Tag Archives: skolai-pass

A Big Month for Skolai Pass Photos

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Sunset over Skolai Pass, Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska.
Skolai Pass, the north end; Sunset over Skolai Pass, Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

Skolai Pass has rocked into March 2010. This month’s edition of backpacker magazine, which I wrote about earlier, has a full page image of mine from Hole in the Wall, accompanying an article about hiking the Goat Trail.

And this month’s edition of Popular Photography includes another photo from Skolai Pass by photographer Doug Roane, taken on one of last year’s Skolai Pass Photo Tours. Check out a large version of Doug’s amazing photo here. Better yet, take 15 minutes and browse the collection of images on Doug’s website. Awesome stuff!

Falls overlooking Skolai Pass and Russell Glacier - Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, AK
Skolai Pass, the south end; Waterfalls overlooking Skolai Pass and Russell Glacier – Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, AK. For a gorgeous larger version, visit Doug’s website at www.dougroanephotography.com

Doug’s photo was voted 2nd place in the March “Your Best Shot” competition. Huge congratulations Doug, a recognition well-earned.

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Hole in the Wall and Skolai Pass, The Goat Trail

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Mountain Avens and Dwarf Fireweed, Hole in the Wall, Skolai Pass, Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska.
Skolai Pass, Hole in the wall rock formations, glaciers, Wrangell-St Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. The flowers you see here are (white ones) Mountain Avens (Dryas octopetala) and Dwarf Fireweed (Epilobium latifolium)

Hey Folks,

It’s always nice when a magazine editor wants your photo for their story, and you get published. Especially when it’s a photo from one of your favorite places anywhere.

But it’s WAY nicer when you get published in a magazine you enjoy, read and value. This image posted here is in the current edition of backpacker magazine, page 65 – full page vertical, which is nice.

The image accompanies an article on backpacking “the Goat Trail”, in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. This was the first route I ever hiked in Wrangell-St. Elias, and definitely a favorite of mine, so having my image chosen to accompany the story represents much more than just another published photo and a check to me.

It’s also cool for me because a few of my friends are published in the same edition of the magazine. It’d be remiss of me not to mention Ron Niebrugge, also a photographer I admire.

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Mt Churchill and Mt. Bona, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

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Tallest peaks in the University Range, Mt. Churchill and Mt. Bona rise dramatically from Russell Glacier, catching the last rays of the day, Fall colors in the foreground, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.
Tallest peaks in the University Range, Mt. Churchill and Mt. Bona rise dramatically from Russell Glacier, catching the last rays of the day, Fall colors in the foreground, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

Here’s an image that I am amazingly lucky to have made. Probably luckier than I deserve to be. Not because of the luck involved in catching this scene like this; this image has been a long, long time in coming. The scene is taken from the south end of Chitistone Pass, near Skolai Pass, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska. I’ve spent more time here than I probably should admit to, waiting, hoping and wondering if I’d ever actually happen to catch it in the light that I knew graces these peaks from time to time.

Finally, this September, I was up at Skolai Pass with our phototour and we were really blessed with some great weather. I was giddy with excitement and I’m sure the folks along on the trip were wondering just what they’d got themselves into.

Within 20 minutes of landing we’d already found and photographed a Least Weasel, which I’d never had the opportunity to photograph inside the park previously. Next up we ran into some Woodland caribou, apparently the only woodland caribou herd in Alaska, so that was pretty awesome.

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Hole in the Wall, Skolai Pass, Wrangell St. Elias National Park

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Ice and snow form a glacier on one of the peaks at Hole in the Wall, Skolai Pass, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

Here’s an image from last September – I was basecamped in Skolai Pass, part of the Goat Trail backpacking route. This morning I had some nice light to shoot a variety of images.

Skolai is an amazing place with a variety of photographic subjects that is seemingly without end.

Wildflowers can be amazing there, landscapes as grand as the immense Russell Glacier and Mt Bona and Mt Churchill, 16 550′ high Mt Bona, and 15 638′ high Mt Churchill towering in the background, ice patterns and crevasses in the glacier, lakes, waterfalls, streams and cascades, shorebirds, raptors, songbirds, and mammals ranging in size from tiny voles and arctic ground squirrels to foxes, marmots, Dall sheep, caribou and grizzlies.

I’ve even see wolf tracks along the air strip up there.

Yellow Paintbrush Photo, Skolai Pass

Yellow Paintbrush or Coastal Paintbrush photo, wildflower, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Here’s a photo of a Yellow or Coastal Paintbrush (Castilleja unalaschensis).

Taken in Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska. I’m eagerly waiting spring this year here to really get some more photos of the flowers in the area. The flowers don’t really hit the high country until July, but hopefully I’ll get some opportunities in the lower country, in the forest, in the spring.

Hole in the Wall is a massive escarpment of peaks similar to Moraine Lake, only bigger and Hole in the Wall feels more primordial, with no trees, the moraine and glacier are still intact, rather than the revegetated montane alpine country and the deep blue lake of Wenkchemna. Hole in the Wall has 7 peaks, rather than 10, and they stand almost sentinel like over Skolai Pass.

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Skolai Pass Tribute

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Mt. Bona, Russell Glacier, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks

Thanks so much for all the comments and emails I have had from readers so far, it’s great. I’ll try to keep up and be better about posting images, new and old and writing something about what’s going on. It tickles me that people out there are interested, thank you.

On another note, I would like to write this post in salute to Mr Paul Schoch, from Wisonsin, whom I never met, but wished I had. Mr Schoch went missing in Skolai Pass this fall, in mid-September. I won’t offer details here, other than point to a newspaper story for those of you who aren’t familiar with what happened. Mr Schoch’s tent was spotted, by my father, as we flew over the area looking for him, after Paul hadn’t shown back up at the landing strip for his scheduled pickup.

Newspaper Story

It saddens me that someone came to an unfortunate end in a place I love so much, and to which I return, often more than once, every year. Skolai Pass is possibly my favorite place anywhere. I was so excited to take my parents to this place, and show them a place I hold so deep. At the same time the reality of the wilderness was made perhaps no more evident than by Mr Schoch’s disappearance. It IS wild, rugged and remote country, and from what I’ve read, Paul seems to have valued those kinds of places as I do. In some weird and almost unspeakable way, I think I’d rather come to rest in a place like that than somewhere else.

It serves little purpose for me to speculate as to what may or may not have happened.

What’s important is that his family and friends find some solace knowing their husband, father, or friend, died in a beautifully wild and truly awesome place. I wish them all my most sincere condolences and most heartfelt sympathies. Their grief, I’m sure, is in some way an important part of his death (as grief always is) and also a reflection of his life. To his memory, and to all those who knew and loved him, my deepest regards.

Sincerely

Carl

PS – This photo is of the Russell Glacier, and Mt. Bona, a 16 421 foot high peak, on the south side of Skolai Pass, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska.