I’m still experimenting with the GoPro.  A few days ago, I took it out for my first attempt at using it for backcountry skiing.  Looking at the footage it captured I learned a couple of things.  

I find skinning up a mountain in the backcountry a beautiful, Zen-like experience. Feeling my legs working against the slope, the warm sun on my face.  The silence, the solitude, the overwhelming beauty of the whole experience.  But watching it on video is like watching paint dry.  Just mind-numbingly boring.  The skiing parts are pretty entertaining but forget about the climbing parts.  Funny how that works. 

Second, while the GoPro is great at capturing action there’s something about its lens, focal length or something else camera-y that flattens anything far away.  It doesn’t do scenery at all.  I’m out there skiing in the presence of these massive, gorgeous 13- and 14-thousand-foot mountains, but on the GoPro they’re all squashed down to inconsequential lumps of mashed potatoes in the distance.  To somewhat compensate and to properly set the scene, I’ll start off with a few still shots.

Bald, Clover and Aetna towering over Monarch ski area with Highway 50 far below.

13ers Aetna and Taylor all in white.

Taylor with its 14er neighbors Antero, Tabeguache and Shavano.

So here it is, my first ever GoPro backcountry ski video.  Two afternoon runs at Snow Stake, an area I’d previously posted about here.  A repeat, but with new snow and moving pictures.  An hour of footage edited down to what I hope is a reasonably diverting eight minutes.

Enjoy!