Page 51 - Bespoke Issue

Patrick set the days standard with some awesome jumps, pulling back ips and getting some huge air. Lisa added a little grace with her back ip that gave the appearance of her hanging upside down in mid air. Anna, although a ski instructor was relatively new to snowboarding so was eager to jump, but kept it clean and simple, whilst Patrick was getting higher and longer with every ip and jump. Having most of our shots in the can Jenny took to the jump with the grace and style we’d expect from someone who’s not only a quali ed instructor and has been on the mountains since she could walk, but with the world Longboard championships only a few short months away, left the ips and crazy stuff to the others. Me, I ski so wasn’t there to shred or jump, my toys for the day had caterpillar tacks V8 Hemi’s.
With this part of the shoot done, we packed up the Evoc backpacks, loaded the Polaris and sent the team off onto the slopes to enjoy the lift passes that Lech Zürs tourist board had provide for us. Jenny and I took the Ranger to shoot the other locations. We tried to stay off piste as much as possible now the snow had stopped the slopes were busy, which meant taking the long and scenic route back the where we’d left the Dodge. This took us past some of the most incredible views of this amazing Alpine resort and gave us the opportunity to really test the limits of our Tracked Ranger. Even in deep powder this
thing was unstoppable, it climbed like a crab on a rocky beach and although a bit nerve racking maintained great control on sideways inclines, it really was an unstoppable force. After zigzagging our way down the mountain we managed to only have to cross two slopes and one lift, where full ashing lights and warning beacons were used. The last leg was on to the lower pathway leading back to our car parking spot were we pulled up next to the towering truck and of oaded the kit into the Longhorn just in time to hand back the keys so the Ranger could be put back to work as the hotel shuttle.
We had arranged to meet the team back where we parked at 5pm so we headed quickly back to our Chesa Rosa base and downloaded our camera les reside whilst changing out of our snow gear for the evening. We had timed it perfectly was drove back up the snow covered path the meet the guys. We agreed to meet Patrick at the Pizzeria in Lech for about 7pm so Lisa and Anna could come back to the hotel and change. The pizza at Olympia restaurant in Lech was not only one of the best I’ve had in a long time, but very reasonably priced considering we are in a resort where a beer makes London’s trendy bar prices look normal and the Italian staff were great. Anna decided to hang out with Jenny, who was driving back home to Germany on Friday so Lisa and I hit the road to Innsbruck, I dropped her home and made it to my hotel in Munich just after midnight. A great shoot made easy by applying the right tools to the job.
WORDS CRAIG BLAKE-JONES IMAGES JENNIFER SCHAUERTE AND CRAIG BLAKE-JONES
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