Why? …..Because Alaska wants real mountain huts and the wheels are turning to get them. Imagine heading north to Alaska for hut to hut ski tours, hiking trips and for accessing alpine climbs. Visit Alaska Huts for more information.

“I want to go for a walk with my camera this morning.” My waking thought.

Like each year, I take a break from making photos. Come early November, the camera gets put into its bag and only re-emerges when the time is right. Apparently that time is now, and it does feel right.

Outside our home is a small chapel, a place for the spiritual to go and spend some moments in silence. I do this, not for religious reasons, but because it is a symbol of something, something special and well taken care of so we may all use it for the purpose we each require. I thought about what it is to see things, and to make images of them. How incredibly beautiful I find life, especially the things we humans are capable of doing within the natural world.

As the day began to lighten, and with clouds still thick in our valley, I took my walk. With open eyes and an open mind, I looked a little closer at where I live.

As I arrived, one candle was lit and glowing in the window

There is no lock on the door, the chapel is open to everyone

If you have landed on our PatitucciPhoto Blog, welcome. We seem to use this site more in the spring through fall seasons when we are shooting non-stop. These days, and throughout the winter, we’ll primarily be posting images and stories to our Mountain Sport Site: DolomiteSport.

We invite you to head over to DolomiteSport for our Mountain Sport Photos; Gear Reviews, Trip Reports, Stories and the writings of our many guest contributors.

PatitucciPhoto’s Blog will resume when the time is right. Happy Wintering…

This week’s photo is meant to make our friends laugh. The absurdity of this photo is especially apparent to anyone who knows us.

In 2000, Janine and I were in Kodiak, Alaska. A walk in the woods or the beach is something best done armed. So with my handy six shooter, and Janine with her sawed off shotgun, we set out to explore the whales roaming the shoreline. Our friend Lynn Noel snapped the photo of us in our best Bonnie & Clyde stance. Yuck it up folks.

This week’s Photo is inspired by cold, coziness, snow and friends. All of which many of us are trying to combine this Thanksgiving Holiday week.

We find ourselves in Moab, Utah and are fortunate enough to have been offered dinner with some new friends we met only a week ago. We’re staying at an amazing little B&B called the Cali Cochitta who’s owners, Dave and Kim Boger have been incredibly wonderful as hosts, and it is with them that we will be enjoying the holiday. Traveling is a reminder of how many great people there are in this world, and for this we are thankful this year.

Also for our amazing friends, who regularly shine with kindness and generosity. You all make traveling about so much fun to check in with or meet up for some playtime.

In 2008, along with 18 friends, Janine and I went to the Fairy Meadows Hut in Canada. There, completely isolated in the backcountry, we startled hibernating animals with our laughter emanating each night from the comfort of the warm hut. Friends, warmth, good food and drink – great stuff to look both back on and forward to.

From Janine and Dan – Thanks to all our friends and friends to be – Happy Thanksgiving.

Janine had the camera today and exactly twice I heard her yell, “Stop!”

And so I did, and these were her two takes. One classic Moab scene and one funky fun. Both, this week’s Photo of the Week – to make up for missing last week.

The people are the same in both these cases and they are of course us. After not having really been on a road trip in several years, we are marveling at how little has changed in terms of who we are. I drove along singing off key back then and I sing along off key still today. A road trip is a road trip, it offers a “take it as it comes” lifestyle and serves as a mirror reflecting the difference the years have made.

In these years we have built a successful mountain sports photography business – which was our goal upon arriving to Moab so long ago. We bought a home in Bishop, California where we lived for many years until deciding to get a second home in Europe, where we now spend the bulk of our time.
While making our way back to Utah, we have had numerous reminders of what we have done with our business. Numerous mountain shop visits along the way had us continually confronted by our own work; as store displays, posters, in magazines, hang tags, and catalogs. Finally it culminated in seeing the current Runner’s World on the reception desk of our B&B as we checked in, a Runner’s World in which we have a two page spread.

Janine (x2) alongside a Deuter Packs poster

We have worked extraordinarily hard in the last ten years and this journey back to our roots has revealed where we have taken our business and how we feel about it. This trip is neither a beginning or an end, it is simply a moment within the process in which we find ourselves.
We are excited at the coming months of being on the move, we have no idea where we will go, what we will shoot or whom we will meet. Life is still free and easy and it is most certainly still good.

Janine (x2) at Patagonia's San Francisco store

]]> http://blog.patitucciphoto.com/2009/11/16/road-trip-reflections/feed/ 0 patitucciphoto IMG_1625 Janine Patagonia Store http://blog.patitucciphoto.com/2009/11/04/photo-of-the-day-sellaronda-ski-race/ http://blog.patitucciphoto.com/2009/11/04/photo-of-the-day-sellaronda-ski-race/#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:32:34 +0000 patitucciphoto http://blog.patitucciphoto.com/?p=897 ]]> This week’s selection is meant to be inspiration. Snow is falling, thoughts are turning to skiing and the coming ski rando season is nearly upon us. This photo is from the start line in Corvara, in the Alta Badia.

Last year I did my first races in Italy and had a great time, I also got thoroughly schooled in one of the hardest endurance tests I have ever done. Sci alpinismo, or ski rando racing as it is called in English is massively popular in Europe. The sport combines backcountry skiing with mountain running and alpinism.

One of the biggest races in Italy is the Sellaronda Ski Marathon. Beginning at dusk, the race circumnavigates the Dolomite’s Sella Group using both pistes and service roads – at night!

Participants use powerful headlamps and ultralight ski gear, the climbs are incredibly fast and the descents are on torch lined pistes and typically in full tucks. The sport is 100% full on.

We shot the race in 2008 and it was enough to make me want to try it the following winter. I can confirm; fun, addicting and painful.

We just returned to the US and found the newest issue of Trail Runner Magazine, November 2009, sporting an image we made in the Dolomites. Patrizia Taibon and Christina Tauber joined us for a run around the Tre Cime di Lavaredo area and wore some of Mountain Hardware’s newest endurance gear for 2010.

In the background are the Tre Cime towers themselves, around which are a network of trails that if done early or late in the day guarantee having the Dolomite’s most famous landmark to yourself.

Just outside town and along the corridor of the Colorado River are the steep towers of Wall Street. There we met some Swedish base jumpers who invited us along to photograph them for a day. We hiked to the top of the wall, shot them prepping their gear, and then photographed the actual jump. Back then, before being inundated with YouTube videos of all things extreme, seeing someone jump off a cliff was not at all normal, in fact it still isn’t – when seen in person.

After they jumped we had still to walk down. While doing so we passed, and said hello, to two other base jumpers headed up. Then we realized that if we hurried down, we might catch them as they jump. Our arrival back to the bottom was perfectly timed with Jimmy Pouchert’s exit. I remember having seconds to get the camera out and an image framed before he jumped. Later, when we first saw the photo on the lightbox, we new we had something special. Thanks to its simplicity, it reveals what it means to base jump.