Backcountry Ski Tour

[Photo-John]

This isn't really all action photography, although there is one photo that qualifies. Mike and I did our first solid ski tour of the season this past weekend. That means an hour or more of hiking for about 30 seconds of downhill. Sounds ridiculous, huh? It does to me, too. But I enjoy it, keep doing it and keep wanting more.

Photography-wise, this is tricky shooting. I want to be able to take pictures while we're hiking as well as descending. Plus, I have to pack extra clothes, water, food and avalanche gear. So choosing and packing the camera gear is tricky. It's early season so I'm traveling light. That means the 7D and 18-200mm lens and a point-and-shoot. I keep the P&S accessible for hiking photos and only take out the big camera for the real skiing. On the bike I'd keep the P&S in a pouch on my backpack shoulder strap but my camera kept choking because of the cold so I moved it into an inside chest pocket. That made a huge difference with the batteries and I didn't have any fogging issues, which was my biggest worry.

I don't think there are any great photos here but I wanted to share what I'd done and how I did it. Photo and snow conditions weren't great but it was good practice and shooting and skiing no matter what are important. If you only go out on perfect days you won't really be prepared.

Camera info: all photos but the photo of Mike skiing the steep slope were taken with the Canon PowerShot SD4500 IS point-and-shoot (my hands-on SD4500 IS review). The other was taken with the Canon EOS 7D at ISO 800. Light was getting low so that one was pushed really, really hard in Lightroom and Photoshop. I'm pretty pleased with it. It looks a lot better than I expected.

For the skiers - we rode the Millicent lift at Brighton and then traversed around to the rollover below Wolverine Cirque. That's where Mike is skiing in the one photo. Snow was very mixed. On the descent we'd get one nice turn and then one nasty wind-packed turn. But it was still fun and we needed the practice and exercise. Plus, we both have a bunch of new backcountry gear we wanted to use

[Pete7D]

What camera did you use?
nice shots like the 4th

[Photo-John]

What camera did you use?
nice shots like the 4th

You didn't read the text, did you? It's all in there :-p

I had a P&S and my 7D with the 18-200mm IS lens. The 18-200 IS is my first choice when I want to go really light. And since it's early season I definitely want to pack light. I also knew that conditions were going to be less than awesome so there wasn't much point in packing better lenses. When I do want to get serious in the backcountry I will ski with the 70-200mm f/2.8L. And this is also the kind of stuff I'm looking at the 70-300mm L for. My biggest concern with that lens is the auto focus performance - I almost always use AI Servo for a photo like this. But I've been told it's solid. If I was rich I'd have it already

[Pete7D]

How do you carry your Canon 7D (i have it also and I love it) are you using a clikelite bag?
I am looking forward to boy the chest pack Large for my canon 7D.

[Photo-John]

How do you carry your Canon 7D (i have it also and I love it) are you using a clikelite bag?
I am looking forward to boy the chest pack Large for my canon 7D.

I have a prototype Click Elite Contrejour ski camera pack from last year but I wasn't using it that day because I was traveling light. I was using a Camelback ski pack and my 7D and lens were in a small Tamrac hip pack inside the backpack. I do love the Clik Elite backpacks! On the mountain bike I use the Clik Elite Medium Nature when I'm doing serious photography.

[groovehouse]

I'm from Houston and just can't fathom that much snow, much less hiking in it AND carrying photo gear!!

Regardless of that, great freakin' shots. I love the one action shot and wish there were more. The SP is pretty cool too!

[Photo-John]

I'm from Houston and just can't fathom that much snow, much less hiking in it AND carrying photo gear!!

Regardless of that, great freakin' shots. I love the one action shot and wish there were more. The SP is pretty cool too!

Thanks! Glad you like the self-portrait. I love self-portraits and other photos with mirrored goggles. It's fun to be able to create multiple layers of imagery with the goggles. I only buy goggles with mirrored lenses just for that reason

Like I said in my post, I was traveling light that day. Last winter I was packing a Canon EOS-1D Mk IV with 70-200mm f/4L IS and 16-35mm f/2.8. I'm looking at the new Canon 70-300mm f/3.5-5.6L IS lens for ski photos right now. Long telephotos are important for ski photos.

If you want to see more ski photos, check my gallery. I did a search to try to pull just the ski stuff for you:

Photo-John's Ski Photos >>

And if that's not enough, there will be plenty more this winter. Things are barely getting started

[emiles]

Right there with you groovehouse. Winters in Houston are warm compared to the rest of the US, except maybe Florida. Up until this morning, I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Gotta love Texas weather.

Poked through your gallery. Wonderful shots, looking forward to what all you northerners experience for winter.