Words, Photos and Captions Colin Wiseman Winter’s over. It’s a Tuesday afternoon in mid-April. I’ve just returned from a week off the grid in interior British Columbia and my inbox is stacked with emails, my body drained from months on the road. Time to rest up for the spring touring season. Then a text from Jake Blauvelt: “Seeing if by some far-off chance you can make two heli days up in Pembie tomorrow and Thursday. Let me know!” We’re now on bonus time. Few folks have the luxury of a private heli in BC’s Coast Moun-tains, but Jake’s a 1-percenter when it comes to his ability to bring freestyle snowboarding to big mountain terrain. The Sea-to-Sky has been his favorite filming locale for the last decade. So, I get in Jake’s Tundra at a park and ride in Ferndale, WA before dawn. We point it north and he explains his current project, “Full Circle.” His wife Kristin gave birth to their baby girl, Nella, the third week of January. He’s been working with cinematographer Gabe Lan-glois on a short film about the Blauvelts’ transition to parenthood, living off the land back home in Vermont, and Jake’s continuing drive to ride natural terrain around the globe. By the time the sun rises, we’re ordering coffees in Brittania Beach. By 7:30, we’re loading into an AStar in street clothes to shuttle to Pemberton, overnight bags in the gear basket. It’s piloted by a Squa-mish local named Dazza. He greets Jake as old friends do, with talk of family and domestic life. A mosquito buzzes around the helicopter’s 036 THE SNOWBOARDER’S JOURNAL
The Snowboarder's Journal frequency 16.1: Page 36
