.
lotsa weeks have passed since I first got to snowy roof of Australia.
snow have come and left and come again and somehow keeps hanging on and ski season is still runnin.
i am professional photographer – sounds nice.
now read what it means if u fancy:
morning ~7 i wake up drink coffe with icecream and I eat something, like oatmeal porridge or muesli or hot cheese sandwitch. and I catch first bus up to mountain. I can keep my snowboard gear in the shop so I dont carry it home but just change in the office instead .
~8 i’ll be out doing first tracks on fresh snow.
~9:30 I get back to shop and we will figure out who will do what.
we means 6 people: our boss ian, and 5 photographers: christian couple nicki&josh, ian, mel and me.
boss doesn’t actually count - he does what he wants rest of us follow roster: one of us stays in the shop, one can have free day. other three will go takin photos. photos we take at jumps. jumps we make ourselves in certain locations.
there are 3-4 main locations, pictures can be surprisingly nice depending on settings of time&space&weather
its physical job, building a jump, riding with shovel, safetynet, sign. I usually ride with my workboots (steeltoe ones I got from phosphate hill) that doesn’t make riding any easier. running up&down to give tickets and shoot.
we attract people to come to jump give them ticket with number of photo, and take photo. ~10-12 we take morning photos then we make lunch ~13-15 we take afternoon photos, after afternoon photos we help selling photos @shop
~18 leaves last bus down to our village so by that time latest we will stop work get home get shower get dinner get to watch some cartoons and often get to the pub for some drinks and darts and talks and then get to sleep.
unsurprisingly enough our job is very weather dependant. if it shines sun we probably wont take day off or be in shop, we will all go to shoot instead. good reason for that is we get payed by commission so the more pictures we sell the more pay you get.
if it rains and is foggy and feels like taking out camera is very bad idea – then we can ride or go home and watch movies or sit in office and surf in the net.
hotham is just ski resort, there is no real civilization here, everything is small and expensive. closest place for real life is bright – small town ~50km down the mountain. three times a week bus goes there so sometimes i get there too. 1000m vertical and 50km road distance makes big difference. winter here, t-shirt weather there – amazing
so hotham is ski resort. considered one of the best in Australia, not the biggest but the one with most advanced terrain, black and double black runs, with open fields and forest and rocky canyons. bad side: vertical drop is ~400m, snow is australian meaning mostly wet and heavy and more than often gets frozen and icy, powder tends to last just one day as sun melts it and night freezes it.
there are some snowparks around with rails and jumps - they are appearing as season gets older.
altogether its enjoy enjoy enjoyable.
last weekend was big party in our town – dinner plain it is (with 70 permanent residents)
theme of party was hookers&deviates. quick trip to second hand shop in bright helped me to get prepared. with some makeup and beer and shots at home our ‘family’ got ready and there we went…
next day was very conveniently my day off
cameras: im not using my camera @work. there are canon cameras in shop, some 20d and one 30d. main lens is 17-85is. its nice kit. there is 70-300is lens also for some special shots, like races and chairlift photos.
pinnacle is name of place where I rented myself all gear for cross-country skiing. skis themselves r quite nice peltonen skating ones, poles and boots are crap but still very useable. there is nice skitrail going from my village – dinner plain up to hotham – top of the mountain. coming down the mountain this way is nice thing to do.
I did it yesterday. I say quite easy it is with just one decent ascent on the way. accidentally I was very tired that day after getting lost in backountry boarding that included epic walkout from bottom of the steep icy mountain (thanks G for perfect backpack that protects my back and enables fastening snowboard onto it for exactly this kind of happenings). so these ~14km took almost 2 hr and lotsa rescources from me. on my way I met shooting range where australian biathlon is incubated and some skipeople who made me smarter:
in end of august will happen kangaroohoppet – ski marathon that’s part of worldloppet cup. it will happen in falls creek that is another ski resort just few minutes of helicopter ride away from hotham. i seriously consider participating there.
ok now hoppet is history, weather was worst possible so it was extreme skiiing but its done and although final results are not known yet it looks like my place is better than my starting number 311
yesss...
