2019 has been a very active, adventurous, and productive year for me, and as it comes to an end I thought I’d present a selection of my 19 personal favorite photos of the year. I’ll talk a little bit about each one below. Continue reading >>
It’s been a fun December here in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, with roughly 120% of average snowfall so far and many powder days on the splitboard! Here’s a few snapshots from the last 6 days of splitboarding in a row.
Continue reading “December to Remember”
Fresh December snow blankets the steep forested mountainsides of the San Juan Mountains near Silverton, Colorado.
This week Claudia and I have been getting out for some backcountry skiing/splitboarding action here in the San Juans. It’s been a slow start to the season, but there’s finally enough snow to make some turns. Sketchy avalanche conditions out there, as usual, so we’ll have to keep things low angled and tame for the foreseeable future.
Ann and Collett ice skating on Ice Lake, San Juan Mountains, Colorado – November.
Collette ice skates on Ice Lake.
Yesterday I joined my friend Ann Driggers and her friend Collette to head up to Ice Lakes for a high altitude alpine ice skating session! Though I don’t have ice skates myself (and was quite jealous of them flying around on the turquoise ice), it was still super fun to just shuffle around on the ice in my boots and take photos of them. Ice skating seems like a great silver lining for low snow early winters like it has been in the San Juans so far.
A spectacular sunset on Monte Civetta in the Dolomites, Italy.
In late October and early November, Claudia and I traveled to the Dolomites in northern Italy for two weeks of hiking amongst jagged peaks and golden larch trees. I’ve spent time the Dolomites in the summer and winter before but was excited to visit during the autumn when the larch trees turn yellow and orange. Continue reading >>
Morning light on a cathedral in Valldemossa. Mallorca, Spain.
In mid-October we traveled to the Mediterranean island of Mallorca, Spain, for a week of holiday with some of Claudia’s family. Though Mallorca is most known for its beaches, we opted to stay in Valldemossa, a quaint old village full of narrow cobblestoned streets nestled in a valley at the foot of the mountains. Continue reading >>
Fantastic sunset light illuminates golden aspens, Chimney Rock, and Courthouse Mountain in the Cimarron Range, San Juan Mountains, Colorado.
The fall colors in the San Juan Mountains have been beautiful this season, though the persistent clear blue skies have put somewhat of a damper on the photographic potential. But it’s always glorious to walk through colorful aspen groves regardless of the weather, and we did have a few short windows of more interesting skies and light to enjoy. See my favorite photos from this October in the northern San Juans near Ridgway and Ouray here: See the photos here >>
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah
In the second half of September we spent two weeks in one of our favorite canyon areas of southern Utah – Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. During our first week we hiked through five different slot canyons, some of which were the narrowest slot canyons I’ve ever hiked (or squeezed) through! After that we repeated two of our favorite backpack trips through Coyote Gulch and Death Hollow, each 3-day journeys through magnificent spring fed canyons. See all the photos here >>
Jagged peaks of the central Wind River Range reflect in a remote, high lake.
In early September I backpacked for 10 days in the Wind River Range in Wyoming. This was my fourth long backpack trip in these fantastic mountains, but this time I did a one-way shuttle trek along the western side of the range through the Bridger Wilderness starting from the Elkhart Park trailhead and ending at Big Sandy to the south. Along the way I was able to visit a number of remote basins that I’ve been wanting to see for many years, but are generally a bit too difficult to get to with a standard loop or out-and-back trip. Continue reading >>
