3.07.2010

Day 50 - Dry Fork (AKA Heaven)

My 50th day on snow this season was incredible. I got a phone call Friday night from my longtime friend Blake Nyman, and the conversation went a little something like this:


Me: "Hello?"
Blake: "Hey Parker, how you doin'?"
Me: "Doing well, sir. What's up?"
Blake: "What are you doing tomorrow?"
Me: "Ok, you talked me into it."


Every time I go out skiing with Blake it's hammers. You may remember episode three from last year (click here), so he didn't even have to tell me what was going down for me to say yes. But ultimately it turned into one of the most fun days I've had all year, and certainly the best consistent turns I've had all year. 
We ended up heading out to the Tibble Fork trailhead in American Fork Canyon and tandem sledding out to Dry Fork to meet up with J. Eichhorst, Eliel Hindert, Adam Clark, and a couple other homies to sessions some lines and little jumps. It's always good times to come out and hang out with good people and super talented photographers and athletes, and I'm just stoked that Blake brought me along for the ride.
It was like a billion degrees at the base of Tibble Fork, and Blake's sled was getting a little grumpy so we had to take a couple brief breaks to make sure she didn't overheat on us, but we finally made it up by Point Supreme and the snow was incredible. A little zipper-crust at first, but quickly vanished as the temperatures rose just slightly.
Blake scoped a rad natty rock jump feature, sent a huge first tracks 360, and stomped it super hard, followed by a few more massive hits by the homies. The action shot above is actually a freeze frame from the video that I was shooting. The light quickly vanished and Blake couldn't quite pull off his zero spin, but we relocated to meet up with a snowboard crew that was filming in a similar area and I snapped a few lifestyle shots of those guys. Thanks, Blake, for the invite, and I'm stoked to do it again anytime. Also mad props to all the talent that showed up. Big ups all around and I'm pumped to work with any of you guys anytime. The best part of the day, however, was the fact that I got to ski the nearly 2,000 ft decent down into Dry Fork while Blake took his sled back down. Creamy east/north-east facing pow all the way to the bottom. Amazing turns. Thanks again, everyone.
HDRI of the cliffs above the jump. So epic.
Parker Duke strapping in.
Blake camping out on his sled enjoying the views.
Another epic shot of the face below the cliffs. Parker Duke ready to drop.
Blake was a hero and carried my tripod.

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