Mike Bennett | Ben Birk

Posts Tagged: Mike Bennett

Life / Photography — 2 Comments
13
Jul 10

Winter in Summer: Stowe, VT Part 2

For the trip we were about to take on day 2, we sure did not wake up early enough. Mike, Justin and myself were late to bed seeing the night before was New Years and consequently we were late to rise. Once we did get ourselves up, it was for a quick breakfast before we piled into the jeep and hit the icy road. The destination of our drive I am still not allowed to speak of, but it is a local spot that has graced the cover of Easter Edge.

-Justin in the morning

We were hiking in from a new location that Pat said would shave about an hour off the hike and avoid the mean attack of a junkyard dog. The snow was about a foot deep and the hike was long but after two and half hours we arrived at the summit. I dug a quick pit to test the stability of the snow while Mike cut off some of the cornice and sent large amount of sluff down the slope. Last time I was here we had an avalanche so we played it on the safe side and avoided our original slope for one with a more mellow angle.

See you at the bottom

Pat went first, but we each took a ride down to the bottom. It was a steep and fun ride. Once at the bottom I set up my camera while the guys took a hike back to the top. This was Mikes first time riding deep powder and he did very well. Hooked on the pow, he hiked more then anyone and bagged a bunch of shots. Unfortunately our late morning was catching up to us as bad weather and the evening started approaching. We knew it was a long hike out so we ended the session early and started out. Arriving at the jeep in total darkness we each shared a beer and headed back to Pat’s house.

-Mikey B Natural Pow Rider

I had secured us passes to Stowe Mountain Resort and we spent the next two whole days riding on and off the resort on the Mount Mansfeild side. With lift access and fresh powder up to waist deep in some spots, these two days were probably the highlight of the trip. Pat’s guiding knowledge really shines at Stowe and he lead us to all the goods. Each line was untracked and he knew where all the cliffs, drops, gaps, and exits were.

-Mike Bennett in the Stowe Gondola

Eager to get some lines for myself and seeing I was at my favorite mountain on the east I road the whole first day without a camera. The second day we got to work and everyone snagged good photos on each run.

-Justin Mullen blast off a cliff in a cloud of powder

-Pat Walsh demonstrates how it’s done

-Justin leans back into a heel side

Justin, Mike, and myself were sad to leave but Mike had to get back to work and Justin and myself had to get ready for Tahoe. Stowe will always remain as one of my favorite mountain in the east coast. If you have the chance to go there you should take advantage of it. With early seasons that always have the pow its a great place to visit over that christmas break/new years break. A huge thanks to Pat. Without him this trip would not have been possible. Leave me a message if you would like to get Pat’s email for guiding trips with your own group.

L-R Pat Walsh, Justin Mullen, Mike Bennett

Don’t forget part one.
http://www.benbirk.com/blog/2010/07/09/winter-in-summer-stowe-vt/.

Justin recorded video and made an edit from the trip.
http://www.benbirk.com/blog/2010/01/05/stowe-vermont/

Life / Photography — 1 Comment
9
Jul 10

Winter in Summer: Stowe, VT

The following took place between December 30th, 2009 and January 3rd, 2010.

During the winter of 07/08 I lived in Stowe, VT and worked as Photo Editor at East Coast Snowboarding Magazine. My home mountain for that year was Stowe Mountain Resort and I fell in love with it’s woods and backcountry riding. Fast forward to the early winter of 2010 as Justin Mullen, Mike Bennett and myself are packed into Mike’s jeep on our way to Stowe.

Front & Back

By dusk we were deep into New York, heading north and took a quick moment to stop and stretch our legs. Once back on the road we continued north until we came to Crown Point, New York where the Lake Champlain Bridge used to stand. We were unaware that only days earlier the bridge had been demolished. This caused a two hour detour in our trip as we had to backtrack around the 110 mile long lake. Once on the other side it was a straight shot to my friend and our guide for the trip Pat Walsh’s house.

Lakeside view in NY

Creepy looking Mike with Cig

Lead by Pat Walsh a Stowe local who has been living in the town for 15 years. Day one started with a deep hike into the Notch of Stowe. Pat pointed out a steep section of the slope that would provide a good vantage point for some shots. Everyone took a slash in front of the camera and road down into the valley. Next up was a good sized cliff that required a dead eye aim to avoid all of the small trees in the landing. Both Justin and Mike landed tricks and avoided being impaled. We finished up the day with a fun and mellow ride down through the Notch to the Jeep.

Pat Walsh – Guide Man Extraordinaire

Mike Bennett slash in the Notch at Stowe.

Continued in Part 2.
http://www.benbirk.com/blog/2010/07/13/winter_stowe_part_2/

Photography — No Comments
29
Jun 10

Street Bikes on I-83

-Mike Bennett speeding by

Three of my friends recently each bought a Yamaha r600 so snapping a few photos of their new bikes is just natural. So we took a lap up to the Rutter’s gas station to grab some food and then road back to Mikes house.

-Mike Bennett

-Lance Fowler

Photography — No Comments
24
Jun 10

Winter in Summer – Dec 22, 2009

-Mike Bennett Tail Press Harrisburg, PA

It had snowed before Christmas in Pennsylvania and my friends and I were ecstatic! We knew the snow might not last long and we had to take quick advantage of the situation. There were tons of rails we could have chose from, but this steep 28 stair with the rail that had balls on it was the one in our sights. Doug Usko and Mike Bennett shoveled off the stairs while I struggled to light the rail (I had not been shooting for quite some time and was very rusty).

Doug was the first to slide the whole rail and I tuned off my PocketWizards to take an ambient light portrait of him. I turned back to shoot Mike as he tail pressed the whole rail first try, but to his and mine disappointment I had forgotten to turn my PW back on. OH NO! I had to ask him to press the rail a few more times until his body position and nose height were good enough to have a keepable photo. Unfortunately is was still not quite as good as his first try had been but it was getting dark and we had other rail we wanted to hit. The image was good enough to run in the January issue of East Coast Snowboarding Magazine though .

While waiting to get directions to the next rail we took some quick portraits against a brick wall. No flash was used for the portraits just the the ambient light from the lights that were hanging from above. Once the directions got in and we got to the rail we were not sure if we wanted to hit it. It was defiantly a balance beam rail and no real tricks were done. With temps in the teens or below we called it a night and all headed back to our homes.

-Doug Usko FS 50-50

-Doug Usko (FILM)

-Mike Bennett (FILM)

-Mike Bennett

-Doug Usko

-Mike Bennett FS 50-50 Hershey, PA

Photography — 1 Comment
7
Jun 10

Winter In Summer – A New Series

Since I am not able to keep up with my blog very well during the winter months I though it would be fun to share my photography from my winter during the summer.

October 18, 2009
We had heard it snowed in the Poconos a foot two days earlier and seeing that it was October any excuse to try and snowboard was good enough. Mike Bennett, Doug Usko, and myself loaded up my Subaru forester and made the two hour drive to Camelback. Unfortunately upon our arrival we discover almost all the snow was gone with small patches of unrideable snow being all that remained. Not wanting to make the drive home quite yet we, went to Big Boulder to meet up with Matt Roberge, Luke Henning, and Jayell White.

Big Boulder had a little bit more snow at best, but we decided to hike to the top of the mountain (all 500 vertical feet of it) to see what snow might lie up there. Over halfway up we realized the top would hold nothing more then the bottom and decided to shovel a small landing for a sketchy bomb drop. Mike and Doug both hit the drop, were smashed to bits on the too small landing and over the feature quickly. We hung out talking and laughing for a while before returning to the cars, where we parted ways and all drove home.

Winter was coming soon though…

The Group Hiking

Mike Bennett mid hike

Jayell White

Luke Henning

Mike Bennett Bomb Drop

Mike Bennett (Film)

Doug Usko (Film)

Jayell White (Film)

Matt Roberge (Film)

Photography / Published — 1 Comment
24
Feb 10

EastCoast Snowboarding Magazine January 2010

We had the new ECS arrive at the house last week and inside were two new double pages. First up was Kyle Ryan with large chicken salad grab drop shot at Northstar in California for his Rookie Card. The next image was of Mike Bennett from the 15 inches of snow in Pennsylvania during December. This was the only rail we hit during the two weeks we had snow on the ground. Both riders are good friends and both are kids who deserve to have content of them ran. Big congrats guys.

Life / Photography — No Comments
19
Jan 10

7 Springs Resort Pennsylvania

Over the weekend Doug Usko, Mike Bennett, Jesse Stoneburger and myself went to 7 Springs Resort to shoot their halfpipe on opening day. I decided to film a bunch of our trip with my new Panasonic LX3, and here is the video result. It is a lot of fun filming with this camera and I hope to make edits like this during the rest of my trips this year.

7 Springs Pennsylvania from Ben Birk on Vimeo.

Life — No Comments
5
Jan 10

Stowe, Vermont

I left on wednesday morning for Stowe, Vermont with Justin Mullen and Mike Bennett. We stayed at the house of Stowe guide Pat Walsh. We rode off resort for two days and on resort for two days before leaving on Monday. We were blessed with some fresh snow each day. Here are some videos from the trip that Justin made. Don’t forget to check out my 8 powder turns at 2:19 in the second video.

Drive up and first day.

Day 2 & 3

VT Trip2 from justin mullen on Vimeo.

Photography / Published — No Comments
13
Dec 09

East Coast Snowboarding Magazine November 2009

Some more images ran in the new ECS issue. My image of Kade Madsen from SLC ran as his Rookie Card. This is one of my favorite images of the year and I am really glad to see it run. Mike Bennett and Tom Weiss both had images in the Big Boulder Resort Guide section. Lastly Justin Mullen’s hard work paid off with his image of a hugh cliff we shot in Tahoe running as a double page.