Vertical Integration presents a new shortie here that is a bit of a peak at what the crew has been shooting early this season in Utah. Vertical Integration (VI) has been working hard this season on a variety of projects including the latest Tough Guy Productions release "HarmLess" that will be out fall of 09'. We are also working with Ydream Productions out of Europe, which I have been going on about lately because of our recent trip there. Vertical Integration is an athlete driven organization providing promotional tools, resources, and networking opportunities for up-and-coming snow sports athletes of all disciplines. Our roots have been based in freeheel, but we are shooting and helping alpine skiers and snowboarders just the same. We are stoked with our growth and embrace the continued interest of industry professionals, supporters, and all the athletes. So take a look at some of our early season stuff and keep your eyes out for our athletes now starting to appear all over the place.
sick... literaly
Not sick in the ski industry context of the word, but the medical context of the word. I have been down and out with the flu for the last few days just hating it. One of the tougher bouts with the flu that I have had. I got it just a couple of days after I got back. Apparently it has been flying around the Delta ramp for a while when I was gone and it waited for me to come back. I feel like I am on the backside of this thing now so my spirits are up. Just got an email from the Ydream crew and it looks like they may come and join me here in Utah for a bit come early March, so now my spirits are way up. I would be honored to return the favors that they had extended us on our trip. I don't know if I can match an experience like this one pictured below, but I can sure bring them into some great skiing.
(Jon Gurry snapping a photo of the Hallstatt scenery. photo: Zach Houston/VI)
Home sweet Home...
Ahhhh, yeah it is good to be home. Little Murphy here was waiting at the door for me last night when I arrived at 1:30 AM fresh off a 4 hour flight from Atlanta, which was preceded by 10 hours over the big pond from Vienna. Austria was so much fun and the Vertical Integration crew got a lot done with the help of Steve Lloyd, the Ydream Productions crew, and Dylan Crossman. I am so stoked with the outcome of VI's first international endeavor. I have to extend a huge thank you to Lothar Hofer and his family for taking great care of us on our trip. Martin and Lothar from Ydream did a fantastic job setting up the logistics over there for us and Jon Gurry did some great logistics work on our end to make this whole trip a huge success. The Krippenstien Freeride Arena is a world class mountain and I have full intention of returning to this place again. The staff was very helpful and the sweet women in the cafe at the base make some of the best sandwiches this "crazy american" has ever tasted. The Hotel Seerosee in Obertraun, Austria was a really great base camp for us and the owners of the haus, Marc and his family, were fantastic hosts and wonderful friends to us the whole trip. I could go on all day trying to thank all the people that were so hospitable to us on this journey, but I could never thank them all from the refreshment cart guy on the train to Obertraun to the girls on the street in Vienna that showed me the way to Neubeaugasse 51, which was an address in a strange place while carrying a lot of gear. So I guess I will leave it at, thank you to all of the citizens of Austria for taking great care of these "crazy americans".
Austria is it...
This place is bad to the bone. This is just a pic of the crew getting geared up at the top of Krippenstien Freeride Arena. This resort is sickness every which way you look. The imagery here is so gorgeous that I have had more than a dozen "How the hell did I get here?" moments in the last two days. The mountains are huge and the cliffs are a total mind blow. The photo below is one Dylan took from our skin up to our coulior I told you all about from the Loser (Low-sah) backcountry. You probaly can't see the filmers and photographers hanging out on the cliff edge waiting for us to get to the coulior, but they are there up on the top of that monster.
Yesterday we spent our down day touring around a small town near here that is rich with history and tradition. The town is called Hallstatt and is absolutely gorgeous. Hallstatt was apparently part of the filming for the famous old movie, "The Sound of Music". I can see why! The crew is still getting after it and we are recieving some snow today. We got a foot last night and it is still snowing throughout today. We are stoked to be getting the conditions we need to get after all of the huge lines and faces we have been scouting for the last two days. Hopefully the snow sticks well and we can take advantage of it. It is looking promising for it so far. We will keep our fingers crossed.
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