Embedded: Ski Salt Lake Shootout – Day 3
On patrol at and around Brighton with photographer Garrett Grove's crew
Thursday, Feb. 10: Day 3 of the Ski Salt Lake Shootout with Bellingham, Wash.-based photographer Garrett Grove, skiers Jason West and Forrest Coots, and snowboarder Nick Russell, at Brighton, Utah. Photos by Tim Mutrie (and video here).
Day 3 of the Ski Salt Lake Shootout: Photographer Garrett Grove's crew -- skiers Jason West and Forrest Coots, and snowboarder Nick Russell -- hitches an early-bird ride up the Milly lift at Brighton this morning and then heads straight up the Milly ridge bootpack. It's windy, cold and bluebird.
Low cloud banks to the south, with Jason West -- riding alpine gear for the third day this season -- on top of Millicent.
Aiming for Wolverine Bowl, the crew drops down to the next saddle when Coots spies -- then hits -- this little number off the flank of Wolverine Cirque. Later, West describes the line as a variation of Stupid Chute.
A few one-turn wonder type shots ensue in and around Wolverine Bowl, with Grove and West working it here.
At the saddle between Wolverine and Mt. Tuscarora, Russell -- the group's token shredder -- builds a jib and hits it just this one time; Grove documents.
Things get interesting at the top of Tuscarora as the crew eyes lines down into the east-facing Seagull Chute -- Coots, left, and Grove.
Coots, a climbing ranger on Mt. Shasta by summer ("It's not always about the spirituality!"), finds a comfy perch midway down Seagull.
Later to be joined by West and Grove as scouting for further "interesting" options ensues.
After chowing down at Smash Burger SLC, the Grove crew heads north to Antelope Island with the goal of fulfilling the lifestyle-y "urban meets mountain" component of the Shootout. The closing of the southern part of the island nips plans for a long-lens type shot including the SLC city-scape, but sightings of many pronghorn antelope and buffalo (aka bison) keep everyone happy as they shift to Plan B.
It's all about the lifestyle: Coots on the Great Salt Lake's thin ice... perhaps the diciest thing the crew did all day.
Jason West's turn... leading to a few rubber-necking passersby on the road, one of whom warned not of the thin ice but of a wastewater treatment plant flows originating closeby.
The crew -- West on the ice floe and Groove and Coots on the jetty -- work the pink sunset light til nearly dark.
