Out in Cali at Mammoth ski resort shooting my man Andy Newell for Fischer. The weather is nothing short of perfect, though mega sunscreen is applied many times a day to combat one element of the perfection. The base of Mammoth is 9,000 feet and we shot a couple thousand up from that. Not, much, air, to, breath. But it was a great day of shooting, looking forward to another like it mañana.

Been a bit lame on updating, but it’s been hectic. Went out to Portland OR to shoot last week, turned right around and came home and head out tomorrow to shoot skiing in cali. Bringing the 5K SPF sunblock: snow+elevation+June sun=scary bright conditions. Had a great time in PDX, even if it was super quick. Worked with Casey B, killer person to help make a shoot really sing. The only bummer was the weather: dodging raindrops both days. On the bike front, raced the MTB yesterday but it didn’t last long. Entered the singlespeed race at Coyote Hill Classic and it started really well. Went off the front in the first mile and had almost a minute less than 15 minutes into the race, legs just felt incredible. But as I was transitioning out of the woods onto a dirt road the bead on my rear tire ripped and the tire blew off the rim. End of the race. Big bummer. That’s 3 flats in my last 3 rides. My man Aaron Olson finished the Giro d’Italia, how great is that? First Grand Tour, first season in Europe, and he does it all naturalé.

Ventured up to Burlington the other afternoon to shoot some dirt jumping/street riding with VT pro Kyle Ebbett. We ended up scouting more than shooting and it was a pretty late night, but some of the shots were half-decent. We scouted a spot at one of the old granite quarries in Barre that is perfect for some incredible images; except, and this is a big except, the riding isn’t so good. Really rough, uneven, and steep. But maybe, just maybe, we’ll finesse something out of it at some point. It could be well worth it. Got murdered on the local group ride last night; two helpings of humble pie a la mode thank you.

I love the Swiss. Took this in Lucerne in ‘02 of a Swiss Porta Potty, found it again today while I was going through some negs. But I couldn’t find the negs I was looking for, which is enough to drive me nuts. Still, this cracks me up.

Check out this month’s Bicycling, they’re running my images from last year’s RAAM (they didn’t include this one). Nice lay-out, they even ran a mini-bio w/pic at the front. BTW, this shot was of Ben Couturier somewhere in Kansas. Been riding the tires of the SS, almost 5 hrs of one-geared fun over the weekend, including the Blue Ribbon trail, which is none too flat. Hard to explain to people why a rigid bike with 80mm travel fork and only one gear is so much fun, but it really is. Honest. Couple day trips in the offing over the coming weeks, some cool stuff.