Wild Card Movies

Memoirs of a Tripod { a journal of one WildCard filmer’s 2011 Season}

Cooke City Mountains

Its 5:30 in the am,

Night terrors of high pressure and warm temperatures have provided me little sleep over the last few nights. If you’re in the PNW then you know what I’m talking about, la-Nina has really had her way with us as of late. My phone has been ringing constantly with updates from the crew {Nick Ennen, Joe Bosler, Forrest Burki and Andy Stern} on the road and the report is sounding like a wet dream right about now.

4 feet in the last 24 with a high of 15′ has left me scrambling to load my sled/equipment and pound out the 850 miles from Seattle to Cooke City, MT like a long-haul truck driver on the juice pulling an all- nighter.

After 14 solid hours on the road I am pulling into Yellowstone @ 3am with only 80 miles before I hit the Mecca, and let me just say those last 80 miles might of damn well been the craziest of my life. The snow is falling and the road is deep and un-plowed, the wind drifts start to reach the hood of my jacked up 4×4 and after a short while the only sign there is even a road in front of me is the faint prints of animal tracks making their way through the shallower patches of roadway. Wolves and coyotes no doubt, by the looks of things I might be spending the night out here and riding my sled into town in the morning until the road gets cleared, its getting too deep.

4 miles from town a snow plow finally passes me making the last part manageable, that was a close call, 3 hrs to go 80 miles has exhausted me for sure and I pass out in the truck for a few hrs next to the crews RV.

Cooke City Mountains

{Tri-log: 1-22-11}

The snow is better than I expected out here, and with another 2ft of fresh it is almost unmanageable with the sleds, we get stuck a lot but it’s worth it I should of brought my snorkel it’s so deep. Avalanche conditions are high and with the crew just having a close call with death the day before we keep it mellow and in the trees. The sun blesses us at the end of the day and we make sunset pow runs back to the cabin.

Joe Bosler straps in for some sunset pow runs.

Snowflakes on the Panasonic HPX170 Video Camera

{Tri-log: 1-23-11}

Holy shit another foot of fresh and blue skies! This is the life! The crew poaches continental breakfast @ the Super8, the hotel guy has been giving us the evil eye all morning, I think he’s on to our free loader ways I better watch my back.

We load the sleds and head out to check on some sick “AK” Montana lines the boys had dropped earlier in the week to see if they had recharged. The 100+ft drop Nick Ennen had hammered a couple days before that had left the town buzzing for several days was looking prime but as the clouds rolled in we decide to save it for tomorrow.

After that we destroyed everything we could find, pillows, cliffs, vert lines, even stacked a jump. The sledding today has been the best of my life, so friggin deep you can do over vert doughnuts and not get stuck. I am starting to think it’s time to move out here permanently.

Flat Top Mountain

More Cooke City Landscapes

Ice on Snowboard

Think I am in need of a sledge hammer for this ice build up!

{Tri-log: 1-24-11}

I wake up early to find it the clearest day yet. As the crew gets ready I can’t help but get excited at the possibilities that lay before us. The snow is epic and the temps cold. There is only one other film crew out here right now, “The Pirates” and we have the whole area to ourselves pretty much. The terrain is so vast we only see them @ the end of the day. Sounds like both crews killed it, we make some sunset pow runs together and log another one in the books.

Cooke City Sunset

Nick Ennen, Forrest Burki, Jordan Ingmire and the rest of the crew enjoy sunset.

Its no 5 star penthouse.

{Tri-log: 1-25-11}

Everyone is exhausted, the snow has been deep for over a week and the crew has been working overtime collecting bangers.

The counter clerk @ the Super8 has had it with our 9 days of poaching the contentital breakfast and as he slams his fists on the counter yelling “you boys are eating my breakfast again? no, No, NO,” we think our time here might be coming to an end. We decide it’s time to get the hell out of dodge before we over stay our welcome and the locals revolt on us.

The crew is heading to SIA in Denver, see you there.

{Tripod – 1} WildCard 2011

Scott Studach - Filmer