Author: scottfoto@gmail.com

Birthday in the Sand Dunes

Melissa had always told me how much she wanted to go to a hot springs and Great Sand Dunes National Park. Labor day was her birthday, so we took off to southern Colorado to climb and explore. We climbed for a day in Shelf Road, then made our way to the San Luis Valley. We found an awesome open camping spot on BLM land, then soaked in Joyful Journeys Hotsprings.







Sunday, we moved our campsite to Zapata Falls. We stopped in the shadow of the Sangre de Cristo mountains to take some photos, then I missed the road to the falls and found these awesome wildish horses and a buffalo…

The road to Zapata Falls is 3.5 miles up a mountain gravel road that is in desperate need of grating. Even in Melissa’s jeep, it was a jarring road that we had to drive four times. “Oh, my poor car!” But the camping up there is great, and even on Labor Day weekend, we found a great spot.


The falls was incredibly crowded but worth going to see. We happened to be there for the 20 minutes or so that the sunlight streams down through the canyon, highlighting the falls’ mist.


Also, as expected, the Sand Dunes were overrun with tourists, so we drove down the 4WD road to a small parking lot. Luckily we got to right as someone was leaving, so we secured a spot. We took a nap under some trees, being rudely interrupted by a family of deer that came stomping through right next to us and loudly chewing leaves off the bushes all around us.

It was my 5th time at the dunes, but it never disappoints. Actually, with the smoke from the western forest fires, the light was absolutely incredible.








I’ve never seen the dunes with this much vegetation! It must have been a very wet August.










A couple came through, setting up camp and getting a front row seat to nature’s fireworks.




My friend, Dan Lehman, created these awesome La Croix seltzer water inspired tights that say “La Crushin It”. They’re sweet!

I couldn’t stop taking photos, the light was too good!




Right place at the right time!

Another couple joined us on our vantage point.




If you get the chance, it’s definitely worth while to watch the sunset from the interior of the sand dunes. I give it an A+.

After a lazy morning cleaning up at Zapata Falls Campground, we made our way down the mountain. We stopped at San Luis State Park to see if there was anything interesting. It was pretty barren accept for these sweet sun shades that litter the park.





The San Luis Valley, and everything east got smokier and smokier as we drove home. We went through the South Platte to avoid traffic, and it was almost impossible to see the climbing areas from the road. I couldn’t take it anymore and stopped on 93 to capture the epic sun, and of course my favorite tree. I love that you can see the sun spots on the sun!


This was a fun weekend for me shooting a ton of landscapes, I hope Melissa had fun for her birthday!

Laura and her horse, Sam

I’ve been wanting to add some composite work to my portfolio, and when I got the opportunity to shoot Laura Suslavich jumping her horse Sam, I knew it was going to be great. When we got to the horse barns, the sun was far too hot, so we shot some lifestyle work first.





Laura took Sam on a few warm up laps, kept asking her fiance to lift the barrier higher. After only a few jumps we got exactly the shot I was imagining!

It’s always great working with passionate people! Thank you, Laura and Joel, for spending a Friday with the Scotts (Scott Homan with the assist). Oh! Can’t forget to thank Joel for finding my keys I dropped in the field. Would have made for a long walk home!

In Totality at Carhenge

I was pretty unsure of how I wanted to see the eclipse. I first had plans to pick a random field northeast of Cheyenne, WY to watch in relative solitude, with only my buddy, Scott Homan, but reports that the area might be cloudy deterred us from making the trek. Saturday we decided this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and we should take the time to go into totality. I had been thinking that since the eclipse was at noon, the eclipse would not photograph well in most landscapes. I thought photographing people looking at the phenomenon would be more interesting, so we picked a spot where we thought there would be at least some other people watching, Alliance, Nebraska.

We took Sunday afternoon to slowly make our way up into Nebraska, driving through Pawnee National Grasslands. I’m not sure how it’s a national public land because it’s filled with oil rigs, grazing cattle, and wind turbines, but it does have its own kind of beauty.



The sky is huge out there in comparison to Boulder where the mountains block the view of much of the sky. We were ok with leaving the confusing grasslands when got off the maze of gravel roads onto highway 71.


This sign off of HW71 caught my attention. I had to turn around to take the shot

We drove into Scottsbluff, amazed with the bluffs that surround the town in Nebraska (not a place you think of having a variety of landscapes). Two Scotts ate dinner in Scottsbluff. On the drive, Scott Homan found that Carhenge was only a few miles north of Alliance, and I thought, there’s no other place for us to go! We drove in the dark from Scottsbluff on more dirt roads towards Alliance, found a field with a downed gate, pulled the car in and set up camp for the night.

We woke up to an amazingly wet and foggy morning.




The sleepy town of Alliance was very alive with Eclipse travelers, the activity looking quite out of place. There were several locals looking to make some cash from this one time opportunity, hosting viewing parties in their yards. But it was obvious the only place for the Scotts was Carhenge.


Scott acquired a pair of solar glasses and we watched the moon creep into the circumference of the sun.


The interesting spectacle of Carhenge! Definitely glad we wound up here!











In planning to focus on shooting the people watching the eclipse, and the eclipse being at around noon, I brought my Flashpoint Streaklight 360 Barebulb Flash to overpower the mid-day sun. Well, less over power and more fill in all the obvious shadows. It’s a style I had wanted to try for a while. I’ve mentioned it before, I think, but this is definitely one of my favorite strobes and works flawlessly in the Flashpoint R2 wireless system.





























The inevitable crystal worshipers



The Aliens, of course








For the 15 minutes or so before the totality, the light turned this very eery grey, and my insides starting tingling like the feeling right before a huge storm hits.


The moment the sky turned dark, the crowd gasped, and the photojournalists clicked away


There was a 360º sunset, definitely one of the things I was not expecting.

Then the moment everyone had been waiting for, some for the majority of their lives!




The light came back to a dull grey, people hugged each other and talked excitedly, expressing the magical experience they just had that words didn’t really do justice for.









Alright, this…this. I wish I had a video of this. A short, fat, middle aged man with a shoulder satchel pulled these unicorns out of his bag and lovingly placed each of the figures onto the bumper of the car, took out a nice camera, and shot the unicorns. Just as gingerly as he placed them, he picked them up, returned them to his satchel, and walked off into the crowd. He did it with the nonchalance of taking a tourist photo with his wife and children. I looked around to see if anyone else saw this happen, and no one else seemed to notice.


I’m definitely happy that Scott and I finally decided to make the trek to Nebraska to see Totality. Incredible experience. I’m psyched we went to a place with people and found Carhenge. Now, I need to come up with an amazing idea for shooting the next one in 2024!

Maor – Studio Test with Naomi Duprey

I’ve been friends with Naomi for a long time now, basically since I have been in Boulder, but it took us this long to finally work together on a creative project. Naomi Duprey is a makeup, hair, and clothes stylist that I asked to collaborate on a shoot with Israeli Olympic runner, Maor Tiyouri. I had seen Maor running around Boulder, and when we connected on Facebook I asked if she’d be interested in doing a shoot. After working past scheduling conflicts, I got everyone together in my Boulder studio.






We only had a few minutes left, but I wanted to do something decidedly different. Naomi pulled out her favorite dress, and we got Maor to jump around the studio.

I love collaboration, something that wouldn’t have happened if any one of us was not involved.

Yosemite: an Introduction

Last month I took a job rigging ropes for a video shoot in Yosemite. I took the job knowing nothing about the details of the shoot, other than I would be rigging for another video guy (unnamed at the time, ending up being Andrew Peterson). The video we were shooting for followed a Danish TV investigative reporter, Morten Spiegelhauer, along a year long journey into rock climbing, seeing how dealing with fear on the rock changed his decision making process in everyday life. Morten had come to Yosemite a year ago to start the journey with Hans Florine, who holds the speed record for climbing the Nose of El Capitan (31 pitches in 2 hours and 23 minutes). Through mental and physical training, Morten culminated the experience by leading several trad pitches on El Capitan. It was awesome seeing his cool headed approach to leading, with only 4 trad leads under his belt previously.

I flew into Salt Lake City at 1am, arriving late because a woman with a carry-on dog refused to make her dog sit under the seat in front of her. After taxiing to the runway, we had to return to the gate so she could be escorted off the plane, screaming profanities, and the other passengers clapped once she was gone.

Andrew met me outside the airport with his Diesel Jeep Liberty, having slept for 3 hours in preparation for our 12 hour all night haul to The Valley. We made it somewhere into Nevada, but even with switching off driving we had to stop and sleep. Google was telling me we’d arrive 3 hours before we had to be there, so I reasoned we could sleep for two hours. We pulled off onto some gravel country road and made a quick bivvy.


photo by Andrew Peterson

After a mandatory In-n-Out stop outside of Sacramento, we started the drive back east towards Yosemite. We knew we were in a hurry (unnecessarily so, we beat the rest of the crew), but we stopped to take photos.











This being both of our first times in Yosemite, driving in was pretty magical. There are 3,000 foot cliffs towering over you with waterfalls dumping huge amounts of water on every side. The sun filters through the thick trees as slowly drive the one way road. Around every corner you catch sight of the sites you’ve heard of before: Horestail Falls, Bridalveil falls, El Capitan, Half Dome, and Yosemite Falls.


El Capitan towering over Southside Drive


Yosemite Falls, taken through the sunroof

We met up with Hans Florine and the Danish crew in the meadow below El Capitan, discussing our plans for the shoot. Morten, the subject of the video, wanted a warmup climb to get used to the rock, so Hans took us to climb Pine Line (thin 5.7) and the first pitch of Salathe (5.10c, dual crack fingers!!). We had limited time, so I top roped Salathe, with Hans telling me I only had 8 minutes to climb the 120′ route. It was a fun exercise in speed crack climbing, with Hans yelling, “30 seconds!”, “10, 9, 8…”

We reconvened with the rest of the crew, who were scouting locations and doing timelapses, and jet off to Hans’s Basecamp. We ate well for the week, having grilled steaks and pork pretty much every night (except on the wall).



The last light bouncing off of El Capitan


Dusk scene from Tunnel View

The next morning we do another warmup climb, with the full crew out taking video. I take Andrew up some variation of After Six so he can shoot down on Morten and Hans.


At the top of Manure Pile Buttress, waiting for Morten to finish the climb


Hans Florine in his natural environment

After we got down, Andrew and I went into full tourist mode. We drove around the loop, 1 mile, taking us an hour and half (mostly because of construction). We stopped at Yosemite Falls to get a closer look. There’s really not a great viewpoint of the falls that doesn’t include being sprayed with ice cold water and high winds, so we left the path and found some cool boulders.




These rocks are constantly wet with the spray from Yosemite Falls. It amazes me that it doesn’t look even more rainforesty


This couple has the right idea





We then drive the 45 minutes up to Glacier Point, overlooking Half Dome. It’s pretty incredible. Click on the image to see bigger

Andrew wanted to get a timelapse of the last light on El Capitan and climbers’ headlamps from Tunnel View. I wandered off, following random trails on the side of the mountain over the Tunnel chasing the sun.


I never got to the point where I could see around the other side of the mountain, but looking back, I found these amazing wild flowers with the entire Yosemite Valley behind them. To get this photo, I was precariously perched on loose soil, holding onto a tree above a couple hundred foot cliff. I wished I had had my climbing equipment.



I made my way back to Tunnel View, where Andrew was still working on his timelapses. These guys were too cute not to get a photo of.


Looking up at the El Capitan headwall from pitch 4 anchors

This was my first time in Yosemite. This was my first time on a big wall. The most pitches I’ve done in one push is eleven, I think. I’ve never ascended (climbed a rope fixed to anchors rather than climbing the rock) more than one pitch (100-ish feet) at a time. I typically do not have problems with heights or fear while climbing.

This time I was legitimately terrified, more so than I can remember in recent history. Climbing someone else’s old climbing rope they retired and donated as a fixed rope that has been hanging for an unknown amount of time in unknown weather conditions and is in an unknown state of health, attached to unknown anchors did not inspire confidence in me. I was attached with two Petzl ascenders that lock in one direction, which allows me to move up but will not slide down the rope unless I remove them from the rope. Both ends of the ropes were attached to anchors, but if for some reason the rope above me snapped, my ascenders would fly off the loose end instead of allowing me to stay attached to the anchor below. All of this is pretty irrational fear as these ropes are used quite often by climbers descending from Freeblast or by Jimmy Chin and other filmmakers to get to different vantage points.

Also, adding to my fear was the 50lb haul bag riding below my feet. Every step that I took into my stirrup attached to my ascender pulling on the frayed rope, I was adding 50 more pounds. I think if it had just been my weight, the fear would have been a lot less.

Every time I attached myself to an anchor, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Every time I had pulled out all the stretch in the old dynamic ropes and I had to transfer all of my hopes and dreams onto that rope, I had to overpower my fear…”F*$& F*$& F*$& F*$&”…”Guh, just go, the only way out of this is up!”. Six pitches up, I reach the Heart Ledge, and I finally am able to breathe normal again. There was a fixed line on the 5.10 up to the Mammoth Terraces, which I was happy I wouldn’t have to lead on the one static line we brought up.


Andrew jugging up the fixed line to the Pitch 4 Anchors


Andrew topping out pitch 5

After a final struggle to get my haul bag unstuck in the corner roof of the 5.10 I made it to the Mammoth Terraces and traverse the wide ledge to the anchors above Pitch 10 of Freeblast. Hans, Eric (Han’s employee), and Morten are just starting into pitch 6. I quickly rigged our static line to the anchor so Andrew could rappel down and shoot them on the exposed face before they were hidden by the Ear of Pitch 8 (or Half-Dollar). Andrew rappelled down to pitch 9, to shoot Hans coming over the edge of the “Half Dollar”.


Eric Griffith leading pitch 9, Hans Florine belaying, and Andrew Peterson jugging the static line

While Andrew was shooting them below where I could have a decent shot from the top, I took the opportunity to change. But I couldn’t resist getting naked and taking photos from ~ halfway up El Capitan.

Morten led the final pitch, and I captured video of him topping out. Andrew and I continued shooting video with the little remaining light before setting up our bivvies on the ledges. I took some opportunity to take photos in the fading light.





The weather on the ledges was perfect, good temps and very little wind. The stars came out in full force. I balanced my camera on the ledge to get this long exposure.


#thisishowiwokeup


My sleeping quarters for the night

While on the ledges, we tried to stay connected to the rope via ferrata setup by Hans from the bolts on Mammoth Terraces. While sleeping, I remained attached to the via ferrata and clipped my sleeping bag to the fixed line to Heart Ledge, since it was conveniently located. I did not consider that someone might be climbing up from Heart Ledge early in the morning. I woke up to my sleeping bag getting tugged towards the ledge and a very sweaty Jimmy Chin, National Geographic photographer and film maker, popped up onto the ledge. “Oh, hey Jimmy,” I said super casually. “Go back to sleep! Go back to sleep,” he said as he stepped over me. It was like a weird Santa Claus moment.

We saw Alex Honnold climbing up pitch 6 on Freeblast (Freerider), and figured Jimmy was filming him on some unknown project. Little did we know that Alex was training for his now famous free solo a week and half later.





On the ground again, looking back up at where we spent the night


The majesty of El Capitan. Alex Honnold and crew are the little specs in the shaded area

Andrew really wanted to get his timelapse from Tunnel view and was electing to stay up all night working on it. I went with him, getting a few shots I really wanted.




El Cap and Half Dome from the other side of the Tunnel


Moving the tripod, happy little accidents



Sunrise over the Dome


Andrew getting one last shot before we left Yosemite

Yosemite was amazing! I definitely want to go back and climb more, though I haven’t made up my mind whether I want to do big walls or not. There is tons of climbing away from the crowds to be done. We had bluebird weather all week, which is amazing for climbing, but not ideal for photography. I wished that we’d had a bit of inclimate weather to give the valley a bit more drama.

Till next time…

Carson City Off-Road

After a great week exploring Yosemite, I stopped in Reno for a few days to spend time with my sister. I had been wanting to shoot a new truck in an off-road scenario for a while, and my sister’s friend, Chris, had a 2016 GMC Canyon that was perfect. We went to the Washoe Boulders above Carson City just before sunset and got exactly what I was looking for.














Sunday Morning Motorcycle Ride

On Sunday, while hanging out the back of my car, I shot Dan Lehman riding his motorcycle up Flagstaff Mountain. With the back hatch open and my feet securely bracing against my bike rack, I was able to get the angles I wanted with Dan following super close. Dan’s friend, Samantha, held onto my Flashpoint Streaklight 360 (my favorite portable strobe!) completely safely held in by a makeshift seatbelt made from Alpine Draws. Had a lot of fun playing around and definitely learned a thing or two about what I’d do different next time.






This was one of those happy accidents. Camera got stuck in a weird mode, dragging the shutter for .3 seconds.





For this last shot, I was stationary and had Dan ride past me a few times. Melissa is hiding on the other side of the curve with the Streaklight.

 

I love doing personal work like this, playing around to see what works.

Beard Commemoration

I’ve been growing my beard since September for one of my favorite parties of the year, Cinco de Mustache (this year it was on the 6th…). It was the most effort I’ve ever put into a beard, so I had to commemorate it with a photoshoot. I’ve recently started building out a studio with fellow photographer, Josh Vertucci, so we took the opportunity to experiment. Combination of collaboration and self portrait, I’m pretty happy with how these turned out (I’m also interested in seeing how Josh’s edits are different than mine!). I bought a fog machine, and it was fun playing with different lighting to make that show up.









Josh also works as a model. I…do not. I have two looks, serious/angry or out of my mind.

On one of the outtake photos, the background fog was far too bright and was too perfect not to add the galaxy too. Thanks to my girlfriend for the art direction.

The Stars from Escalante

Colorado has some incredible and unique landscapes. Many are slammed with tourists, but there are some that are much less known. Escalante Canyon is one of those. Similar rock to the Westgate Sandstone Cracks of Indian Creek, this canyon attracts trad climbers, hikers, and ATV-ers.



I didn’t shoot any climbing because I was too busy climbing! Can’t wait to get back there!

Spring Snow Day

Saturday morning Boulder woke up to almost a foot of snow. Spring storms happen every year, but it’s a bit of shock after 70º pre-summer bluebird days. I made my adventure soul happy skiing two feet of powder at Berthoud Pass, but on the drive home I was kicking myself for not bringing my camera. I dropped off my buddy, and picked up my girlfriend and camera, hoping the light, snow, and fog would not change too much by the time I got back to the scenes I drove past on the way home.

I drive past this tree every time I go to my girlfriend’s house, and I think, “I should take a photo of that some day.” So, it was a natural first stop.

If you have followed me for a while, you know I have a favorite tree on the drive down CO 93 to Golden. I couldn’t help but capture it in beautiful fog and snow.







We drove a new road home, winding our way through the rolling hills southeast of Boulder. We found ourselves looking at a giant horse statue wearing hazmat suit and gas mask, which memorializes the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Production Plant. You can see the horse on my Instagram.

Across the road was this perfect abandoned Country Store overlooking the former site of the Nuclear Weapons Plant.

I have a bad habit of not shooting enough around where I live. I like breaking through that habit and exploring with a freshly inspired eye, seeing what stands out to me. Snow always helps with this inspiration.

Climbing the East Face of Notch Top with Skis

I was supposed to be in Indian Creek, but scheduling got a bit messed up. So I was unexpectedly in Boulder for the weekend. My buddy Eric Poore hit me up and asked if I wanted to ski the East Face of Notch Top in Rocky Mountain National Park. I didn’t really know what that entailed, but I said sure.


The East Face of Notch Top

The trail to the base of Notchtop is relatively flat, but skinning over the iced over bootpacks was less than enjoyable. I decided I didn’t really want to do the traverse back.


Eric gearing up to lead a short rock pitch before gaining the snow climb










Eric races skimo, meaning he skis uphill really fast, skis down really fast, and repeats. He’s fit. He absolutely destroyed me on the bootpack. I asked him to stop so I’d have something to take photos of.


Photo Credit: Eric Poore. Fully loaded, climbing styrafoam ice with non-existent gear. The nut on my left was just good enough to stay in un-weighted.




Eric just below the 3rd pitch of ice. Most of the bottom section disintegrated as I kicked in.



Photo Credit: Eric Poore. Me slogging my way up the last pitch of snow to the ridgeline where we dropped into Notchtop Spire Couloir.
The giant cornice over the East Face. We tried to stay out from under it as much as possible.
View down Notchtop Spire Couloir and across to Flattop and Flattop Gully, which we climbed to get out of Odessa Gorge
The sun had been hitting the east and south faces pretty hard, and the conditions were pretty soft. We elected not to ski the East Face, but down the Spire Couloir, which skied pretty fantastically.




Eric looking back at what we just skied
Getting out of Odessa Gorge we decided to not climb the easy way out, the slope above us, but the “S” couloir of Flattop Gully. It was a bit longer, definitely steeper, but maybe more entertaining?
View from Flattop Gully of Notchtop.

The last climb out spent the last of my energy. The snow wasn’t being cooperative, and I kept sinking back with every step. Within 100 feet of the summit I decided to try mix climbing the rocks instead. I got stumped by a featureless bulge and was about to head back to the snow when I found a small crack seam that took me in the direction I wanted to go. Laying back on the seam, yarding on my ice tools, I got myself probably 30 or 40 feet above my starting point. The crack petered out and I had to do some balancy slab climbing moves, scary in crampons. Getting locked into another crack system I made my way to the summit, glad that scaring myself drytooling didn’t turn out badly. As soon as I reached the summit I found out that I barely had control of my legs on flat ground. They were exhausted. Apparently I need to train for Skimo races with Eric.

The walk across the snowless summit of Flattop took me far too long. We decided to drop into Tyndall Gorge via the Tyndall Headwall, which was incredibly steep. It skied pretty well, but soon all of Tyndall Gorge was in shadow and the sun softened snow hardened immediately.

Without full control of my legs and wretched snow conditions, I felt like I’d never skied before. Thankfully, Eric was waiting patiently for me at Emerald Lake. I’d asked for a big day, and he had delivered. I haven’t been that tired in a while.

Alpine Meadows, Tahoe

Last year I skied Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows for the first time and we blown away. I went back this year and skied Alpine Meadows two days in February. I was there just in time for a Sierra Cement dump that caused a partial shutdown of the resort on a Friday and Saturday.

Driving my sister’s Hyundai with no snow tires, I made it up the slightly inclined road leading to Alpine Meadows, begging the cars in front of me to not slow down too much, or I wouldn’t be able to start going again. I crested a hill and found a line of unmoving traffic. I crept forward as cars bailed from the queue, hearing the snowpatrol blasting for avalanches above us. Finally, the line started moving and I found a parking spot. My early start didn’t pay off, I arrived after opening chair. Walking to the ticket office, I saw the main chair wasn’t spinning yet. I called my friend Kelsey who’s a coach for the free ride comp that supposed to be going on. The ski area hadn’t cleared the lifts yet…so everyone is just chilling in the lodge. I end up sleeping on the lodge floor till the lifts finally start spinning around 1pm. I saw another friend, Riley Bathurst, waiting in line and end up jumping on the lift with him. He invited me to ride with him.

 

The foot of fresh snow was heavier than anything I’ve ever skied. It’s called Sierra Cement for a reason. But it was a fun couple hours of skiing one lift (the management, KSL, couldn’t get the rest of the mountain open).

I spent the night on Kelsey’s couch and got to Alpine early Saturday. The line of traffic from San Francisco had already started, but was much worse at Squaw. Again, the lifts were not running when I got there. Lifts were supposed to open at 8:30, but this was the Roundhouse Express line around 9:30am…no one moving.

The Hot Wheels lift was spinning, but it only accessed a flat flat green run, so I didn’t give it any thought. Finally, around 9:45 Roundhouse started loading. I was close-ish to the front of the line and immediately made my way to the Scott Chair, which accessed the best terrain that would be open. The line was already HUGE! I made the (wrong) decision to not get in the singles line, and wait amongst the groups. Finally, the Scott Chair started loading. I watched the first few skiers get to enjoy surprisingly light, deep snow. Despite not getting any new snow, the cement must have had frozen over night and gotten lighter. I then spend 45 minutes watching the beautiful face get all-but-completely skied out. It was even more painful because I watched the guy from Chair 2 make 3 laps through the singles line before I made it onto the chair. Painful.

I found an unskied line through some cliff bands and made it back to Scott Chair. Now the singles line started about 100 yards away from the the lane dividers, giving me another 45 minute wait. I skied a few more lines, waiting 45 minutes each time, and decided I’d had enough queuing.

I’m not sure if you know this or not, but resort skiing on a weekend sucks. It was made worse by terrible management not knowing how to deal with actual snowfall. They had advertised like crazy around California for how much snow they were getting, but when everyone came for said snow, they couldn’t open more than 2 lifts? We were told they couldn’t open Summit Express because of wind gusts of….wait for it….35 MPH!!! No resort in Colorado would have any lifts running if they had to shut down because of 35mph winds.

I took one more run down a different side and called it quits. In two days of skiing, I got maybe 5 hours of actual ride time in. I love the terrain at Squaw/Alpine, but they’ve got to figure their operations out if they want people to keep coming back.

Some of that sticky Sierra Cement.

Sorry for the complaining, just needed to get that out.

Mono Lake, California

This last February I went to Reno to help my sister move across town, and she took her boys and me to Mono Lake, California. The salt water lake is famous for its limestone tufa towers that seem to grow out of nothing. Definitely worth a stop if you’re in the area.



Click on the photo to see larger.




Sebastian taking flight.




Sarah has gotten used to being my stand in model.











After the sun went down, the grass was glowing pretty spectacularly.


Sarah and my nephews moved into a cute little one room house that I’m kind of jealous of. I wish we had these kind of rental options in Boulder (affordable too)!

Sebastian is psyched he has a place to ride his bike now.




Glad I got to help out my sister and explore a bit.

Skiing in Red Mountain Pass

I was asked to join Paradox Sports for their ice climbing trip in Ouray, CO. It was impressive seeing the adaptive climbing on things most people would never dream of getting up. On Sunday, I was able to break away with Maury Birdwell and Lucas Onan to get some back country turns in at Red Mountain Pass. Great terrain that’s pretty easy to access made for a good morning.




A stitched panorama made from some 27 images that create an image that’s 5.6 feet x 3.12 feet at it’s native resolution!

I love driving US 285. It’s a beautiful drive that takes your past the Black Canyon of Gunnison and the Monarch Pass. I had to stop and take advantage of the light.


Pajar Icepick Women’s Waterproof Snow Boot

Boulder just got one of our spring snow storms where it snows a fair amount and it’s completely gone the next day. Melissa had recently bought a pair of Pajar Icepicks and I wanted to shoot them. I didn’t want a static studio shot, so I took her out into Boulder Canyon and Nederland to shoot some product lifestyle. We confirmed that they boots are, in fact, waterproof.










Canon 85mm f/1.8 on Canon 5DMKIII, mostly at 1.8. 

Christmas in Louisiana

Over the holidays I went with my girlfriend to Lafayette (pronounced Laffy-et), LA to meet her parents and see where she spent most of her childhood. Melissa wanted to make sure I wasn’t bored for the almost two weeks we spent there, so we tried to explore as much as possible.

Our first adventure was driving down around Lake Arthur, then coming back along the coastline.






We stopped at Cameron Prarie National Wildlife Preserve for a quick detour.









Another quick trip was to Lake Chicot State Park, one of the many famous Cypress lakes in the bayou.




I’m trying play around with more video and made this quick edit from Chicot.



Closer to Lafayette is Lake Martin. I’d wanted to get a moody, foggy, sunrise here, but it was either raining or brightly sunny. So we drove the 30 miles on a whim in the afternoon, renting a canoe just before sunset. Was a beautiful sunset.














Finally, we had a foggy morning in Lafayette. But we were heading to New Orleans, so I couldn’t stop for too long.




We stayed with my cousin and ate some amazing food, then went to City Park the next day to explore. The sculpture garden is worth spending some time in!













We then popped into the New Orleans Botanical Gardens.



For some reason, there was a rooster parading around the grounds.












We decided to fly home a few days early and found a flight out of Houston that was quite a bit cheaper. On the 5 hour drive, we saw some fog.



It was a bit different than how I typically spend my holidays, trying to ice climb and ski as much as possible, but Louisiana was definitely a nice vacation. I’ll probably have to go back.