Skiing magazines Portillo photo Contest

I have the great fortune to be one of five photographers invited to portillo to shoot in Skiing magazines photo contest. First I just want to thank Backcountry.com for making it possible for me to come down here. I don't think I would have made it without there support. With that being said on to portillo. Each photographer is to chose one athlete to take with them. I chose my long time friend and ski partner Jason west to go. Jason Is on of the most solid Telemark and Alpine skiers I have had the fortune to shoot in the last six years. Neither of us have ever been to South America so needless to say we were both supper excited.
Jason and I flew into Santiago last friday and stayed in nice little place down town Santiago. The City is mostly shops and a little dirty, but interesting. Not to many photos here, but the food was great.
The next day we were off to Portillo. our flight to santiago was landing about sunrise. You could see the Andes out the side of the window. It is such a huge mountain range! Even from the plane I couldn't see then end. So from Santiago to Prtillo is about a two hour ride. The City and many of the highways are littered with garbage. People dump there trash into the river. It was really sad to see, but it just made me thankful to live where I do. As you leave the countryside and head up into the mountains it becomes even more amazing how big this mountain rage is. There are many Avalanch tunnels on the road to Portillo. The Temp has been really high this time of year and it feels like spring weather. There are massive slides that have come down and have made the road impassible at times. Lucky for us today we are able to drive up with no delays.
Here are a few photos of the landscape
This is looking out towards the lake.


This is looking down the Supper C couloir. This is a 5000 foot vert and stands at 13,659 i think.



So the first few days of the contest have been difficult. The temp has been warm and a lot of the aspects are cooked and skied. Jason and I Have always looked for shots in Utah when the weather was not that great so I feel like we are doing really well. I am sure that the other photogs are doing well aslo seeing as how they are some of the best in the world. Jason and I did the Supper C the first day of shooting. It took us about 3 hours to boot up it and the altitude was working us over, but the view from the top was so worth it. We timed it just right and had a foot of sugar pow and sun to go with it. The couloir is so long we had to keep taking breaks so our legs wouldn't give out.
Here is a view from the top.


Here is one from the couloir


So sorry I can't post the good photos, but it is a photo contest and that stuff has got to stay here for now. I will try to post up some stuff later on.

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