This week we have the second half of the photos sent to me by Crested Butte base Photographer Devon Balet. Check out his website and enjoy.
Words and Photos by Devon Balet
Rumors have it, if you want it to snow, just hold a ski race. Or in the case of Crested Butte, schedule a freeskiing comp and it is sure to unload piles of the fluffy white stuff. In 2010 Crested Butte was looking at having another FWT comp with less then ideal snow conditions. But like clock work Ullr delivered dropping 20 inches overnight. With snow piling up deep, skiers were able to really put the terrain to good use. Here, William Dujardin blasts out of Body Bag shot during the finals.
Photography, meaning writing with light. I’m always intrigued with balancing ambient light and flash. In 2010 CBMR had a portion of their terrain park right at the base of the resort, a perfect place for lazy skiers and photographers. Alex Albers and I set out to try and capture the full moon by night with things not coming together so well. Turning around I saw this wood feature framed perfectly with the village building in the background. With a little magic we were able to produce this.
What can be more fun then tree skiing with your friends? A few days prior to the 2011 Crested Butte FWT, conditions were less then ideal for shooting. Little to no new snow and overcast flat light made for difficult photographing. Poking around in the East River trees always seems to yield the goods. Here Oakley White-Allen finds some pillow time to blow up.
“Hey, I’ll blast through the tree. That should look cool.” -Cliff Bennett
Crested Butte Mountain Resort is known for it’s extremely steep and difficult terrain. It is also known for it’s faithful freeskiing fans. Every year the bottom of the infamous North Face terrain is packed full of Crested Buttians peppering the snow like an exploded bag of skittles. Kent Hyden ads a little extra love onto his run for the pleasure of his viewers.
Snow conditions of CBMR in 2011 seemed quite similar to the record 07/08 year. The resort was skiing so good, a lot of locals were avoiding the backcountry for the ease of lift served shredding. When the powder starts to pile up the Crested Butte air force comes out of the wood work to log as much air time as possible. CB local Rob Dickinson is one of those regular dudes that can drop your jaw if given the right conditions. Rob sent this drop a good 50 feet on one of many amazing days in powder paradise.
The end of the ski season is always bitter sweet. It marks the change of seasons as well as the end of spinning lifts for the year. In Crested Butte it also marks the time of one piece suits, crazy hair and even some nude skiing. It never seems to fail that as soon as the lifts stop spinning in Crested Butte, the powder starts falling. The Saturday of closing weekend was a picture perfect blue bird day. The following day? White out snow storm. Cliff Bennett enjoys the primo weather with a little pink style found in the trees.