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prO photography

Cham locals all had a massive day's skiing yesterday. It has been snowing for days and and the first blue-sky day after a snowfall promises powder for all. Fresh tracks on something steep in snow up to your knees is something we all dream about. In fact, it's why most of us are here.

So a good day for the last race of the Cham winter ride competition. I joined Mark and this time around Katy Mac on the Grande Montets leg of the competition. Blue sky this time, but the course was so long. From the very top of the top lift down thefall-line of the front face to the top of the Bochard Schuss. That's about 4km in terms of distance, and nearly 1km of vertical drop - as long and as steep as the men's downhill competition, but in a way more difficult because this is un-pisted big-mountain skiing.

I can't think of anything more challenging anywhere & that's why I live in Chamonix, not Meribel. We raced some of the best freeriders in the world. Which is why I came second from last in the men's ski category. But hey - I was last in my previous competition, so I'm happy to be moving up the rankings. 6 and a half minutes was my time. My thighs were burning and demanding I stop after only a quarter of the race was gone. All I wanted to do was stop, breathe, rest but there's no points for that. No points for style either. Just boot it down to the finish line as fast as you can. The top skiers completed the course in just over 2mins . I reckon Bode Miller would struggle to compete against that. It's basically just pointing your skis from the top of the Grande Montets. None of yourmincey little piste turning stuff.

Knackered as we were, Mark and I wanted to do something we've been talking about all season. To just simply go skiing with the sole purpose of creating some great photographs for the new website/brochures etc. It's hard work. You have to get the angles right, the skiing has to be perfect, the shutter has to be clicked at the perfect moment and the camera correctly focused to get the shot. All that and also some tricky mountaineering skills to get to the areas of mountain that are untouched.

Here's a couple of the best ones. I've had to photoShop the hell out of them (which shows up my lack of skill as a photographer), but I think we're getting there. I think we're starting to do someprO photography now.

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