Photo Journal & Trip Reports (Skiing & snowboarding)

Please enjoy these photo journals and trip reports from some of my outdoor photography adventures, starting with the most recent. You can subscribe to follow my latest blog posts (and any other blogs as well) by using a feed reader such as Inoreader or Feedly.

Chasing Powder in the Alps (Part 4): Larch Laps
January 2026  |  Piemonte, Italy & Hautes-Alpes, France

Our next stage of chasing powder in the Alps in January was in the western Piemonte of Italy and the Haute-Alps of France just over the border, a region full of extensive larch forests. We scored some surprise post-snowstorm powder at Bardonecchia and Sestriere in Italy, toured the expansive terrain of Montgenèvre in France on a beautiful blue sky day, then caught another massive snowstorm at Serra Chevalier in France when there was literally too much snow to ride!

Chasing Powder in the Alps (Part 3): Trees of Limone Piemonte
January 2026  |  Limone Piemonte, Italy

After chasing powder from Austria to Switzerland, there was a now a big Retour d'Est storm forecasted to hit the far southern Alps in the Piemonte region of western Italy. This was great news, particularly because the mountains there already had a solid snowpack from an earlier Retour d'Est in December...

Chasing Powder in the Alps (Part 2): Swiss Snow Dreams
January 2026  |  Valais, Switzerland

With a weather forecast promising a big snowstorm in the western Alps, we drove to Valais in western Switzerland to best position ourselves for the incoming powder. We arrived along with the storm and spent the next week skiing & snowboarding at various ski areas up and down the valley. Here's a gallery of photos from the week, along with our experiences there.

Chasing Powder in the Alps (Part 1): Low Tide in Austria
January 2026  |  Fieberbrunn, Austria

After visiting Claudia's family over Christmas in Germany, we took the train down to Munich and picked up a rental car for the next phase of our winter Euro trip: a month of skiing and snowboarding in the Alps! As January rolled around, though, my excitement was tamped down a bit by the fact that the Alps were experiencing a miserably low snow year so far. Powder prospects looked grim, with much of the Alps barely having any snowpack at all...

January in the French Alps
January 2025  |  France

On New Years Eve, my wife Claudia and I flew to France to spend the month of January skiing/snowboarding in the French Alps! We rented a car in Geneva, drove to Chamonix, then slowly worked our way south over the next three weeks, skiing at lots of different ski areas both big and small mainly in the Haute-Savoie and Savoie regions...

Winter in Tyrol: Daily Posts
January - March 2024  |  Tyrol, Austria

In the winter of 2024 my wife Claudia and I are spending three months in the mountains of the Tyrol region of Austria! This is an ongoing stream of posts from our time here; I am challenging myself to try to post a photo each day (or at least every few days)...

Sliding into Spring
April/May 2023  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

I'm a month late with this post, but I thought I'd share some snapshots from a few spring skiing days in late April/early May here in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado. I didn't get out as much as I expected this spring, due in large part to unusually thunderstormy weather in May but also just generally being too busy on the computer (something I'm trying consciously to change in my life)...

Winter in the San Juans
Winter 2021  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

The 2020-21 winter season in southwest Colorado got off to a slow start, with around 60% of average snowfall at the beginning of January. But in late January a potent southwest storm cycle dumped over 3 feet of much-needed powder in the San Juans, bringing us closer to average...

2019-20 Winter in the San Juans
2019/2020  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

Here is a collection (in chronological order) of my favorite photos taken during the 2019/20 winter here in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado.

From December through March, this was one of the best backcountry splitboarding seasons in memory here in the San Juans...

Spring Skiing in the San Juans
April-June 2019  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

If you've followed my blog for a while, you may wonder if I've given up on snowboarding since I haven't posted hardly any ski/snowboard photos this winter. Well, while I haven't been posting much, I have been out on the snow a lot this season, especially this spring!

2018-2019 was a winter to remember in Colorado, with roughly 160% of average snowpack by late winter...

Mount Hayden Backcountry Lodge
February 2019  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

This weekend we had a wonderful stay at Eric Johnson's Mount Hayden Backcountry Lodge. Located in Richmond Basin in a remote corner of the San Juan Mountains between Ouray and Telluride, the lodge is surrounded by a powder playground of skiable terrain...

Heli Bumps in Haines, Alaska
March 2016  |  Alaska

The glaciated and snow smothered Takhinsha Mountains near Haines, Alaska are amongst the most impressive mountains on Earth in the eyes of a skiier or snowboarder. In March 2016 I joined three friends for a week-long trip to Haines to go heli snowboarding in this legendary big mountain riding mecca...

Wetterhorn Ski Mission
April 2015  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

Wetterhorn Peak stands above its surrounding basins like an ancient crumbling volcano. Rising to 14,015 feet, the pyramidal fourteener is not only one of the most photogenic mountains in Colorado, but its steep eastern face holds a classic ski descent that I’ve been wanting to snowboard for years...

2013-14 Winter in the San Juans
Winter 2013-14  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

A collection of my favorite photos from the winter season of 2013-2014 in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado.

Powderfest at the Fowler/Hilliard Hut
January 2014  |  Gore Range, Colorado

It had been snowing for nearly three weeks straight in the northern mountains of Colorado. With the northwest storm flow forecasted to dump a few more heavy punches before finally clearing out, last week I checked the 10th Mtn...

2012-13 Winter in Ouray
Winter 2012-2013  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

A selection of skiing, landscape, and town photos in and around Ouray in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado during the 2012-2013 winter season.

Ski Hut Tour in the Gore Range
March 2013  |  Gore Range, Colorado

Last week we spent four days and three nights on a 10th Mountain Division ski hut tour in the southern Gore Range of Colorado! The first leg of our trip took us to the Jackal Hut, which is perched on a high ridge with expansive views towards Leadville and the highest peaks of Colorado in the Sawatch Range...

Supermoon on Sneffels
May 2012  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

I’ve been itching for an adventure lately, so early this morning I hiked up Mt. Sneffels in the moonlight again! I left Ouray at 1:30am (ouch!) and started hiking into Yankee Boy Basin at 2:30am. The “supermoon” – aka, the full moon at its closest orbit to Earth – was incredibly bright, and I had no troubles finding my way without headlamp...

Snowboarding Volcanoes in Chile
November 2011  |  Chile

In early November 2011 we were traveling in central Chile around Chillán and Pucón; this region of the Andes is full of stratovolcanoes (kind of like the Pacific Northwest). There had been a very snowy winter before our visit (November is spring down south), and the volcanoes were still smothered in snow...

Epic Spring Ski Season in Western Colorado
May/June 2011  |  Colorado

With record-breaking snowfalls in April, continuing well in May, the spring ski season in the San Juans was a memorable one. May surprised us with several long snow storms that brought mid-winter-esque powder days and smiles all around! Here is a collection of my favorite ski photos from May and June...

Bernese Oberland Ski Hut Tour
April 2011  |  Switzerland

In early April I went on a ski hut tour in the Bernese Oberland mountains of Switzerland. This is the heart of the Swiss Alps, and during the course of 6 days we skied a variety of routes across the largest glacier system in the Alps...

A Winter in the Alps
Winter 2010-11  |  Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Germany

This gallery is a compilation of my favorite photos taken from the 2010-2011 winter season in the Alps, from November through April, in roughly chronological order. I spent most of the season in Engelberg, Switzerland but also did trips to Zermatt, Grindelwald, Mürren, and the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland; the Dolomites in Italy; Obergurgl and Mayrhofen in Austria; and the Black Forest in Germany...

Riding Volcanos in Washington
May 2010  |  Washington

In May my friend Scott and I did a road trip out to Washington to ski/snowboard some volcanos. We ended up scoring two phenomenal descents down Mount Saint Helens and Mount Adams.


Mount Saint Helens in a Cloud Sandwich

Mt...

A Winter in Jackson Hole
Winter 2009-10  |  Tetons, Wyoming

I moved up to Jackson Hole, Wyoming during the winter of 2009-2010 to snowboard as much as possible.  Now that my season is wrapping up here, I have compiled this gallery of my favorite skiing and snowboarding photos from the winter, including a few shots of me snowboarding, taken by my friends...

Spring Snowboarding Descents in the Tetons
May 2009  |  Tetons, Wyoming

This May 2009, I headed up to Jackson, Wyoming to snowboard some big spring lines in the Tetons with a buddy of mine who lives up there. My timing could not have been better, with solid snow conditions from top to bottom of the peaks, and perfect sunny spring weather...

2009 Skiing & Snowboarding in the San Juans
Winter 2009  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

My favorite shots from our backcountry skiing and snowboarding adventures during the 2009 winter and spring, in the San Juan Mountains, near Ouray, Colorado.

Hideout Cabin
January 2009  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

This weekend I joined some friends for a three day weekend up at their backcountry cabin in the San Juan Mountains south of Telluride, Colorado. The cabin’s a real gem, situated in a rugged San Juan setting surrounded by prime ski terrain...

2008 Skiing & Snowboarding in Colorado
Winter/Spring 2008  |  Colorado

The 2007-2008 snow season has been an epic one, with record breaking snowfalls in western Colorado. The town of Ouray (where I live) got over 21 feet of snow, more than twice the average, and the most in 60 years of records! The high mountains probably got twice that, if not more...

Skiing La Sals, Utah
April 2008  |  La Sal Mountains, Utah

This weekend I met up with Ann Driggers and Seth Anderson, some new ski buddies I met through SummitPost.org, to ski some lines in La Sal Mountains, the prominent range that rises a whopping 8,700 vertical feet above the town of Moab and the surrounding canyonlands of southeast Utah...

Spring Riding in the San Juans
April/May 2007  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

Instead of making separate trip reports for each spring backcountry hike and ski/snowboard trip that my friends and I do, I thought I'd just make a page with some of my favorite pictures from various hikes this spring in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado...