This year, FREESKIER hit the ground running with one of our biggest Buyer’s Guides to ever hit print. Now, we’re excited to share with you a sneak peek at the cover of the second issue of Volume 22, the Resort Guide. With winter fast approaching, we’re already booking trips and starting to think about the ski areas where we’ll be taking turns this season. Before the Resort Guide hits newsstands on October 22, 2019, here’s a first-look at the fantasy-inducing cover photo.
A note from the Editors of FREESKIER:
When photographer Guy Fattal first submitted the photo that now graces the cover of our 2020 Resort Guide, our jaws hit the floor. There wasn’t much debate that this image had cover shot potential—we just had to double-check that it was captured on Planet Earth, and at a resort nonetheless.
The 2020 Resort Guide cover shot is by photographer Guy Fattal and was taken at Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia, Canada. Combatting howling winds and bitter cold temperatures, Fattal and skier Simon D’artois were able to find a moment of brilliance amongst the gale, resulting in this dreamlike photograph.
In this image, the ethereal combination of skiing and sparkling, swirling snow is enough to induce daydreams and fantasies of the highest caliber. The ambiguity of the skier also makes it easy to pretend—even if just for a fleeting moment—that you’re the one of the cover. Go ahead and indulge in a skiing dreamscape that’s all your own.
Behind the cover with photographer Guy Fattal:
“It was an extremely cold and windy morning when Simon D’artois and I shot this photo. As a matter a fact we had made completely different plans for that day, aiming for a big ski tour with a forecast of sun for the first time in weeks at Whistler. First, we attempted a small ridge hike just to realize that the wind was so brutal that we could barely communicate, let alone see our next step. It was clearly a sign from the mountains telling us that we should be taking it a bit easier. We obliged and searched for locations to shoot around Blackcomb. I noticed that the wind had created these unique patterns in the snow and with the wind howling it created this apocalyptic look when paired with the sun. It was so windy and freezing cold I remember shooting this photo with my goggles on looking through the camera viewfinder and ski gloves on the trigger. Communication was impossible but somehow Simon laid a powerful turn in the perfect spot and I was somehow able to compose this shot. Not long afterwards we headed lower to escape the harsh weather conditions. I let this photo and days like this one serve as a reminder that we are simply guests when we are in the mountains and that if we are aware and listen to the hints around us the rewards for working with the conditions we are given can end up as a cover photo. In this case the first cover for Simon and I, together, and my first FREESKIER cover.”
