Sony’s Eye of the Condor has returned to Ski La Parva for a week of unprecedented skiing, filming, and embracing the Chilean culture deep within the Andes. Four elite ski teams have made their southern pilgrimage and have taken over the Chilean resort just outside of Santiago.

Each team is creating a film and photo portfolio that will be judged by industry elite at the inaugural IF3 La Parva held in downtown Santiago at the end of the week.

Although it’s currently the middle of winter in the Southern Hemisphere, spring conditions abound, forcing teams to get especially creative with the minimal snow coverage.

Marginal conditions haven’t stopped teams from taking full advantage of La Parva’s unique location and culture. From mid-mountain champagne bars, to fondue dinners and dance parties, each team is busy getting after it on and off the mountain.

We caught up with Team Discrete and judges Chris Davenport and Ingrid Backstrom for their expectations for Eye of the Condor 2.

Chris Davenport: judge
I’m here in Chile for a month and it’s my twelfth time here, and I absolutely love being here regardless of if I’m guiding, filming, or judging as I am this week. It’s all an amazing experience. I’m looking forward to seeing these teams generate really original content. We’ve all seen so much in the ski film genre, the photography genre, print media, and I always get inspired by seeing things that I’ve never seen before.

This year is generally tougher conditions; we don’t have powder snow, but we do have beautiful sunny days and it’s a gorgeous environment, so I’m just really looking forward to seeing something that makes me go, “Wow, I’ve never see that before.” That’s what inspires me: people who are original and do unique things that make me go ‘wow.’

Ingrid Backstrom: judge
My expectations while here are just to ski with a bunch of awesome people, hang out in La Parva, see awesome sunsets, and I expect to see some amazing stuff from these teams. There are such good skiers here and amazing talent. I can’t wait to see what they come up with.

Team Discrete

Julian Carr
My expectations for Eye of the Condor are to make a fine video that we can be proud of, and I’m looking forward to having a damn good time along the way.

Rachael Burks
We have a pretty high bar set from last year, so I expect to do better. Hopefully we can crush the party scene as well, too, and maybe win a few more ‘Man of the Day awards.’ I’m really looking forward to seeing what the rest of the teams are coming up with, and I absolutely love La Parva. I’m not sure if La Parva loves me, but I love La Parva. We have a really rad team; I think we’re awesome.

John Roderick: cinematographer
I’m looking forward to exploring new areas in La Parva that we didn’t get to last year. We’ll be snow camping, so that’s a big adventure that we’ve planned to see some new places. I’m also looking forward to the premiere in Santiago.

Parker Cook
My plans for this week overall are to have fun. The conditions are super marginal, so to me, I just want my team to be safe, have fun, and enjoy this contest.

Chris Bezamat: photographer
I was most looking forward to going surfing, which I already did, but I really want to use some flash this year, as I didn’t last year. The snow is so bad this year so it’s a cool challenge to figure out how to make compelling photos with the given conditions.

Check out Team Discrete’s ‘Chilean Choice’ from the inaugural Eye of the Condor:


2011 Eye of the Condor Video from Discrete from Eye of the Condor on Vimeo.