From this to that

From This

To That

A few weeks ago Alex and I, along with a few others, went to try to get a shot out at Echo Lake. It was a beautiful day with a big feature. Alex always has an eye for features that will make him stand out amongst the crowd. This feature was a rail gap over a stream that was about 30 ft long. It took us about 2-3 hours to get set up with lots and lots of digging. He did a few speed checks before actually attempting the trick. When we started the session nobody was around except us. He hit the rail a couple of times and fell just short of completing the whole thing. We took 5 and gathered our thoughts. At that time 2 men that were cross country skiing came up on us and wanted to watch. This made Alex a little nervous. When he attempted the rail the third time it didn't go as planned. He fell over the wrong side of the rail, slammed against the opposite wall of the gap, and fell right into the stream. Upon landing in the stream, he broke his tibia and fibula. This wasn't just a break though, he shattered the bones into ten different pieces right under his knee. Alex knew right away that he had broken his leg but somehow he was still able to stand until one of the onlookers and I ran to grab a hold on him. We carried him out of the stream and laid him down in the snow. Right after the accident, by some grace of god, an orthopedic surgeon and his wife came walking by. (Remember this is in the middle of the back country.)

After we assessed how bad the break was we called search and rescue. We knew there was no way we could carry him out. The surgeon made a splint with sticks and some of my rope while I ran to find a ladder at the summer cabins that could act as a stretcher. We turned my snowboard upside down and placed it on the ladder so that it made a flat surface. We then layed him on the stretcher and carried him to a secure location to protect him from the beating sun and the rotor wash from the helicopter. Unfortunately the Heli could not land because of the wind conditions. We waited about another hour for the search and rescue teams to arrive with a snowmobile and carriage.

All in all it took about 2 hours from the time of the injury until the time he was in an ambulance. This is a great example of being prepared and using your instinct when something bad goes wrong. When venturing out in the back counrty always have a simple rescue equipment on hand in case something goes extremely wrong. Luckily I had the rope to stabilize his leg and my early planning led me to quickly locate a device to carry alex to a protected location. The number 1 item that should always be carried while in the back country is a phone. Without that we either would have had to leave him behind to meet up with search and rescue or carry his ass all the way out. the number 2 item that should always be carried is rope. Without rope we could have damaged his leg even worse. Plus if I wouldn't have found a ladder we would have needed to make a stretcher out of tree branches. I hope everyone who reads this excerpt will think twice about where they are going and always be prepared for the worst.

Alex is doing fine and healing well. He'll be back on his own two feet in about a month and ready to shred in 2. I want to thank Merrick for all his help that day. I also want to thank the four people that volunteered their time to help us get Alex out of there. And finally thank you search and rescue for their assistance in retrieving Alex.

Nike Chosen Event at Heavenly

Heavenly Mountain felt like the X-Games tonight during the Nike Chosen event. The jump was prime, the lights were stellar, and the crowd was pumped. A number of Lake Tahoe's top amateur snowboarders battled it out in a jam format competition. The set up consisted of a 70 ft jump with a close out rail, wall ride, and quarter pipe all tucked into the jumps gap. Quite an impressive set up by Snow Park Technologies and Heavenly Terrain Park Crew. If you didn't make it you missed out on what was probably the biggest competition held in Lake Tahoe this year. Here are some photos to show what it looked like.


The reason they call it Heavenly. BJ Linne spinning his carcass during the practice runs.


The scary view of the jump drop in.


PNUT going big.


They're going so fast!


The finalists waiting to drop.


Mystery Rider launching the finals.


Jordan Nield showing off in the final round.




Twin Double Corks by the Geisen Twins, Nick and Chris.







I was trying to show the motion of the riders while stealing some flash from other photographers. it kind of worked but not really.


Best Trick winner. I think he received $500. He jumped off the top of the left side of the jump into the transition for the close out wall ride.


Heavenly's own, Joanna "PNUT" Dzierzawski, with the win for the ladies. Taking home some cash as well. PNUT was throwing some big stylish 3's over that hunk of snow. Hats off


And the mens winners are: 3rd place Nick Geisen, 2nd Place Jordan Nield, and 1st Place Nick Poohachoff. All in all there was $5000 in cash given away to the winners. Good Job to everyone who participated and great job to the staff that set everything up from organizing to building. It was definitely an eventful night for South Lake.

Do what ya can

The other day I was blessed to go out on the sleds with a couple of neversummer riders. I've never gotten to ride a mountain sled before so it made for an exciting day. Plus the fact that we have barely any snow and we were able to go out and build a mini booter and have some fun was a huge moral booster. Heres a little shot from the day. Thanks Nick for teaching me how to run a snow-mo. Sooo fun and easy. Next year hopefully I have one in my hands.


Rider: Nick Brownsberger

Saturday night is the Nike Chosen event. Lets hope i can snipe some good shots!

Holidays are done, Shooting has begun

Finally the busy holiday season is over. I can finally have a little time off work to go out and snipe some photos. Although there's not much happenin' because of the drought, I still manage to find some people willing to throw down and get some shots. Heres a shot of NeverSummer Rider Nick Brownsberger doing his thing.



I got another day full of shooting tomorrow and then another full work week ahead of me. Soon we will get some snow and shooting will be full speed

The Blog is BACK!!!

DAAYYYYYUUUUUUMMM!!!! Its been more than 6 months since I've posted. Isn't that some BS or what? Sorry bout that. But good news is I am bringing it back to life! Except it's not going to be something sundays. I'm just going to write about my projects or my adventures.

So far no snow this season. Thank God for Heavenly's snowmakers!!!! Theyre the ones out working their asses off just to let people shred an awesome park. Props to them!

Lately I've just been working a lot since there is no snow. I've also been shooting for this company called RA Optics. I've been doing more commercial shots with them such as product shots and portrait/lifestyles. I'm hoping something big comes from this company one day. I see a lot of potential. Other than that just out sniping some people just to get out and actually shoot.



Here I was out sniping one day while the Geisen twins were out shredding. They're a couple of twins snowboarding climbing in the local pro scene. Hoping some day I can get linked up with them and get a little shooting in, that'd be sick!

Anyways, I'll try to stay more on top of this blog thing. I did miss, not gonna lie.

Peace,
-Geno Fonderoli

Sumthin Sunday Wk 25- 6 months

Although I did miss last weeks post(busy working and Laura came to visit), it has been 6 months since I started Sumthin Sundays. It a fun little side project that always keeps me thinking. The only problem is I haven't had any days to shoot what I really want to. Work takes up 6 days a week and on my day off, all my portrait subjects are busy and everyone wants to do something fun. Nobody wants to sit around and listen to me direct their posture while they stare into a flashing strobe when it's 80 degrees. So I've decided to show some shots from my shoot at Squaw. I never got a response back from his team manager so I'm going to let everyone peep some of my new stuff.

Here's Nick Langkamp, HMK Factory Team Rider, Snowboard-cross






Thank you everyone for staying loyal to my blog. I'll try my best to keep my photos as new and fresh as possible.

Peace!

Sumthin Sunday Wk 24- Shit, It's Monday

Damn I forgot again. I suck! But I have been super busy, working 6 days a week now, and just finished the final for my class I needed to graduate. Now that schools pretty much over I can finally relax a little and actually get some sun.

Last week Matt and I hiked the peak at Donner Pass. It took a few hours. We first had to hike through the tunnels then hand to hike to the top. When we got to the top there was a 50 ft rock that we were able to climb and chill in the sun at the top for about an hour. The ride down was super fun. We were triggering heavy, slow moving slides. They weren't dangerous but definitely a hazard.

On the walk back through the tunnels I decided to shoot some of the Ice with gels on my flashes. Here's a couple photos.