Published in Whitelines Magazine Issue 95, February 2011

After two days of total fiasco, hitting spots which didn’t work and encountering high avalanche risk in the backcountry, Remi and I hadn’t produced much and were starting to freak out. We couldn’t really venture too far from the piste because of the instability, but everything nearby was tracked out. Then, as we travelled up the main chairlift, we spotted a little pocket of fresh right beneath our feet.

Remi was shooting for the new Rip Curl movie, and I wanted to take a behind-the-scenes style shot with the filmer in frame. Most of the time you do everything you can not to have him in the picture, but sequences can be a bit boring so I’m always trying to think of original angles to put a new twist on them. With both of us on the lift and shooting from above, this seemed like a good way to capture the action and surroundings at the same time.

On the first try we didn’t quite time it right – the chairlift was too fast and Remi disappeared under our boards just before he landed. So we hit it again and asked him to drop two seconds earlier. He stomped it (again!) and we both got it – me with my stills camera, and Olivier Pictet on 16mm for Welcome Home 2. Which was just as well for us, because every lap was at least 40 minutes – Remi wouldn’t have been stoked at having to wait around for a third go!

– Matt Georges, Photographer