Photography that has taken flight in Birds of Prey awards packages

Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, at still left, celebrates on the podium with Anne Rate of the Raptor Training Foundation following Kilde’s first put gain in a men’s Globe Cup downhill skiing race final Saturday in Beaver Creek.
*Robert F. Bukaty/AP Picture*

In addition to earning the quickest time on the hill, some ski racers on the FIS Alpine Globe Cup circuit get some rather fascinating prizes from diverse international locations. In Levi, Finland, it appears that winners get a reindeer, in Val d’Isere, France, you possibly get a massive wheel of Beaufort cheese or a cow and in Beaver Creek, a chicken of prey.

These prizes aren’t exactly literal, there are extra so tokens from each race location, mere symbols of the space, while, Lindsey Vonn opted for the cow as opposed to the $5,000 she was available by the farmer in 2005 immediately after she received the downhill race in Val D’Isere.

Quite a few periods, the community sees photographs of a wonderful chicken of prey on phase with the top rated 3 finishers of that day’s race at Beaver Creek. The hen goes back to the Raptor Schooling Basis but the athletes do get to get property a lovely photograph that beholds the impression of the event’s namesake.

**Former U.S. Ski Group customers,Bode Miller, remaining, and Ted Ligety, right pose with Anne Cost of the Raptor Schooling Heart at an awards ceremony at the Birds of Prey ski races.**
*Westrich Photography/Courtesy image*

The Talons area of Beaver Creek Mountain is household to quite a few operates named immediately after birds of prey. The Golden Eagle run hosts the men’s racecourse and the Kestrel operate hosts the women’s racecourse. Screech Owl, Ruffed Grouse, Peregrine, Ptarmigan, Osprey and more fill the path map. The majestic birds are represented in the photography of Rob Westrich of St. Louis, Missouri. The framed pics are what grace racers’ homes all more than the world after reaching the podium at Beaver Creek and this artwork grew to become a section of the race package deal in 2009.

Westrich experienced just begun photographing the incredible birds the yr ahead of, just after attending a Cub Scouts meeting with his son. The Planet Chicken Sanctuary brought in raptors to share with the scouts and it didn’t consider extended for Westrich to come to be impressed. Westrich, whose corporation, Westrich Images, has covered the pictures wants of the public in the St. Louis place for 75 years, soon found himself getting photos not of folks, but of birds. The World Bird Sanctuary brought birds to his studio to capture what would become his great artwork collection, The Raptor Collection.

**Rob Westrich’s photography turned a component of the Birds of Prey awards offer in Beaver Creek in 2009.**
*Westrich Photography/Courtesy photograph*

The buzzworthy artwork attained the attention of these in the St. Louis region and inevitably, it was deemed a perfect in shape for the Birds of Prey awards package and Westrich has been involved with this for the past 13 yrs.

“I by no means thought it would change into one thing this major,” Westrich stated. “To know the print is hanging in the properties of some of the biggest athletes in the globe is incomprehensible. Bode Miller. Lindsey Vonn. Mikaela Shiffrin. The list goes on. It is an extraordinary honor.”