Pro snowboarder Maria Thomsen and photographer Dean (Blotto) Gray found themselves waist-deep in snow on Jan. 17, 2020, in a city a long way from home — but you won't hear any whining about it. 

While much of North America lacked snow early in 2020 St. John's had its share and that was before the word Snowmageddon had entered Newfoundland vernacular or pictures of the buried city were flashed around the world.

This resulted in some of the biggest brands in snow sports eyeing the East Coast island for filming locations.

Just over a week into 2020, the Burton snowboarding company sent a team of riders and a crew to St. John's to document their antics — on and off snow — to St. John's. 

"There was plenty of snow for us to do what we set out to do, which was snowboard around the city, do a little bit of shovelling, make some unique photo shoot locations," said Burton photographer Gray over the phone from Salt Lake City earlier this month.

Gray, an Arizona-born Vermont-living world-travelling photographer, said they had filmed enough footage for the latest Burton snowboard film, One World, which hit streaming sites in November. 

But weather on the northeast Avalon is an ever-changing beast.

"The locals start telling us, 'Hey, there's a big storm coming, maybe grab some extra food from the grocery stores,'" said Gray. "We had no idea what was in store for us."

The 2020 trip was Gray's second to Newfoundland and Labrador but the first for pro snowboarder Maria Thomsen.