Photo’s by Ryan Salm
Rider & Words by Rylan Cordova
Sleepy Time
4:27 am and I’m wide awake. If there is ever a time of day when my eyes are closed, it’s now. Even if I have a late party night or a late night of bar tending I’m almost always in bed by 4. On the flip side, when waking up for a “alpine start” for a day in the mountains my alarm rarely goes off before 4:30. Yes, all you “Alpenglowers” I may be a bit soft. But time is relative and 2 days ago I was standing on the top of a 800 meter couloir, wide awake basking in sunlight at 4:27 am…….Pacific Time.
Jet-lag!
What goes through ones head laying in bed at this time of night? For me, for tonight its lines. The long steep lines of Chamonix France, the short steep lines of Squaw Valley (not the lift lines-this wasn’t a nightmare). The long spine lines of Haines Alaska, the short spine lines of Little Alaska at Alpine Meadows. Pause……….what a fun day that was, I must have put my skins on 8 or 9 times the day Jermey and I went and skied these spiney ridges. What was my most memorable line of this day? Was it the gratuitous face shots in the trees, the narrowing chute with the unknown exit, or the wondering spine line in the glow of the sunrise?
No, it was the snaggy cliff with the double-eject, eight and a half, head to toe tom-a-hawk landing, followed by the look on Salm’s bewildered face. I guess you could say I looked like a nerd getting his womp-womp on in the soft alpenglow snow. I love skiing.
For more images from this shoot check out http://ryansalmphotography.photoshelter.com/gallery/Little-AK/G0000Iqx18wnDCy4/
The Line of the Week will be a weekly photo piece by Ryan Salm featuring some of Tahoe’s finest athletes doing whatever we deem rad. We will be using the term “Line” loosely to describe anything resembling chutes, big airs, pointers or any general madness. All images are the property and copyright of Ryan Salm Photography.
For more of Ryan’s work, check out http://ryansalmphotography.photoshelter.com