Copper Basin Phone Book

Ron Niebrugge Alaska, Chugach, Photos, Shameless Self Promotion, Travel Leave a Comment

Copper Basin Phone Book

I find I’m often frustrated when shooting extreme activities.  The mountains never look as steep, and the drops as high when I look at my photos after the fact.  A couple of years ago I discovered the secret to shooting extreme activities; work with someone like Jake Boulden who has amazing skills and no fear! 

We went back and looked at my entire series of photos of this jump, and by using Jake’s snow machine (snowmobile for the non-Alaskans) for a size reference, tried to estimate just how far he went when he launched off this cliff.  It was a long, long ways – at least a 60 foot drop, and maybe much more.  He landed on a very steep slope in some deep powder that totally engulfed him.  Jake is an amazing rider.

I’m really grateful to Jake and his Dad for loaning me a snow-machine and helping me get into position for this and other great shots.  It is also pretty cool to be on the cover of the Copper Basin Phone Book, since that is where I grew up.

As a funny side note, after Jake did this jump and all the excitement and exclamations by those of us watching subsided, I got up the nerve to mention that it would be kind of nice to have a horizontal version.  Believe it or not, Jake went back and did it again and went even bigger!  Here is the horizontal photo.

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