Random pictures from the last few months.

Tall grass along West Chester Lagoon

Chilkoot Charlie's Windmill, Spenard Road, Anchorage, AK

Someone's yard downtown

Sleeping Lady Sunset over West Chester Lagoon

Kara and Justin

Julie and Aaron

Little Mia

The summer went by fast. I'm still in denial that its past, but the cold rainy days are a quick reminder that summer is long gone. This photographic journey is quite random, but it sums up some of my favorite picture from the last few months. The tall grass has no real significance, but I took it specifically to play around with in Lightroom and wash it out. It just feels relaxing. Something I'm currently having trouble doing.

The next few pictures were taken all in the down town area of Anchorage near my old apartment on Spenard. The weather this summer was amazing and I often found myself riding my bike around in the evenings waiting for the light to get good.

Kara and Justin are friend from Idaho who just recently moved to Anchorage. They asked me to take their picture before their baby was born and so I took them down to West Chester for an hour of shooting. Although its a bit cheesy, this picture is one of my favorites of them.

Julie and Aaron were just married in early September in Girdwood. They must have had one of the most beautiful early fall days I've ever seen. Although I don't know them very well I couldn't help keeping my finger on the shutter release - it was just too beautiful. The whole entire day.

Mia is their niece and she was just a doll. I must have taken 20 pictures of her that day and this one was just priceless.

It might be awhile before you see another post. I am maxed out with work and taking classes and the weather is quite marginal these days - which dampen my motivation for carrying my camera around. I'm visualizing my next post will have lots of white stuff and squiggly lines from the first tracks of the season.

Congratulations Rob and Holly

A Toast to Rob and Holly

Congratulations!!!

Bridesmaids

Groomsmen get adventurous

The Wedding Party on an amazing sunny day at Alpenglow Ski Area

Rob and Holly

The Dance Party

I have to give a big thanks to Holly and Rob for asking me to shoot their wedding. What a great opportunity to push my photographic skills in a new direction. I admit the wedding party was a tad bit challenging... maybe an understatement... but I appreciate their endurance while I frantically moved people around, fooled around with my meter, and tromped them all over the tundra of Arctic Valley. I'm pretty pleased with the results, considering this was my first attempt from start to finish to document an entire wedding. What a fun group of people... all 350 of them. You sure know how to throw an Alaskan Party!

50 years of Jumping Smoke in Alaska

On June 5th 2009 the Alaska Smokejumpers celebrated their 50th Anniversary with a few practice jumps for the public to watch.

I have to admit this job sure looks like a lot of fun. I think paragliding might be in my future...

A curious spectator approaches after a jumper completes his landing with a roll

Poppy Explosion

Usually I don't like to post two images that are so similar, but I couldn't decide which one I liked more. They are both so unusual with the single poppy just before its about to bloom and the silhouette of a tree in the background that looks more like a dancing figure. The only difference being the position of the poppy to the tree and the mood set by the direction the figure in the tree appears to be looking. The image above seems very open and curious and the one below seems a little bashful.

Both pictures were taken at ISO 250, 1/100 of second at F4.8 with the above shot at 50mm and the one below at 70mm. I intentionally overexposed about 4 stops to get the full color and detail of the poppy just before it was about to "pop." The orange circles on the tree are a result of lens flare because of the back lit situation. The lens flare being "a happy accident" especially after I manipulated the black tones and color saturation in Adobe Lightroom to bring out the orange/blue lens flare and enhance the color of the poppy.


I have always liked the look of over-exposing my subjects when they are back lit. Give me an hour with my camera in a field of poppies and this is what you get. Maybe this is the view Dorthy had in the Wizard of Oz just before she fell asleep.




There's nothing quite like a Lens Baby when shooting flowers or babies. I love this look. If you've never heard of a Lens Baby, google it. Its a great lens to have in your camera bag tricks depending on what kind of look you're going for. It does require some patience and trial and error, but once you get the hang of focusing and setting your exposures the affects are pretty fun. It basically bends and distorts a portion of the image while keeping another portion of the image in focus.




As a child I remember this apricot tree and the poppies around it, but 25 years have passed and the neighbor who owns this property now has let the poppies run wild in his yard. I was lucky to be visiting my parents over Memorial Day weekend as they began to bloom, and couldn't resist the fun shapes and vibrant colors. Peaceful Valley, Spokane, WA. 2009

Patagonia Icefield November 2006

Shuttling our last load up the ablation zone of the Marconi Glacier, Patagonia

An Argentine group of eight on one rope traverses through the debris on an ice fall to avoid a small crevasse. "pelgro. zona de avalanchas de seracs."

Whiteouts, ground blizzards and blowing snow became the theme of our trip

Ryan Hokanson, kiting around Circo De Los Altares. This was only our second day of nice weather in ten days.

Jason Kwiakowski, puting the kite away after the winds died down

Cerro Torre

Storm Day, Matte?

South American Dreams

Cerro Torre, Patagonia Argentina

Lima, Peru

Punta Del Diablo, Uruguay

Two months ago I started sorting through some old slides and rediscovered some wonderful images that I took shortly before I made the switch to digital. I did a pretty aggressive edit and narrowed my selection to about 25 slides from a three month trip through Argentina, Uruguay, and Peru and promptly had them scanned. Excited about my rediscovery I immediately started touching them up, removing dust and scratches, turning some black and white, and even managed to get one on the cover of Western Mountaineering's 2009 Catalog.

... but every time I opened my blog I just didn't know what to say. I couldn't think of a single word I wanted to share about those experiences. Almost as if each picture was so far away, so far from where I am now, that they almost felt like a series of little dreams. Each picture so rich and beautiful, so full of textures, almost like I had imagined them... yet so vastly different than my most prominent memories from that trip. Where was the picture of Jason and I on our hands and knees as we crawled behind an old lift shack on Cathedral Mountain trying to escape 80 mile an hour winds? Where was the picture of me hanging 10 feet in a crevasse with my sled teetering on the lip, because I had failed to attach a prusik. Where's the picture of that stuffy little hostel room where I spent fours days fighting a respiratory infection and dysentery in Peru? It's so interesting to look through these pictures and realize what an amazing place I was in, and how my state of mind was so detached from those experiences, like I wasn't even there in the first place.

So my two month case of writers block continues... and my lucid South American dreams weave together what was a pretty incredible journey.

Skiing the Selkirks, BC... Valkyr Style

Simply Beautiful

Girls Day

Brooke Practicing for the Worlds

Heart Pass

Boys Day

Rory kicks off a small slab

Hiking out of Viking

Rory Camm

Gwen and Brooke

Brooke Edwards

Somewhere in the Middle

An unknown snow machiner with a snow board on Sunnyside, Turnagain Pass, Alaska

Why do I love expensive hobbies? As if skiing and photography aren't enough, but then you add a hundred horses and its obvious that this new discovery has the potential to damage a savings account. I think my hippie roots are strong enough to keep me earning my turns on my own two feet, at least some of the time. However I can't deny the access a snow machine can open up to mountaineering, ski touring, and kiting... and its hard to say no to such a sweet invitation.

Snow machining also known as snow mobiling has always been a little controversial, at least in some of the circles I've hung out in. Images of rednecks, mullets, and republicans (well...Todd Palin) have stereotyped this sport for quite some time. It is a noisy fuel intensive activity that definitely could impair ones pristine wilderness experience. I admit to feeling a little annoyed after spending hours hiking only to discover high mark tracks on my ski line. High marking is the act of snow machining up a steep pitch and then turning it quickly down hill as the machine start to loose power.

Safety concerns like snow machines triggering avalanches on skiers is probably more worthy of discussion, but many land managers are attempting to find a balance. The Chugach National Forest has divided Turnagain Pass into two sides; motorized users are only allowed on the West side of the Seward Hwy, and non-motorized users have the East side, but are welcome to use either side if they choose.

I have never had strong feelings one way or the other on this issue, other than separating the two users. I enjoy the quiet solitude of a backcountry touring day, and would be disappointed if this experience was full of exhaust and engine sounds everywhere I went. On the flip side snow machining is really fun and opens up a lot more opportunities for skiing terrain that is otherwise impossible to access in a day. I had to smile when I heard about a tie-dye wearing, dread headed telemark skier motoring around the backcountry in search of fresh powder turns. I hope this collision of cultures is symbolic of the future of both skiing and snow machining. I'm pretty happy somewhere in the middle.

Kris Dudely unloading his machine in the Turnagain Pass parking lot

A group of Girdwood locals looking at a possible ski descent

Corbett on the ridge above Triangle Peak

Corbett, snowboarding down the face of Triangle Peak

Kris hiking up a ridge above Warm Up Bowl

Kris dropping into Warm Up

Kris rippin it on the the Tele-Pontoons

Kris Dudley making it look easy!
Rarely seen on this side of the lens, getting my share of the turns
photo by Kris Dudely

US Nation Nordic Skiing Championship

The US National Nordic Championship hosted in Anchorage at Kincaid Park finished up today after a long week of waiting. Temperatures were just slightly too cold to race most of the week and many of the events were canceled. Monday warmed up just enough to allowed the Freestyle Race to proceed. The women skied a 5K loop and the men skied a 10K loop. Anchorage's very own Kikkan Randall placed 2nd racing for the US ski team and Alaska Pacific University. Laura Valaas placed 4th, Kate Arduser place 6th, James Southam place 5th and Brent Knight placed 6th, all racing for Alaska Pacific University.

Today the racing jury decided to run the sprint classic race for the final race of the event. Temperatures were just warm en0ugh despite a consistent breeze, but racers only had to brave a short distance 1.2K for the women, and 1.4K for the Men. Kikkan Randall led the pack throughout the entire finals, and came in first. Shortly behind her Laura Valaas in second place. Congratualations APU!

Laura Valaas coming up a hill during the sprint race

Lars Flora tucking around a corner in the sprint race

A Pre-Season to Remember

Andy Dietrick and Weston Morrison skinning up a peak in Hatcher Pass, late October.

The Best Birthday Present Ever. A beautiful day of ski touring in the Girdwood Valley.

Brooke Edwards making telemark turns on Sunny Side in Turnagain Pass

Kris Dudley, enjoying the powder and the view from Notch Peak, Girdwood Valley.

Why can't we be in the sun? A view from the top of Max's Peak, Girdwood Valley

New Prospects and Projects

Some grad students outside one of the buildings on the Kellog Farm.
Both are in the Master's of Environment Educations at APU.

Somehow I have managed to squeeze in a few side projects on top of my mountain of responsibilities this fall. Hence why its been two months since I've updated my blog. In August I started working full time for APU, running their aquatics program for APU's Recreation Program. I had previously committed to teaching two beginning photography classes two nights a week for the semester and also decided to work part time ski patrol come the start of ski season. November was rough, as all three of these jobs collided into days on end of work. You want something done? Ask a busy person. In late October I was asked to shoot some photos for APU's website and some of their Master's program brocures. I so badly wanted to say no, but I couldn't refuse the opportunity. Photography is my dream job. In the end it payed off and sleep was the only thing I really lost.

Kikkan Randall leading the APU women's team during a practice at Hatcher Pass

Alaska is hosting the US Nordic Championships at Kincaid starting tomorrow Jan. 3rd. This event is a big deal for the Alaska nordic community. Many of APU's very own nordic ski team will be competing in this event and are expected to do very well. In preperation for the event their coach had asked if I could take some pictures of them practicing early season at Hatcher Pass. Here is one of the images that appeared of the front cover of Coast Magazine this month.

A view of the North dorms of the Atwood Center at APU in November

Grand Prize Photo for the 2nd annual Anchorage Press b & w photo contest

In June I shot a series of commercial pictures for my friend Josh, who owns a Landscaping business in Anchorage. This was taken from the top of the new J and L Tower of one of his employees watering the grounds. I immediately saw the interesting patterns that were created from the shadows of the vertical sculptures and I really like the contrast and the patterns on the sidewalk. I decided to change it to black and white and entered it in the Anchorage Press annual black and white photo contest. To my surprise I won the grand prize and it appeared on the cover of the Press in December.

Represents of the feeling of Night Skiing from Chair 1 at Alyeska.
Actually taken early in the morning prior to avalanche control work.

Throughout the month of December I had ten prints hanging up at the Java Haus at Alyeska. All were pictures of the Alyeska Ski Patrol hard at work last ski season. Thanks guys! I will miss these early morning control days.

Pyched for Another Season

West Face of Little League, if they had only dropped in right now, this picture would have been even sicker. They chose to wait until the light was gone. Skiers Unknown.

Headwall Ridge Hike, ski patroller Brian McGorry

Sponsored by Smith

Watherfall, Shadows Area, Andy Dietrick

Greatings Earthlings

Brooke always makes it look easy

I love it when people wear lots of color, boarder unknown

Winter of 07-08 was the best season of my 28 years on this earth. I'm looking forward to another one.

Painting with Light

This is series of self portraits from a friends house in Girdwood. I created these pictures at night with a star machine, a slow shutter speed, and my camera propped up on my backpack. I shot about 15 and these three were my favorite. A tripod would have made this a whole lot easier, but I didn't have one with me and No, I wasn't on drugs or drunk. I just couldn't sleep.

Textures of the Talkeetnas

All of these images have been manipulated in Adobe Lightroom. The first seven images I shot specifically to change to colors and contrast for an abstract series of landscapes. I got the idea originally last year while out on the same Talkeetna trip, when I shot a picture of a steep mountain side drainage that looked almost like paint being squeezed out of a tube. I decided I would try to create a series of these pictures this year. Here is the original image below.

The talkeetnas are full of a variety of facinating geology. We found a huge chunk of limestone in Caribou Cr. full of fossilized shells.

The tail of Meekins Super Cub Piper, just after he supplied us with our first re-ration of food

Spikes working their way out of the rails along the longest train trussel west of the Mississippi.

Textrue along the train trussel

Silhouette of a Caribou

Raina on lookout for the students across Prairie Cr.

Traversing the Talkeetna Range

Oshetna River

Nowhere Cr.

Descending into Mazuma Cr

Leaving Nowhere

Yum, Pizza night!

Heather and Raina infront of one of the few Glaciers still left in the Talkeetnas

Nowhere Camp

Our most challenging Pass, full of large boulders and snow

Glacial Erratics are everywhere

Descending into the Kosina

Kelly and Kyle

Amanda traverses over a beaver damn

24 days, 150 miles, 20,000 + ft of elevationi, 5 wolverines, wet boots, numb toes, and a pile of stinky gear. We made it again, a trek across the Talkeetna Range, one of the most stark and beautiful areas in all of the world. If there was a place on earth that resembed Mars it would be the Talkeetnas, deafeningly silent at times, except for the occasional roar a river or buzz of a bush plane, its emptiness is full of rich textures.

This was my third time crossing of these mountains in the last four years. I feel honored to have participated in one more successful Expedition Leadership class at Alaska Pacific University. A unique experience at a unique college, and one of the my favorite trips of all times. Our class consisted of 6 students, one teacher assistant, co-instructor Raina Panareese, and myself. Our packs weighed about 55lbs on average, and we had two food rations flown in at pre-arranged locations.

We started along the Glenn Hwy near Gunsight Mountain, traveled up Caribou Cr, to the Oshetna River drainage. We then moved then crossed the Black river, and pushed our way up the Kosina, and over the Tsisi. We bushedwacked our way accross all 8 miles of Praire Cr. up the bench above the Susitna River and bushwacked our way down the otherside to our destination, Gold Cr. where we flagged down the train at one of the only whistle stops left in the country.

Caribou Cr.

This is a unique upper level course that emphaisizes leadership in the most basic of ways, traveling on foot, with only the most essential things, in an environment that only few have the opportunity see. Each student is required to teach three classes; a skills class, a natural history class, and a leadership class. They take turns leading each other, making decisions for the group and navigating the mountainous terrain, with two instructors , myself and Raina, whom are there to critique. In some ways it is artificial, with the instructors there to interject any dangerous decisions, i.e. river crossings. But... in the end the students have developed their own judgement and we are able to let them travel unaccompanied for the final 6 days. We follow behind almost 24 hours in terrain that would be imposible to stumble upon them, and we must trust that they will be waiting for us at the train. And of course they are.

Flight Seeing, Neacola Mnts

Ryan, a dear friend from Girdwood flew Weston and myself around the Neacola Mtns. just west of Anchorage across Cook Inlet, in the southwestern portion of the Alaska Range. The weather was beautiful. I used my wide angle lens to shoot this picture just before take off. The wide angle gives almost 180* view and makes the cabin of this plane look much larger than it is.

Approaching the Neacola Mtns.

I believe this is the Capps Glacier, on the northeastern side of Mt. Spurr

A closer look at a crevasse field on the Capps Glacier

View of the foothills of Mt. Spurr

The clouds were capped over Mt. Spurr, but we flew around its southern base. The light was amazing through this small rain shower. A ridge leading up to the top of Mt Spur on the right.

Ryan circled around to put the plane between the sun and the rain to create this optical affect, a rainbow.

Ryan, our pilot and navigator.

Braided river drainage of the Chakachatna River

This is where I start to go a little abstract with my nature pictures. Bradford Washburn is one of my favorite photographers and explorers. His Black and White images of Alaska in the mid 20th century have had a huge influence on a portion of my photography. I love his ability to find patterns within natures' chaotic spread, and produce such artistic compositions. This is one of my attempts to do the same, but with color digital. Just like Washburn manipulated his images in the darkroom I have done the same, but using Adobe Lightroom instead.

A view of the Susitna Flats State Game Refuge. I love the contrast between the red building and the green wetlands. I am unsure of what these cabins are used for, but was amazed by their existence in what looks like a very large bog.

Water erosion in the mud flats near the estuary of the Susitna River.

A view of downtown Anchorage

Missoula Improv Dancers

I originally saw these ladies performing early in the summer at the Missoula Saturday Market last summer. I snapped a few pictures of them on XXXX sculpture at the end of Higgins St. and then left. After looking through the pictures I had a few that I liked, but wanted to re-shoot them because there were so many other people in the background. The picture above crops out most of the sculpture and I heavily manipulated this picture in Lightroom and changed the colors.




I couldn't believe I left without talking to these girls or getting a phone number, especially after I was infromed that the Rocky Mountain School of Photography was interested in the XX picture for the 2008 Catalog. It happed to be RMSP's 20th Aniversery and they were looking for something that represented 20 for the cover. I had to laugh because all of the pictures I shot that day I had cropped in camera the bottom half of the XX's out because of all of the people in the background. I had nothing that would work.



If only I could re-shoot these girls. I only had two weeks left before I graduated and would be flying back to Alaska. Where would I find these girls? I haven't seen them in two months. I decided that I would just visualize running into them. That next Saturday, boom, there they were performing next to the XXXX's, but again too many people around. After a brief conversation the only day that we could all meet up again was my last full day in Missoula, which happened to be after graduation. It was on. One last chance for the cover shot.


The following week I met them at the First Interstate Bank on Higgins and they brought two drummers to keep a beat. After an hour and just before sunset we moved down to the XXXX sculpture to give it one last try.



I must have shot a couple hundred pictures that night and struggled a little bit with the composition. I wanted the XX's, but there were all kinds of distractions in the background if I dropped my lens down too much, so I did my best and they were pretty awesome to watch. The next day I quickly edited changed the colors slightly, and submitted a few options to RMSP. Two months later this image appeared on the cover, and it was officially my first cover photo.

A Past Reminder

View over Lake Coeur d'Alene, ID

Getting there is half the fun

Self Portrait in the rear-view mirror

Justin moves a log out of the way with a tow strap

He's still the 11 year old I first met

They were always good at breaking me out of my comfort zone

I recently visited my home town of Coeur d'Alene, ID back in May to see my family and some old friends. Now shopping malls, car lots and development projects have connected Cd'A with many of its outskirting communities including Spokane, and although its hard to choke down it is what happens over time. I was reminded that change is inevitable. After spending a week hanging out with my folks who now live in Spokane, I made a special visit to one of my favorite places on Lake Cd'A, Gozzer Rd. The Geyer family who I had became close to through my highschool boyfriend, Joe, still live on this road above Lake Cd'A, just below Cd'A Mountain. I spent a lot of time my last few years in Cd'A roaming around in the pine woods of this country and hanging out with Joe's parents, brothers, sisters, nephews and neighbors. Their comment that I still look exactly the same made me laugh because I was astonished how they had all grown up. Eight years will do that.

Justin, now 21, the second youngest, still had the heart of the 11 year old I originally met, and I wasn't there more than twenty minutes before we were 4 wheeling up some old logging road looking for wild turkey's. Although we didn't see any, we ended up at the top of Cd'A mountain with some ammo, two beers, and a great view. Although guns are not my favorite thing in the world, I felt that it was a celebration of our past when I used to tag along and photograph these kids doing what every backwood kid should be doing, having fun.

I changed these pictures to black and white because I like the stark contrast with the movement of each picture, and the subject . It also gives it an urgent, sort of old documentary feel, that represents the beginning of my obsession with photography. It all began in these woods above this lake with these folks. I couldn't help feel a connection to Justin, his family, and to my past that I had somewhere misplaced over the last eight years. And that's when I realized that some things never change.

Landscapes from this Summer

Sleeping Lady is what the locals call this mountain. It was taken at Gull Rock, near Hope, AK on Turnagain Arm early in the summer.

Rainbow over McHugh peak, Seward Hwy, Potter Marsh, South Anchorage, AK

Building Trail

The mystery is over. Here it is the Blue Berry Trail. The summer job. This is a brand new mountain biking trail located above ch. 7 in the woods. It hasn't been finished and is expected to open next summer. Our crew began construction on it May 20th, 2008. I have done trail work for several years and its definitely the most unique project I've ever worked on. A good portion of it is elevated structures, all made from trees at Alyeska. The boards were all milled at the end of last summer and the stringers are small spruce and hemlock from the surrounding forest.

In this picture Lawrence is assisting a load being pulled up to the trail from ch. 7. He came up with the idea of using a pulley attached to a large tree at the trail level, and one end of the cable is on the load, the other end attached to a ATV (in the background) that is pulling the load up.


Lisa is trimming up the edges of some of the elevated tred with a chain saw.


Looks fun, doesn't it?

Shooting Sara Horvath

This picture was taken in an alley in downtown Missoula. I exposed for the background and powered down my flash a little to not wash her face out. I use Adobe Lightroom for most of my post-processing, and I changed it from color to a preset called aged photo. I really like this look, and have used this preset for a lot of Sara's portraits.
These next two images are a great way to take advantage of a bright sunny day. I like to pose my subject in a back-lit situation when the lighting causes hard shadows. I always shoot manually pay close attention to my meter, which I usually set on Spot. In this case I exposed(zeroed out my meter) for her face, which was in the shade. This caused her face to be properly exposed and the background to overexpose.

I pretty much did the opposite in this situation and underexposed this to get a silhouette effect. I also changed this to aged photo and increased the blacks to completely get rid of any detail in the black area.

This was taken at Fort Missoula on the old fire lookout tower. I changed this to a high contrast blank and white image in Lightroom.

For those of you who are familiar with the Wilma, and old theater in Missoula, I thought it would be appropriate to have a Sara posed in front of it. I think her day dreaming stare is fitting for this picture. I hope to see her play at the Wilma one day.

This was also taken on the Lookout tower at Fort Missoula.

These next three pictures I changed in Lightroom to a preset called punch which seems to increase the color saturation.

Bubbles, trial and error to catch this picture.


She's got such an eclectic style. I love it.
Elementary School up the Rattlesnake.

Lookout tower at Fort Missoula.

A nice departing shot

Sara used this on the back of her first album called "Speechless."

Thanks for all of the comments and emails about the blog. I have had several folks mention they want to see some of my more recent work. Well the truth is I haven't been shooting as much as I'd like to this summer. Its been the coldest summer I've ever seen and I have to admit lighting often drives my inspiration to take photos. I have several intentions with this blog. I hope to share my favorite pictures with all of my friends as well as share some of the secrets about how I took the pictures or what I did in Light room or photoshop. I think of photography as an art and I enjoy looking at other people's work and trying to figure out how they took the picture and what type of manipulations they did during post processing. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to ask.

I was back in Missoula for a quick weekend in May and I met with my favorite Missoula musician, Sara Horvath, and did a quick shoot at Fort Missoula. Sara has been my favorite model. She is really comfortable in front of the lens and has all kinds of creative ideas. I met Sara on Higgins St. last summer while I was in the photography program. I was riding my bike home, when I saw her sitting on her car playing the guitar with her hair back-lit. The light was perfect and one of the things I was working on all summer was asking complete strangers if I could take their picture. After taking a few shots and talking with her, she asked if I was interested in shooting an album cover for her. Since our meeting I have done five different shoots with her. Sara has been a huge inspiration for me, mostly because I think we are both is a similar place in our lives. We are both trying to make it as artists and share our love for our art with the world. She has produced one album with four of her original songs. She used the picture of her walking on the train tracks on the back of her album. You can hear her music at sarahorvath@myspace.com.

The Big Guns

Gun 2 cache. Hilliard is handing up cap and fuse to make up the howitzer rounds. Hiding behind the gun mount while shooting at Center Ridge. Center Ridge is the closest target for gun 2, and this is done out of caution for in case a small of a piece of shrapnel might hit the gun mount.
Firing Gun 2 at the Shadows/Headwall area. Often these gun mission are done in the dark or in a storm, and the sight points are recorded as numbers. It is rare to actually see what the gun is shooting at, and requires a developed ear to hear if the bullet caused an avalanche and how large it might be.
This is a picture of a patroller standing in avalanche debre in New Years Creek just one day after a huge slide was triggered in the Monies area in the top center of this picture. You can just barely make out the crown line which was estimated to be about 20 feet deep. The slide was triggered by Gun 4 on the North Face and it ran to the top of the Autobahn. This was the largest slide I have ever witnessed.

Avalanche Control

"Bomb Make Up" This is usually done inside, but on this day we had a heli ride to the headwall, and when transporting in the helicopter we keep the cap/fuse sperate from the the 2lb charges. Byron with a 4lbs shot ready to place at the top/starting zone, or on the edge of where an avalanche might be. This set up with the charge taped to the bamboo is called an airblast because the bamboo keeps the explosive above the snow and the explosion generates more force throughout the slab, as opposed to throwing the shot into the snow. The snow ends up absorbing more of the forces and in our wet/Merritime snowpack is virtually in-affective, where as the airblast has become a standard at Alyeska. These shots are only used to clean up small pockets that could potentially slide. Only after a gun mission or after using the bomb trams to reduce the large scale hazard enough to ski into these areas. Don't worry mom, we know what we're doing. Byron just after pulling the "spitters," (igniters. )This is a picture of Andy after igniting the shot and returning to a safe spot. Each shot is 1 minute 45 seconds, plenty of time to get back to your safe spot. His safe spot in this case is the ridge line. "Fire in the hole." My favorite thing to yell out , just seconds before the blast. This is on the headwall ridge with Max's peak behind the explosion on the left.
When I started working for the Alyeska Ski Patrol about five years ago. I didn't realize the extent of what was involved to keep Alyeska's lifts running. I knew that they used a few 105 howitzers guns, and some other small explosives, but I had no idea how it all worked. I remember one of my first few days, carrying signs and bamboo around, putting up rope lines down LoLo's and the North Canyon line. I was just trying to get used to skiing in two feet of mashed patatoes while carrying 30lbs on my shoulder while trying my hardest to not blow my knee out. What on earth had I gotton myself into? I would come home eat a few pounds of food, crash hard, and then do it all over again the next day. On storm days I would hear on the radio, "fire in the hole, Index, one minute," Or "I'm clear, moving." Where is that? What are they doing?

Up until this first year on patrol, my experience with avalanche terrain, and evalutating conditions was pretty much the opposite of what avalanche control is about. I had always been taught to avoid these conditions. If its blowing and snowing stay away from anything steeper than 30 degrees, you just shouldn't be there. I had taken a level 1 avalanche class the winter before, and had been backcountry skiing for a few years, and everything in my gut was apposed to this ides of creating avalanches.

Slowly over the next few months I would get to watch two or three patrollers on Center Ridge, or the High Traverse. I'd hear their calls on the radio, and then watch for the avalanche. Near the end of this first year I was getting trained on snow conditions and terrain and making ski cuts in small localized pockets on the south face. Alyeska's terrain is extremely steep, the weather unpredictable, and the quantity of snow so massive at times, I was stuggling with all of the factors that go into "snow safety work."

Somewhere between my forth and fifth season something clicked. Its not something I can describe, but rather just know is there. It was all starting to make sense. Although the mystery hadn't been solved, I was just learning how to approach it without fear completely overwhelming me. Like everything in life it is just a matter of time and experience in order to trust your own judgment, and make confident decisions. I have to thank Scoot Hilliard and Jim Kennedy for all of their patients and training. It's still a learning process.

Enduring the Elements

I love these three pictures because they show some of the conditions that we often work in while patrolling. The first picture was taken on the Prow just above the north face during a large wet storm cycle. The two patrollers in the foreground are in the process of lowering ANFO (Ammonium Nitrate Fuel Oil) which is made up into a 50 lbs charges and lowered a few hundred feet on a sled into an area called the Knuckles.



The next image was taken on a control route in area called the Knuckles, where the partrol places 2 lbs shots on small localized slabs.




I love this picture. "Pad" is hunkering down from the rotor wash of one of the many helicopter rides patrol had for access of the Headwall area, which is located above the established ski area. This was the first time in Alyeska history to have helicopter access available for avalanche control work in this area, and to help set up the venues for all three extreme comps hosted at Alyeska this past spring.

Views From the Office

Here are few of my favorite views from Alyeska. This patrol shack is located at top of chair 6 which used be chair 2, and is known as "the top of 2." In the winter it is common to have a strong inversion where the Girdwood valley and Turnagain arm are filled with a thick cloud layer and the temperature can often be 10 - 30 degree cooler than at the top of 2.




December 21st is the shortest day of the year Northern Hemisphere's . In Girdwood there is about five hours of daylight and sunrise is as late as 10am, which is why Alyeska doesn't open until 10:30 each morning. For the first half of the season I get to see the sunrise and on this day the moon set. This is also a view of Turnagain Arm and the Seward Hwy in the foreground, taken from the top of 2 just before sunrise.




This picture was taken from the top of the Tram looking up the Chair 6 lift line at the top of 2.

Winter 07-08

I love how the winter season is described by two separate years. I guess one year isn't quite long enough, we need two. In Girdwood our ski season is suppose to start somewhere around Thanksgiving and and wrap up about mid-April. The 07-08 Alyeska season opened the weekend prior and closed the last weekend in April, and could have kept going well into May. Our total snowfall for the season was above average with a depth of 875" at the top. Average being about 650 inches.

This winter marked my fifth year on ski patrol at Alyeska and I have never seen a season quite like this one. The combination of tons of precipitation and a new owner at Alyeska allowed ski patrol to open a lot of terrain I have only dreamed of skiing. The headwall was open for a total of 11 days and the Monies was open for 12, neither of which I have ever had the pleasure of making turns down before. We hosted two free-skiing events and one extreme snowboarding event, and each had an opportunity on the headwall. Our snow safety program was given a heli budget and we were able to get over a dozen rides to the new weather station on the headwall and to the Max's weather station to start our avalanche control routes from the top down.

I carried my Nikon D200 in my pack almost everyday at work unless it was raining. A good portion of the control work I was involved with on a regular basis was on Center Ridge and High Traverse. I found it difficult to photograph because of the early morning low light and pressure to get the route finished before 10:30am. Also there are very few terrain features to give those images depth, so I found my best pictures were taken on the headwall routes, the North Face and the Monies.

The first picture is of a mountain called Little League in the back-country on the other side of the headwall. Skiers unknown. The next image was storm day on Ch.1 early in the morning before the mountain opened. The last picture is of a patroller placing a hand charge on the Monies route to reduce avalanche hazards.

Back to AK

After completion of the Summer Intensive program at RMSP in Missoula last summer I returned to Alaska to work for APU to teach two courses. One was an expedition class for the Outdoor Studies department called Expedition Leadership which was most of last September in the Talkeetna Range. I briefly described this trip in my first blog entry with a few pictures. Following this course I taught two beginning photography classes for Liberal Studies during the session portion of the semester at APU. Both of these classes focused on understanding how to read light and capture a well exposed image on black and white film. I find this such a great way to learn photography, unlike the instant digital feedback the darkroom process is much slower and more thought out. I believe it makes students think more about how a camera meter reads light before their finger releases the shutter. I also like how one roll of film has 24 frames, which seems to be more cherished than a 2 GB memory card that can be deleted and reused. This permanent picture can help someone learn to compose a scene with more care and forethought than its digital counter part. I have to admit I am a little more reckless with my digital camera than with my 35mm SLR. I look forward sharing this fading art form once again this fall, and I hope that my students will value their time in the darkroom.

The crow picture was taken in Missoula as well as the tree reflection picture. The bear prints are actually baby bear prints and were taken on the Talkeetna trip in Alaska last fall. All of my pictures were changed to black and white, sepia or manipulated slightly in Adobe Lightroom. Despite my large appreciation for B & W film/darkroom most of my photography is digital mostly because its less expensive, less time consuming, and easier to share on the web. I believe both film and the digital medium are both important to the photography world, and each have their own benefits and limitations.

Missoula Talent

These next few pictures are of some local performers and my favorite Montana Musician, Sara Horvath. Check out what she is up to and listen to her most recent recordings on myspace.com.

Missoula adventure

Most rewarding activity when its almost 100 degrees in Missoula: Floating the Blackfoot Rivers. Missoula is also home to an incredible skate park.

Missoula Favorites

Here are few different collections of work from my schooling in Missoula last summer.

Alaska to Missoula and back again

This coming September marks my 10 year anniversary in Alaska. For those who don't know my story I moved to Alaska straight out of high shchool and attended Alaska Pacific University, and majored in outdoor studies. I now work as a ski patroller in the winters, build trails in the summers, and spend a whole lot of time and money taking photos. My camera has traveled with me across the Chugach, Talkeetnas, Alaska Range and the Brookes Range, all on foot, skis or mnt bike. I feel fortunate to have found a home in the most scenic state in all of the US.

Last summer I left Alaska for three months and lived in Missoula and attended the Rocky Mountain School of photography. It was one of the most wonderful experiences of my life and Missoula is a pretty inspiring place. I am in the process of creating my own freelance photography business, but business and marketing as many of you well know isn't my forte. I hope to have a professional website up by this fall, and if I don't please harass me because I seem to perform best under pressure. Unfortunately web design isn't in my skill set yet, so money is probably my main obstacle.

Upon my return to Alaska I shot the three pictures above all in the Talkeetna Mountains located north of Anchorage, but south of The Alaska Range. The two musicians were playing at a wedding in Palmer last August. The scenic and the caribou antlers were shot during a 23 day expedition with students from Alaska Pacific University. I had opportunity to be an assistant instructor for a course called Expedition Leadership where students from the outdoor Studies program are practices leadership and wilderness skills deep in the mountains of Alaska. I can't wait to do it again in September.

July 2, 2008

Here it is, my first attempt at blogging. I have to laugh at myself because I should have done this a long time ago, instead of mass emailing friends every month with my photos and wild stories. I've been looking at few other blogs and I think it is a really cool way to share adventure stories, photos and the highlights that life brings along the way. For me, I mainly want to share my images of people, places, and things that maybe many of my you don't get to see or experience on a regular basis. I am lucky to have such an active life and live in one of the most beautiful and rugged places on earth and I try my hardest to carry my camera equipment, which seems heavier lately, everywhere I go. I apologies if many of you have seen these pictures before, but I just can't wait for the next adventure to start blogging. These photos are a random assortment of pieces of my life from the last year. I will try to keep it a little organized.