John Wells making the most of the shortest day of the year. photo: Christian Regester
December 21, 2011 Winter Solstice was a glorious day at the mountain. There was a small dusting of new snow, and bluebird blue. John Wells and Christian Regester took full advantage of the shortest amount of sun available, shooting these 4 keepers in a short window of about 25 minutes.
The sun is still low in the sky in December. Our North slopes really shelter the ridges and create these curtains of light. They drape Mt. Baker ski area and the south east aspects with the most dramatic sun and thermal warming, good for photos bad for snowpack stability.
The PNW is not known for it’s sunny pow skiing, giving much credit to North facing slopes being more stable and predictable. Crunchy sun crust, wind whipped, sun cups, all things to describe our South East slopes. It was cold, the sun was warm and making turns in the sun on Winter Solstice…. really felt a lot like Christmas!
Christian Regester getting sideways w/ Mt. Shuksan
photo: John Wells
John taking another good turn under Shuksan’s watchful eye.
photo: Christian Regester
Christian making his mark towards Mt. Anne.
Photo: John Wells
To see more from John & Christian Visit:
http://johnwells-ski.blogspot.com http://standishstudios.blogspot.com/
happy holidays!
Great pics man. Good description. This is my first season at baker and the clear days have been unbelievably beautiful. I tried to tel my brother how I had never ridden in better light but you told it much better. Ethereal is almost cliche but it really is.
Hey John. This is that site I was talking about. NW specific with an emphasis on the local goods
http://myweb.students.wwu.edu/~tariltc/wwusasc/weather/Main.html
Thanks Cory I’ll take a look at it and post it today! Man skiing has been fun last couple of days! Finally !