Hey Folks
Here’s what fifty five thousand feet of mountains looks like. From right to left: Mount Drum (12 010′), Mount Wrangell (14 163′), Mount Zanetti (13 009′), and Mount Sanford (16 237′). This photo is from the northern edge of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, overlooking the Copper River basin. The Wrangell mountains come to life as the sun sinks beneath the horizon. Here’s another photo I took of these mountains a year ago, from much further south and west.
Cheers
Carl
Hey Folks,
This is a photo of Mt Sanford, in winter, taken early one morning. In 2 weeks I had 3 mornings with some alpenglow. The first one I didn’t shoot because it was so socked in with cloud an hour before dawn that I didn’t figure the light was going to happen – and being tired, I slept in. I awoke, looked over, and saw a nice magenta glow on the face of Sanford, but there wasn’t really any kind of way to shoot it from where I was. Such is my life, it seems. I did enjoy a hot coffee and Continue reading
Hey Folks,
I hope you’re not tiring of Mount Blackburn. It’s an awesome mountain. One of the primary reasons I wanted to spend some time here in the winter is to catch this mountain in good light. In the summer time, when travel here is a bit easier and the weather much warmer, the good light is on the north side of the mountain. So here I am, running around at 50 deg below F trying to make a decent image of the mountain. I went up new year’s eve to shoot, and the light was amazing.
Of course, both my camera batteries died, due to the cold, and I made 3 photos, then spent my time sitting in the cold watching the alpenglow light up the mountain as if it had a fire inside. It was something special to witness, but I’ve not a single image of the event. Since then it’s been cloudy.
The weather did warm up to a comfortable 20 below though, so there’s always something positive. That and the little rubber foot off my tripod that fell off, and I thought was long gone, lost; I was wandering back to the shack just at dusk, when I saw this little black thing half buried in the snow .. I kicked it (as I’m prone to do such things), and it was my rubber foot off my tripod. Woo hoo!
You all stay warm. I’ll try to get some images of something other than Mount Blackburn here sometime soon.
Cheers
Carl
Hey Folks,
Here’s another photo from the summer, of Mt. St. Elias rising above Icy Bay. Good times.
Cheers
Carl
Hey Folks,
Here’s another image from the summer just gone by. This one was from near our campsite on the Canning River, in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). We’d had a nice day paddling, enjoying some sunny weather, found a sweet spot to camp, and then I wandered around into the evening looking for a composition that caught my eye. The unnamed mountain across the river is a ridge leading up to Mt. Salisbury. This is one of my favorite areas in the region, right at the edge of the coastal plain and the Brooks Mountains. Typically these kinds of terrains are interesting; Continue reading
Hey Folks,
Here’s another from the summer, from our Bremner to Tebay trip. Brings back some nice memories.
Oh, and please add my name after Colin Powell’s in the list of those who officially announce their endorsement of Barack Obama for pres. Or his name after mine, whichever order works best. 🙂
Cheers
Carl
Hey Folks,
I’m winding down my short stay here in McCarthy, prepping for the winter. I’ve painted half the inside of the cabin, chopped a bunch of wood, and done a few other odds and ends. I also scouted out a few photo opportunities for this winter, though I didn’t get to shoot much this last few weeks.
We got a solid dumping of snow almost a week ago, and most of it is still packed on the ground – the temps have hovered around 40 deg most days, so there’s not much melting. As I write this, a few lonely snow flakes drift down from the clouds – and from the looks of things, another snow storm is not far away.
I’ll be heading back towards Anchorage in the next few days, where I’ll stay for a while to do website updates, photo editing, other office work, etc – it’s a tedious time at the end of summer. Once I get that stuff tended to, I’ll stock up on food and supplies, and return to the cabin for the winter. I’m keen to venture a little further afield this year, explore the place in more detail, and try to get some good winter shots. I think I’m a bit better prepped this year, and have a better idea of how this all works. We’ll see.
The summer is now gone, too quickly, as always. They say fall has just begun, but I’m pretty sure it’s gone too – unless by ‘fall’ they mean ‘snowfall’ – my car outside is slowly getting a nice covering of the white stuff. As always, I’m already thinking about tentative plans for next summer. I don’t know yet exactly what they’ll entail (hence ‘tentative’) but at this point, I’m fairly certain they’ll include a good deal of me wandering around the mountains of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, looking for some sunshine.
Cheers
Carl
hey Folks,
Here’s another image from a few years ago – on a trip to Wolverine, a ridge high above the Chittistone River in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska. The Twaharpies Mountains lie south of the ridge, across the river, and came out late this evening with some gorgeous light. The peaks are pretty cool – classic alps. Just east of this peak lie the University Range, home to Mount Bona and Mount Churchill.
Wolverine is a local name for the (officially) unnamed ridge on the north side of the Chittistone River, and a great spot for a basecamp or a point to point hike – I usually hike from Skolai Pass west to Wolverine, but some folks like to do it in the other direction. It’s a classic alpine walk, through some of the most magnificent scenery I’ve ever stumbled my way through. There’s a crazy butte on the north side of the ridge, like something out of the desert southwest, but all around are jagged craggy peaks, like the Twaharpies.
Maybe I’ll continue on with a short series of images from years gone by, rather than continually posting new photos. This counts as 2. 🙂
Cheers
Carl
hey Folks,
Here’s what happens when the guide lets someone else lead. Sergei, aka, Borat, was confident of his ability to lead us to our next campsite. he’d been in this area with me last year, and figured he knew the way. So I said ‘sure, you go on ahead’, we’ll follow you. We were aiming to stay on the southern side of this ridge, staying well below the crest, traversing around to our campsite. Sergei pushed higher and higher t every opportunity, and before ya know it, we came over the top, looking toward Tebay Lakes to the north of us. Jodee’s standing here, looking around asking herself “What The Heck?” and the rest of the group had collapsed on the ground.
🙂
Well, that’s not QUITE the truth, but Sergei did lead us up this ridge – and it was a pretty sweet spot to hang out for a while. Continue reading
Hey Folks,
Here’s another image of Mount Drum from earlier in the summer – one fine, crusty and cold morning up on the windswept Sanford Plateau. We traversed the plateau from the north-west side, where we’d landed by bush plane along the Sanford River. Rather than cross the Sanford River, a foolish maneuver, we hiked over the glacial moraine, just above where the river comes out of the bottom of the glacier. The river was fairly rippin’ along, with all the rain this summer, so I was glad we didn’t have to wade it – I’m pretty sure the folks on the trip were glad about that too.
Most of that trip we had cloudy skies and light drizzle, although the rain really wasn’t that bad. Continue reading