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

Whistler Blackcomb Deep Winter 2012 is a post from: Nick Vail Photography

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.

Heli Skiing on Spearhead is a post from: Nick Vail Photography

One day me and my friend Tristan went out looking to get some photos on Whistler just for a little fun.

I had a spot in mind and so did Tristan, so we strapped in at the top of Whistler. We headed down a back country area on the mountain called International trees. The name was adopted by a lot of locals who frequent the gladed area on the mountain.

Tristan had a drop that he’d been to before that he thought he could find if we hiked into International Trees.

This was my first time hiking this area of the mountain and frankly never even heard about it before. But the fresh un-tracked snow on a day like today when there was no fresh lines to be found anywhere else was very welcoming.

After a little hike and zig zagging threw trees we found the spot and set up shop.

I was able to capture a fun drop shot of Tristan and a pow slash photo in the same area before we crossed that spot off our list and headed over to harmony chair for some more lines.

When we arrived on top of the ridge in Harmony called Gun Barrels which is a nice spot with a lot of pillow drops funnelling into the base of harmony chair. This is when we realized that the rest of the mountain didn’t really have much fresh snow on it and all the pillow drops where pretty big for the amount of hard packed landings that it had to offer.

Tristan did manage to scope out one line that he liked and I quickly set up my angle and in no time Tristan dropped in to stomp a nice pillow line in Harmony’s Gun barrels.

Tristan in Whistlers International Tree’s is a post from: Nick Vail Photography

A couple of my good snowboard friends approached me with a jib idea that they had stashed away and wanted to get some photos of to send to their sponsors.

So one day we went and checked out the spot which looked like the type of shoot that was right up my alley.

I love shooting old industrial stuff and this Jib was an old Snow cat that these guys wanted to do a snowboard stall on.

I decided it would be a good thing to shoot at around dusk to get the sunset like effect in the photos.

So one day we go up to the spot and start building a snow quarter pipe which would allow them to stall the top of the snow cat.

As we where setting up Co decided to start building his own line which he thought would work out a lot better. Co had his eyes on doing a wall ride across the front window of the snow machine.

Everyone thought he was nuts but it was taking forever to build the quarter pipe due to the quality of the snow we had.

It took basically no time for Co to build a little jump into the wall ride so it was the obvious choice for him to drop in first.

Once Co gave himself the OK to drop into this line, I set up all my flashes for his first attempt at what everyone else thought would be disaster.

Luckily for Co one of our friends who worked at Whistler Auto Glass was also on the same train of thought that the glass could withstand the impact of a snowboard skimming across the wind shield. Althought everyone still watched in Horror.

Co this strapped into the drop in section and counts down his drop in…

Whammy, Co slides across the glass and stomps the landing first try with no problem at all.

This put a spark into everyone else eyes and before you knew it they where all rushing up to the drop in spot to try it out.

Everyone had a few tries and landed smoothly when Co decided to step it up another notch. He reaches into his bag-o-tricks and drops into the line that at this point he’d hit a few times before.

Co lands a solid wall ride to 180 out, which turned into one of my favorite shots of the night.

This shoot was a lot of fun and we ended up not damaging the snow cat at all (Phew) and the guys had another thing to check off their lists.

Whistler Snow Cat Jib is a post from: Nick Vail Photography

On another beautiful day in Whistler Evan and I set out on the back side of Whistler to hit a nice jump that him and Phil built a few days prior.

On our way down to the jump I was able to get some fun shots of Evan doing a pow slash into a bunch of snow covered trees. The snow is so amazing on these days.

Evans powder slash kicked up a lot of snow and formed a cool cloud behind him as he rode threw it.

A little further down the mountain I spotted some more snow covered trees that I thought would make a fun photo if Evan Ollied over them. Its not the most technical trick or huge drop but the landscape down in Cake howl that day was just so beautiful It was hard not to take a photo that looked like you wish you where there.

When we finally got down to the jump it only needed a little touch up and the jumping began.

I don’t know what was up today but Evan was stealing the show; he was just on his game I guess. Evan drops in with a huge back side 360 melon grab which just looked so stylish.

He stomped 2 or 3 of them and they looked gold. Someone was definitely eating their Wheaties for breakfast.

After the jump session on the back side of Whistler we had the fun job of hiking back to the peak of Whistler so we could get back on the cat tracks which take us back to the base of the mountain.

It’s not all perks when your In the back country riding fresh powder.

Cake Hole Back country jump is a post from: Nick Vail Photography

One day Phil, Evan and I went on a mission to find some features to ride on Blackcomb. It had recently snowed so we wanted to get some pictures riding some fresh powder.

After loading crystal chair we traversed and found a nice little drop gap over a traverse line that some skiers where using. Phil hikes up to the top and checks it out. He had to plan where he wanted to land and judge the speed required for the gap.

In due time Phil clears out a little area to strap into his board and gets ready to drop in. Phil drops in with a nice little grab and clears the gap to a nice soft powder landing with ease.

Evan follows up with the same gap, but a slightly different line to ensure that he doesn’t land in the same spot as Phil. Its important on drops like these to ensure that you are landing somewhere with no bomb howls or tracks because you want the snow to absorb all of the shock from the landing. Its like jumping off a 3 story building into a dumpster full of fluffy pillows.

After the drop we headed into the crystal trees for some fresh pow turns and some fun natural features to float off of.

About half way down the glades trail we found a nice little pillow line that Evan wanted to ride. It was a perfect little pillow line straight threw a section of trees and Evan floated down the pillows with so much ease.

This completed another fun day riding powder on Whistler Blackcomb.

Blackcombs Crystal Trees is a post from: Nick Vail Photography

Not too long ago a bunch of friends and I all decided that we wanted to do a heli drop before the end of the season. We all couldn’t afford to pay $1000 for a day of heli boarding with some of the other heli companies, so we decided to take a different route.

We had heard from some friends that Blackcomb Heli offered single heli drops at the top of Rainbow mountain for $420. Found a group of 6 friends together and set a date to drop into some sick back country  lines on Rainbow Mountain.

When the day came we all packed our bags for a day in the back country and drove off to the heli pad for 8am to start off the sunny day of back country adventures.

When we all boarded the heli everyone was so pumped. It was everyone first heli ride (besides Nev who rode in one for an Mountain Dew ad a few years prior in New Zealand). so we where just ecstatic.

On our way up to the mountain the pilot asked us where we wanted to get dropped off at, and Nev picked a great peak to start off at.

Once the chopper landed we all got out and grabbed our boards for a day of riding shouts and hitting back country jumps.

Right away we rode a steep pow section and found an awesome wind lip to ride. At this time in the morning the skiers where blue and the sun was shinning. So I had the camera ready in hand and the guys started dropping in.

Nev was the first one to gini pig the jump and landed a solid 540 grab to the freshest back country pow landing and the rest of the guys followed suit.

As the day progressed we continued down the mountain doing pow slashes and boarding down big powder slopes until we found a nice cornus drop that Nev wanted to check out.

The cornus was pretty huge so it took awhile for everyone to hike up to the top and take a look. While everyone was hiking the cornus Simon was hiking his own line.

Simon spotted a cool icy slope that he could drop into and do some pow slashes.

Nev finished hiking up to the top of the cornus and it looked a lot bigger from the top. He decided to take a smaller line on the way down that originally anticipated.

Once Simon reached the top of his hike on top of some icy looking cliffs  he was pumped to drop in. Simon dropped a small section into a high speed pow slash down the untouched slope of powder.

With out wasting any time once Simon finished his line we where on the move again to find the next spot to ride.

After a few more steep slopes we found a nice spot to build a jump.

It took everyone a little under an hour to build the jump, and we jumped right into a session the back country booter.

By this time it had clouded over but everyone was still excited that they where in the back country hitting jumps that it didn’t phase us.

I believe Nev was the first one to hit this jump with some sort of corked rotation 900 and then moved into some flipping combination.

Ryan was trying some huge grab 180 tricks while Simon’s legs couldn’t handle the steep take off which resulted in him flying off the jump and landing flat on his face (making a nice big howl in the landing).

After the jump session was finished we had to start moving because we had to get off this mountain before it got dark.

One dis advantage of a Heli drop is that they drop you off at the top of the mountain and you have to find your way off the mountain.

We had already planned how to get off the mountain the previous night. It was a pretty simple route, all we had to do was follow the valley that the mountain funnels into and we would end up in Alpine community and not too far from Meadow Park.

The problem was our route out required about an 1 and a 1/2 hours of hiking and skating out before we where able to strap in at the cat track which allowed us to snowboard for the last 7km of the mountain which fed us out to the road in Alpine.

When we where back on the road all we had to do was take a short hike to Meadow Park where we had left a truck to transport us back home.

It was a beautiful day in the back country.

Blackcomb Heli Drop on Rainbow Mountain is a post from: Nick Vail Photography

I am currently in Argentina shooting photos for a Ski and Snowboard camp (South America Snow Sessions) at Cerro Catedral in Bariloche, Argentina. I have currently been in the country for 10 days and so far its been such an amazing experience.

Argentina's Amazing Alpine

This trip is my first international trip, first time leaving North America and I arrived in Argentina at the right time. Several days before I arrived the mountain Cerro Catedral had been closed for several days due to it receiving over 4 meters of snow.

3 jumps in Lower Nubase, 2 of which riders from SASS built

The day I arrived in Bariloche the mountain was open but with majority of the mountain being closed because the snow was so deep it buried many of the mountains snow cats.

Brendan Drury, Andrew Burns and Craig Beaulieu building a backcountry jump

My first day on the mountain was the first day they opened the entire mountain and not only was there fresh snow everywhere it was also a sunny day with blue skies. I couldn’t have asked for better luck.

Craig Beaulieu and Andrew Burns scoping a spot for a new jump

SASS is a snowboard camp that brings people from almost anywhere (mainly Canada and the United States, although there’s a couple here from the Middle East) to Argentina to ride ski and snowboard and to get coaching from professional ski and snowboarders.

Hiking into the back country for some fresh powder

So far I’ve been able to hand out with a lot of friends from Whistler who are coaching here t SASS along with a lot of new skiers and snowboarders from the East and West coasts of the United States.

The hike from the chair lift to the back country of Cerro Catedral

With all the fresh so we’ve had so far a lot of the riders, coaches and I have built severl jumps in more of the back country areas in the mountains to ride and shoot photos on. The first day I arrived I was able to shoot a nice step down with Andrew Burns and Craig Beaulieu which they build the previous day.

Some beautiful views in Bariloche

There’s nothing like going from the heat of the summer in Whistler, traveling for 2 days straight and jumping into the winter climate and shooting snowboarding photos, literately days after I had been on the beaches of Tofino, B.C.

Argentina Mountains

I have been very busy riding and shooting photos on the mountain every day I have been in Argentina but I was able to take a day off for some down time and get some things done. Expect to see some more updates hopefully before I leave Argentina (pending on our horrible internet connections), if not there will be many updates of my travels when I arrive back in Whistler.

The winding road to the base of the mountain

Craig Beaulieu at the top of the mountain

Lucas jaming to hit music at the top of Condor 3

Craig Beaulieu, Vera Janssen, Andrew Burns and Wiley Tesseo at the end of the day.

Another beautiful landscape in Argentina

Burns hitting a fun backcountry line

Vera doing some back country turns

A back country thumbs up

Robin doing some back country turns

South America Snow Sessions is a post from: Nick Vail Photography

Over the summer here in Whistler we where blessed with a lot of sun and very little rain which is great for the out door sports that I enjoy.

Dave getting stylish - Whistler Skate Park Snake Run

One nice day in August we had a big session at the Whistler skate park and for the most part we had it all to our selves. Luke showed up and he started doing his usual tricks on the butterfly hip, he sent some nice 270′s over it.

Luke 270's up 28 shots - Whistler Skate Park Snake Run

Once Luke saw the photo I took of his 270 he was stoked to do a foot jam out of the steep 9ft bowl. There’s little room for error when your doing stalls on the coping of these banks, but Luke pulls it off with little effort.

Luke Foot jam the 9ft section of the snake run - Whistler Skate Park Snake Run

As the session was going on I managed to grab a frame of Ryan gaping the butterfly hip quickly followed by Luke airing huge over butterfly throwing an un-turn-down.

Luke doing an un-turn down over butterfly - Whistler Skate Park Snake Run

After the rider’s where done hitting butterfly hip Luke decided to pull some 360′s over the middle hip in the snake run, so I grabbed my gear and set up in that section of the bowl. Quickly as I was setting up Dave jumped the section that Luke wanted to 360′s so I was able to grab a test shot of Dave to check my settings.

Dave 360's out of Slayer - Whistler Skate Park Snake Run

When I saw the shot of Dave I gave Luke the go ahead on the 360 and in no time he came soaring into the bowl hitting butterfly to get enough speed to throw his step-up 360 in the snake run. Pretty stoked when I get to shoot new angles on different parts of the skate park that don’t get ridden as much i.e butterfly hip.

Bruno doing a Turn down on Butterfly hip - Whistler Skate Park Snake Run

By the time I showed Luke the snap of his 360 Bruno showed up and I was able to rotate my flashes around and grab a shot of him doing a Turn-down on butterfly while Dave was prepping a 360 out of slayer over a construction pylon that he’d found.

Luke 360's out of slayer - Whistler Snake Run

Once Dave started doing some air’s over the pylon I knew I had to get in there and set up some flashes to get the right amount of light into that one area of the skate park. I didn’t take long to get some fill light set up on the area where the pylon was and in no time everyone started to jump higher over the cone than everyone else.

Ryan 180's out of Slayer - Whistler Skate Park Snake Run

All in all it was one of the best day’s shooting at the skate park all summer, and I’m glad I was able to get out there and capture some photos.

Dave doing a turn down over butterfly - Whistler Skate Park Snake Run

Whistler Snake Run is a post from: Nick Vail Photography

There’s a lot to do in Whistler in the summer on your bikes. The Mountain offers Mountain bikers a while variety of downhill and freeride trails, not to mention several smaller parts for beginners to try riding the ladder bridges and teeter totters that you see the pros riding in the movies.

Nick 180 one handed bar turn - Whistler Street BMX

If you don’t Mountain bike you can also enjoy the skate park on your BMX or Skate board. But when you feel like a change you can always hit the streets and doing some BMX riding or skate boarding on some more challenging features.

Dave 180 over a hand rail - Whistler Street BMX

One day last summer, Dave, Nick, Devon and I hit the streets of the Upper Village for an afternoon of riding and having fun.

Devon grinding down the hand rail - Whistler Street BMX

Nick doing an Up grind on a yellow barricade - Whistler Street BMX

Dave manualing the long ledge to tuck no hander out - Whistler Street BMX

Nick doing a wall ride over smokers ash tray - Whistler Street BMX

Nick doing a wall ride at the fairmont - Whistler Street BMX

Dave gapping onto the tennis court - Whistler Street BMX

Dave rail dancing - Whistler Street BMX

Devon Ice picking down a rail - Whistler Street BMX

Whistler Street BMX is a post from: Nick Vail Photography