The story behind the photo: Sam Hamilton

This terrific powder shot by Sam Hamilton placed top #3 in our 2021 Instagram spring photo contest. We tracked down the winners to get their stories behind the photos. Here are the words by Sam Hamilton:

“Even low-snow years have their perfect days!  After weeks of storms passing to our north only providing us only with hammering winds for days at a time, we finally got a direct hit.  This image is in Virgina Lakes canyon of the Eastern Sierra, where I work guiding multi-day snowcat assisted backcountry yurt trips for High Sierra Snowcat and Yurt @highsierrasnowcatandyurt.  Occasionally we get “Tonopah Low” where a passing light storm can linger for days providing lake effect snow from nearby Mono Lake, providing windless fluffy conditions, and in this case no old snowpack concerns.  This crew of split boarders scored some of the best days of the season, when the visibility improved we were knocking out big peaks with dreamy pow!”

We thank Sam Hamilton and all the photographers who entered the contest, and Backcountry Access for supporting it! We look forward to seeing all your shots this winter! Want to be featured? Tag your photo #communitysnowobs on Instagram.