A behind the scenes insight into the crazy photo taken by Tero Repo of Jérémie Heitz gracing the cover Downdays October Issue.

When I first viewed the photo my first reaction was “That’s our cover shot!” the second was “What is actually going on here?” Jérémie Heitz charges down a super steep face in Zermatt, but strangely the photo makes sense viewed from every orientation giving a new perspective of this hard-charging moment. So I emailed photographer extraordinaire Tero Repo, to find out more….

Hey Tero, epic photo buddy, we are so pumped on it! Can you tell us what came together for this photo?
Last winter Jérémie Heitz asked me if I would like be part of his two year film project “La Liste” supported by Mammut and Scott. I didn’t hesitate to say yes. A few months later I was In Zermatt, Zinalrothorn with Jérémie and his ski buddy Samuel Anthamatten. I was shooting from the helicopter with a crazy pilot from Air Zermatt. While Jérémie was skiing down, some would say flying down full speed, the heli pilot was doing crazy fast movements to follow the skier. I definitely felt the g-force while shooting this amazing line that must have been 50-55 degrees. When I was looking at the picture on my camera I couldn’t say which way to watch to screen. It looked good from every angle.

Tell us more about “La Liste”, what is the project about?
Jérémie has chosen several 4000 meter peaks around the Alps to climb and ski. He has lot of respect to the pioneers who opened and skied these routes many years ago but at the same time he wants to show how to ski steep terrain fast and fluid. With Jérémie we will see a lot of his good friends and old legends in the film like; Samuel Anthamatten, Sylvain Saudan, Xavier De Le Rue and many others. It will be a good mix of action and documentary, directed by Guido Perrini from Timeline Missions.

When can we see footage from this project?
This season the first trailer will be released beginning of November and in the Autumn of 2016 the final film will be available.

What camera where you using for this shot? Lens? Settings?
5D Mark3 with Canon EF24-70mm 2.8, focal length 38mm. ISO 125. Exposure 1/1000 f9.0.

What is it like shooting out of a help flying top speed?
Actually shooting from the heli is pretty stressful because the heli time is bloody expensive. You really have to be ready, focused and prepared. There are no room for hesitation, things are happening really fast. It is very important to communicate with the pilot. Try to have a clear fly plan beforehand and avoid too much talking. Then you just attached yourself in heli and do your best.

How do you consistently come up with such banger images?
I don’t know about the “bangers” but I have little different way to shoot. I am really careful with my trigger finger. Even shooting out of a heli I sometimes look over my camera instead going crazy with the fast cameras. I always aim to shoot one good shot per day not hundreds of average ones.

Big thanks Tero for yet another amazing cover shot!