I love going up to Canada. It’s only a 90 minute drive from here, though add another 200 minutes to get to Mt Ste Anne, but it is sooooo different. As a for instance: cornichon flavored Doritos. Need I say more? It was a really nice weekend, weather was incredible and shooting was good. Company I was shooting for put a pile of riders on the podium, always nice when it works out that way. Carried the full light set into the woods for strobe work and it was worth it, but over 100 lbs of kit can get heavy after a few minutes. Got this of Kyle Strait, one of the only riders to hit this mud pit straight on, nice little spray. More sifting.

Just about to get back in the car to drive up to Mt St Anne for the UCI MTB World Cup, trying to get more like this (from Mt. Snow). Not that bad a drive ~5 hrs. and shooting World Cups is always edifying, you see riders you won’t see any other time. The course is photogenic as well. I think I picked up some kind of low-grade bug over the weekend as I have felt like absolute poop on the bike since. This was supposed to be an “off” week so I’m taking that definition literally. Ran into Tom Danielson, whom I had met back at ‘03 Mt Washington HillClimb. He was a really friendly guy back then and still is, which is good to see. He’s come a long way in the intervening years, including getting WICKED skinny. He said when he races the Vuelta this year he’ll do it at 59kg, and he’s like 5′10″, yikes. Oh, BTW, Kim and I are doing the Prouty Charity Ride in a few weeks to benefit cancer research at the local Norris Cotton cancer Center. I’m doing the century Kim the 1/2. If you feel like dropping a couple bucks in our donation we’d appreciate it.

Did I mention the bus down at Mt Snow? When not scratching bug bites over the past 48 hrs I’ve been sifting through the shots from the weekend. Kinda got a deadline on a bunch of them. Oh, and if you haven’t picked up the latest issue of BIKE, get it. I have the feature in it, turned out OK I guess. The writing is getting less and less frequent, either a good or bad thing, however you choose to look at it. Definitely putting more effort into the shooting the past 9 months, guess I’ll keep doing that as it seems to be working reasonably well. Trying to get together my new ultra-stealth XC bike, just a few parts away from it. Stay tuned. BBQ tonight, got a new case of Leffe, sweet.

Another Mt Snow NORBA has come and gone and I left it with some nice shots, a sense that the NORBA Series is on failing life support, and a couple trillion black fly bites. Serious. The crowds this weekend were non-existent and it cast a pall on the entire event, for me at least. Shot this of my man Dave Smutok, local VT gravity guy. Smutok broke his ankle over the winter, a bad break that required a bunch of hardware, but he’s back at it and made the finals of the semi-pro DS. Still sifting through images, more later.

Newell sequence, a corked backside, 720, maybe? Oh, on Nordic skis, which you don’t see eveyday. It’s raining again here, just as the trails were beginning to dry out. I’m thinking of doing the Mt Snow NORBA nextweekend. The only one I can do is the Sport (downgraded from Expert a bunch of years ago) on saturday morning, which I’ll do on the blinglespeed. It’s always kinda tight to combine work and racing, but the schedule is just open enough to allow it. I don’t know why I want to race down there other than I’m having fun riding the MTB this year. I bet I’ve raced there 10 times since ‘91 and pretty much only had one good race. So does that mean the odds are in my favor?

Processing shots from Mammoth, highlight right here. Nice and clean with Newell going huge off the half-pipe. Finally feeling human after the all nighter debacle that was flying home from Reno. Absolute beating, thanks Delta. Rode one of these this morning and, man, what a revelation. It’ll take some time to dial in all the way and I’ll likely throw on some smaller tires and lighter wheels, but as is it’s great.

The Mammoth shoot put me face-to-face with a big fear of mine: namely, heights. Don’t shoot rock climbing, mountaineering, hang gliding, any of that stuff. I just come over all weird when I get high up near steep edges, it’s always been that way. So taking the lift to the tippy top of Mammoth and then trying to get down without breaking myself/freaking out was the only snag in the shooting. The trip home turned into a Homeric epic: cancelled flight, etc. Ended up pulling into the driveway at 6 AM this morning, some 9 hours after I was supposed to arrive. Flew into BOS then rented a car and drove to MHT where my car was parked.It was either that or wait to fly out of ATL until today at noon. Those are easy decisions.

Andy Newell right here, taken during the “off snow” part of the Mammoth shoot yesterday. Location: the most bombed out trailer we could find in Bodie, CA. Newell’s the point man on Fischer JibSkate program - Olympic skier who can flat out rip on his Nordic skis in terrain parks - and they wanted the whole 9 yards as far as images went, so…. Mammoth was great. My legs were pretty whacked by the end of yesterday and I got a bit freaked trying to go down the black diamond run with tele skis, a 50 lb backpack, and rusty legs. But the skiers were patient. Managed to avoid sunburns and crashing, serious hazards when you’re skiing in June. Sitting in ATL right now, waiting for my flight home. This was my 6th cross country flight of the year, maybe time to put the travelling bags in the back of the closet, for a few weeks anyway.