Words LILY KRASS Photos and Captions LESLIE HITTMEIER AFTER a relentless spring storm, the clouds finally parted. Leslie Hittmeier stared up at the East Ridge of Mount Bertha, a 10,204-foot glaciated peak in southeast Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park. She had to decide if she could ski the line. the rhythm of the day and capture what I see, trying not to hold them up or adding extra stress.” Over the years, that’s translated to growing as a skier as she grows behind the lens. Specific mountain skills are needed to enter these lands of giants. It’s not just the ability to get up or down a massive peak with a camera pack, but to be able to do so in a way that doesn’t negatively impact anyone else on the team. In the past six years, Hittmeier has made a name for herself by shooting top mountain athletes on major expedi-tions for the likes of HBO, Teton Gravity Research, Pata-gonia and The North Face. The 31-year-old has earned a reputation for capturing ski descents in high-consequence backcountry terrain, garnering the trust of athletes not only for her approach to the mountains, but also for her ability to capture the nuance and human element of these harrowing journeys. Suddenly, on the flanks of one of North America’s most commanding ski descents, Hittmeier chased both as she straddled the ether. Hittmeier and a media crew had traveled with athletes Grif-fin Post, Elena Hight and Jeremy Jones to shoot a first descent of Mount Bertha for HBO’s Edge of the Earth docu-series, an arduous endeavor that included a 125-mile boat ride and 20-mile approach from the North Pacific Ocean to base camp. Hittmeier had been hired to shoot the descent on-slope, over 4,000 vertical feet of mostly no-fall skiing, including an icy, exposed ridge close to the summit nicknamed “the Plank.” It was a dream line. Hittmeier worked her way up and down it, quietly making some of the most exposed turns of her life while occasionally ducking behind a rock to stay out of the filmer’s aerial shots. She traveled with a slimmed-down camera pack by photographer standards, but even an extra 10 pounds is significant in critical terrain. In order to capture athletes on a long ascent, she has to (literally) stay one step ahead, in front at snack breaks or practicing a quick transition from skinning to booting so she has a few extra minutes to set up a shot. “If I can’t keep up with them, that’s my problem,” she says. “I try to fall into Leslie Hittmeier Gallerie 087
The Ski Journal Volume 17, Issue 1: Page 87
