Where have I been for the last month?

In case you’ve been wondering… here’s the low down.

I was invited by the very talented Tim Kemple (outdoor photographer extraordinaire) to go on two location shoots.  The first shoot was to Chamonix, France shooting for The North Face.  The second shoot was in New Hampshire and Vermont and was for Eastern Mountain Sports.  Both experiences were extremely eye opening, and it was great to see how commercial productions go from nothing to a final product.  The amount of work and organization that goes into these 10+ day shoots is just mind boggling.

Over the course of these two shoots, I did a lot of the following (in no particular order)

-Hike-Camp-Sweat-Learn-Curse-Eat-Drink-Shoot-

Along the way I grabbed a few shots so I though I would share some of them with you.  Here ya go.

A random shot of the town of Chamonix, FR.  A glacial river ran right through the center of town, and at night, steam poured off of it due to its frigid temperature.

One part of the UTMB race trail.  The terrain of this section is mild to say the least.  The runners tackled rain, wind, snow, cold, and very technical and difficult terrain as far as running surface goes.

The North Face Athletes Mike Wolfe and Tracy Garneau

Our lodging for a night.  The Refugio Bonnati in Italy.

This is the view from near the summit of Mt. Blanc.  Can you find the climbers?

The next 3 photographs are from The UTMB race.  A 166km footrace taking 2-3 days through the mountains surrounding Chamonix, FR.  The trail goes through parts of Switzerland and Italy as well.  These photos are from an Aid station 33km into the 166km race, just after the announcement was made that the race was cancelled due to dangerous weather conditions at the tops of some of the trails, as well as a possible landslide that was rumored to have taken out some of the trail.  It was interesting to see the different reactions to the cancellation among the runners.

In this photo, North Face athletes Tracy Garneau and Lizzy Hawker find a way to smile despite their disappointment.

This athlete from Japan reacts to the news of the race being cancelled.

North Face athlete Sebastien Chaigneau consoles Tsuyoshi Kaburaki as news of the cancellation spreads.  It’s hard to comprehend the emotion, not being a runner, but just to imagine the mindset you have to have in order to prepare for a 166km race, and then to have it pulled out from under you like this.  It’s like going from 60 to 0 in 1 second flat.