli ski with last frontier-bell2 lodge /elemental adventure . BC
Maybe some day i will be a rich photographer i will privatize bell2 for a shredced’s invitational. All my friends-superhero-riders /skibums will come in to ski hard and party like animals. like a real ski debaucherie of sort with DJ-turbo sound and shit. It is a perfect setting, everything is there: pillows line, giant mushrooms, endless ridge lines, couloirs, faces, manucured forrest, hot tub, party igloo, heli hot springs, lodge with 3 choppers on the parking, booze….drugs?…lost on a forrested higways miiiiiles -far far away from civilization. Ski all day howl all night. Perfect.
I didnt get any sunny days whilst there, yet i skied everyday …
The staff at last frontier heliskiing is awesome, from Joss giving a perfect race tune to your skis to the hot bartenders , the cooks making amazing food, the heli pilots fast and smooth, Jamie Whiteside the guide who plays guitar ,sings song and is just awesome, Michael Brackenhofer the Austrian head guide who will show you how to ski with good style or Mike Gajda who is cutting trees ( sorry weeds) on the ski runs so it skis better….
I was hired by dmitri volkov as his personal photographer, on the first 2 days his skiing was sloppy, i was getting very annoyed. By the 3 rd day his turns were getting sharper and his style was improving. His skiing was much better. if you want to improve your skiing you can hire me, i am pretty affordable…
Until then, here are some pictures. Most of which of helicopters my new found passion. Those things are sick!
La Palud.
2 laps on a perfect marbree with good people was a great way to end my winter13 part 1. part 2 will be heli skiing in canada and then… …Haines . Not much hiking/booting so far or in the next future aside from coke chute (east side cali) in november!!!! It feels OK! Not many ski pictures today. too cold-too fast and it is february the crowd is arriving, they are here….!
A good day in la palud starts with coffee
Seth Morrison is among us
This is Luca pandolfi and Davide Capozzi doing the avalanche control
Seth enjoying his first Marbree
A good day in la palud always ends with pasta under the sun or a giant pizza in town. red wine-beer -coffee and cigs…optional!
and this is Manu sporting some Gucci
Turn around part 2
Again today we had a dreamy objective: a nice Italian sunny high alpine scramble to the top of a wonderful snowy face. Our dream fell apart when we met in la palud with local Davide Capozzi and Fransesco who gave us a pretty grim picture of what went on here the last few days/hours…
At the summit , it was obvious we had to stick around the “safer resort”. Of course “safer” here is all relative; once here you are clearly attracted to “maybe” not so safe ground..we found good snow.
weather change
Due to high wind , we had to cancel our tour into the wild and big mountains and go for smaller but fun rollers. Unfortunately , it got hot and windy and les posettes powder heaven was more of a death trap. We (3 italian stallions, 3 hot chicks super riders and myself the hedonist…) got out of there safe we all enjoyed coffee, packed in my car (7 in the car) and skied le chapeau in variable conditions but safer. It might be the end of ultra powdery winter 2013 part 1. And we may start booting up and start getting edgy. I would love that before i fly to more arctic destinations…There wasnt much photo opportunities. i just took a few snapshot…
are you guys bored yet? of endless powder runs pictures? because …ha…i am not.
Those pictures were taken in the cosmique and rond.
freeride world tour Chamonix
the freeride world tour. Not exactly scott schmitt or glen plake definition of “ski libre” but more of a stunt show…really (really) strong athletes are throwing their bodies down a slope at mac2, no matter what the snow is and huck huge cliffs , trying to make it look good and fluid. Very hard and crazy!
Given the overly sponsored nature of the show, there were about 100 photographers sporting their newly high tech toys….so i didnt really try to take any pictures. i just snapped a few stolen shots.
girls peiing
Oakley and Ralph sharing a croissant !
An awkard picture of Drew Tabke. The man himself , the winner. He just flew down. tight and strong.
those are poles made by Oakley white-allen. I want those.
Drew Tabke. winner.
Doods Charlet, local hero. winner.
of the aiguille verte.
so this is what “freerider males” are summed up with: If you want freeriders males to come to your event, just throw average looking chicks inside a plastic bubble (a condom of sort?) , wearing trashy bikinis and have them dance on tacky techno…et voila! you will have a hord of testost-urinaited pigs drinking your tasteless beer and buying whatever shit you sell them! fail!…
to end this with beauty
Heli ski in a blizzard
Today Blizzard skis kept a seat for me in their Heli. as a photographer. I like that !
porn
One of those days where you expect the angry inch and you get overhead blower. top to bottom. We did 3 runs.with Mina Riihimaki, Andreas Fransson, David rosenbarger and Oli Herren . This is the first lap. we did 3.
andreas fransson, david rosenbarger, oli herrer, mina riihimaki
vallee blanche
chamonix, france
grand enver
grand enver
chamonix, france
valley blanche
grand enver
valley blanche
swiss-zerland with cab and a case of the Saturday
so My new best friend Christian Cabanilla (a bad ass heli pilot/guide in alaska..) told me he had a friend to visit in the swiss land (who happen to be Ueli Kestenholz (multi olympic medalist-woldcup winner -xgames winer.–and so on ..skier snowboarder and speed rider …google him guys it is worth it) ) most importantly a very down to earth soul rider and early bird ripper in alaksa))))) anyways…we stayed at his house and had a wonderful time with his very nice family (including a wife who is a bad ass base jumper) . we didnt get to ski as the weather was not friendly . Me and chris went on a drinking/smoking binje getting lost in interlaken-grindelwald. After being stuck in the road closure at col des montet for a few hours we decided it was time for more intoxication at the moo-fy in cham…next waking up was at the the top of the midi ridge trying to not fall down the north face due to lack of brain coordination. It is saturday morning and the light is magic. My brain cant figure out my camera. sucky. … I met with Nathan wallace production and a few friends and had 2 laps of gorgeous powder skiing…That is it… here bellow are a few shots but i mean…it is saturday….i am off. A video is on the way from wallace prod. better.
christian cabanilla
Midi opening day with ben briggs and christian cabanilla
It is always good to have someone under 25 years old you can send first in that situation…Ben Briggs was the kid today although …I had to clean the south ridge myself. And you always need a virgin , It was Chris Cabanilla first midi run, so… … Its good and wild out there!
ps: i posted a lot of pictures, not because they are good (it was white out) but so you can assess the amount of snow around…
Alone in the bin with christian cabanilla and ben briggs
send the kids first
and the virgin: Christian cabanilla looking good.
Ben Briggs
christian cabanilla raping
christian cabanilla
christian cabanilla
ThE DaY THe WoRLD ENDED 21/12/13—with david rosenbarger-luca pandolfi and christian cabanilla
david rosenbarger
luca pandolfi
christian cabanilla
