Just back from a great week at Lenzerheide in Switzerland. A picture paints a thousand words, so here’s a video – thanks for an awesome week to Jason at Snowmotions and Pete at Alpine Rides. Music is by The New Governors.
Now that’s the sort of movie I want to make. Love it.
Stuff I shot in 2001-2002 from pierretube on Vimeo.
It’s the end of the season here. The melt is kicking in, I’ve finished work, goodbyes are being said, grass is reappearing, things are changing. It’s a schizophrenic time of year; sad because the unique set of people and circumstances that made up this season will never be again, yet exciting, flowers start to bloom, people are off to new places, new adventures, new friends. It’s OK to be sad about times gone past, but in the words of Semisonic ‘Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end’.
Synchronicity or not, but I was chatting with a friend earlier today and she reminded me of another Robert Frost poem I love:
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
So today was an interesting day. My back was still causing me trouble, so I called in sick at work and came home early. My friend Sarah runs a brilliant english language podcast called The Daily English Show and she asked if I’d do an interview for it. I rocked up to Samurai bar in Hirafu and gave my little interview, which will be on the site shortly.
After my addition to my fifteen minutes of fame, I came back to Unitas and found a few of the boys setting up a little jib outside one of the houses, so I spent the afternoon shooting and am pretty pleased with the results!
Gorgeous blue sky day today, a real treat here in Niseko! I had my final lesson with Lisa today and had a great time, she’s skiing really well – I’ve really enjoyed skiing together and was sad to see her go.
As it was such a great day, we all sat outside and topped up our goggle tans while we ate lunch. Just a really nice spring vibe going on!
Didn’t have work after lunch, so hit the park with Matt – perfect conditions, soft snow, warm sunshine. There were quite a few good riders so I grabbed my camera and scoped out the kickers. Found myself a nice spot right by the lip and ended up laying down in the snow as guys whizzed past my ears.
Awesome day, topped off by the prospect of 2 days off. Unfortunately the forecast is for rain, but that means we’re gonna head out tonight for a few celebratory drinks instead!
Unitas dining hall, large can of Asahi in hand
It snowed today. A lot. All day. Man, I had to shovel my way out of the room this morning. Got to work early cos I was on set-up duty and spent the morning shovelling snow off the magic carpet, then Tom gave me an all-day private level 3 (translation: 7 hours of work, guests that can actually snowboard, generally a free lunch too). Hung around for half an hour waiting for them, freezing my knackers off, but then had a great day, trundling around, teaching them to ride powder and generally exploring. The snow in the trees was sooooooo deep, it was hip deep at least and face shots (when you spray yourself with snow) all round.
Although to be honest, it was bloody hard work and I was complaining about it earlier, but if I think about it, I’m still getting paid to ride and chat to people. I’m physically shattered today, but a bad day on the slopes is still better than a good day in the office!
Thursday 12th April, 23:51
On the floor, with a rather sore back
Just got back from a great 3 days up at Anne and Gordon’s cabin in Leadville. They’ve been sooooo wonderful to us and we’ll really miss them. Despite not knowing anything about us, they trusted their daughter (Amy’s) judgement and welcomed us with open arms, picked us up from the airport, helped us get set up and looked out for us every step of the way.
The cabin is a wonderful place, full of character and charm. It’s up at around 10,000ft so was covered in snow when we arrived. I nearly didn’t make it in my pitiful 2WD Subaru! It’s right in the middle of the woods, on the edge of the San Isabel National Forest, just on the outskirts of the once famous mining town of Leadville.
We spent most of the time enjoying great company and great food and just chillin’ out. But we also did a spot of snowshoeing and some snowmobiling. The latter was wicked fun, they’re pretty powerful beasts! 
Really enjoyed snowmobiling, until we managed to roll it and get totally stuck in snowdrifts! One time, we even had to call Gordon out to winch us to safety. I blame Jen’s inability to understand left and right!
Cos of where it is (and the fact that Anne and Gordon go out of their way to leave food out), the cabin is a mecca for all sorts of critters. We were lucky enough to see a cute pinemartin really close up as well as stellar jays and ground squirrels.
Anyways, had a fab time and it was really sad to say goodbye to Anne and Gordon after all they’ve done for us. I’ve put some pics up for you all to have a butcher’s at!
Friday 9th March 2007, 18:21
In the kitchen, listening to Colin and Tiktak chatting about the ski school gossip!
Had another few inches of snow yesterday – thought it was gonna be heavy, but this morning it turned out great! Had a fantastic bump clinic on skis and really loved it! Much easier than on a board.
We were well staffed today, so I backlined and went for a ride with Brandon. Finally made it up to the Vasquez Cirque (the bowl at the top of the mountain) – took a bit of time to get there, riding a few lifts and then hiking for about half an hour. Wasn’t a steep hike, but the wind was howling through! It was well worth it though as we rounded to the top and peered over the chutes. It was out of this world – we hiked round to about halfway and picked a gate to drop in. Fantastic, steep chutes – the snow was a bit scratchy, but we hit some great lines! Made it down the steep bit and then clipped a rock that was just below the snow, so ended up rag-dolling! Snow-sky-snow-sky-snow-sky, at least two cartwheels. Was alright though, just a little sore.
We dropped in here
After the chutes, we hit the trees and found a couple of sweet rock-drops – took a fair bit of hiking to reach them. The famous Colorado powder made life difficult for us as every step meant disappearing up to your shoulders in snow! Then we cruised down through the trees and rode back up the Eagle Wind chair. Fantastic, much more like TC and possibly the most fun riding I’ve had at Winter Park!
Met up with Jen in the afternoon and spend the afternoon cruising around through trees and jibbing. Fantastic fun, it’s really great that we can ride together now and I don’t have to help her down! So all in all a fantabulous day – topped off by my mate Ade coming out tonight. Can’t beat it!
Wednesday 7th March
At home
Having talked about it all season, Jen and I finally got round to visiting another resort. Given that it’s part of Intrawest and we can ride for free, we decided to head to Copper Mountain. The sun was shining, snow was great and Jen was riding really well. Had a fab time, exploring new terrain – planning on hitting Loveland next week!
3rd March 2007, 21.27
Sitting on the sofa in the lounge
So we’ve been doing a fair bit of filming on the slopes and I thought I’d put together a little clip of Jen’s riding around! She’s been doing fantastically, but I’ll say no more, see for yourself
Jen riding
PS Note that there’s no footage of me – everytime we try to film me, oh, the batteries have run out. Bloody typical.