Hey Folks,
Here’s Steve “Don’t Dude Me” New – posing in front of the Arch. Every so often a rock or three would fall from the bridge in the background, and crash down onto the ice below – pretty awesome stuff. We enjoyed the glacier and moraine, but the hiking is tough on that terrain. Fortunately we didn’t have to hike too far across the rocks and ice – and the moraine made the river crossing WAY simpler than it would otherwise have been.
Cheers
Carl
Hey Folks,
Here’s an image from our first afternoon on the Sanford Glacier – well, on the moraine section of the glacier. We arrive at the landing strip, donned raingear to ward off the ever-present drizzle, and set off up the valley. Before long, we found a place to camp, setup camp, had a nap (always a critical part of a day’s hiking), and then we hiked up the valley to the moraine, and explored that a little. Right before we got on the moraine we saw a grizzly bear, maybe 75 yards away. The bear reared up on its hind legs, took a look at our intimidating crew, and then dropped to all fours and raced off into the brush. Good bear!
After hiking around the glacier a while, we found this arch, which was really cool. Of course, we didn’t have cameras with us, so we made sure the following day to take a short detour off our route up to this arch for some images. I’m glad we did, what a cool place this is. What’s really cool is that it changes on such a scale that it could well not be around next year. I hope it is, but I’m sure we’ll find something else equally as interesting if not. Such seems to be the way of glaciers.
I convinced Dan “Two Plates” Kelly to head up on the bridge of the glacier for a photo-opp. Dan’s never one to shy away from such a chance to shine, and he posed nicely for this. I’ll post another image soon of his brother, Steve “Don’t Dude Me” also at this arch, from below.
Cheers
Carl
Hey Folks,
I just returned from a week on the Sanford Plateau. This is the view north from camp on our second evening. One of the few nice evenings we had – more rain, more wind, more clouds, more wind, and then crazy insane winds that nearly drove us off the range. Nearly. I was really hoping to get some nice stuff of the big mountains visible from up here, but the weather didn’t co-operate like I hoped it might. Such seems to be the summer. We had an AWESOME trip though, and thanks to Sergei, Steven, Daniel, Kevin and Wendell 🙂 – awesome folks, awesome fun, awesome times. And best of luck with Daniel who’s about to head off to MIT for his first year of college – I’ve never met an MIT person before – I’m still kind of in shock.
More to come over the next few days – while I’ll be gone leading a trip from Bremner Mines to Tebay Lakes in Wrangell -St. Elias National Park until the 20th – so I’ll schedule a few posts for while I’m gone. Pray for sunshine.
Cheers
Carl
Hey Folks,
So here’s the beginning of where this trip gets fun.
This is one of the last photos I took this particular evening. The day had turned into a gorgeous afternoon, and I had a blast. A nice supper round the corner from this point, with this view of Mt. St. Elias over the Taan Fjord of Icy Bay is pretty hard to beat.
As the light got nicer and nicer, I was puttering around trying to make some photos. It makes for a long day here in the Alaska summer – this one here was close to midnight. My last 3 shots of the day were this one, a vertical composition of the same scene, and then a landscape image of this area without the boat.
Then I went to bed.
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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.
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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Hey folks,
Here’s a quick one from the road. Taken last night. The aurora borealis, or northern lights, as it’s commonly called, is absolutely the most mystical, magical, unbelievable thing I’ve ever witnessed, and dare say ever will. I’ll write more on the lights later, but here’s a quick recount of my experience last night (or 2 nights).
I was headed to the north side of the park, during the evening, after finally get my van out from a mudhole I’d stupidly driven into. So I was late heading north.
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Another winter in McCarthy, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park
“Oh, break up is early”, they said. “Spring’s here!” they cried. “Summer’s on the way”, they projected. Well, it was about 15 degrees Fahrenheit this morning, and that didn’t factor in the wind chill. Winds in the vicinity of, oh, I dunno, say around 200mph, blowing straight out from under the polar ice cap, I’m led to believe. And here’s me trying to snowshoe across one of the great lakes to take some pictures!
Well, fool me once, for about 5 minutes, but I’m not THAT stupid. Uh uh, no sir, not me. This little vegemite turned tail, and scampered back to the veritable safety (i.e., warm, heated and still running) of my van, turned that baby around and beared to’ard the ole cabin. Full steam ahead. (NB: given the road conditions, and the wildly lunging, out of control nature of said van in such conditions, ‘full steam’ consisted of about 15mph – or, 185mph slower than the aforementioned wind).
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The mountains are the Wrangell Mountains, including Bonanza and Jumbo Ridges, where 2 of the more famous of the Kennecott Mines were dug.
Hey Folks
Well, it’s been a nervous last few days, but here I am in Anchorage. I managed, through sheer luck, to get all the way back to town with no real drama. A little tweaking of cables and a lot of grace, and my van started, and drove me and my buddy Charlie and his 2 dogs, Keba and Musa, all the way from McCarthy, deep in the park, back to Anchorage.
I’m still in a little bit of shock. My van seems to have some kind of mystery virus, that nobody is able to diagnose. There’s a possibility, one mechanic told me, that it’s as simple as 2 cables poorly soldered together. Which 2 remains anyone’s guess.
I’ll be here (hopefully only) a few days, and then head back to the cabin.
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Hey Folks,
And so, with little to no ado, I bid adieu, for the time being. I’m hitting the road in the morning, and I’m not sure when I’ll have internet access again – hopefully it’ll be no more than a few days between swigs.
I’m heading out in the morning to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, to live in a cabin named “Shacky”. I’ll be there a couple of weeks or so at a time, then make a run to Anchorage for some groceries and a little warming up, then back to Shacky. If all goes as planned. If all does not go as planned, I’ll spend a few nights there, say something like ‘this is C-R-A-Z-E-E-E!!!’ and boogie on back to the relative comfort of Anchor-ville.
I’ve too little pride to tolerate discomfort long.
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Hey Folks,
OK, I’ll stop with the photos from Chile, taken a year ago. Here’s another image from this past summer, of a Dall sheep ewe we saw on the Skolai to Wolverine trip. We saw numerous Dall sheep along the way, but this one I was able to get close to and make some decent photos.
It took me quite a while, as it usually does shooting Dall sheep in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, because they’re pretty skittish.
Hunting is allowed in the preserve, and is allowed in the park by subsistence permit only – meaning locals are allowed to hunt pretty much wherever they choose, provided they don’t use motorized transport to get there – so they can’t fly in via bushplane to a place like this and hunt, but they can come in and hunt here if they travel on foot – not very likely.
However, even though hunters don’t get in to a place like this very much, the sheep are still very wary – I guess word gets around. Also, so few wildlife photographers spend any time in the park, the animals don’t learn to trust people, so the remain pretty skittish.
One more post for 2007!
Cheers
Carl