Part Five of Snow - read bottom up (oldest to newest) to follow the story

 Snow had now taken over as the designated camera person, with the $10,000 solid state HD camera in her pack and a radio-equipped camera on her helmet. She continued the trail footage and she would be filming in-motion as they descended the mountain. Both the helicopter and another crew positioned across the valley would pick up the trip down. The intricate planning and complex logistics were time-consuming and frustrating to Snow, who rarely stopped moving either up or down.  But the gig paid well—so there were no complaints from her. She just wanted it to go precisely according to the script with no problems as, right now, they were above the helicopter’s reach and the lives of the other four were 100% her responsibility. A huge spread and tub of beers would be waiting for the whole crew down at the lift-top mountain chalet when they got there, so there would be a pretty good party as a bonus when all was done without a hitch.

Sacha White was Canadian by birth, but couldn’t actually remember ever having a street address in Canada. Her mother told her that she was born at the side of a bush trail in January and that her first cradle was made of seal skin lined snow blocks. Her native name meant something like snowshoe hare, so Snow was a natural and immediate nickname. As far back as she could remember, she had lived outside. Although appreciated in the deep freeze of the mountain winter, heated buildings were something she avoided until absolutely necessary. She could build an storm-proof igloo with the right snow or a watertight lean-to with the right trees, so it rarely occurred to her to go inside anyway. 

Snow was wearing a custom Burton S Series split mountain snowboard, with skins, which functioned exactly like the skis of the others. At the top though, she would assemble the two halves into a solid 178 centimeter, ultra-wide powder board and ride the uncut snow down in the graceful arcs of an expert deep powder rider. Part of her commitment to the assignment was to lead the two Japanese pros off the two-hundred foot drop of Muerte Larga cliff above the mid level bowl. This twenty-story drop was unique in the Andes and only a handful of riders and skiers had successfully completed the free fall and landing. Snow conditions, wind, light and humidity all had to be perfect to ensure a clean approach, a controlled fall and a survivable landing in soft powder more than thirty feet deep. Style points were awarded if you managed to stay on your feet, with your equipment on, but that was only a minor concern.  Huge, “yard sale” wipeouts made for better TV anyway.  She just had to ensure they all came up laughing.

Part Four of Snow (from upcoming book)

The group consisted of a branded adventurer and a goofy Japanese TV personality, along with two expert Japanese skiers. Toshio san, “Tosh” was handsome, determined and portrayed as always a step ahead.  He was a mover in politics and in life. Kazuo “Kaz” was the TV-made anti-hero of a popular reality series. On camera and on queue Tosh became all-knowing and unflinching, while Kaz made inane comments and tried to run away from every risk. When the camera was off, they were both fairly normal and equally capable. Each adventure, with hero and resident idiot, was scripted, edited and packaged to maintain their assigned roles and to meet the expectations of their huge national viewer audience in Japan.  It all left Snow scratching her head.

The pros were more straightforward. Tadashi “Toad” and Michio “Mich” were both level four instructors, with considerable heli-skiing experience. They were all business and were ultimately responsible for the quality of the skiing shots. Tosh and Kaz were already good skiers, but had been up on the Snow Cats for four straight days tuning up their powder skills. Snow was impressed with everyone’s work ethic. She also sensed that she had been cast in a specific role as well. She was waiting to see what it would be.

They had left their Snow Cat transportation at approx 3000 meters and been on foot, going straight up the ridge line for close to two hours. For the first hour of their climb, a camera crew had been with them and another film crew in a helicopter had tracked their progress.  Periodically, when they stopped to drink or rest, the Tosh and Kaz would go into their shtick, providing a kinetic and totally unintelligible commentary with much arm waving and vista pointing. They were enamored with her and she had to appear in almost every shot. She assumed that someone would voice-over her commentary with something in context once all the footage hit the studio. So most of her comments were intentionally nonsensical. She was waiting for one of them to break into perfect English and embarrass her, but, so far, no one had questioned her running commentary on snow boarding Sasquatches and unseen, lurking snow snakes.

This is the post that I created in class

Snow and wind - a bad combination.  But here we are.  At least the power is on so far.  This will be a great day to catch up on paperwork and class preparation, including sending a note recommending that everyone get started on their blog.