Photographer: Andrew Miller
Camera: Canon EOS 20D
Lens: Canon EF 17-40mm
Lighting: Natural
Rider: Peter Benchetler
Location: Sonora pass, CA
Trick: bs 360
This trip to Sonora was around mid of April after it had snowed only about a foot. It was my second trip out there of the year and definatly a lot less snow than the first. Started off we probably drove a good 10 miles pass the gate and another 3 or 4 past where we had parked my first time. There was only about 1/2 inch of snow on the road where we were unloading the sleds and all of us didn’t really know what think about the snow up the pass. We rode from concrete to about 1ft of nice pow further up and started hunting for a good zone. The first two spots were blowout and shitty but Peter and Gabe come across a nice little step down off this rock ledge into some decent snow. We started moving snow while Peter “lumberjack” Benchetler took care of a tree in the landing. Everything finished the jump ended up being sketchy cause of 4ft wide runway and super narrow lip but the troops proceed on. My first angle I was set up next to this tree looking straight up at the jump. Peter went first landing a little right and was 1 sec from taking me out before I dived behind a tree. Pretty funny on the footage… Long story short took they fixed the jump while I found a new angle and second try Peter prevailed over the ribbon runway of death and stomped a super floater b/s 360 off this hairy jump. After two hits we called it a day and sled necked the rest of the afternoon. Turns out a group went out to Sonora the next day and go some fat tickets for being to far off the road and i think the pass road was pretty much melted out a fews weeks later. It was a great last trip and this shot turned out to be one of my favorite’s of the season.
Photographer: Andrew Miller
Camera: Canon EOS 20D
Lens: Canon 70-200mm L
Lighting: Natural
Rider: Gabe Taylor
Location: Sonora Pass , CA
Trick: Method
This was trip out to Sonora was on February 16th 2007. It was my first trip out there and about the first good time there was a enough snow to get into the pass. These two photos were from the first zone we hit where the jumped really didn’t work out and Gabe and Peter had some close calls with a few rocks. You can see their landings coming from the left side and the exposed rocks in a few of the tracks..(the jump is out of the picture) After the close calls everybody decide to just shred the small face. Mac Spedale was focused on the left side, Peter did some slashes and couple of 180’s off some nubs in the middle and Gabe was all about the Right side. Here he boosts a textbook method over a rock gap. It was not the biggest trick ever but it turned out to be a good photo. After everybody had their share on the face it was pretty shredded up… I even got a few turns in on the nice snow and was stoked!
In case you missed the Main gallery from this Sonora trip last season you can check it out HERE and another photo blog post with some Sonora Extra’s HERE
