Expedition: Alaska - Chapter 1

While I was in Alaska for the World Freeride Festival (better known as Tailgate Alaska), I brought along a GoPro HD Hero camera to document the occasion. I wound up taking more than four hours of video footage while I was there — which might have been more were it not for dying batteries and filled up memory cards — so in the last few weeks I've been sorting through it and putting it together for your enjoyment. The following video is the first chapter of the Shred Labs: Expedition Alaska video series.

This first installment features footage from my first few days in Alaska; including the drive from Anchorage to Thompson Pass, and my first heli runs. The footage was shot immediately following my first heli drop where my group triggered two avalanches. That's a lot of firsts and a heck of a way to be introduced to Alaska.

In this chapter, I'm hoping to tell the story of a single heli run in the Chugach mountains in compressed time. The clip takes you from the pickup, to the drop off, to the ride down. You may even notice me struggling with my 155 Evo-R twin snowboard in the deep snow (it snowed two feet the day I arrived in Thompson
Pass).

The riding crew consisted of John, Shawn, Ian, myself, and our guide Jerry. We ended up sharing a ship for two days and seemed to have developed a great rapport with one another (which is important when trying to stay alive in the backcountry).

This being my first attempt at an editing project of this magnitude, I hope the results are entertaining. So without further ado, Chapter one of Expedition Alaska. Hopefully chapter two won't be too far behind.