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.

We did get one windy evening, that really rocked the camp – winds howled down from the nearby mountains, across the plateau, and slammed the tents we had pretty hard. Sergei even moved his camp to another sheltered site, just over a ridge, as his tent was getting hammered pretty hard. I doubt he’ll bring that tent on his next trip.

We got one evening of nice light, and one morning – other than that, the skies were overcast and not conducive to happy shooting. I’m just glad we happened to be camped where we were when the sun did manage to crawl through the cloudy blanket. This is a photo of Mount Drum, which was slightly northwest of our campsite.

Mount Drum, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Here’s the follow up to the post of 2 days ago. I walked about 100 yards up the ridge from the pond, and found this Alaska Cotton Grass field, which made a nice foreground for the mountain, to me. The timber of the light had changed so much in just a minute or 2. I snapped a few photos here, and before I knew it, the peak started to dim. A cloud behind me blocked the rising sun’s rays, and within a few more minutes, the peak no longer glowed. Bummer. I lay on the tundra for a while, hoping for some more light, but by the time the light started to shine on the snow-capped Mt. Drum again, the warmth was gone, and a cold morning light wasn’t so great for photos – this tired cold puppy headed back to his tent for some rest.

I should be back from my Bremner – Tebay trip tomorrow, and will try to post something late tomorrow evening when I get in.

Here’s another image of this same scene:

Mount Drum at Dawn

Hey Folks,

So here’s Mount Drum at 4:40am. A far better sight than I am at that time in the morning, trust me!

I got up and headed out early, but not early enough to catch the color in the sky around 4:15 – the clouds glowed a fiery pink, and I was still putting layer after layer of clothes on. It was pretty chilly this morning. I shot this photo of Mount Drum maybe 50 yards from out little kitchen – the unusually heavy rainfall left a number of small ponds and pondlets scattered across the high tundra, giving me something as a foreground for this photo.

I took a few quick compositions, then headed across the tundra for something else as a foreground, and it was amazing how much the light changed in a few short minutes.

Mount Drum photos is typically shot from the north face, or the southwest face – we were a little east of it here, and the high peak caught the morning rays nicely.

Backpacking Tent and Mount Drum

So here’s another image from the fabled ‘night of the forgotten camera’ – I turned around, and shot Kevin’s tent as he sat inside and read – well, he told me he was reading, but I never saw a book, just the headlamp – I’m not sure he wasn’t just turning on the lamp to make us think he was reading. The mountain in the background is Mt Drum, this was one of the few opportunities we got to see it, as clouds covered the sky most of the time. Prtty sweet view out a tent though, eh?

Carl