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I was lucky enough to be invited to ski in the Salt Lake Shootout photo contest this year.  Eight photographers and 20 athletes battle it out for for the best shots of the contest.  With heavy hitters like Julian Carr and Cody Barnhill throwing down the contest is sure to produce some sick images.  I was assigned to ski at Brighton the first two days.

Day one I shot with Erlend Haugen, a norwegian photographer that is currently living in Chamonix,  France and Jesse Bryan a strong alpine skier from Snowbird. We had a super bluebird day in the backcountry surrounding Brighton.  Erlend is a great photographer and was ridiculously easy to work.  Good people and good skiing generally equals a great day and today was no exception. We skied some nice sun/shade pow lines off of Mount Tuscarora and then moved to a zone beneath Mount Tuscarora to hit some cliffs.  Jesse and I each hit some smallish (under 30) cliffs.  Finally as the light changed we moved to the northwest face of Millicent peak and got some nice steep pow shots.  Great day of shooting.

Day two I shot with Kevin Winzler a photographer from Salt Lake and Jason West, a good friend and an alpine/tele shredder(today he was on alpine gear, sell-out!). It was snowing all day so we had to work to get some shots with the lack of light.  Luckily Kevin is a master of lighting and showed up with a full arsenal of flashes and strobes. First we skied some pow off of pioneer ridge.  We found a small cliff to session and Kevin set the his flashes.

JW guinea pigs it.  While this cliff is not very big,  Jason made it a much larger air, landing well out of the picture.  Jason gave the landing two thumbs up so I could help but front flip it.  Jason and I each hit the cliff twice until there were no soft landings left and then moved on.  Next we moved back inbounds and Kevin broke out the strobes.

Kevin shooting,  Jason getting powlicious under the strobe.

We ended up shooting this zone until dark.  Kevin got some really nice shots,  you can check them out HERE, they are the shots around the rocks that look like night or evening light.  Long day of storm riding and working to find cool shots with two rad guys.  Kevin is a really amazing photographer and I was lucky to get paired with him for two days!  Next, two days at Alta, one with Kevin and one with Liam Doran. Oh yeah, and a bunch more snow…

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It has been dumping all week and what and exciting week it has been.  Faceshots, avalanches, closed roads, the Outdoor Retailer…wow what a week.  Wednesday I went out with the PW crew to film for the first real pow day of the year.  We were having a great day until the Noah was caught in a pretty big avalanche while skinning across a slope that I had crossed just moments earlier.  Noah went for a 300-400 foot ride but was miraculously unharmed and on top. It was big time lesson and serious wake up call for us all. Here is a photo I took of the crown.

So the I spent the next two days shredding around Alta, first with Jay Beyer shooting some stills and then with my friends from Colorado, Will Cardamone,  Chris Erickson and Jake Sakson.  It was a insanely fun to shred around with the CO rippers on an epic day at Alta.   They were just as psyched as I was to be getting some faceshots. Today we headed back in to the backcountry to shoot some amazing powder with Will, Chris, the PW crew and photographer Jeremiah Watt.  I forgot my camera so I had to resort to the cell phone to shoot some photos so forgive me for the low quality…

Powder Paparazzi

Where’s Will?  There is a skier in there somewhere.

Will with a face full of powder.

Chris getting a face full of powder while Jonah captures it.

Chris in the pretty colors pulling up to catch his breath after nearly choking himself on snow!

Looks like more snow is on the way!

Sorry classic rockers this is not another ode to your all time favorite Zeppelin song.

My friend Travis is in town and looking to get his ice climbing fix.  The skiing conditions are less than ideal currently so I am psyched to do some ice climbing with Travis.  The other day we headed down to Provo Canyon to get on the classic Stairway to Heaven.

Travis on the approach early in the morning. Currently there are five pitches of ice on Stairway. The first pitch is obscured by the trees in this photo.  We hiked around the first pitch since both of us had climbed it multiple times and there were a couple of groups top-roping there.

The second pitch.

I tend to get sucked into skiing powder when it is there and last season it seemed to be there all the time.  So I had not climbed ice in over a year. The second pitch looked nice and thick so I took the lead.  I was definitely a bit rusty but made it through unscathed except for a mega pump.  Travis quickly followed and took the lead up the third pitch.

Travis starts up the third pitch.

Travis wandering up the third pitch.

I led the short but steep fourth pitch, which led up to the base of the fifth and final pitch.  The last pitch is a beautiful steep pillar.

Travis buckling up for the last pitch.

Travis in the thick of it.

A couple of rappels later we were down safely enjoying some salami and cheese.

mmm, salami!

All in all it was a super fun day in the mountains that definitely reignited my love of ice climbing, which is good because it does not look like it is going to snow anytime soon.

I am back from North Carolina.  We are done building this…

No this is not some kind of modern art. It is a free-standing boulder for a climbing gym in North Carolina.

Just slap some holds on there and climb it!

It wasn’t all work. I was lucky to fly out early and climb in Red River Gorge, Kentucky and Looking Glass, North Carolina with Travis.  Didn’t take many pics because there was only two of us.  It is a little difficult to give a good belay and take good pictures simultaneously. Here are a few pics that really do not tell the story of how awesome these two climbing areas are.

Travis on Banshee. Notice the water streaks in the upper left corner. One of the cool things about Red River is there is so much steep climbing that you can climb even in the pouring rain. Like this day.

Can you say no hands rest! Travis hanging out in a very large hueco.

Yours truly, getting psyched for the awesome granite dihedral above. Looking Glass, NC. Photo:Travis Kemp

Blue Ridge Mountains, North Carolina

It was  cool to explore the east a bit but, I am really psyched to be back in Utah to ski…