FLY BY Sweat Equity in Sou east Alaska Ryland Bell on Rizzo. First ridden by Chris Coulter in 2008, this was a second descent, 15 years later. Photo: Will Wissman “We weren’t sure we had enough footage for another film until that [heli session] happened,” Ryland says, “but Lucas had been out with [local bush plane pilot] Drake and had pictures of all these zones near town. With a two-day window, we were able to get on some big lines—stuff I’d wondered about for 20 years— these giant vertical walls down into deep valleys.” You can get a lot done with a couple days in the heli and ample local knowledge to capitalize upon favorable conditions. “We’d been able to stack some stuff over the winter, but to have that session with SEABA line up, that made the film a reality for this year,” Rainery says. He was able to score a first descent on a big, fluted wall in perfect morning light to end the session—the kind of line that you could spend a lifetime waiting to ride. Rainery went home with hard drives in hand, sifting through another winter of footage, piecing it all together. The edit for this second installment from the Southeast AK diehards will be much of the same, but also a little different, he says—a tighter roster, maybe a few more heli lines. All in all, it’s another labor of love, sharing a local’s perspective on snowboarding’s ground zero of freeride in the Chilkat Mountains. “It was nice to get some recognition from the community down south for last year’s film, and have a lot of people watch it,” Rainery says. “We’re stoked that we can share what we enjoy, what we are surrounded by up here.” The Outliers 2 is playing now on thesnowboardersjournal.com. 038 THE SNOWBOARDER’S JOURNAL
The Snowboarder's Journal The Snowboarder's Journal 21.4: Page 38
