by Nick Vail on January 16, 2012
Every winter Whistler Blackcomb hosts a Photographer photo challenge. The photo challenge has 6 photographers who have 72hrs to shoot photos on Whistler Blackcomb and put it together in a 3-5 minute slide show.
This year I was lucky enough to assist snowboard photographer Jussi Grznar who was competing in the challenge. It was an intense 72hrs morning day and night, setting up photo shoots. Little sleep was had by anyone in the crew. But Jussi was able to edit and deliver his slide show before the deadline.
The show is sold out every year and this year Jussi placed in 2nd along side with Reuben Krabbe 3rd place and Robin Oneill First place.
I have some photos online from the event over at push.ca in Natalie Langmann‘s article about the whole event.
Click here to read Natalie’s article at Push.ca
by Nick Vail on March 21, 2011
Not too long ago I was able to partake in a day of Heli Boarding with Whistler Heli up on Spearhead Mountain.
Spearhead is a section of mountains located behind Blackcomb mountain. It is a popular spot for Whistler locals to hike or telemark to.
When I heard that I had the chance to spend a day heli boarding with these guys I immediately grabbed my point and shoot Canon G9 and my avy beacon and rushed into the village to meet up with the other group.
Whistler Heli does an amazing job at briefing everyone on how to be Avalanche smart and inform you what to do if an avalanche happens.
After the intro to the heli gear and how to’s we all hopped in a bus to transport us to the heli launch pad.
When we arrived at the launch pad the heli crew and guides told us about where were going to be heli boarding and did a little safety recap on what to do and what not to do including when loading and unloading the helicopter.
So we quickly loaded the helicopter to start out day of heli runs on a beautiful blue bird day.
It didn’t take us too long to reach spearhead and before we knew it we where on top of a peak ready to drop into some fresh powder and ride some amazing mountain lines.
Riding powder all day can get pretty tiring so after 2-3 heli runs we where greeted by the heli crew at the bottom of one of our runs with a complimentary lunch with sandwiches and hot drink. A nice treat!
The guides where excellent with keeping the groups together and making sure the photographer on site was able to take some photos of every skier and snowboarder in the groups while they/we where having the time of our lives.
After about 6 heli runs everyone was blown away with the terrain, how the guides worked and the fact that it was such a beautiful sunny day to top it all off!
I was exceptionally excited that I could take part in a heli trip and was able to capture a lot of amazing back country photos of the whole experience.
