8 Wild Ski Photographs, And The Stories Behind Them

Tero Repo is an award-winning photographer from Switzerland who has taken beautiful ski and snowboard photos all over the world. He has agreed to share eight of his best shots with us, and has added some of his own commentary to each photo. You can learn more about Tero and see more of his work at his personal website.

This is Swiss kid Jeremie Heitz dropping in at 2:00 a.m. in Les Marecottes, Switzerland. Two massive HDMI lights and a generator were enough to light a few hundred meters along the face, so no flashes were used in this photo. We started to film at 4:00 p.m. and finished at 4:00 a.m. Long day at the office, but all worth it.

Taken on the last day of our trip to Haines, Alaska. Xavier De Le Rue stepped up and decided to hit this steep spine line ending with a 15-foot cliff drop. It was the first-ever descent down this face, although Seth Morrison rode the lookers on the left side of the face years ago.

This face is in Chamonix, France and it is called Pain Du Sucre. It is 55 degrees steep. Here you can see Swiss skier Samuel Anthamatten finding his way to the face using some rope for security. Below, Andreas Fransson from Sweden is making some turns. I took this photo from the helicopter. I was hanging half outisde of the heli, wearing harness and a sling attached to an anchor inside the heli.

This is Lucas Debari living on the edge. There are some gnarly turns in Antarctica, and no room for mistakes. Swimming wouldn't be that comfortable either. This photo was taken around 8:00 in the evening, but it's light out because the sun hardly sets in Antarctica in December.

Snowsurfing in Antarctica. Xavier De Le Rue just cleared 45 meters of water sliding on his snowboard. The guys in the boat were ready to help Xavier in case he couldn't make it over. In the background is the Golden Fleece sail boat, which we sailed from The Falkland Islands.

These caves are found in Devoluy, France, one of the most exotic places to snowboard. These natural caves are a few hundred meters long and 40-55 degrees steep. Here you see brothers Victor and Xavier De Le Rue riding into a cave, which is their idea of a quiet Sunday in Devoluy. It is not often that these caves are filled with good snow. Avalanches fill them up every now and then, but they are not rideable every year.

Another shot from the heli angle. I really like to shoot from the heli because it always makes new angles available. From the ground, this shot wouldn't be anything special, but being straight above the subject creates something dimensional. The skier is big-mountain specialist Samuel Anthamatten.

Samuel Anthamatten comes from Zermatt, Switzerland. Here he is straight-lining some ice on his home turf. The ice looks vertical, but it was only a 30-40 degree incline. Again, the heli angle has proved to be worth the trouble.