Recently, I developed a few rolls of film from a Kodak disposable “funsaver” camera. What is this you ask? Well it’s a type of point and shoot camera that people (ie your parents) used as a fun and easy way to capture and share moments prior to Instagram. Now, call me a hipster, but I like to take snapshots with these because you never know what you’re gonna get when the 4×6 prints come back from the picture store a month later. Also, I don’t have an iPhone. Here are a few random #nofilter lo-def images from the beginning of the winter 2011/12.

Similar to winters previous, I kicked off the shooting season with Will Wesson (as is tradition). Our quest for snowy urbanous regions brought us on a last-minute road trip with Erik Seo to Flagstaff, Arizona. Driving through the warm, colored desert country of Southwest Utah and Arizona was quite a new experience for us- until, low and behold, snow began to appear.

En-route was Lake Powell and the famous Glen Canyon Dam / Bridge combo.

A shot or two was acquired in the streets of Flagstaff and we scurried home as Christmas was beckoning. Will hovered above some roadside baby themed Navajo street art for a quick photo-op.

Denver, Colorado was also one of the few recipients for December snowfall. You may recognize this alley from Parker White’s fuzzy dreamscape intro in After Dark.

Will Wesson once again, this time above a 10 kinker in the Denver ‘burbs.

The holy grail on Level 1′s Mile High “hit list” for many a year has been this arch. Tim McChesney and Mike Hornbeck were fortunate enough to session it on a beautiful day in the park.

New to the crew Tim “Cheddar” McChesney and a rail to banked transition a la the LA River.

You can take a guy out of Michigan, but you can’t take the Michigan out of a guy. MI’s finest export Mike Hornbeck.

This doesn’t technically count as “this season” but whatever. Wiley Miller lets Taj drive to Montana for a couple of premieres.

Parker White spine stall in the Billings, MT skate park. Would ya just look at it!?

Photos & words by Freedle Coty

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Denver, CO, December 7th 2011.

Laser lights! Disco balls! Fog machines! MASSIVE crowds! Just another night hittin’ up the clubs in Stockholm, Sweden. Oh, wait, wrong caption, wrong pic! Sig Tveit, Niklas Eriksson, and Will Wesson still enjoy quite an epic light show just inside the Arctic Circle in Northern Sweden.

Yeah, its not even December yet, but we’re kicking things off with an early-season transcontinental mission to the far reaches of Northern Scandinavia with Will Wesson, and the “local” talent, Sig Tveit and Niklas Eriksson. Not a lot of snow, but we’re gonna give ‘er our best shot over the next few weeks to make it happen. Stay tuned!

Kyle Decker checkin’ in from Are Sweden with Sig Tveit, Will Wesson, Niklas Eriksson, and Tim Lloyd- enjoying a meal of Moose (who knew that was the most popular meat in Sweden?!?!). Mike Hornbeck is on his way to meet up with the crew as they get after some early-season filming action for Level 1′s 13th annual feature flick. Wish them luck!

The lights went out in Denver, CO this past Friday night as Level 1 pushed play on their 12th annual feature length ski flick for a packed house at Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom.  Crowds lined up early and wrapped around the block in anticipation of what the ski community has come to look forward to as one of the biggest and best parties of the Fall season, and by all accounts, everyone got what they expected.

In attendance; Parker White, Tom Wallisch, Chris Logan, Ahmet Dadali, Will Wesson, Mike Hornbeck, Wiley Miller, Tanner Rainville, and Adam Delorme, as well as friends, media, and industry VIPs traveling from all across the country to be on hand for the night’s festivities.

After DJ Harvitronix’s opening set, our annual Monster Chug wrapped up the prize giveaway and set up 5 lucky fans with rad prizes from Rossi, Klint, DaleBoot, Skullcandy, Bula, Saga, and Electric- everyone went home with something, even if their chugging technique wasn’t working so well.

Parker White’s opening seg was by all accounts, an “eye trip” and far and away the most well-rounded  and all-encompassing part that Level 1 has ever put together, and kicked off 55+ mins of top notch ski action, great music, and all the ingredients that we consider necessary for a successful ski flick.  If the volume of screaming yelling and cheering is a good way to gauge crowd reaction, the 1400 people in attendance seemed to agree.  Highlights seemingly included Chris Logan and Alex Bellemare’s part following on the heels of Parker’s opener, Hornbeck’s strongest segment in years, Rainville’s POV shots, Will Wesson’s first real feature-length seg with Level 1, Adam Delorme’s best seg yet, and Ahmet Dadali doing what he does best.

Much thanks to all the event sponsors that helped this year’s World Premiere go off!  Monster, Rossignol, Freeskier, Skullcandy, Under Armour, Klint, DaleBoot, Powderhuffer.com, Saga, Spy, Scott, Bula, Electric, and Loveland!

Lots of premieres on the horizon!  Two days and counting ’til our SLC Level 1/4bi9 blowout.  This Friday we wrap up the first night of films at IF3 in Montreal, and the next night are getting after it in Seattle with 4FRNT at Evo!

Stay tuned to the Events Calendar for a full listing of After Dark World Tour dates and locations around the globe!

Ok, so where were we? Oh yeah, in Anchorage, Alaska with Logan Imlach and Will Wesson filming a reality show and not skiing in real mountains. We wanted a change of scenery, so down the Kenai Peninsula (home to world famous glacier cruises & salmon fishing) on a sightseeing tour we went.

Will was glowing with excitement.

We awoke at sunrise (10 am) to a beautiful view.

Very unique homestead on the spit in Homer.

Logan hits a rail in a drinking town with a fishing problem.

Wesson.

Logan wanted to stop and think for a second on the drive home.

The Winch That Stole Christmas (Almost). Upon our to return to the city of Anchorage, Logan set about finishing his work in progress- a homemade winch. Not to be confused with a 4WD Jeeping winch, this device du jour has become a necessity along with a bungee for getting speed for various urban obstacles. Luckily for him Logan has a degree in engineering, and some very creative engineering-minded friends to boot. After gathering a 5hp lawnmower engine, some salvage metal and parts from around town, the winch experiment was fully underway.

Quite a few trials & error later, the basic winch was complete.

We put it right to use at a popular “urban” spot- Anchorage’s South Ledge. As Coolio once said, you gotta get up to get down.

Will even got some face shots on the side!

There was an historic lunar eclipse while we were out one night.

Morning moose.

On one of the last nights before Christmas we went out to session a roof- local skiers Jake & Grant joined in and helped us relocate a large amount of snow. Thanks guys!

Logan Imlach working on his night moves.

And there you have it- our urban odyssey to the North. A novelty trip? You decide. We’ll be back to do some more skiing in the 49th state in the near future. A huge thanks to Logan, Kelsey, Matt Wild, Travis Reid, Matt North, Garret, Grant, Jake, Corey, and many others for helping us out along the way! 

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Alaska- the hottest place on earth. Not literally of course, far from it, but scroll through your cable TV guide and you’ll see all of the reality shows centered around America’s greatest state: “Sarah Palin’s Alaska“, “Flying Wild Alaska“, “Alaska State Troopers“, “Gold Rush: Alaska“, “Ice Road Truckers” and of course “The Deadliest Catch“, to name a few. Well this all fits perfectly to plan because we’re filming our very own version of AK reality. And don’t you worry because this episode won’t have anything to do with politicians or crab fishing or airplanes or cops or sitting in hotel rooms complaining about weather whilst waiting for the perfect day to go helicopter skiing. Welcome to Logan Imlach and Will Wesson’s Alaska.

The metropolis of Anchorage on the Cook Inlet in peak December light.

The bungee braves the Alaskan cold.

So yer tellin’ me Will Wesson went to Alaska to hit a dock?

Wesson creepin’ by a creeper rail.

Mandatory shot check (insert witty Dead End remark here).

Logan Imlach transfers a ledge…

and distracts some mountain goats.

Wesson keeps on truckin’…

and staircase jumpin’.

Looking for spots with the Doom/Love crew.

Always a beautiful drive on the Seward Highway.

Filmers get cold. You need a thick skin to take static scenics.

What’s cooler than being cool?

Setting up a banked transition.

We were gonna go to Bed Bath & Beyond but we didn’t have enough time.

Pleasure Whale says that’s all for now folks! We’ll be back shortly with more Alaskan reality for your entertainment!

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Photographer Felix Rioux recently published a photo gallery on ESPN Freesking. These images are from the trip we did with Orage to Quebec at about this time last year filming for Eye Trip with Phil Casabon, Kaya Turski, Will Wesson, and JF Houle. Check it out, we’ll think you’ll enjoy!

Dear Diary,

Where do I even begin? It has been so long since we spoke, so many things have happened and now a New Year is upon us. We have a lot of catching up to do. 2010 was a year of fond memories full of new friends, experiences, and hoopla…but you know all of this already right? I’ll pick up where we left off.

November (remember November?) set a high standard for future Novembers to follow- folks even started calling it Snowvember! The weatherman was calling for a nasty blizzard out Californee way, and so we loaded up the wagons with our hopes and dreams and winches and bungees and headed West to the city of Reno. Oh I forgot to mention who, well it was Will Wesson, Erik Seo, and Ian Compton fresh and ready to ski. However, upon arrival in Nevada there was only 3 inches of snow to be found, as it turns out neighboring Lake Tahoe had taken it all! So we did what any smart crew would do and promptly found the biggest gnarliest rail possible to start out the season on.

With this beast of metal tucked under our belts we set West yet again, 45 minutes to Lake Tahoe. Like the Donner Party 164 years before us we were met with heaps of snow and impassable mountains. Fortunately we didn’t need to go any further, and even better we didn’t need to boil cow leather into soup or consider munching on deceased party members to survive. Instead we found some pretty nifty stuff to do in all of the snow on the lake that didn’t include riding bottomless opening conditions at the local resorts.

Oh and Diary, did I tell you Thanksgiving was around the corner? Right back to Reno we went where K.C. Deane invited us into his humble abode for warm festivities.

Besides the usual turkey and stuffing and gravy and squash and cranberry sauce we went and hit the infamous “Green Monster”. Parker White even showed up to get served on the thing! Ian Compton then conquered the Monster in proper form and was congratulated by a merry group of extreme sledders in the park nearby.

After Thanksgiving we missioned back to the Great Salt Lake. The Donners should have considered doing that. Snow blanked this familiar city as well, and more activities ensued. But that is all for now Diary, I will have to wait to tell you the rest another time, I have so much to share!

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