To celebrate its 50th anniversary this year, Cairngorm Mountain got together with Red Bull and came up with the Red Bull 50/50.
The concept was simple. 100 competitors racing against the clock, covering top half the hill on skis/snowboards and the bottom half on mountain bikes. However due to the short snowsport season and savage thaw, the end event was more like a Red Bull 10/90 than 50/50.
The staff at Cairngorm done an amazing job of transforming the remaining strip of snow in the Cas, into a Skier-X style course and the lower half of the hill was a mix of cross country style tracks with the odd wooden kicker or obstacle thrown in.
While the weather didn’t play ball on the snow section of the course, it didn’t detracted from the atmosphere at the event and hopefully it’ll become a regular fixture on the calendar.
T in the Park 2011
Published on Jul 16, 2011 - In: Music
Since T in the Park was first held at Strathclyde Park in 1994, it has grown into the biggest music event in Scotland.
Due to redevelopment work the festival was was forced to move in 1997, to a disused airfield at Balado near Kinross. However since then it has gown in size and strength with 80,000 people attending this year’s event, headlined by Arctic Monkeys, Coldplay and the Foo Fighters.
Mountain Bike World Cup
Published on Jul 14, 2011 - In: MTN Bike
Once a year the world’s best riders head to Nevis Range, Fort William to compete in the Mountain Bike World Cup. Celebrating its tenth anniversary on the World Cup circuit, the Downhill (DH) and 4-Cross (4X) took centre stage, as the riders pitted themselves against anything the courses could throw at them.
The 1.6 mile DH course had a couple of new additions to its 1700ft descent down Aonach Mor this year including a new, faster start and a 15ft drop-off over the forestry access road. The 4X track remained largely the same as previous years, with a monstrous rock garden half way down the track.
South African, Greg Minnaar, narrowly pipped British rider Danny Hart, to win the men’s DH race with a time of 4 mins 43 secs. In the women’s DH, Tracy Moseley and Rachel Atherton made it a British one two, with 5 mins 21 secs and 5 mins 23 secs respectively.
The women’s 4X final was won by Anneke Beerten from the Netherlands, with British rider, Joey Gough finishing in second place. Roger Rinderknecht from Switzerland won the men’s 4X.
Whitelines Covershot
Published on Mar 3, 2011 - In: Snow
Each month I wait for the latest editions of the magazines to drop through the door to see if any of my shots have been used. Usually I flick through the entire mag looking for any shots, before going back and actually reading the articles. However, this month I didn’t have to look too far to find my shot of Rome rider Marc McClement in Whitelines.
For the first time in 96 issues, a dryslope shot made the cover of the mag.
Merry Christmas
Published on Dec 25, 2010 - In: Random Photos
Hope you all have a fantastic day!
Going to the Alps in early December can be a risky choice. Will the conditions be good? Will there be enough early season snow for the resorts to open? Will the resort have good buzz about it?
I had to settle for two out of three in Val Thorens, when 2500 Oxbridge students visited for their Varsity Trip. Unfortunately the weather didn’t play ball, with a few flat light days and even some rain (and all while the UK was getting dumped on with snow). However, the evening events soon made up for it, with Calvin Harris, DJ Yoda and Jack Beats all flying out to play at the opening and closing parties.
There is a reason The Caves in Edinburgh regularly appears in the top 100 clubs in the world in DJ Mag’s yearly poll. And you just have to walk into the place to see why!
Set below South Bridge, the arches and rooms make up the structural support for the houses, shops and road above. More importantly they also make an amazing setting for one of the best club nights in Edinburgh… Az-Tech.
For the last 4 years, Amy, Tim & Al, aka Siren, Re:Tox & Al Majik, have been running Scotland’s best breakbeat club night. However all good things must come to an end, and with the final member of the team moving away from Edinburgh, November 5th was the last ever Az-Tech night… but it won’t be forgotten for a long time!
Music Like a Vitamin
Published on Oct 11, 2010 - In: Music
Over the past 10 years, the scottish music scene has churned out some pretty good mass collaboration acts, from The Reindeer Section to The Burns Unit. In keeping with that tradition, The Fruit Tree Project is the latest scottish supergroup including Scott Hutchison (Frightened Rabbit), Rod Jones (Idlewild) and Emma Pollock (The Delgados).
For the last few years Jones and Pollock have been involved with the Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival and this year they wanted to leave a lasting memory after the festival ended this year. The result was First Edition, which they performed at the Picture House in Edinburgh, along some solo slots from Scott Hutchison and Broken Records.
Birthday Blagging
Published on Sep 21, 2010 - In: Snow
When your birthday falls on a Saturday, it’s the unwritten rule that you have to make a weekend out of it. You start on the Friday night until the small hours on Saturday morning and then pickup where you left off on Saturday afternoon. That is exactly what I done back in August this year… well kind of.
Instead of going to the pub on the Friday night, we decided to take 3.5 tonne of snow, the Unity Productions Ski team and blag our way through an all night rail shoot in East Kilbride.
Apart from some unwanted attention from the local Neds and most of the local constabulary stopping by to watch, the shoot went well and Fall Line magazine picked up on it for their first issue of the season.
However, sticking to the birthday rule above, I didn’t get to bed until 6am on the Saturday morning… but that only made the first beer on Saturday afternoon taste even sweeter!
Loch, Stock and Two Soaking Lens Barrels
Published on Sep 3, 2010 - In: General
Over the years I’ve taken my cameras into some pretty precarious positions. Mountain ridges, music festival pits, ropes access shoots, etc. Not once have I gave much thought to what could happen to my kit. However that changed when I went up to Loch Lomond with the guys from theAirbag.net to shoot a wakeboarding session.
When I’m planning a shoot I’ll have an idea of the style of shots I’m after and then think about what kit I’ll need to get them (lenses, speedlights, lightstands, etc). However for this one I wanted to minimise the risk of any equipment getting wet or going moving around the boat during tight turns. In the end I settled for two bodies with a 10.5mm and 70-200mm permanently attached (I don’t mind changing lenses in the snow, but I wasn’t taking any chances out on the water).
Apart from one rouge wave soaking the boat, the shoot went off without any problems. The Loch was still, the banter was good and the light was perfect. There was even enough time for me to suit up and jump in for a few laps, once the light was too bad to shoot in.
Wakeboarding at dusk was amazing!
