Photos of 2009

15 Replies

Dawn rising over Mount Blackburn, elevation - 16,390 feet (4,996 M), winter, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska

Dawn rising over Mount Blackburn, elevation – 16,390 feet (4,996 M), winter, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska. Click the image to see a larger version and to browse the rest of the gallery.

Hey Folks,

I thought I might make a blog post, the first for the new year, with a quick presentation of my favorite images from the past year. Not necessarily a “best of”, but just a collection of 12 images, one from each month, each of which mean something to me. Some of these have appeared on the blog before, some have not.

The first one is my favorite image of Mt. Blackburn I’ve taken so far, taken one cold morning a year ago. One of the primary reasons I wanted to spend winter in the McCarthy area was this particular scene. I knew the mountain would get great light in the winter, though I’d only viewed it from here in the summer previously. During the summer the great light is on the northside of mountains here in Alaska, so I’d never really viewed this scene in the great alpenglow you see here. A couple of winters in a cabin in the woods rewarded me in many ways, and I consider this image a nice memory of those days. Good times.

The 2nd photo Continue reading →

Website work and the Bremner to Tebay Trek

1 Reply

On the Bremner Mines to Tebay Lakes trip, this hiker takes in the view, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska.

Hiker on the Bremner Mines to Tebay Lakes backpacking, Wrangell St. Elias National park and Preserve, Alaska.

Hey Folks

While I’m working on updating my website, I stumbled on this image from our Bremner Mines to Tebay Lakes trip a few years ago. That little rocky outcrop has this big crack right through it, so standing on the boulder was somewhat …. uhhhmm .. mad. That drop off goes all the way down to the Little Bremner River below. Still, that’s what Texans are for, right? 🙂

Mark was good enough to stand on it while I snapped a few photos.

This is one of my favorite hikes, and I’m aiming to do it again this coming summer, 2010. If I ever get done with overhauling this darn website. Pesky stuff.

Cheers

Carl

Another from Mount St. Elias

2 Replies

Mount St. Elias and Nootka lupine, (Lupinus nootkatensis) Icy Bay

Mount St. Elias and Nootka lupine (Lupinus nootkatensis) from Icy Bay, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

As I just sold a print of this photo yesterday, I thought it would fit with the recent postings from Mount St. Elias and a little chatter about the movie of the same name. This photo was taken from Icy Bay, from a small island I paddled out to in my now defunct and sitting in the Yakuat landfill sea kayak. The Nootka lupine (Lupinus nootkatensis) were pretty thick on this small island for some reason, much more so than anywhere else in the bay.

I’d have liked to stay on the island longer so I could take some photos in softer light, but Continue reading →

More from the St. Elias mountains and the movie Mount St. Elias

4 Replies

Vertical frame of a steep wall of the St. Elias mountain Range, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska.

Fluting and deep power on the St. Elias mountains. Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Click on the image for a larger version.

Hey Folks,

As promised, more photos from the St. Elias mountains. An aerial I shot on one of the most gorgeous days I’ve ever been out shooting. On the subject of the newly released film, Mount St. Elias:

Few people realize just how special these mountains are. Everyone knows Denali, of course, and the Himalayas, but the St. Elias mountains just don’t seem to have caught the public eye like these others. I suspect it’s because they’re full of  “seconds”: 2nd highest mountain in the US (Mount. St. Elias, second highest mountain Canada (Mount St. Elias, also known as Boundary Peak 186, sits on the US/Canada border), 2nd highest mountain in North America (Mt. Logan in Canada is in the St. Elias range). We’re a culture of competition, and there really ain’t no second prize. Continue reading →

Mount St. Elias – the Film

3 Replies

Aerial view of a mountain in the St. Elias Mountain Range, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska.

Looking down from a great height at some of the amazing escarpments in the St. Elias Mountain Range, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Click on the image to see a larger version.

Hey Folks,

Have you ever thought about climbing the 2nd highest mountain in the US, the 2nd highest mountain in Canada, the 3rd highest mountain in North America, the mountain with the greatest vertical relief of any mountain in the world so you can ski from top to bottom? From 18 008′ to the sea? If so, this movie’s for you. Mount St. Elias. 2 Austrian mountaineers and an American freeski mountaineer set out to run the “ultimate vertical descent” – 18 000 of skiing from the summit of Mount St. Elias to the sea, to Icy Bay. Pretty amazing stuff to watch, I can’t begin to imagine what that kind of endeavor must be like.

“If you want to achieve something great, you have to risk more than usual – that’s the way it is.” — (Axel Naglich) Continue reading →

Fall color, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

3 Replies

Fall in the boreal forest, aspen tree trunks, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska.

Fall in the boreal forest, aspen tree trunks, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska

Hey Folks,

A quick visit back to September; the boreal forest is a melange of color in the fall. The vibrancy of the Alaska woods in the fall is a function, perhaps, of the speed at which the dramatic changes take place. The green foliage of summer glimpses the oncoming winter and is gone in the blink of an eye; one last hurrah of color before settling in, nestled beneath the whites of winter.

Cheers

Carl

Shopping for gear?

4 Replies

Hiking in winter along the rim of the Kuskulana Gorge, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska.

Hiking in winter snow along the rim of the Kuskulana Gorge, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Click the image to see a larger version and just how styling I look in my fat eVent jacket.

Hey Folks,

I thought this might be a good photo to accompany a post plugging my friend Ron Niebrugge’s new site Outdoor Gear Deals. Why? Because I’m looking so p-h-y-n-e in my flash orange jacket that you can clearly see the need for staying on top of fashion, even in the wilderness – ESPECIALLY in the wilderness. A while back some of the outdoor online retailers started running a “Deal of the Day” on their websites to draw traffic – offering some pretty good prices and great deals from time to time. As that marketing strategy has burgeoned, Ron did the world a favor and compiled a webpage that shows a bunch of these “Deals of the Day”. I’m sure he’ll add more sites to the page as time permits.

Continue reading →

Bald Eagle photo – Haliaeetus leucocephalus

3 Replies

Bald eagle soaring against mountains, sunset, Kachemak Bay State Park, Homer, Alaska.

Bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) soaring against the mountains of Kachemak Bay State Park, sunset, Homer, Alaska. Click on the image for a larger version.

Hey Folks,

Few creatures express the wild quite like a soaring bald eagle does.

This photo is presented as a memorial to the late Jean Keene, good friend and a dear lady, from Homer, Alaska. Jean’s love for the eagles gave bird lovers, wildlife lovers and photographers from all around the world a lifetime of amazing opportunity, but more than that she showed by example how to care about the creatures with whom we share the earth.

Thank you Jean – may you Rest in Peace.

Cheers

Carl

Grizzly Bear Photo – Ursus arctos

4 Replies

A grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) headshot, Katmai National park and Preserve, Alaska.

A grizzly bear (Ursus arctos), close and personal, Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Click the image for larger version.

Hey Folks,

In honor of the recent decision (last week) by Judge Molloy of Montana to continue to have the grizzly bears listed under the Endangered Species Act (in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem), here’s a grizzly bear photo, from my recent trip to Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska. In September the Court ruling was for the US Fish and Wildlife Service to relist the bears, but the F&WS requested the judge to reconsider. He reconsidered, and turned down their appeal, so the bears remain, for now, on the ESA. I’ll write a lengthy post about it later; for now I’m going to bed.

I think September was a good month for the bears – Continue reading →