MOUNTAIN PHOTOGRAPHER


Category

Backpacking & Camping




  • Backpacking & Camping, Colorado

    Ultimate Needles High Route

    Today I’m taking off for a 7 day backpacking trip through the Needle Mountains south of Silverton, Colorado. I’ll be doing a similar route as last summer’s trek, except that this time I’ll be hiking up the west side, and then down the east side of the range (last year I just did the west side).

    So, I’ll be taking the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad to the Needleton stop, hiking over several high passes to the remote and beautiful Balsam Lake, then I’m going to cross over the range and head down the east side over several passes until I get to the popular Chicago Basin, then back to the Needleton stop to catch the train 7 days later. According to the map the route is only 25 miles, but I know from experience that it’s a very strenuous 25 miles. There are so many epic campspots along the way that I will have plenty to see and photograph for 7 days.

    I’ll back on Monday the 18th.

  • Backpacking & Camping, Colorado

    CDT: South San Juans

    08.07.08 | Permalink | 2 Comments

    Hiking the Continental Divide Trail, Colorado

    This last week I hiked the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) through the South San Juan Wilderness with two of my friends. It’s a 60+ mile trek from Cumbres Pass near Chama, New Mexico to Wolf Creek Pass near Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Although we initially planned for 6 days out there, we ended up hiking an average of 13 miles per day, finishing in 5 days.

    This hike was the longest distance backpacking trek I’ve ever done, and the first time in a long time that I’ve gone on a trip where the priority for me was the hiking itself, rather than the photography. We had a lot of ground to cover and we spent a good portion of each day just hiking. The photography was mostly unplanned, take-what-you-can-get shots along the way.

    It’s pretty amazing to hike so far, basin after basin, each day looking back at distant mountains on the horizon and knowing that you just walked all the way from there, step by step. Although I usually prefer to hike shorter distances each day (to have more time to relax at each camp spot and concentrate more on photography), the South San Juans are well-suited for this style of long multi-day trekking. The mountains are remote with poor access, and the trail is fairly flat and mostly on high tundra with the logical camping spots being few and far between.

    See my gallery of photos from the trip here.

  • Backpacking & Camping, Colorado

    Ouray-Uncompahgre Loop

    Uncompahgre Wilderness

    This weekend I went on a wonderful 25 mile backpacking loop from Ouray. I started at Bear Creek, a few miles up the road from Ouray, hiked up to the rolling green tundra paradise of the Uncompahgre Wilderness, along the Horsethief Trail to the Bridge of Heaven Trail, then back down into Ouray. I camped two nights along the way.

    The tundra is so beautiful right now, with lush green grass and wildflowers popping up everywhere. In contrast to last week’s brutal bushwhack, this trip was a stroll through paradise. I was practically ecstatic as I walked through one gorgeous basin after another. This hike easily ranks among the best I’ve done in Colorado, and it’s basically in my backyard!

    UPDATE: I’ve finally posted my photos here.

  • Backpacking & Camping, Colorado

    Cow Creek Bushwhack

    07.13.08 | Permalink | 10 Comments

    During the last three days, I bushwhacked through the Cow Creek valley, a rugged and remote mountain valley in the Uncompahgre Wilderness of the San Juan Mountains east of Ridgway. My original plan was to hike through the valley and continue up to the high alpine zone, where I would hike a high loop route around to Wetterhorn Basin and then take a trail back to my truck. However this plan was thwarted by geography - the Cow Creek valley is absolutely impassible six miles up, forcing me to turn around and bushwhack all the way back out the way I came.

    Cow Creek, Colorado
    This photo shows a sample of the kind of terrain and bushwhacking I was dealing with the entire time. There are many obstacles along the river which forced me to constantly hike up and down through thick bush and forest and along steep, loose, rocky slopes. Over the three days, I spent 23 hours of tough hiking to cover a mere 12 miles round trip, for an average of about 0.5 miles/hour! I can think of a few words to describe this bushwhack; it was brutal, tedious, frustrating, demoralizing, maddening, hellish, unrewarding, exhausting, etc, etc.

    Below are some more photos from this fruitless exploration.

    (more…)

  • Backpacking & Camping, Colorado

    Sneffels Front and Center

    06.29.08 | Permalink | 3 Comments

    Mt. Sneffels sunset

    On Saturday I camped up in Blaine Basin, with Mt. Sneffels towering above. That evening, I hiked up to the summit of Peak 12,910, which has an incredible vantage point directly facing the rugged north face of Sneffels. I’ve hiked to many different vantages around Mt. Sneffels, and I think this one is the best!

    (more…)

  • Backpacking & Camping

    Canyonlands Needles District

    05.06.08 | Permalink | 4 Comments

    5.13.08: UPDATED WITH 4X5 PHOTOS

    This last weekend I went backpacking in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park in Utah. After shelling out 25 bucks for entrance and permit fees, I set off into the “wild”. Is it just me or do national parks feel like nature amusement parks? All the regulations and designated trails and campspots definitely spoil the notion of being out in the wilderness. But these areas are national parks for a reason - they are undeniably spectacular!

    Here are some DP1 digital photos from the trip, as well as a few 4×5 film ones.

    Canyonlands Needles District

    (more…)

  • Backpacking & Camping, Colorado

    Dreaming of Summer

    04.03.08 | Permalink | 2 Comments

    It’s April, it’s snowing, and we still have two more months of snowboarding ahead (this is a good thing). But as each day passes I’ve been thinking more and more about summertime. Here’s a few photos from a backpacking trip I did last summer in the San Juan Mountains near Durango, Colorado.

    Pigeon Peak

    Lilly on the lookout for marmots. Lilly carries all her own stuff, and even some of my stuff too! What a team player.

    (more…)

  • Backpacking & Camping, Colorado

    Winter Camping in the West Needles

    03.24.08 | Permalink | 11 Comments

    Winter Camping

    Lured by a full moon and a forecast of clear skies, this last weekend I went backpacking for two nights in the West Needle Mountains in the San Juans near Silverton, Colorado. This area is incredibly photogenic; from my campsite on a 12,200 ft ridgeline, I enjoyed broad vistas of the Needle Mountains, the West Needles, and all the peaks of the Molas Pass area.

    (more…)

  • Backpacking & Camping, Colorado, Gear

    The Icebox Igloo Experiment

    igloo.jpg

    This weekend my friends Momo and Pavel drove up from New Mexico to go winter camping with me.  Our plan was to try out this new Igloo making tool that I recently bought.  The “Icebox” as it’s called, is basically a curved box attached to a pole which is staked in the center.  You rotate the box around the center radius and keep packing snow into it to form perfect blocks, spiraling up layer upon layer and adjusting the pole to preset lengths as you go, eventually forming a perfectly egg-shaped igloo.  Simple enough in theory.

    We hiked up about 1600 feet above Ouray and at 2:30pm started building the igloo on a flat ledge with a nice vista to the west.  The Icebox manufacturers claim a 3 hours build time, so just to be safe I was planning on 4 hours (after all we had three people).  Well, long story short, it took us 8 hours to build this damn thing!  It was pretty nerve-wracking when we realized how long it was taking, since we were depending on the igloo shelter for our warmth in the bitter cold night.  Plus we were never quite sure whether it would really work or not. We could have always just packed up and followed our tracks back down to the truck, but we were pretty exhausted from the hike up, and were determined to make this thing work.  Well, with headlamps and a large dose of stubborn determination, we finally completed the entire igloo at 10:30 at night.

    Though the igloo took a surprisingly huge amount of effort to build, it really was pretty awesome when it was done.  Outside was blowing snow, with temps in the single digits, but inside the igloo was calm, peaceful, and relatively warm.  Too bad we didn’t have much time to enjoy it, as we all pretty much immediately got into our sleeping bags and crashed for the night.

    (more…)