Just Passing Thru » Skiing

35mm Installment #2: Freestyle.ch

Michael Clarke — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:28:10 +0000

Last September, I made a trip to Zurich, Switzerland to partake in Freestyle.ch. While I was rather unsuccessful in my competition endeavors, I managed to snap a few photos along the way.

Here’s an unknown skier navigating their way through the snow-covered, scaffolding structure of Freestyle.ch

The event venue was situated right on the shores of Lake Zurich. Here, a couple takes a break from the event to take in the view from a distant dock.

Apart from the event, I had some time to walk around the city and take in the sites. Here are two unknown city-goers, walking in unison.

I sat under this arch for some time, waiting for a passerby.

Freestyle.ch was an excellent time and I hope to attend the event once again this coming fall. Check back at justpassingthru.tv for some other photos I took during my trip to Icer Air in San Francisco.

Woodward at Copper

Michael Clarke — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 07:29:53 +0000

Last Monday, July 20th, we made a trip to Woodward at Copper to shoot the closing segment of the project. Our original plans consisted of an earlier trip to this summer ski destination. However, due to some conflicts, we had been unable to stop by and check out what Woodward had to offer. As a result, we pushed our visit to Copper back to late July; nearly one month after the end of the trip. This also coincided with Woodward’s grom week, which was sponsored by Jiberish.

Interior view of “The Barn” at Woodward…

Our trip began on Sunday, July 29th, when Pete Drago (one of the owners of Jiberish), picked me up from my home in Boulder, Colorado. Venturing up to the camp, we met with the kids who were attending Woodward this session (ages eight through ten).

Woodward’s staff led a stretch amongst the kids prior to letting them loose in the barn. Safety first here at Woodward…

This could quite possibly be one of the best bowl cuts I’ve ever witnessed…

Following the orientation session on Sunday night, we found our home for the night at “The Edge,” Copper’s staff housing. Here, Drago seems a little tuckered out after a fun filled evening of playing in the Barn at Woodward…

The following morning, we awoke to a beautiful day and sunny skies, something we aren’t typically used to here at Just Passing Thru…

We jumped in a bus and made our way up to the hill. Sadly, being the end of July, much of Copper’s snow had already melted, leaving the park severely diminished…

Here is Copper’s jump line as of July 20th. Had we been here a month earlier (as originally planned), we could have found a much more significant jump…

A view of the lower half of Copper’s run, late July. Blake gives a friendly wave…

Kimmel slides one of the down rails with his boots. One word: progression…

Here’s an example of some of the skiers attending grom week here at Woodward. The little guy is working that pizza stop…

Following our morning on snow, we ventured over to the barn to continue our day of play. Kimmel signs his life away prior to heading up to the trampolines…

While we arrived a little late to hit some of the larger features of the summer, we still had a great time throwing on our gear and making a few turns. Stay tuned to www.justpassingthru.tv for some more updates on the project.

Just Passing Thru Whistler

Michael Clarke — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:40:32 +0000

After two days of rainy Whistler weather, the clouds finally broke, and some rays of sunshine began to peek through the mass of gloom overhead. We immediately made our way to the base of Blackcomb mountain, anticipating the lengthy journey to Horstman Glacier and the site of Momentum Ski Camps.

As we began to gather our gear, we quickly realized that Keri’s ski boots were no longer in the car. Apparently I had unloaded them back during our stay at Da Hood House, forgetting to put them back in the Subaru. We quickly resolved the problem with a trip to the Salomon store at the base of Whistler mountain.

Rental boots and all, we shlepped our gear up three ski lifts and one bus ride to reach the top of Blackcomb mountain.

Keri and Charlie, one of our videographers during our stay in Whistler, check out the menu for our next few days of skiing. During this time, we had the pleasure of skiing with the likes of Corey Vanular, Mike Riddle, Justin Dorey, TJ Schiller, Peter Olenick, Matt Margets, Joe Schuster, Mike Henituk, and many others. One highlight being Vanular stomping his first double flatspin ever.

Pro skier: TJ Schiller…

Heading down the lift after a fun day of skiing with Henituk. Just hanging loose in Whis…

Whistler village looms below.

On our walk back to the day lots, we stopped by the dirt track to watch some biking. Unfortunately we didn’t see any tail whips…

Ryann, my girlfriend, jumped on a plane and met us while we were passing through Whistler.

One of the challenges for a Momentum Ski Camp scavenger hunt was to get a kiss from Meg Olenick. Meg loves kissing little boys…

Check back at justpassingthru.tv for further updates on our adventure back to Colorado and other info associated with Just Passing Thru.

Just Passing Thru Hood

Michael Clarke — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 08:11:53 +0000

Looks like we’re about done with passing through the Mt. Hood area. It certainly has been quite the mixture of weather as we’ve experienced everything from sun, rain, wind, and fog. Our first two days started off great with sunshine and some great skiing.

Here I am just passing through the Timeberline parking lot en route to a lovely day of skiing.

During our time here we skied with “bunch” pros. Here’s Mike Hornbeck ready to drop into the public park jump line.

The Flanagan family was on site with us for the week, making it happen on and off the slopes. Here are Seamus (age 12) and Paddy (age 10).

For the first part of our stay in the Hood area, we camped by the shores of Trillium Lake. Our neighbor, Jeff Java, was a professional musician and let us record a few tracks for our upcoming video release.

Keri is so into mustaches…

Unfortunately, on the third day of our adventures in Hood, our stay at the shores of Trillium Lake were interrupted by severe rains. We awoke to a leaking tent and a messy campsite. After a two hour clean up, we found ourselves at home inside the Cozy Cabin Cafe in Welches, Oregon for a day off. It was the perfect place to be with free public wi-fi, delicious mac-n-cheese, and other wholesome comfort food.

We quickly bunked up with the Level 1 Productions crew where we spent much of our time at Da Hood House.

Level 1’s Kyle Decker goes through some shots with Phil Casabon, Mike Hornbeck, and Henrik Harlaut.

We also made a pleasant trip to Windell’s to do some skating in Bob, which is the indoor training facility at the camp.

Henrik Harlaut skates the mini-ramp…

Mike Hornbeck drops ‘er down…

Kimmel and I get the shot of Level 1’s Freedle Coty. Notice the shotgun mic. I’m totally meant to be a grip…

Bob is home to indoor trampolines, skate parks, and foam pits. All around it’s just a pretty darn good time. In case you’re wondering what that floating grey ball is around the middle of the frame, that’s Tom Wallisch. Yep, the actual Tom Wallisch. He can double flip, no big.

Tomorrow morning we take Kimmel to the Portland Airport so he can catch his flight to the LA Film Festival. There he will be doing some video work on the red carpet and dealing with “bunch” celebs. Keri and I head up to Bainbridge Island for the night en route to the Whistler area and some more skiing. Stay tuned to justpassingthru.tv for more info on the trip…

Mt Hood

Blake Kimmel — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:15:25 +0000

We arrived at Mt Hood around 8:00PM on Tuesday evening, just as the last tendrils of daylight were leaving the Oregon pine sky line. Finding Seamus Flanagan and his family who were lingering around Government Camp, the squad headed down to find a camp site at Trillium Lake. There were plenty of sites available, and we were able to snag a nice one just 10 yards from the water. This would be our home for the next three days.
Wednesday we finally got to embrace real snow under our feet at Timberline Ski Resort. In the lift line we found a gaggle of shred bots, many affiliated with Jiberish, Salomon and Level 1. Windells brings up a plethora of top notch talent to coach campers stacking the hillside with the whos-who of ski and snowboard industry talent.
We spent the next two days chasing the likes of, Matt Walker, Liam Downey, Tom Wallisch, Tanner Rainville, Phil Casabon, Henrik Harlaut, Adam Delorme, Nick Martini, Sammy Carlson, TJ Schiller, Mike Hornbeck, Anna Segal, Corey Vanular and Jiberish snowboarder Justin Norman, to name a few. The high speed quad accessed public park was a morning favorite featuring 5 jumps in a row. In the afternoon, the newly installed Windells rope tow cycled shredders through a small rail and jump garden that was fun for the whole family.

Yesterday, after a short break from shredding, we met the Level 1 crew in the Timberline parking lot at 4:45PM to head up to the biggest jump on the glacier for their traditional Mt Hood spring shoot. A long, bumpy ride in an archaic snowcat, brought us back to the Windells lane which was now being whipped by high winds. Sun was come and go. Adam Delorme, who can never sit still, took some speed checks with Mike Hornbeck, trying to feel out the feature and make something happen. Delorme finally got the speed dialed and got off the ground, straight airing with perfect speed. With Hornbeck in tow and one more test run, the wind continued in its ferocity. Nothing was getting done on that mound in those conditions, so everyone packed it in and headed down.

This morning we awoke to heavy rain at our campsite, and fumbled to get our soggy gear into our car and leave. With bad weather up top, we didn’t bother skiing. Perhaps a day trip to Portland… Stay tuned.

A brush fire we stopped to watch in the Columbia River Valley on Tuesday.

Trying to look excited about a car ride.

Mt Hood in the distance.

Keri pulling a sneaker roadside before we set up a choice road shot with Mt Hood in the background.

Corey zoning into the camp fire at Trillium Lake. Keri and Paddy Flanagan playing the logic game “Rush Hour” at the table.

Ticket pass off, use your voice and holler loud!

Liam Downey and Tanner Rainville riding the Magic Mile lift.

Tom Wallisch riding a snow cat that is at least twice as old has him up to the Level 1 jump.

The Level 1 launcher with ’space ship’ clouds on the sky line.

Delorme and Hornbeck fuxin wit it.

Casabon, Clarke, Harlaut and Wallisch swinging in the wind.