Whistler to East EP2 “Chatter Creek”
Two weeks have passed since I left Whistler.It's a lot warmer than the end of March when I left, and the campsite where I came back after shooting was sunny.
By the time I got used to it, I was farewell, and I was about to leave for my next destination.
After easily loading and cleaning up the car, which was difficult at first, we headed to Chatter Creek, where we spend the remaining two weeks.
Approximately 100km one way, 7% of which is off-road.
It's hard for me as a Japanese person to imagine such a thing, but when I head for it, there are mud, gravel, snow, and off-road roads, and there are signs every 1km. The sign starts at 70.
While paying attention to the numbers that do not decrease easily and the mobile that is pulling behind, I go deeper and deeper.It's been 1km since it started, and the cars and mobiles are already muddy.
After three hours of traveling, I arrived at a campsite with a good view.
Everyone thinks about the layout of the house and builds a house by making full use of scoops, chainsaws, ropes, wood, tarps, and everything that can be used.
Tarp the outdoor kitchen, go through the chimney of the fireplace well, set up the tent that will be the bedroom, and go out to collect the wood that will be the fuel for the fireplace.
I cut the collected trees with a chainsaw, split them with an ax, arranged them neatly, and finally I was ready for life.
I don't care about the appearance that I usually think is full of dust and mud.I can see that it gets dirty quickly anyway.
When I wake up from the tent that stretches along the lake, I go out of the tent with a large mountain that looks dim and headlights on the opposite bank.
Make breakfast and lunch outside, and after breakfast, relax a little while drinking the chai I bought because I thought it would warm my body.
Motivate yourself, take care not to burn the clothing placed beside the chimney with the chimney, change your clothes and get into the car.
Somehow the boots are damp.Can't you help it?That became my daily routine every morning.
After driving a little and changing to a mobile for about 15km, a big building suddenly appears in the mountains. It's the base of Chatter Creek.
In winter, helicopters are invited from Golden to conduct cat tours, but the place is open to snow mobiles only for two weeks in spring, and many snow mobiles come from all over the place.
There are accommodations, restaurants, beautiful lounges, internet, places to buy petrol and even places to fix cats and mobiles.You can also use a credit card.This is a paradise-like place in the mountains.
Some are staying here, some are camping like ourselves, and our campsite is apparently famous and a good home!Is often said.
Of course, there is no radio wave in our campsite, so when we came up to the mountain, we checked the weather and stopped by for a short break, and when we finished shooting every day, we refueled here.
Also, like when I was in Golden, I ran around on the mobile while looking at the map to check the state and terrain of the mountains.
It looks like it's over there.I want to do that.It's funny to talk with everyone while looking at the mountains.
Shooting centered on a line rather than a trick shows that person's personality.When I look back on my line after slipping, it seems that all the experiences I have had so far are expressed there, and I often think that I am myself.
And the feeling of looking back at the lines I drew on the big mountain is really the best, as it is a feeling that only those who have experienced it can say.
Nature, which you can't stand against, teaches you a lot.If nature exerts a little power, we will not be a lump.
The problems with my two-week life are rice and a bath.I stock up on rice and eat risotto or pasta or something similar every day, but I didn't get tired of this trip.
Of course, I don't have water or water, so I only have to buy it, and I live with one or two PET bottles every day.Food is the same.
I get used to not taking a bath, but after 4 or 5 days, I want to take a bath.I decided to take a bath in the river on a cloudy sky and no shooting day.
When I arrived at the river, the water seemed to be very cold, but I feel like I could put it in for some reason because of my desire for water.I changed my clothes immediately and the first one dropped in.Yes.It looks really cold.Alright.Let's stop (laughs).
Collect trees, burn them, boil water and bathe.In a life far from the present, you can really show the convenience of your usual life.
Fire is needed to make hot water, and wood (burning things) and air are needed to make fire.In short, the wood and air turn into hot water, and you are consuming something to get something, but you shouldn't think about it from the life of hot water when you twist the faucet.
This is the best hot water in such a wilderness for the first time in a long time!However, if I noticed, I used it for more than 2 hours in the bath, and even spectators appeared, and there is no doubt that it was thought that there were strange Asians.
It usually takes more than 10 hours here, which usually ends in 2 minutes.However, the faces of everyone in the car on the way back were refreshing, and no, the bath was good!I would say that.
As for the shooting, I will beat the points I checked in the early stages while aiming for the gap between the weather and the snow.Every day I challenge myself even though I may be washed away by an avalanche.I'm a little tired of traveling, and while I'm in a state of thinking stop, I try to explore and take on new experiences every day.
A place where the slope below cannot be seen from the drop.Only the cameraman who is quite far away can see it.
After I started to slide, I finally saw the point where I would fly, and during the turn I headed for the point where I would fly while linking with the scenery I remember from below.
That slope, which slipped completely despite unexpected things happening, is quite memorable for me.
When I finished slipping and took a breather and looked at the line, my line was engraved in the place that was pure white until a few minutes ago.I like to remember my slip again, thinking that I've slipped over there.
Then, exchange a comfortable high five with friends and move on to the next point.
We act as a cameraman with a few riders, and when someone slips, we wait and support other riders so that they can help when something happens.Sometimes it makes me nervous, but it's interesting to see the cool parts of the rider live.
People are standing on a really big mountain and sliding down while leaving a line.Go through the rocks, jump over the rocks, and get a beautiful spray.
There is a part in front of you that is difficult to fit in the video and the scenery, and you can see the video for a few seconds and the drama behind one photo.
Photographers want to convey that, and riders express the charm of snowboarding along with their challenges.Even though I am a rider (the person being photographed), I carry the camera on my back as the same artist with the same feelings, and I am writing this article as well.
The trip is also at the end.
SUSHI is a common food in Canada, but it's quite rare here.Mens who got down to the town bought fish and made sushi.How can you eat sushi in the mountains like this?There is no plate for serving a large amount of sushi, so I had a snow plate delicious instead of a plate.
On a cloudless night, the full moon was shining enough to cast a shadow.
It's been about 3 weeks, and I have a few days left to travel. When I left Whistler at the end of March, I couldn't imagine the whole picture of the trip and couldn't see the end.
Every day I struggle with the cold without getting used to camping.I have to go to shoot while I can't get tired because I'm far from my usual life.
At the first place, I didn't know the terrain and snow, and there were few things that went smoothly, so we all cleared each one and challenged to shoot.I was impressed by the hot water in the shower and lying down in a place with a wall, and sometimes there were silent days.
However, as it got warmer little by little, we started to get used to this life, and at the beginning, we couldn't see the end and felt uneasy, but we felt lonely at the end of this trip.
When I wake up in the morning, I see beautiful mountains and lakes, when I go to shoot, I see a big snowy mountain, and when I come back, I see a beautiful sunset and a starry sky.
Every day, I am always surrounded by nature, and there are few modern things.The natural scenery burned into my mind cannot be enjoyed in my daily life.
You can experience the nature as much as you want because there are no walls, which changes 1 hours a month, and there are a few people who can't imagine leaving here.
The last day of shooting.
I spent a leisurely time on the mountain and missed the last farewell.This day is the last snowmobile in Canada.The next ride will be at least half a year away.
It's been a year and a half since I started shooting in Canada with a snowmobile.
I met Takafumi Konishi, who is shooting at Heart Films, and was introduced to Joji Tajima, a cameraman of Heart Films. I came to Canada for two weeks a year ago and was baptized by Akifumi Hiraoka.At the end of the season, he listened to Tadashi Fuse and many of his predecessors, and now he sits on a snowmobile and looks at the mountains in a place he couldn't imagine at the time.
Everything I saw this winter was fresh.I started snowboarding for more than 10 years, starting with parks and contests, and gradually my feelings headed for the mountains behind it.I longed for free snowboarding among the things created by nature, from the artificial things made by human hands.
In exchange for that freedom, I was forced into many inconveniences, but thanks to that I am now able to come to this place.
Nothing can be done suddenly.Things can only be achieved by accumulating step by step.
There were times when I was wondering whether to leave Japan or how I would face snowboarding, but looking at the mountains in front of me, I'm really glad I came here.
I want to come back here again.And I want to step into a new world that I haven't seen yet.
The slowly flowing natural time cannot be fully walked by the human time that passes by.That is why I am obsessed with the charm of nature.
Preparations for departure are almost as quick as preparations for the campsite, and the departure is just around the corner.
I do not want to return.You can see that feeling from everyone's face, but I'll be in Japan in three days.
The driving on the way back seemed to be absent-minded, and I felt spring while looking at the green scenery that I didn't have when I came.
After a long journey and returning to Whistler, the snow is completely gone and the climate is easy to pass.
And on my bed for the first time in a while, I was happy with the futon, the house with walls, the warm room, the warm shower, the electricity in the water, the gas, the internet, everything I had never felt happy before.
Impressed by the sofa in the living room, you can get to the top of the mountain just by sitting on the slope lift.No hike or mobile needed.What a convenient thing!
I cleaned up the luggage I brought back from the trip and took out the seasonings from the box to eat the surplus ingredients.I never worried about it during the camp, but when I got home and saw it, it was full of sand and quite dirty.
I used to use it without worrying about anything during the camp, but now I am cleaning it.
I was heading to the kitchen, feeling a little lonely, remembering the camp.
I used to listen to photos, videos, and stories in Canada.I experienced what I had imagined and it became an experience.
Things I couldn't imagine a few months ago are now glancing in my head.
When it is clearly visible, will it become an experience and an experience?
In the old days, I finally got to the starting point.I thought.
However, he realizes that there is no beginning or end in reality.The future is made from the past, and the moment of the present is the accumulation of experience.
The meaning of my challenge is that people can keep changing.
I don't know if I'm making a good choice in terms of living, but I may be making a good choice in terms of living.
I don't know the answer now, but I'm sure it will be someday.
In an ever-changing world, I want to live while seeking change.
May this experience be for someone.
Whether to ride on the rails or lay the rails.You are free to choose.
And it's up to you to enjoy the challenge or not.
When I return to Japan, I will head to Hakuba.What does the mountain you always see look like?
I immediately felt the growth of my two-month trip.
Text & Photo: Kazushige Fujita
Location: Canada BC (Chatter Creek, Golden, Whistler)
* You can see this pattern in "HEART FILMS" The Doors "" released in October 2014. * DVD and download sales are planned.
Snowboarding, ski riding, and this road trip in the magnificent and beautiful scenery of Canada, it is a work that conveys each feeling.
Please pick it up and take a look.
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