JordanManley's blog

Portillo: last stop on the line

JordanManley — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 11:56:28 -0400

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I have spent the last week of my journey in Portillo, Chile, amongst unique company. 5 photographers, myself included, have been shooting in friendly competition for the South American Photo Challenge. It has been an honour and a pleasure to shoot alongside the talented Steve Lloyd, Adam Clark, Gene Dwarkin, and Grant Gunderson, as well as their athlete partners. From ping-pong and reggaeton sessions with Herman Maier and the Austrian team to our clown servers at breakfast lunch and dinner, its an experience none of us will soon forget. Yesterday we received our first pure blue pow day, and I'm sure we all gathered some timeless images of what skiing here in Portillo can be like.

Check out www.skinet.com for daily disspaches from the trenches.

Chad Sayers in Portillo, Chile

It has been a great month, a unique and special premier experience for me in the Andes. I have seen a huge amount of terrain, met many great people, and of course made a lot of great turns. From the Valle Nevado, to Ski Arpa, to gong-show Cajon Grande, then on to Las Lenas, and finally here in Portillo, SA has not dissapointed. A special thanks to Mark Lasseter of southamericaski.com who played a huge part in making my time here killer. See you all back in Whistler.

Bariloche

JordanManley — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:29:36 -0400

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I have made it down to Bariloche, Argentina, my latest stop on a whirl-wind trip of South America ski destinations, accompanied by my Norwegian travel contingent. We have seen blue bird pow conditions in El Colorado, above the smog of Santiago, more of the same at South America's only cat skiing operation, Ski Arpa Snowcats. I happened upon my brother Les there, high in the Andes, an odd circumstance.

After the border re-opened between Chile and Argentina, we ventured near Las Lenas, to a horse assisted hut. Except the horses never showed, or our guide. Long story short, we spent 24hrs on 1 granolar bar each, forcefully entered a vacant ranch stone hut and slept there for the evening, and reaching the real hut the following day on empty stomachs. Skied some very interesting terrain stratling the border between Argentina and Chile, on marginal snow.

I will spend a few more days in Bariloche, before parting ways with my Norwegian friends, and experiencing what Las Lenas has to offer. Below, a Even Ofstad is pictured during today's brief ski session before the lifts closed due to high winds.

Good while it lasted

JordanManley — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 18:51:28 -0400

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With the looming forecast for the pineapple express to slam Whistler on Sunday, we took advantage of the snow that fell during the day on saturday, lapping Blackcomb's high alpine in the storm.

Kicking Horse: the team strikes back

JordanManley — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 00:18:57 -0500

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On the third day, we didn't get poached...

Cheddar the Shreddar, slaying it.

Kicking Horse

JordanManley — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 00:21:21 -0500

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Its been a trip of ups and downs. The good news, Kicking Horse seems to be holding the most goods around and we've skied some rad lines; the bad news, we got poached by two film crews in two days. Today, we hiked out to ski the Dog Tooth which rarely gets skied, and on our hike out we got dissed by TGR as they dropped Jeremy Jones by heli to shred the line we had our eyes on. Not to worry, we still skied that line and another juicy.

Rainbow drop

JordanManley — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 16:30:21 -0500

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We did a drop on Rainbow yesterday. The sun came through the clouds as it was rising above the mountains at 8:00am. It was in and out all day long, but we did some great laps up there all day, and skied right to Andre's driveway in Alpine as it was getting dark - just in time for a hot tub and beer.

Niki looking back towards the sun rising over Whistler

Lotte spraying some snow for the camera.

Not too much to say...

JordanManley — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 22:07:13 -0500

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...except that it was deep, and it was good.

Andre thinks it was deep too.

Yah I dunno.

Andre gets shot in the face.

He's Back.

JordanManley — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 00:54:23 -0500

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Idiana Les Lenas McQuaker-Shaker is back after 6 months in South America. I took a portrait.

The best I've ever seen

JordanManley — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 22:35:02 -0500

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I must finally blog about this. Normally Vancouver's Mt Seymour is mediocre at best in terms of snow conditions. I've been up there the last 3 days. Why you ask, with Whistler being so close? Wel,l a combination of scheduling, and the fact that it's the best I've ever seen it by far, and I've skied there for 10 years. I skied about 50cm of light pow through old growth forest yesterday. It was unbelievable, and certainly didn't feel like the local mountains. Today I was up later, with Phillip, and we caught alpine glow. Just sick.

Phillip and I rushing up to catch the last light.

Phillip laying into some light deep local fresh.

Seymour

JordanManley — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 17:40:39 -0500

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Even since Pat's blog post, there is more snow on Seymour.

Mike taking his first turns of the year

I didn't hit one rock, and we even got to ski in the trees and do secret billygoat line!

I'd never seen snow on the chairs like this, and I've skied there for 10 years.

Paul Ridge, Squamish

JordanManley — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 23:26:43 -0500

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With all the snow in the alpine we've been reading about on the Whistler site, it was definately time to get up and check it out. The location - Paul Ridge, Squamish. The posse - myself, Marcott, Andre, Mathieu, Tobin, and Shabut. Actually, Andre wasn't really part of the posse, of course he was hung over and even more tardy than us. By the time the crew of early season slackers reached the alpine, there was likely 125cm new, and it was heavy. Skiing turned less turning, and more HUMPING down the hill.

Marlowe dropping in.

Tobin: I think that was the most work every for 400ft of vertical

Shabut: By the way, that wasn't skiing

Mathieu: That was humping.

Andre, Matt and Chabot skinning up.

Andre getting shot in the face.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jordanmanley/sets/72157594372922204/

Ski Journal stoke video

JordanManley — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 01:47:36 -0500

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http://www.theskijournal.com/feeder.php?i=theskijournal
Ugh...

JibSkate - the worst idea in skiing, ever.

JordanManley — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 05:24:39 -0400

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We may never know who was involved in this attrocity, or how it got past the drawing board stages, but let it be known: this could be the worst idea that has ever come out of the ski industy.
http://www.jibskate.com/en/jibskate/ - click on the video
FISCHER. Putting the GAY, back in SKIING.

Respect, the movie

JordanManley — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 15:53:11 -0400

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I won't say much, just watch:
http://www.respectthemovie.com/

"Its on in AK!!!!"

JordanManley — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 15:31:25 -0400

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That was the email that showed up in my inbox this afternoon. Marcus Waring, my good buddy sent it to me. I've told him to blog, but he's too busy shredding I think, so I'll copy and paste:
"yo bro,
the snow has arrived!!! 3000 ft of skiing this sat/sun. ohh yeah and it was
pow. sick.sick.sick
first turns this weekend and they kicked ass. the best first day of the
sesason i have ever had and it was sept 30th!! im pumped for the season.
unfortunatly i booked a plan ticket to vancouver for canadian thanks giving
and now i have to miss out on a weekend of shredding."

Skier mag, Issue 1

JordanManley — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 18:39:32 -0400

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Pretty stoked, Skier just arrived in the mail. I've got some shots throughout - so I'm very happy about that. Selections include some sunset snow crystals, Phillip busting through some pow, Les putting a scarpa moldable boot liner into a pizza oven (ya, wierd eh?), and as promised, a little spot in the moment section for BLACKCOMB PEAK PARTY, written by Jamie Bond. I just read it, and Jamie sure summed up that day amazingly well - good job bud. I was tingling.
The magazine's new Editor, photog-writer Mike Berard has done a great job hopping into the drivers seat, and the mag ostensibly brandishes a thicker, glossier cover, and glossier pages? Cool.

The Ski Journal

JordanManley — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 02:20:04 -0400

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A NEW ski magazine is here!!! Check out: www.theskijournal.com

Bike Car documentary

JordanManley — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 04:14:24 -0400

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Everyone, check this out: http://www.bikecarmovie.com/