Focus Archive

Skier: Drew Stoecklein

Photographer: Adam Barker

Location: Dry Fork near Alta

Photographer Adam Barker and skier Drew Stoecklein had to wake up very early to get this image in the Alta backcountry last January. “Dry Fork’s easterly aspect receives primo early light as the sun is cresting the horizon,” says Barker. “But you only have one shot. If you’re two minutes late, you’ll have to come back another morning.” They were on top of the line as the first rays lanced across the drainage, and with Stoecklein’s perfect turn down the virgin face, the duo had a day’s work done before most people had hit snooze.

Skier: Daryl Treadway

Photographer: Jordan Manley

Location: Great Canadian Heli-Skiing

“It was cold,” photographer Jordan Manley says casually about dangling out of a chopper to snag this shot of Daryl Treadway at Golden, BC’s Great Canadian Heli-Skiing. Despite his ninja skills, he gives all props to the pilot, who had to shimmy between trees, fly sideways down the hill, and hover 150 feet above the ground, all while keeping his eyes on the skier and avoiding a crash. The photo took four laps to synchronize, but the effort was worth it. “I like aerial perspectives. It reveals the architecture and true layout of the forest.”

Skier: Tyler Sterling

Photographer: Lee Cohen

Location: Urner Haute Route

For the feature “Waist Management”  journalist Rob Story and photographer Lee Cohen headed to the Swiss Alps to ski the Urner Haute Route, a 34-mile tour through the heart of central Switzerland that’s far less well known than the famous Chamonix–Zermatt traverse. Along the way, they encountered skinny-ski-loving Euros, jaw-dropping Fräuleins, and one of the biggest squalls of the lean Swiss season. “We were laughing that we were going to waltz right in, get this huge storm, and ski powder the whole time” says Cohen. “And that’s exactly what happened.” In this photo, Tyler Sterling, one of Cohen and Story’s comrades on the journey, skins up the edge of a glacier off the Sustenlimi to farm the spring bounty. 

Skier: Daron Rahlves

Photographer: Mark Fisher

Location: Juneau, Alaska

Last season Alaska was parched, but Daron Rahlves timed it perfectly. While the rest of the TGR crew—on location shooting their latest flick, One for the Road—spent 10 days waiting out one of the season’s few storms, Rahlves rolled in right as the skies cleared. “He’s got a knack for nailing the weather,” says photographer Mark Fisher, who captured this shot. Then Rahlves went out and bagged this unnamed peak outside Juneau. “I released my edge and pointed it,” he said. “Gravity took over and instinct kicked in.”