Winter season, Over and out..

R.O.C.K. rider Joni Maununen dropping a cliff (pic. Teppo Vertomaa)

Last week we were in Riksgränsen Sweden, filming Snogear clothes and mountain sleds. Last three years we have been finishing the winter season there and every year we have had at least one day briliant weather and good snow.

This time we were there with R.O.C.K. (Riders of cold kingdom), Sons of Svalbards, Wesslan Rubb och Stubb and Isak Eliasson. We had two 2013 Lynx Boondockers (3700 & 3900) and 2013 Skido Freeride from BRP and two 2013 Arctic Cats from  KGK MOTOR AB/ YNGVESSON MASKIN.

All made for climbing up the mountains.

Start of the week was not promising. With or without snowing there was no contrast. For sure you couldn´t film a thing but sometimes you couldn´t even see with your bare eye.
1st of may when we went up in the mountains Pera just hit the snow wall. It seemed that there was nothing but it apeared to be a steep snow wall. Luckily it was soft one.

Snow wall (iPhone pic: Anders Westlin)

Wednesday we decided to concentrate to weather making. It seemed that the weather is not going to be drivable on thursday so we made the magic and suffered a bit in thusday morning but it was worth it. Friday morning the bluebird was singing and the sun was shining.

Half way of the hill (pic Teppo Vertomaa)

On a fragile snow cornice (pic Teppo Vertomaa)

Friday we visited incredible places and shot some good footage. I was filming video with Juho Puikko, Teppo Vertomaa was filming stills and Pera Hussi was filming video with Go Pros. It felt unreal how "easy" it was to get to the locations with mountain sleds. You are in the bottom of the hill looking a nice mountain and couple minutes later you are on top of it sitting in a steep hill. By foot it would take a day to get close to that mountain and another day to climb it up.

Isak Eliasson (pic. Teppo Vertomaa)

Of course you need the skills to operate these mountain sleds. I think it was me who had the least experience driving those things, but thanks to similar photo shoots earlier I managed to get to the locations. I drove mostly Lynx Boondocker 3700 and if I had more free time in the winter that sled would be definitely my choice.

Freeriders hanging out in the wild (pic Teppo Vertomaa)

Fairytale landscape (pic Teppo Vertomaa)

The Gate of Lapland day before the super moon (pic Juho Puikko)

Saturday we had a fun day for the camera crew. We left all the cameras (except GoPros) at the hotel and went there just to have fun. And sure it was fun. Can´t imagine a better way to end Winter season.

Summer here we come!

Holy trinity of Timelapse

Febuary when we were filming Lynx  in Saxnäs we had one quite long but productive day. We decided to film a sunrise timelapse with new Lynx GLS snowmobile.

Spring was already coming and we had to woke up 5:30am to catch the sunrise. It took about an hour to pack the gear and get to the location. Location was apelsinklyftan, a bonfire place in a hill where you could see nice scenery 180deg to the valley. Valley was pointing southeast so perfect spot to film sunrise.
There was a mountainguide and 3 members of filmcrew up that early to build the shuttlepod before the sunrise. No one had a chance to eat anything because hotel breakfast started 7:00am. Just before 7 we had our shuttlepod & camera rolling and the rest of the crew went for breakfast.
I stayed at the location to guard the camera. I have to say it was one of the best mornigs in this spring. Sitting there in outstanding scenery with loads of warm clothes and just chill and see the sun climbing behind the mountains.



The timelapse itself was quite ok. Not a masterpiece, but nice anyway. I had little problem with the strong wind that started blowing snow and it was visible in 1/5 of frames. Also it shaked the camera a little bit.

After sunrise timelapse we had full filming day with Red Epic. Sun was shining the whole day and we filmed Deep Snow Sport segment of the Lynx 2013 lineup. Nice big jumps in quite difficult places to reach. When the sun started to set we decided to stay up in the mountains and film also the sunset timelapse.

We did the sunset timelapse with three Lynx boondocker snowmobiles. Once again the wind was a problem shaking the camera and I also overexposed the shots. When the timelapse started the sun was behind the clound and after that cloud the whites were quite burn.

After the timelapse we had have already 13h filmingday if you count all the packing, unpacking and transitions. We unpacked everything and put the batteries on chargers. I was going to the dinner when the Hotel manager said that the sky looks like it´s going to have northern lights this night. I thought that maybe after dinner I take some northern lights pictures. I went outside just to check the situation and I realized that the sky was just about to burst in flames.

I quickly recruited the crew and we built the shuttlepod as fast as possible and placed the Lynx GLS in front of the camera. Programming of shuttlepod takes painfully long when you have the sky on fire. Luckily northernlights lasted almost five ours and we managed to capture pretty awesome northernlights timelapse and couple nice stills aswell.

Here´s a little teaser from the northernlights scene: