On the Skyline Express at Stevens Pass.

Alright Ian. I’m going to drop a chairlift interview on you.

Uh oh. Now?

Yep.

Ok.

Tell us about your season so far. 

The season so far has been great. November in Washington and British Columbia was just insane. We got tons of snow and it stayed cold. Lots of really good pow days and that carried on through about the middle of December. Then right after the New Year I took a two-and a half week trip with Matchstick Productions to Rogers Pass, BC for a pillow-mission skinning trip with Mark Abma and Eric Hjorleifson with really good snow. It was super deep—probably one of the top three deepest pow days of my life. I got back from that and kind of waited around for the snow. Unfortunately the snow in the Northwest had gone away at that point in time. Fortunately I hooked up with a gig with Salomon to go over to Austria for a couple weeks with Cody Townsend and Elyse Saugstad. Just got back from that and I’ve been home for about a week. As soon as you got to town you brought some snow, so I’m pretty stoked that it’s back to normal again.

Right on. You’re a Nikon shooter. What is your gun of choice?

My gun of choice is the Nikon D3. Loving that. I switched over to that last year and it’s an awesome camera.

What’s your preferred lense?

I alternate pretty much 50/50 between the Nikon 28-70 mm f/2.8 and the 80-200 f/2.8. Between the two of those I can pretty much cover all the bases I need. I’ve been sticking to the telephoto more recently than the wide-angle.

Any advice for aspiring ski photographers?

Be prepared to stand around in the cold for long periods of time. Just get out and try and shoot as much as you possible can. Be creative and think outside the box. Don’t take the standard cliché images because everyone’s already seen those. Do something to set yourself apart from everyone else. That makes you stand out. Have fun while you’re doing it.

Awesome. What do you have lined up for the rest of your season?

I’m getting ready to move into terrain park season here towards the end of March and beginning of April. Until then I’m hoping that the Northwest or somewhere else, maybe Utah or Jackson, continues to get pummeled with snow and I can get a few more weeks of pow shooting before I turn into a jib monkey.

Great. Thanks Ian.

Check out the following slides to see more of Ian and Tyler working yesterday at Stevens Pass.