Wildlife of the Bolivian Andes.

I try not to post photos of marginal quality on this blog, but this post will break that rule. For the last two weeks I have been climbing and trekking in the Cordillera Real here in Bolivia. I don't consider my self a birder, but I do like to know what the birds and animals I am seeing around me are. Having never been to South America and having no field guide, my only chance of identifying the birds I am seeing is to try and shoot a photo of them and them and hope it is good enough to identify later. Here are some of the photos I shot in the last couple of weeks. Some are quite good from a photo standpoint, some are really bad, but hopefully they will help me identify the birds. Some of the birds were pretty easy to identify so I have labeled them. Others I am still searching for.

Andean Geese



Bar-winged Cinclodes

Andean Flicker

White winged diuca finch.

Juvenile Caracara.

Not a bird. Some type of funky kangaroo rabbit hybrid. These things would make a great "b" horror movie subject.

Rufous-Collared Sparrow?

Not a bird, but I thought it was kind of cool.

Some type of coot? It looked like a coot, but its call and behavior was very different from ones I have seen in North America.

Mountain Caracara. Our local guide Juan informed us that this bird is said to bring good luck, which is always nice when you are sitting on the top of a 17,000ft summit and one glides by.



Some type of waterfoul. Yea that does not narrow it down much, but I am a crappy birder.

Puna Ibis

Andean Lapwing.

A beautiful bird that I only saw once on this trip. I know its a really crappy photo, but it should do.

Andean Gulls on Lake Titicaca.

Short Winged Grebe

Crested Ducks

Andean Condor. This guy flew withing 30ft of our camp, but unfortunately I did not have the 200mm lens at 18,000ft so this picture kind of sucks.

If anyone knows what any of the question mark birds are I would greatly appreciate it if you could leave it in the comments.

Thanks.

American Alpine Institute Bolivia Trip: Part 1 Treking in the Cordillera Real

Just got back from part 1 of the American Alpine Institute Bolivia trip. This year we had to change the trek due to a landslide making the regular trek impossible. This trek was so good that we may never do the old trek again.

Sheep herder.
One of our hardest working members. We used mules burros and horses to carry most of the load.
After a short climb we were on a vast plateau at 14,500 ft.
An Andean caracara, said to bring good luck.
Susan on the other side of the plateau where we head down to our camp deep in the valley in above her head.
The group heads down.
Lots of stars.
Danny getting to know the burros.
A locals home.
Climbing out the other side of the valley.
Our camp.
There is a hut system being developed here in the Bolivian Andes. This hut was newly build and not open yet.
The group crossing over a high pass at 16,000ft. Huayna Potosi in the background.
Group shot.
Heading down into the next valley and our camp for the night.
The vast dry valleys are amazing here.
The group.
Heading down to a lunch spot.
Mamerto and Juan.

Juan and Susan

Jim

Jim and Danny

Nancy and Margen
One of the many areas of the trek that has no trail.
Llamas
Condoriri with some young locals in the foreground.
Baby llama.
Local kids at our camp.
Sunrise near camp.
The final day of our trek.

Heading back to La Paz.

Bolivia: La Paz

Today was our second full day in La Paz and I figured I would upload some photos of the trip so far. La Paz is a huge city that I somewhat wary of coming to prior to the trip. After walking around the first day without any valuables on me I realized that this city is safe, very safe. Other than potentially getting killed by cars this city is great. I have certainly felt less safe in several American cities. So today I walked around with the camera. Fellow AAI Guide Danny Uhlman arrived this morning, and we spent much of the day walking around the sprawling markets that most of the locals use to buy everything they need.

Danny and Susan enjoying the walk. The people here are not very tall.
Typical street scene.
Most of the women have kids somewhere very close by. Here is a typical housewares market stall.

Susan navigating the market.
Danny
Danny buying some pears.

Three full generations of local women.
There are dogs everywhere here. They do not seem to be neglected and starving as in many other countries. The people here just love dogs.

Entertaining the locals.

Hey Danny, where the hell are we?

I now have a new belief about what animal has the cutest babies. We met this guy on our way to do some climbing. There is no question this is the cutest animal I have ever seen in my life.

Some human kids are cute also, but the llama still wins.
Unfortunately not everything in La Paz is cute or enjoyable. This next photo is of the river that runs through La Paz (mostly underground) and re-surfaces just outside of town. It is quite simply the most disgusting thing I have ever seen (smelled) in my life. The color and the smell make it clear that this water is mostly raw sewage.

Danny and I managed to find the La Paz rock climbing. In this photo I am climbing on some conglomerate rock of questionable quality. The climbing area is actually pretty good, although Danny and I both got our asses kicked a little by the altitude.

Thats it for now. There is lots more to come. We have one more day here in La Paz and then off to the mountains on Sunday for five days of trekking. Stay tuned for more photos.

Jessica and Matt's Wedding at Sleeping Lady Lodge.

This weekend I shot a wedding for my good friends Jessica and Matt. Here are a few shots that I promised I would post prior to leaving for Bolivia in about 12 hours. This is just a selection of shots from the wedding and there are many more good shots. There is also no real order to these photos. I will sort through these as soon as I get a chance.
















Thanks for a great weekend guys!

Mt. Baker climb. AAI Alpinism 1 Course

Just got back from teaching a 6 day course on Mt. Baker. Usually this time of year these trips are a bit harsh due to the typical Cascades spring weather. No rain the whole time we were on the mountain. Perfect.

Usually on these courses we find a nice open crevasse to practice crevasse rescue in. There is no alternative to dropping everyone in a real crevasse and having them practice with real weight. Unfortunately the glaciers were a bit buried. I found this crevasse by falling in it. Here is one of the students falling in.

On the way across the glacier to find a crevasse.

A closer shot of the fall.

Cary
Stephan

Chris

Brigitte

Andy heading to high camp.
Brigitte and Shivesh on their way to high camp.

Tents at high camp.

AAI guide Erin Smart just after sunrise with the shadow of Mt. Baker in the background.

The first rope team on the summit.

Summit shot.

The whole group on top.
Tristan.

Heading back down.

As we were heading down a group of climbers were heading up Colfax Peak.

This was my first Mt. Baker trip of the summer and it might be hard to top. Perfect weather, a great group and an overall fun time. I have a ton more photos from this trip and will post others as I go through them. It might be after I get back from Bolivia.

A Second Trip to the Eagles Nest

I just got back from a second trip out to the eagles nest that I set the trail cam up on several weeks ago. The chicks are looking a little more grown up and have quite a few more feathers on them now. Here are a couple of photos I shot while changing out the memory card on the trail cam.

When I got to the nest there was no adult bird there this time. The two chicks were sitting up, but I was not able to get the camera out fast enough to get a photo. I was hanging on a rope set up that consists of two ropes tied together. When weighted these stretch a lot, so I needed to adjust my location on the rope prior to shooting the photos. By this time the birds were "hiding" in the nest by crouching down as flat as possible. As you can see this is very effective.

A little closer look.
And one more that I shot in my back yard of a chickadee that has decided to use the nest box I built years ago.

My First Cascades Work Trip of the Year: Washington Pass Climbing.

I just got back from a trip to Washington Pass for the last two days of and AAI ice course. This was a back up plan due to terrible weather on Mt. Baker. These photos are from a climb of the the west gully on South Early Winters Spire.

Weather was great in the morning, however the snow conditions made for some difficult trail breaking.

Larches

The view of the peak from the approach. The route goes up a snow gully on the left side of the peak.

One of the rope teams at an anchor.

AAI's newest guide, Erin.

Snow seat belay.

Looking down the gully.

Blue Lake Peak as the weather worsened.

Charlie leading up the gully.

High in the gully.

Near the top.

Ski track between the larches below.

AAI guide Kurt Hicks.

Charlie


Summit joy.

Erin at the summit.


Summit shot.

Group shot on the summit.

Golden Eagle Nest Photos.

Yesterday I went out to install a camera on a golden eagle nest. There were two chicks and a mother bird sitting in the nest when I rappelled down to the nest. Unfortunately I was not able to get a shot of the momma bird sitting in the nest due to an extremely agitated rattlesnake who I was trying to get past on the way to the nest. Once I got to the nest the two chicks did not present themselves as very good photo subjects, but I did manage to get a couple of photos.


This is the camera set up to look at the nest. Working at golden eagle nests is very difficult due to the location which is often at the base of small overhanging rock areas. This was the second nest I tried to get to, the first one failed due to a large loose block that I was not willing to try and climb past.

Random Photos From My Trip to Las Vegas

I was just going through some photos from my drive down to Las Vegas. This photo seemed worth posting. This was shot about 100 miles north of Las Vegas while driving through the Great Basin.
I can't wait till the cactus start to flower. Looks like it might be another week before we see the desert bloom. This photo was all I could come up with until then.
There are a ton of ticks in Red Rocks right now. Here is one I found on my arm.
In most of Red Rocks canyons there are small frogs. Here is a photo of one of them. I tried to find the species of frog by looking on the web, but there is very little info available. Unfortunately the BLM finds it more important to build a fancy new visitor center with next to no interesting information in it, than compile a list of the species that are located within the boundary of Red Rocks National Conservation Area and make it available to the public. Oh well, its nice seeing the frogs.

Red Rock Rendezvous

Every year for the last four I have come down to Las Vegas for an extended period of time to hide from the Pacific Northwests spring weather and climb as much as possible. One of my excuses for the trip is the Red Rock Rendezvous. This climbing festival, mostly geared for beginners is the largest climbing festival in the country and usually makes for three best days of work every year. This year was no exception. Friday is the beginners day and for me is the best day of the festival. We teach the clinics which may be the cheapest and best way for a true beginning climber to get a day out with a professional guide. The next two days are stacked full of additional clinics with professional athletes from the climbing world. In my opinion if you come to this festival skip the climbing technique clinics and sign up for the technical skills clinics. The self rescue and rock rescue clinics involve skills that every climber needs to know but many don't learn until way too late. Of course the New Belgium beer truck that pours free beer all weekend certainly helps increase my love of the festival. Here are a few photos from the friday uclimb clinic.




These photos are from one of the outdoor clinics the following day that I helped rig the ropes for.







The festival is organized by Mountain Gear. If you are interested in the Red Rock Rendezvous for next year there is more info here.

I have a bunch more photos from this day, but sorting though them and posting them will require another rest day. Lets hope that does not come too soon.

Red Rocks Big Horn Sheep.

A forced rest day due to rain is not always a bad thing. I took the time to hunt down one of the herds of big horn sheep that roam the canyons here at Red Rocks National Conservation Area. I managed to find them in less than an hour and spent the next couple hours sitting still on a rock as they slowly grazed their way closer. They are usually a fairly difficult animal to get close to, but the heard here is fairly tame. These photos were shot with the 70-200 2.8 lens.








I have been down here at Red Rocks for 2.5 weeks now, and have shot a lot of photos. In the next week or so I will be sorting thought them and posting the best here on the blog.

Photos From a Trip to Cascade Pass in the Winter.

Andrew and I headed up to Cascade Pass last weekend. Although not much climbing was done we did spend some quality time in a pretty amazing area.

Our camp at the pass.

A skier

Bear tracks in the snow.

Andrew heading to the pass.

Eldorado Peak

Two skiers heading up Sahale Arm.

Trees covered in rime ice.

Andrew heading back down with a rime covered tree in the foreground.

A Trip to Southern California and Channel Islands National Park

Susan and I took a trip down to Southern California with the intention of seeing the Ducks win the Rose Bowl. We know how that turned out. As soon as it became clear that the Ducks were not going to win we got the hell out of LA. Having heard of the Channel Islands we figured that they might be a good destination, so we drove to Ventura.

Ventura Harbor.

Brown Pelican.
Brown Pelicans glide across the water at sunset.
The Channel Islands National Park is an hour boat ride from Ventura Harbor. The boat ride is far from boring. We used a company called Island Packers Adventures and found everything about the trip great.

Dolphins riding in the wake of the boat. We also saw a group of whales, and more sea birds than I can remember. Once on Santa Rosa Island we hiked to Smugglers Cove. It is a 3.5 mile hike to the other side of the island.

At Smugglers Cove we sat down and had some lunch. I shot a few photos.
Unfortunately this trip was too short. I would have loved to spend more time on the islands, and probably will in the future.

The flight back to Seattle provided some nice views until we got to the Oregon border at which point 14,000ft of clouds obscured everything.

The Bay Bridge?

Mt. Shasta.

The Alaska Range From the Air - Black and White Photos of Alaska's Biggest Mountain Range

Since 1999 I have been to the Alaska Range five times. Over those five trips I have taken numerous photo flights over the range. I am currently putting together a slide show with my photos from Alaska trips, this group of photos will be my next art show. This group of photos show the Alaska Range from the air and some of the planes that I have now spent quite a bit of time photographing from. None of these photos would have been possible without K2 Aviation so if you are looking to do a flight to the Alaska Range give them a call.

The Aircraft...
A Beaver sits on the tarmac in Talkeetna in the rain. No flights on this day.

An Otter on the Kahiltna Glacier.

A Otter makes a late flight into Kahiltna base camp

A Beaver Engine
Not all of the flying in the Alaska goes as planned.
The Alaska Range...


The Glaciers...

The glaciers really make some of the best subjects when flying in the Alaska Range. Even when the clouds are hiding the peaks there are always interesting glacier patterns to photograph.









The Climbers...

One thing that always adds interest to the glaciers are the added patterns of human presence. From the huge runway in the snow next to the busy camp of the Kahiltna Base, to a solitary track weaving through crevasses, these added patterns make some of my favorite photos.





The Mountains...

The mountains of the range make up some of the steepest, largest and most beautiful mountains in the world.

Mount Hunters north face

The Moose's ToothMount Foraker

Mt. Foraker as the early morning moisture dissipates.
Mount Hunter.

A ridge somewhere between the Kahiltna and Ruth Glaciers.
An unknown peak somewhere in the range.
Denali from the south.

Gold Creek drainage.
Small peaks at the base of the range.
Peaks in the lower Ruth Gorge
The summit of Mt. Hunter pokes through the clouds.
The Cassin Ridge on Denali

Mount Hunter's summit

Nikon 70-200 f 2.8 vr lens review.

A few months ago I purchased a Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR. This is a professional quality lens and certainly the most expensive lens I have ever purchased. It is a heavy lens, but not so heavy that I have to leave it at home on all of the backpacking trips. I have carried it above tree line on Mount Baker, and I did not find it so heavy that it is not worth carrying. Most people will claim that it is not really a long enough lens for shooting photos of birds, but with patience and a little luck even 200mm can produce some pretty good bird photos. None of the photos here were shot using a tripod. It is just not realistic for me to use a tripod for most of my photos since I am usually hiking. A tripod would make these photos sharper, but these are still pretty sharp. The VR makes on this lens allows me to shoot hand held photos like this while i am hiking.

In my experience the varied thrush is one of the most reclusive shy birds around. They tend to sit high in the trees and not make themselves visible very often. This bird is very common in the forests of Washington, and I have still never seen one there even though I hear them on almost every trip to the woods. Yesterday while walking with my dogs in Tofino, BC I scared this one that was sitting on the trail in front of me. I had the Nikon 70-200 on my camera and was able to shoot this photo.


This eagle photo was shot as I was walking to breakfast. This is one place where 50% more zoom would have been nice.


A couple of months ago I took this lens up to the north side of Mount Baker on a work trip. I was hoping to shoot photos of ptarmigan. Conveniently upon getting to camp a group of ptarmigan showed up. Unfortunately I did not have enough time with this lens in hand to get perfect photos, but this one was pretty good.

I have also used this lens at a political fund raising event and was fairly happy with the photos even though I am still in the process of learning the ins and outs of shooting indoor flash photos. In this case the lens far exceeded the photographer.

In the next couple months I will continue to post photos from this lens as I get more comfortable shooting with it.

Tofino

I am currently in Tofino, BC enjoying all the rain the Pacific Coast can give me. It has been a difficult trip for photography, but I have managed to get plenty of other things done that have been on the back burner for a long time. In the next few weeks I will continue to post old photos from slides that I have been scanning from the pre-digital years.
Here a few photos from yesterday.

Mt. Foraker Sultana Ridge Photos

I am currently scanning photos of past trips that are on slides. this group of photos is from my Mt. Foraker trip in 2000. This trip was a long time ago and I tried to put the photos in order of how they were shot, but I am not going to promise they are in the correct order. They do however cover almost the entire route, so they should give you a good idea of everything you will encounter on the route.

The flight in past Mt. Huntington

Mt. Crosson From Kahiltna BaseMt. Hunter from the base of Mt. Crosson















Camp on the summit of Crosson with Kahiltna Dome in the background

Looking at the summit
Denali from the summit of Crosson
Leaving the Camp on the summit of Crosson

Mt. Baker Skills Weekend.

Here are some photos from a three day Mt. Baker skills weekend from a month ago. It was a late season trip to Mt. Baker and turned out to have some amazing weather.

A fattened Marmot ready for winter.
White Tailed Ptarmigan starting to change color for the coming snows.
Kate and her cup of coffee.
Setting up the rope for glacier travel.
Kate and the blue sky. It is not this blue very often in Washington.
Smiles all around.
A desperate skier makes for a good photo, but what must have been some pretty crappy turns.
The clearest day I have ever seen on Mt. Baker.
Using our new skills to negotiate the glacier.
More crevasses.

Liz
Kate
Sunset on Mt. Baker.
Ice climbing.
Ice Climbing

Crevasse Rescue Part 1: Arresting a Fall

Arresting a crevasse fall is often overlooked and almost never practiced with real weight. At American Alpine Institute we find it important to allow students to practice a real crevasse fall and rescue a real weight. Catching a real person and rescuing them from a crevasse will almost certainly make people take glacier travel more seriously in the future. AAI practices crevasse rescue on two person teams since this makes it more difficult and creates a much more serious situation for the rescuer.

Note: If you are going to go out and practice this in a real life setting it is VERY important that you set up a second safety line in case the fall is not arrested. It is difficult to stop a fall on a two person rope team. If you do not know how to set up a safe backup system DO NOT DO THIS. In addition don't jump in a crevasse with your crampons on or an ice axe in your hand. Give AAI a call and sign up for a day or two of private guiding and have a guide oversee your practice.

The photos below show a two person rope team in which the second person on the rope falls into a crevasse. In our practice sessions the second sits on the edge of the crevasse and gives the rope team leader some warning by yelling falling. They then slide off the edge of the crevasse simulating a crevasse fall. The rope team leader will then arrest the fall by falling to the ground on their stomach and planting the pick of their ice axe into the snow.

Here you can see the second person on the rope begining to slide into the crevasse, and the leader about to self arrest.

It is very important in glacier travel to not allow excess slack to build up in the rope as the team travels across the glacier. If there is too much slack in the rope between the two climbers then the rope team leader would be shock loaded and have a much harder time stopping the fall into the crevasse.
Here the leader falls toward the ground ready to place their pick in the snow.

A close up of the fall.

Once the pick is placed in the snow the rescuer used the weight of their upper body to hold the pick in the snow.

Most of the holding power of a self arrest comes from the legs. The rescuer will not be able to build an anchor if they can not get their hands free. The rescuer must kick the feet into the snow so all of the weight of the fall can be held by the legs.
Here the rescuer has arrested the fall and is ready to build the anchor. This is a good time for the person in the crevasse to practice prusiking up and down the rope while the rescuer sets up the crevasse rescue system.

The rescuer after arresting the fall and kicking his feet into the snow.

This is the first in a three part series on crevasse rescue. Stay tuned for Part two: Building the anchor, and Part 3: Setting up a pulley system.

A Trip to Eugene

Susan and I went down to Eugene yesterday to watch some football. Susan had come close to loosing her rights to watch Oregon football games in person since everyone I had ever taken her to was an Oregon loss. I planned this game carefully and took her to see the WSU Cougars attempt to play football. Luckily the curse of Susan was broken thanks to WSU bringing a team that my high school could have beat. I took the full bag of camera gear to this game to try out some sports photography since it is something I have never tried. I sucked at it so there are no actual sports photos posted here (and it was not really a game anyway). Thanks to a fairly pretty sky some photos are worth viewing...

A photo of the new gates to Hayward Field.
Entering the stadium.
Duck plane flyby.
The Horizon Air Ducks plane.The view from our seats. A very pretty night in Autzen Stadium.
Such a pretty night it was worth hiking to the top of the stadium to shoot some photos.
The moon rises over the endzone.
The Duck!
Ducks touchdown. There were quite a few of these.
The future of Oregon Basketball. The beginnings of the new basketball arena.