Once upon a time, a very long time ago now, about last week, a contest know as the Deep Winter Photo Challenge went down at Whistler Blackcomb. Deep Winter is a photo contest where photographers have three days to shoot the best and baddest photos they can. One of my good friends, Andrew Strain, competed, won third place, and had more fun than anyone. I had the privilege of  poaching a few of his shots.

This is my fifth season out here and the bottom line is that Whistler puts out…

…But so does Eliel Hindert…

He was responsible for a good portion of bangers at Deep Winter, with hardly any mash. Still blessed with the rubbery knees of a child and the terminal velocity of a mouse, Eliel will drop most things to flat… But in this fleeting instant of reflection Eliel realizes that although Erin de Flats is extremely sexy; he would much rather be nailin’ trannies.

Also breaking hearts and blowing minds: Liam Casey.

In Banksy’s new movie Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010) he claims that his art is not about the hype, money and fame that has accompanied its success but about the message and impact of each piece or ‘art for art’s sake.’ This film may be seen as a critique of the absurdity of the creation and valuation of art expressed through the story of how a seemingly simple minded clothing salesman cum street art film maker named Thierry Guetta under the pseudonym “Mr. Brainwash” became fanatically motivated to have huge amounts of art  created for him by designers and printers, using a street art formula “he had seen work so well for others”, met with great commercial success.

But it is thought by some that Exit Through the Gift Shop is a hoax, that Mister Brainwash is not actually an artist and that Banksy may have created all the Frenchman’s exhibited work himself. The purpose of such a prank could be to attack notions of what makes an artist worthy and why and when we value what art. If it is indeed a hoax, and Banksy did indeed create all of Mr. Brainwash’s work, it is a double sided prank because art collectors would have paid far too much for Mr. Brainwash’s work but at the same time would have foregone an opportunity to purchase Banksy pieces at a greatly discounted price.

It also takes a jab at film when Banksy explains how he realized that Guetta was not a film maker but a rather a “man with mental problems that happened to have a camera” and decides to “have a go at it [making the movie] himself.” As with Guetta’s entrance into the art world Banksy’s movie has proven to be a great success at the box office and solid acclaim.

The beauty of this paradox is that it ultimately doesn’t matter which story is true because because both realities still beg the same age old questions. What is art? What makes an artist? Why is art worth anything? etc. Yet the making of this film and this controversy of fact draws even more attention to Banksy under the guise of trivializing his work, hammering his point even further home. Quite brilliant really…

This summer I met with an amazing opportunity to paddle the Moisie River from source to sea. The Moisie flows south 410km from a system of lakes near Labrador City, Labrador descending through massive canyons to the St. Lawrence Seaway near Sept Isles, Quebec. The river, historically an aboriginal trade and travel route, is one of the biggest spawning grounds of atlantic salmon. Topographically the massive canyons are reminiscent of the west coast calling up images of Yosemite rather than a typical east coast landscape.

As of 2003, 321km of the Moisie have been turned into Quebec’s first aquatic preserve under the Protected Areas Strategy. This status prevents industrial development to maintain the river as one of the last unobstructed rivers of the Côte-Nord. The Quebec Government’s purpose in this move is to conserve a waterway representative of regional ecology, protect the river’s Atlantic salmon population, maintain the biodiversity of the river and its surrounding territory, safeguard the outstanding physical features of the river’s landscape, and add to knowledge of salmon and the natural heritage of the Moisie River. This act of anthropogenic preservation is good for the Moisie itself, but questionable as a piece of environmental policy.

In black and white terms, preservation is the total protection from human use of a specific area of land, while conservation is the control of human use and exploitation of an area of land to conserve its ‘natural’ ecology. Historically, the creation of preserves has often served as a license to ruthlessly exploit non-preserve lands such as the clear cutting of west coast forests with the preservation of places like Redwood National Park and the Carmanah Valley. The principles of conservation, in theory, lead to a more conscientious land use framework that acknowledges human needs for land use but discourages total destruction.

Driving to the Moisie up the Trans-Labrador Highway we passed Canada’s biggest hydroelectric dams, numerous clear cuts, and several mines. A few rivers east of the Moisie, Hydro Quebec is preparing to dam the Romaine River. Near James Bay, Hydro Quebec recently dammed the Rupert River. Meanwhile the excavators are still picking away at the Tar Sands in Fort McMurray and much of British Columbia is on fire. This context makes the Moisie feel a bit more like a zoo than a wild river, but hopefully its preservation may act as a reminder of what has been and is to be destroyed.

I went kayaking with the Otago University Canoe Club. We rumbled 10 hours from Dunedin north to Murchison in our lovely but increasingly raunchy tour bus. The week was wild, debauchery and extremeness ensued. Many of us opted to paddle our perfectly good kayaks off Maruia falls, and we made sure that Southern Gold would survive this financial year.

As the end of the week approached I made the decision to hitchhike north to Golden Bay for some climbing. It was a great decision but I learned much. I re-learned why hitchhiking is not for those in a rush, and why I had opted to buy a car. I also learned that hitchhiking in the rain at night is not awesome. But I re-learned that it is the best way to meet the worlds most random collection of characters. In just two days, I met some wild sculptors living in Abel Tasman National Park, a Thai expat housing Burmese refugees, a chili and asparagus farmer, a drywaller,  a paramedic/4×4 mechanic, a physiotherapist, and an aspiring ski bum/graphic designer. And the climbing was good.