With my competition days behind me I found a new medium to further my skiing career. One which gave me far more joy and reward then competition could ever achieve. The art of photo slutting.

Backcountry Magazine Nov. 2008 Photo: Nicolas Teichrob

That’s right I am calling myself a slut, alas sometimes you need to do what you need to do. Working hard for photographers is no easy task. The light vanishes and you wait in the bitter cold for an hour above the air that was already plenty scary enough. You the athlete, and the photographer are trying for a specific shot. So you hike through chest deep snow sweating like an ape. You make the turn. But you weren’t in the right spot. Do it again. The hike is a little easier this time. The bootpack is there but not consolidated yet. Turn. Right spot, but your pole is too high, one more, says the photographer. And so the process repeats itself until you get gold.

Brant (Swedish version of Outside) April 2009 Photo: Grant Gunderson

Sometimes those shots end up being published and the hard work pays off, but more often than not they are seen on your computer screen, but your are unable to show the rest of the world because that hurts their chances of being published. So you look at the photo and smile to yourself at the memory of the sweet pow hitting your face or the air beneath your feet, and you critique your form. The dragging pole, the upright pole, the legs, the face, everything, and slowly but surely you begin to find your groove with one photographer. But then you go out with a new guy, and discover he has a completely different method of working. Ah, the trials and tribulations of being what some people call a ski model. I’m an athlete thank you very much.

Backcountry Magazine Sep. 2009 Photo: Bruce Rowles

The biggest difference in my mind compared to competitions, is that you are working with usually great snow where the landings are soft and the sun is shining. The waiting is all worth it. Quality over quantity my friends.

The Ski Journal Volume 3 Number 1 Photos: Grant Gunderson

The best thing about working hard for photographers is seeing yourself in print during the fall when the months are slowly getting colder and the stoke is rising for winter. Sometimes they are shots you didn’t think were that great. Other times shots you thought were a sure thing never see the light of day. It was a big moment in my life as a skier to open up Powder magazine, a magazine I read religiously as a child, and to see my name attached to a beautiful image. I could do nothing but smile and feel proud. Here’s to many more to come, and hopefully, if I put the work in and the luck of the draw falls my way some day I will grace a cover. Some day, some day.

Fluid Magazine (France) Oct. 2008. Photo: Jordan Manley. This shot is actually from Skiing magazine where it is labeled as unidentified skier. The photographer I was working with, Nic, said hey I have that similar shot from a different angle. Nic and Jordan compared dates and times of the shots, and confirmed it was me. Jordan was able to get my name attached for the Fluid printing. Sometimes you get published without even knowing it.

Ah, but it is not perfect. Photos leave something behind. When you ski on your own you hit an air and keep going. You complete lines. When you shoot photos you hit an air and then stop. The photographer relocates and you make a turn and then stop. Repeat the process for as long as the sun is out. That gaping hole of incompletion, of wanting to finish lines, really, truly skiing them, instead of just a specific instant has lead me out of the past and into the future.

Caption Reads: Athan Merrick locates a Jigawatt. (I like this caption) Powder Magazine: Oct. 2008 Photo: Nicolas Teichrob

Until next time…