The Meeting

Just returned from The Meeting in Aspen this past weekend and it was everything we expect that weekend to be…

Amazing fall scenery in Aspen, fun parties, insightful discussions, productive meetings, and something really really fun courtesy of by Red Bull.

The fall scenery was in full effect with snow dusting the peaks and leaves in full fall display and we got to enjoy it with throttles pinned up the face of Ajax first thing after arriving on Friday. It’s a fun feeling racing around a mountain that you know so well in the summer. Looking at some of the runs it’s amazing that we can even ski them in the winter much less charge them the way we do… peering down S1 feels like you’re going to fall straight down to Spar.

Obviously a major topic of discussion was the Warren Miller Entertainment/Level1 Productions situation. Avoiding too much comment on the issue here I’ll just say that most of the industry was in agreement that there are probably better ways for WME to be spending time and money.

Saturday began with an American Supercamp session thanks to Red Bull where we got a chance to rip around a mini track and work on our moto fundamentals. Directly following a leg burning 100,002 laps on the Supercamp course at the bottom of Buttermilk we headed straight through town and up Smugglers passing dozens of nannies pushing strollers, house wives with lap dogs, hikers with ski poles, and bikers in spandex. The views were epic and the riding was fast and fun.

Straight off the trail we headed back to Buttermilk for session #2 and #3 of the meeting where we discussed the state of freeski competition and the AFP.

After a quick break we broke into the topic of the business of film making. The discussion centered around the sustainability, or lack thereof, of business models based solely around sales of action sports DVDs. It was an interesting discussion with representatives from all sides of the table joining in. We discussed the merits or team videos vs. independent films vs. special projects

After the official meetings were over we had a chance to sit down and talk some Helly Hansen and Aspen business and then on to the MSP premier at the Wheeler and a party at the Belly Up.

Sunday morning we made it a goal to be out early and as sad as it always is to leave Aspen we were excited to get into the desert. We unloaded and headed into the expansive Utah desert rolling through sage brush terrain and a perfect mix of fast and technical trails.

Add a stop in Grand Juction for some natural moto terrain park and you have a pretty great weekend.

Congrats to Riley and Katrina!!! and thanks to the entire Aspen crew!

Selkirk

Another Helly Hansen photoshoot at Selkirk Wilderness Skiing produced and managed by the Public Works.

“Statistics don’t do Selkirk justice. Sure, 78 square kilometres (30 square miles) is big. Bigger than all of Vail and Whistler-Blackcomb combined. With only 24 skiers maximum per week, visitors to Selkirk Wilderness are guaranteed over 80,000 vertical feet of untracked bliss. But, like we just said, statistics don’t do it justice. “

The lodge is beautiful and comfortable, the food is amazing and plentiful (bacon breakfasts and constant cat ride feeding rendered some serious heli-belly by the end of the week), the staff was friendly, fun, knowledgeable, and accommodating, and the terrain was endless.

For most of the shoot we broke into two groups… the group with sleds and the cat group. The sled group was basically just the MSP crew: Murray Wais filming, Blake Jorgenson shooting and Mark Abma, Eric Hjorleifson, and James Heim skiing. The cat group was John Roderick on motion, Mark Gallup on stills, and JP Solberg, Lisa Filzmoser, and Chris Davenport riding.

Check out a few photos:

[note: the tree burning, while extremely fun (especially when the tree is lit with a roman candle), is actually fire mitigation and prevents the red trees from burning in the summer when the whole hill could go up... so please no angry patchouli-scented comments.]

Shipping Fun

Beautiful day packing boxes of Helly Hansen product for athletes and media.  Hope everyone likes their gear because it was an “Into Thin Air” mission to get it organized and out.

Chatter Creek

Last week we booked tickets for 20 people (12 athletes, 2 photographers, 2 motion guys, 3 company guys, someone from a potential account) to Calgary, drove them to Golden via packed-to-the-gills rental vehicles, loaded a school bus and took a field trip to the heli pick up, took 6 helicopter loads over a beautiful mountain lake to the snow cat pick up, and rode a snow cat into the best place on earth.

Chatter Creek Lodge is an epic log cabin build entirely from on-site lumber deep in the Canadian Rockies. They have an enormous tenure (238 square kilometres) accessed by 4 snow cats and a heli and the coolest staff in the world.

We simultaneously negotiated a deal for a Helly Hansen uniform contract for Chatter Creek and booked the annual early season winter photo shoot.

The crew killed it with Nate Abbott and Mark Gallup on stills and Pixl Family on motion behind the lenses and Mark Abma, Eric Hjorleifson, James Heim, Shin Campos, Eric Pollard, JP Solberg, Chris Davenport, PK Hunder, Lisa Filzmoser, Jessica Sobolowski, Jake Knigge, and Karine Falck-Pedersen in front.

We managed a huge shot list with a boatload of product and seem to have nailed everything we needed. We also managed to collect product feedback from the athletes and the Chatter guides and staff.

Ridiculously beautiful setting, great people, sick terrain, good snow, hot tub, good food, bar games.

All in all… great success!

Trailer Time

It’s that time of the year when all the ski production companies are holed away in editing bays around the world. They’re tethered to their computers and trying their best to sort through a season of piled up footage of all the athletes getting rad.

It’s also the time when they give the public their first glimses of the masterpieces that will premier in the fall.

We have spent the last year helping to coordinate these shoots, fineness media contracts, make sure our Helly Hansen Athletes get the exposure they deserve, and generally keep everyone happy and business running smoothly…

Huge thanks to MSP, Rage Films, and everyone at Nimbus Independant

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Selkirk

We spent last week deep in the Canadian back country at a place called Selkirk Wilderness managing a photo shoot. Amazingly we were able to avoid the cluster-f$%& the shoot could have turned into with a crew of skiers, snowboarders, 2 film crews, and two still photographers. Everything went smoothly and we managed to produce a ton of top notch content.

The first shot is one of the Public Works founders, Mike Arzt shot by Mark Gallup.  The second shot is Helly Hansen skier Eric Hjorleifson shot by Mike Arzt.

Check out thePowder Mag coverage.

Back Bowls

This Sunday we shot photos at the inaugural Battle in the Bowls event in Aspen.

Teams of two were required to finish a series of specified runs (including a fair amount of hiking) while they were tracked in real time by the Flaik GPS system  Awards were given for fastest lap of Highlands Bowl, most vertical skied, etc. etc. The event was the first of its kind and a huge success.

Aspen Photo Shoot

This weekend we spent 3 days being guided around Aspen Mountain, Snowmass, and Highlands back country by Helly Hansen team rider, author, freeski-mountaineering badass, and the unofficial mayor of Aspen, Chris Davenport. HH skier Jessica Sobolowski and snowboarder Chauncy joined us as we were guided to Aspen’s best stashes.

Thanks to Chris, Jessica, Chauncy, and Hallsy and the rest of the Aspen ski patrol!

X-games and more.

The anual event/party barrage of Xgames, SIA, and the Freeskiing US Open just wrapped up and even though the contest season moves on (Aspen Open, North American Open, Honda Sessions, European Open, etc. etc. etc.) our season now becomes more about photo shoots than contests.

Xgames this year granted the unexpected surprise of doing rather than full time spectating.  We actually got on the hill every day and we were fortunate enough to get to take advantage of Aspen’s 30 year snowfall record.  We got some good time in on the hill with Eric Hjorleifson, the Powder Magazine crew, as well as other industry peeps and plenty of old friends.

We also shot the Red Bull King of Quarters event on aspen mountain on Friday and Saturday night.

Unfortunately, PK Hunder, Helly Hansen’s only competing athlete, had some speed issues as the course slowed just before dark and then froze for his second run.  He overshot the last jump putting a 1260 to his feet deep into the flats and injuring his ankle.  There was a unanimous feeling that had he landed the run he would have been in contention for a podium spot.

In better HH news, HH athlete, Ashley Battersby won the Freeskiing US Open slopestyle!

Here are several pictures from X Slope, Red Bull King of Quarters, and the junk show after just rolling into Aspen in a packed-to-the-roof car with 2 boardbags and 2 giant Aspen Leaf logos strapped to the roof.

 

 

 

 

 

HH Photoshoot

We recently finished a week long catalogue photo-shoot for Helly Hansen here in our home zone of Colorado. We brought the international HH athletes from all over the world to our Summit County Mansion for some super serious modeling. Baily’s and coffee, potato cannons, BB guns, Crown and Gingers, Trailer Park Boys, and good company kept everyone sane while we got the job done.

Jay Michelfelder and Mark Gallup kept the athletes entertained and managed to make a bunch skiers and snowboarders look like bona fide fashion models for the entire week.

Mark Gallup captures product modeling at its finest

Ashley Battersby chills by the fire.

Fence ollie Jake Knigge style

Shin Campos on the digital links