Winter's Abrupt End

I was out for a day of fun boarding (no camera, just riding) on Whistler Blackcomb earlier in March. We were just ripping laps all day. The idea of social distancing had started to become prevalent, but wasn’t as known or talked about as today. We stopped to take a break and grab some water, and someone mentioned, “Do you think the mountain will shut down?” At this point that thought hadn’t even crossed my mind. We talked about it, and decided that maybe they would limit access to the lodges, but no way would the entire place shut down.

Two days later I was drinking coffee in the morning and received a press release from Vail stating WB and all of their other resorts were shutting for the week to be reassessed later. Later in the week the news came through that they were closed for the season.

We had just experienced a large wind event a few days prior, so the backcountry wasn’t looking great either. As more and more news came out, and the idea that this virus was going to be stressing the hospital systems, even accessing the backcountry was strongly discouraged. While not technically closed, out of respect for the groups that are pushing for restrictions on the backcountry, mainly Avalanche Canada and Whistler Search and Rescue, I decided I would unload my snowmobile and put away my boards for the season.

Winter had just abruptly ended. There was no down, no getting in a day knowing it might be your last. Just over.

While I’ve lost some work, and some opportunities to shoot, I’m very fortunate I live in a somewhat remote area where we can easily isolate and distance ourselves from others, but still enjoy the fresh air in casual ways. Mainly walks and bike rides around town.

This has allowed me lots of time on the computer. I’ve spent time organizing photos from this winter, and has allowed me to further work on my archive, to make searching and accessing older photos even more efficient. Work that at other times would normally be overshadowed, and pushed to the bottom of the to do list in favour of other more prevalent tasks.

In doing this I’ve been looking at a lot of my older imagery. I’ve put together a slideshow of my top images from last winter. Some of these made it to print, others have yet to see the light of day. Enjoy!