Happy October readers! It's been a while since I've put a post up but with the snow beginning to coat our beautiful Rocky Mountains I can't help but feel the stoke and reflect on what an incredible year it has been. While some may claim the 2014/2013 season wasn't the most ideal for snow conditions I beg to differ. It was a year for snow hunting, and that is were the adventures being!

This past year started off at Sunshine Village in some perfect Nov/Dec powder before heading to my Montana home and teaming up with Whitefish Montana with Great Northern Powder Guides for another epic season. GNPG kept me pretty busy with clients, film crews, athletes and face shots until April. Then I headed back to my roots in the Canadian Rockies and dug into a few pow days at Sunshine Village before heading out the door for 10 days in Revelstoke BC. In Revy I photographed for SheJumps.org a non-profit organized dedicated to helping women experience the outdoors on any skill level and in multiple sports. Every year SheJumps partners up with the Selkirk Lodge for a ski  
mountaineering class, and what a treat it was to learn technical skills with a bunch of rad chicks in the backcountry. We also did some filming/photographing for the new Lyndsey Dyer film PrettyFaces that is touring now - check it out here!! My "season" has been going on for 12 months straight now, and things got a little spicy in the summer months. I followed not only the snow but photo opportunities and I landed in some pretty spectacular places including Whistler in July and Jasper in August, not to mention snowboarding in suburbia Calgary in the middle of September, thank you snow gods! 

Currently feeling so grateful for the places my camera has taken me and the people that I've met along the way. I cannot wait to be playing in my backyard - Sunshine Village again this winter. Sunshine's has one of the earliest opening dates around every year and their level of stoke is contagious. I'm not sure if you suffer from the same snow starved feeling as I do, but I cannot wait to be in the white mountains that I call home. 

It's the time of year where everyone is getting snow mode and prepping their gear. What are your favorite preseason tricks or hacks? Are you an October waxer, maybe starting some cross training? I want to hear your secrets and share them in my next post :)

Until then, let the flakes fly!

A.

 I had the really cool experience of photographing Robert slalom water skiing at Predator Bay last week. After postponing twice due to weather I am so glad we waited, couldn't have asked for better lighting on the course!

 These images are from my first day shooting at Nakiska this season... I know, I know a little out of order on the blog posts! It happens when you are playing catch up from a crazy busy winter, and now a crazy busy spring. With that said, you can expect some more posts this week as I catch up on my massive editing pile! 

I have to brag a little bit about this day, the sky was amazing! When I went to the day lodge to meet up with the employees to photograph I couldn't have asked for a better group. Great attitudes, and some of these guys/gals can lay down in the park! I made some new friends, and got some incredible shots thanks to their skills. All in all, epic shooting day!

 Nakiska was another RCR destination to photograph this winter. I  made it up to Nakiska a few times (I will post more photos!) this season and almost every time I went up there it snowed. AWESOME for riding, a little tricky with the images. If you haven't made it up to Nakiska it's a pretty cool place. Extremely family friendly, awesome park for all my "park rat" friends, and for the tourist type, it's a must see for all the 1988 Olympic heritage! The staff is incredible, they even joined me for a while and let me take their photos. Thanks for a great season Nakiska!

 What does a day shooting at Fernie Alpine Resort look like? Well if you're lucky enough to get a bluebird, it looks a little something like this! 

I'd been in communication with RCR (Resorts of the Canadian Rockies) for a few weeks of trying to get to Fernie for a photoshoot, but with storm after storm I was stuck in Montana - being stuck in Montana, specifically Whitefish Montana when its storming is not a bad thing! But conditions were not ideal for photographing, and I'm sure glad I waited it out for this picture perfect blue sky. From the top of the new Polar Peak chair we could see endless peaks, hooray for above alpine skiing! Our 9-4pm day on the slopes consisted of 3 full runs top to bottom, with smaller runs connecting chairlifts and such... welcome to a day of photographing vs. skiing! No complaining here, just exposing you to the fact that a photographing day is very different from a typical day of skiing. Photo days are very thought out and each run is dissected into "different shots." Fernie was bursting at the seems with photographing opportunities so we would stop constantly scouting lines and photo opps, set up, shoot and repeat a few times each run. We encountered some lighting issues only once, and that's because we ventured into the trees for a little "jib" on the mountain bike features, after some trial and error we were able to work things out and get a few great shots.

The day was filled with blue skies, "almost" goggle tans, power pockets, chutes, adventures in the trees, tons of photo opportunities and believe me we took them welcoming, and of course some Apres talk & brews. Success in photo world indeed!

 Welp, its been another AMAZING season working with Great Northern Powder Guides in Whitefish, Montana. This season flew by, hence the lack of winter blog posts, sorry about that! Be sure to check out Great Northern Powder Guides facebook page HERE to see more images from this winter. GNPG doubled in size this season, which meant double the equipment and double the employes. I was lucky enough to have Jonathan Finch come on board to help out with the photography side of things and he was excellent, we all hope to have him back next year. All I can do is drool over the snow in all these images, makes me crave some powder! Thanks to all of Abbydell Photography's clients, we appreciate your photo purchases!

 I get to hit the mountains with this girl this upcoming week and realized... I never posted an "official" album about our fall photoshoot on Pip's "search for snow." Welp, the snow has come, no more searching, just enjoying! I bet some of you recognize Pip Hunt from the cover of Backcountry Magazine, Backcountry.com website, Marmot & Smith Optics ads. This mountain athlete is one rad chick. Look forward to seeing ya soon Pip!