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 TipTop, Norway – Precariously perched on top of a line that has never been skied before, yet looms over the entire Tamok Valley I listen to radio chatter from the background grumbling through the radio in my pocket.  After looking at digital photos of the line over and over I give the others the sign that I am ready.  Over the radio I hear a bunch of gibberish in Finish and then, “rider ready in five seconds.”I took one look back at my brother who had been studying the line with me for a few days.  I got the unspoken almost telepathic look of encouragement or approval then grabbed through my jacket to grasp my radio and said, “Dropping.” As I pushed forward the ground dropped away until there was nothing in my view except the snow under my ski tips and the waiting group and helicopter 4000 vertical feet below me.  I pensively took my first turn at the top of the run in order to test the unpredictable snow conditions and take a look further into the top of the 55 degree line to make sure I was dropping in on the correct part of the massive face.  If I were to make a wrong turn there was10 to 100 meter cliffs awaiting my arrival. This made me a little apprehensive at first, however as I skied further and further I found that our patients and scouting of the line had been correct.  The snow was perfect, the light was bright, and the line was a lot bigger than I expected. In my mind I was thinking about each turn and the features I was using as land marks where I needed to turn to avoid eminent death, but they just seemed to be further and further away.  The line was big in the photos as well as from the helicopter flying up, but to put it into perspective this was like skiing all of Snowbird and a half in one continuous face.  I have never experienced such an immense mountain and found it daunting to be able to link full speed GS sized turns down the face between features that were the size of large buildings.  After reaching a crux in the slope I looked behind me to make sure I had not started an avalanche, that at this point would have been chasing me right to where I was turning which was the only clean line through the slope and led right off a 30 meter cliff.  The couloir in the middle of the slope was wider then I expected, however only two meters across was lined with large cliffs on both side.  Pealing out of the couloir I looked behind me to see my sluff just as it cascaded through the couloir and off the cliff that I had fearfully skied around.  However, at this point I had made it down the most extreme part of the slope, but ended up coming over a role and spotting a large gully that I had not anticipated in my line choice.  I creamed into the upside of the gully at full speed and came out rolling head over heals with a broken pole, broken ski, but a smile on my face to walking away safe.  I was sad to end such an extreme line by crashing at the bottom in the flats, but the group watching at the bottom was stoked to witness the event and got a good show out of the ending.  The rest of the day was equally as epic…  

Tamok, Norway, - March 19^th, 2008- Due to adverse conditions, the helicopter arrived yesterday a day late and came with more bad weather.  For those of you who know how a helicopter works, then you understand they do not work when there is bad visibility, high winds, or any other adverse factors.  Therefore, much of the helicopter skiing experience is spent waiting for the optimum conditions to appear like kids waiting for Santa Clause on Christmas Eve.  Many of us have spent our mornings glued to the windows watching the clouds pass and others have just sat and drank coffee talking about the weather. 

Anyway, the week here in Norway has been anything but uneventful.  With the amazing local crew ready for adventures on snowmobiles or ready to go skinning anywhere, there has been a lot of activity to say the least.  The typical day has started with breakfast around 7:30, although I got up around 8:30 because there has been plenty of food and the coffee has been flowing all day.  When people were done studying maps of the area and coming up with speculated answers on where we are allowed to go and where we all thought snow would be best, people have been splitting into groups to go on adventures looking for the best snow, ice climbing, building jumps, or whatever else our child-like imaginations could muster.  My brother Onie and I made friends with the right crew, so the locals have been bringing us on small missions to explore areas far beyond the distance accessible with only the use of skins.  Therefore we have had the local tour of an area that has never been explored from a freeskiers perspective.  With so many unknown variables in such large terrain it is very comforting to have a gentleman who has lived and played in these mountains as a hunter and snowmobiler for his whole life.  “Thank you Leif-Arne and the whole HUAS crew.”

Yesterday we did have the opportunity to pop Onie’s cherry in the helicopter.  Yesterday we were able to get lifted to the top of one of the mountains above our camp and ski something that took us five hours of skinning the other day took six minutes in the heli.  I have concluded, “Walking is over rated.”  The best part of the day however was watching Onie’s face as the helicopter took off and the nose dropped forward.  It was his first time in a helicopter so smiles full of effervescent elation filled his n use face.  The feeling of taking off in a helicopter is rather unexplainable, but Onie’s face would be a good marketing took to any helicopter company.

Otherwise we are expecting great weather the next few days so things are looking great.  The crew we are here with are all amazing people, although the Finish language is impossible to understand or even harder to try and speak.  Therefore we do not know what is being said around us most of the time, but none-the-less we are having a great time and the next few days should be all time.

More to come…  

See the Commercials @ http://www.sony.com/tumble

Tahoe, CA — Filming a commercial for SONY was like nothing I had ever experienced. Throughout my life I have been apart of many action sports productions, the filming of morning shows on local TV stations like RSN, as well as been apart of small commercial filming but this was unique in every way. Acting as a Stunt Man/Camera Man and Extra this was a great experience to get a glimpse of how real movie production must be. The company compiling the whole production was called Anonymous Content which is a large production company based in LA. I flew into Reno, NV where I was picked up by one of the production assistants who happened to be the most angelic and refreshing person I had met in a long time. We drove to the set located between Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows called White Wolf. The parking lot was filled with a dozen or so trucks full of gear, cameras, and even a kitchen in a truck cooking up some of the best on set, side of a mountain food I have ever seen. The crew consisted of about 60 people with locals driving snowmobiles from the parking lots to set locations, crew setting up booms for cameras, lighting guys, camera operators, talent, directors, assistant directors, and their assistants too, production assistants, riggers, stunt men, grip, and behind the scene people making it all operate in some sort of LA organized cluster. I found myself waiting around a lot, but everyone said that’s the way it goes. Not only was I waiting for cameras to be available but also waiting to get an idea from the directors as to what I was supposed to capture. It was good to wait for the snow conditions to become ski-able as the weather was set to “perfect spring in the mountains.” It was 65F in the sun during the day followed by 14F at night, so needless to say the snow was firm and hard to work with, but it was so beautiful at the same time. None-the-less I was able to learn how to operate the cameras they had rigged for me and get the shots necessary. However it was a little disconcerting at one point after setting up camera gear in my backpack and drilling camera mounts in my skis, just before I took off to ski down this mountain face the camera operator looked at me and said, “no pressure, you only have a hundred and ten thousand dollars worth of gear strapped to you right now… Good luck!” 

I was hired on to the project as a stunt skier; however at the directors meeting the first night they learned I was an avid skater as well having played hockey growing up. Therefore I was used in another day of the commercials filming where they dressed me up in Euro clothing and had me skating around the rink with a bunch of electronics sliding across the ice at my feet. It will be cool to see the final product because after seeing the process and then having a few drinks later that night with the graphic designers and learning how they have 32 people working on the production and creation of the commercial for the next six weeks, I will be interested to see how they can change everything. One of the graphic guys said “he may even make me look cool if I’m lucky.” All in all this was an experience to remember. When you see the commercial in a few months you may see me or may not. I have no idea what footage they will use, but anything that looks like me, or simulates an object falling down the mountain was me. Here are a few pictures, but none offer an idea of the real commotion taking place around me. I now know why they call it a production. Thank you to the crew for making this a great experience for me as well as the others involved. Sammy M. you’re the man for setting this all up.