Chile, a D__b__ winter campaign shoot.
My friend and team rider Sage Kotsenburg said that we had to go to Chile as it was ‘the best place on earth’. The brief was simple - to find snow and go shredding, with a bit of hanging with the locals and work mixed in at the same time. By the end of my call with him, Sage had sold me on the Chilean dream and convinced me it was the best place to shoot Db’s winter campaign.
With this in mind, all I had to do was figure out the logistics. Was it actually feasible on a tight budget? Who would I take? Would it give us the kind of quality campaign images we needed and would last us for a whole season? We decided to go and the mood was very optimistic. The whole crew (Me, Emil Sollie (photo), Jeremy Thornburg (film), and Sage K) was just happy to go and hang out!
Flying to Santiago is a bit of a stretch. If you’re located in Oslo Norway it’s a 35-hour door-to-door mission. The feeling of stepping out of an aircraft after a 14-hour flight is pretty heavy, but when you come Into the baggage area, you are greeted by a Dunkin’ Donuts shop and a very nice local guy who assured me that all the bags I brought with me for the shoot would be coming. I just needed to chill and wait, he said, so I did. There is no rush in Chile, the people are pretty chilled out and you won’t get hustled in Santiago (at least we didn’t). Everyone we met at the airport and around was just interested in why we traveled so far just to come to Chile.
Santiago is a big city with 7 million people living there. With the little time we had, all our first impressions were very positive. We took a touristic gondola up to San Cristobal Hills and shot some photos. We walked the city center and a few of the neighborhoods, and everyone we met was very nice and did their best to understand us. The food is amazing and we had a bunch of Empanadas, fries, and coffee to fight off the jet lag.
The next mission was La Parva, a resort located 60 km from Santiago. Yeah it’s just 60 km, but you have to drive small winding roads climbing around 2500 height meters. We got here late at night after missing the cut-off at 12.00 - the mountain police will not let you drive up after that (NOT MY FAULT). This was the only time someone said ‘no’ to us all trip, so if you ever go please check the rules for driving up the resorts.
Waking up in La Parva we barely could see snow as it’s a pretty bad snow year for them. We didn’t let that dictate our day and went up to a breathtaking 3800 m - both figurative and physically I should add.
The mountains are beautiful and full of opportunities for both free riding right off the lift and touring. We spent time talking to fellow shredders and taking photos. It was a great day out with the sun shining and felt just like spring. After finishing the sunset shoot, we rode down to the base of the mountain and had dinner at the only real restaurant in the village. The local dishes were awesome and the staff showed us the history of La Parva and how it usually has a lot more snow. Crossing my fingers for a trip back when they have powder…
We did that for three days and shot a bunch of stuff with Sage and some of the BTS photos are here!
In La Parva we were invited to a local BBQ, watched the most amazing sunset ever, drank too much Pisco Sour and had the best meat paired with local red wine. I don’t think I ever felt so welcome anywhere I've traveled before.
We left Chile with a feeling of wanting to come back soon and hang with our new homies, big thank you to everyone we met.
Links:
The resort: https://laparva.cl/
The restaurant: https://www.instagram.com/marmitadepericles/
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