Red Rock Rendezvous /  by Alasdair Turner

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. /  by Alasdair Turner

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. /  by Alasdair Turner

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 /  by Alasdair Turner

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 /  by Alasdair Turner

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. /  by Alasdair Turner

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 /  by Alasdair Turner

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 /  by Alasdair Turner

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. /  by Alasdair Turner

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 /  by Alasdair Turner

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 /  by Alasdair Turner

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.

American Alpine Institute, Mt. Baker, 6 Day Course. /  by Alasdair Turner

Last week I taught a Alpinism 1 course for American Alpine Institute. It was a great trip with good weather almost every day except the summit day. In this course we start out teaching the skills needed to climb the mountain, and then on the final day we make an attempt at the summit. Teaching basic mountaineering skills at the base of the Colman Glacier on Mt. Baker.
The Colman Glacier is a huge glacier and perfect for teaching glacier mountaineering skills.
One of our climbers enjoying the weather and figuring out how to use an ice axe.
Angela leads a rope team through some crevasses for a little practice.
Hiking back to camp.
JackStephen
Angela
SengOur complete group practicing working as a rope team.
Practicing snow skills.
A two person rope team crevasse fall is a serious thing. Here we allowed each person to catch a fall and fall in a real crevasse. The two extra ropes in the photo are back up lines in case the fall is not stopped.
A perfectly executed self arrest.
The guides. Angela, Richard and myself.
Baker looking very pretty.
Group photo.
Our headlamps lighting up the fog on our summit attempt. As you can see the weather was not cooperating, and very strong winds were causing a huge lenticular cloud to cover the summit. Due to the strong winds and low visibility we turned the group around at about 9,000ft.

Angela at our high point.
Descending out of the clouds
Negotiating crevasses on the way back down from our high point.
Working our way down.
Crossing a snow bridge.
A nearby crevasse with the Canadian part of the North Cascades in the background.
The second rope team making their way down.
The lenticular cloud sitting over the summit.

Working on a Movie Set. /  by Alasdair Turner

Yesterday Richard and I did a job for the Bandito Brothers production company. I have never worked on the film set before and I was blown away by the scale of these productions. It was a long day, but a really fun day, and when I was not hiding from the camera so as not to have my ugly mug in any shots, I managed to shoot a few photos of my own.

I my opinion, landing a helicopter here is a bad idea, and it is really a bad idea if I am in it. I dont trust these things.
Richard standing on the spot where the helicopter just landed. Richard and I forgot our lunches. Conveniently there was a ton of blueberries growing on top of the crag.
Sending the cameraman down to a good shooting location.
The cameraman in position ready for the first shoot.
The camera helicopter.
The Navy Helicopter.
Flying low.
Camera man on belay and in position number 2.
Dropping off the "victim"
Hovering below us.
Preparing for the rescue
Lowering the rescuer.
Lowering down a litter.
Victim and rescuer.
Rescue chopper heading out.
Camera man climbing out of his ledge after shooting was over.
Helmet camera mounted on camera man.
This sequence gives an idea of what we were there for. We did some rigging that allowed the camera man to jump off the rock and fall toward the ground. Our job was to make sure he stopped before he got there.
Flying above the trees.
Helicopter with Puget Sound in the background.
My ride out of here.

Photos from a trip to Mt. Baker's Easton Glacier. /  by Alasdair Turner

I just got back from a trip to Mt. Bakers Easton Glacier. This trip was a 3 day Mt. Baker Summit climb. The weather was a little challenging on this trip, and the summit conditions were some of the worst I have ever had to deal with. These trips start with an early morning meeting and gear check and then a drive to the trail head at Mt. Baker. We then hike in and build a camp just above treeline. Day 2 is usually a skills day covering snow walking, ice walking, ice axe use , and roped glacier travel. Day 3 is summit day and the long hike out.

Fog covering the trees on the approach hike. I shot no more photos worth posting the first day due to crappy weather and zero visiblility.

Fog in Valley below on the morning of day 2.

Jeff and Jeff enjoying the morning.

Fog in the valley.

Dwayne and Alex.

The Twin Sisters range.

Cindy heading up for skills day.

A guy walking on the ridge next to camp.

A second shot because I cant figure out which one I like the most.

Tim and Cindy.

The first hint of light in the morning. This is the first time I have tried using the D300 at 3200 ISO. I like the results.

A little later on the summit trip. The weather is still holding out.

Clouds moving up the mountain. Us too.

Moving around crevasses.

The well beaten trail up the mountain.

Our Summit shot. Fogged lens. Between turning around at the summit crater due to heavy rain and temps in the 30s I put the camera away. It was just too wet to be shooting photos. The camera still got soaked, but there were not ill effects. The other rope team of five very hearty soles chose to continue to the top with Chris. The slightly smarter group agreed to go down with me. I owe Chirs a beer for the seriously rough summit duty.

Today I am still chasing off a case of the flu brought on by a few too many days of work in a row. As always, its still better than sitting at a desk. Even on the worst days.

Mt. Shuksan /  by Alasdair Turner

Here are some photos from Mt. Shuksan. I did a guided climb of the Fisher Chimneys route last week. Once again we dealt with thunderstorms. The warm weather is really creating some difficult summit days in the cascades with thunderstorms building at any time of the day so they are completely unpredictable. Ferns on the approach hike.
Craig
My tent set up with Mt. Shucksan in the background.
Thunderstorm building at 5:30am? That's unusual.
Mt Baker and thunderstorms.
The border peaks, and Mt. Slesse.
Climbing hells highway.
Interesting patterns on the glacier.
The summit shot.
Standing in the wind.
Summit
The first signs that a storm might be in the works.
Less than a half hour later things got real bad.
I shot no pictures between the above picture and this one. Things were fairly full on. Hail lightning, thunder, rain, hair standing on end, all while descending the Fisher Chimneys. Note: The Fishers Chimneys are not fun to descend in the rain, but they are really not that bad.

Broken Bones and Thunderstorms - A Weekend in the Cascades. /  by Alasdair Turner

This weekend Susan and I went to the Cascade Pass area to spend a pleasant weekend together climbing a moderate peak and enjoy the weekend together. After the nice hike up to Cascade Pass we noticed some thunderstorms building which is not uncommon for the Cascades this time of year. We decided we should hurry to get to our camp at Cache Col before it started to rain.

Susan hiking up to Cascade Pass. The storm came in a little faster than we were expecting. We set up our tent on the Cache glacier to hide from the rain. After about 20 minutes the storm had passed and we started packing up getting ready to go. I heard an emergency whistle and looked around a bit. There was a guy sitting at the base of a snow slope about 200 yards away. When he started waving his jacket I knew something was up. A lone climber doing the Ptarmigan Traverse had fallen on some rocks above the snow slope landed on the slope and then slid to the bottom of it. His name was Craig. He had pain in his right foot. After a patient assessment the most probable reason for the pain was he had broken some bones in his foot. I ran back to Cascade Pass to talk to the rangers. due to the unstable weather and the fact that the rest of Craig's team was likely on the other side of Cache Col. Susan and I decided to stay with Craig for the night. We set up a camp on Mixup Arm to prepare for the next thunderstorm that looked to be comming pretty fast.

Setting up camp. This storm was bigger and much stronger than the first. It produced massive amounts of rain and flooded our tent. We had quite a few fairly close lightning strikes. It got a little scary, but it was not the worst storm I have camped in.

Susan attempting to deal with the massive amounts of water running though our tent.
Craig and I sitting on pads trying to insulate ourselves from ground current in case of a lightning strike nearby.

Susan sitting on her pad trying to insulate herself from the ground.

Our tent location just after the worst of the storm had passed.
Weather moving through cascade pass.

Me. (My wife will not allow me to post blog entries without pictures of myself)

Craig spent the night in our tent as he only had a bivy sack with him. We decided he would enjoy the night more in a tent than a bivy.

Waiting for the evac.
The NPS arrived the next morning to get Craig and his broken foot out.

Scoping out the scene from the air.

NPS over the Cache Glacier.

NPS chopper scoping out the landing zone.

High flying rangers.

NPS Rangers in flight.

NPS Rangers being delivered.

NPS rangers packaging Craig for a short haul to Cascade Pass.

Craig being packaged.

NPS rescue chopper.

Lift off of litter and attendant.

Craig being short hauled down to Cascade Pass.

After Craig was flown out our weekend could continue. We hung out for a while and enjoyed the view and slowly packed up our gear. We had just been informed by the ranger that the Cascade Pass road had washed out in the rains last night and we would likely be stuck here for another day. Neither of us really cared since all we would miss was a day of work.

Moma Ptarmigan. She wandered through as we were packing up our camp with five chicks. Moma and chicks really did not seem to care that we were there.

Ptarmigan

Ptarmigan with the Torment Forbidden Traverse in the background.

Some of the local vegetation.

A marmot.

We did not climb anything yesterday. We were both a little tired. Instead we hiked up to Cache Col and watched a team climb the route were were originally planning to climb.

A group on the summit of Mixup Peak.

NW Face of Forbidden Peak /  by Alasdair Turner

This last weekend I climbed the NW Face of Forbidden Peak. It was my most enjoyable climb this year due both to the terrain and the good friends I spent the weekend with. I will post more comments about the photos later.

The hike in to Boston Basin is always enjoyable, despite the steep overgrown trail. Once above treeline the views are amazing. Our objective, Forbidden Peak can be seen in the center of the photo.
We stopped along the way and made dinner since we had a long way to go the first night. After that we continued over Sharkfin Col and dropped down onto the Boston Glacier and our camp right at dark.
Our bivy site on the Boston Glacier.
A lazy start to the day got us moving about 8am and heading for the base of the north ridge where we could cross over to the Forbidden Glacier where our route starts.
Pat descending the Boston Glacier.
Looking back across the Boston Glacier toward Mt. Buckner, and Boston Peak.
The notch at the base of the north ridge was not expected to be an issue, however due to receding glaciers it looks like it is going to be an issue as the years go on. Most reports I have seen about this part of the route talk about a simple snow gully.
Instead of a snow gully we started with a step across a moat on a barely there snow bridge(which Barry managed to break before I could use it. Thanks dude), followed by a steep climb up a short steep snow section.

Next, was an 80 degree loose dirt gully (crampons required) to gain the notch. Leading this was fairly serious as a fall here would be bad since there is no way to protect dirt. That is unless you climb in Scotland in the winter where the only good protection is frozen dirt. In this photo I am looking down the gully at Degay and Pat.

Pat at the top of the dirt gully.

At least the going looked easy on the other side.

Now we were on the Forbidden Glacier and we could at least see our objective ridge.

Getting to the ridge however was not as easy as we thought it might be. Route finding through crevasses on a steep part of the glacier made for a couple dead ends.

After messing around for a bit we did manage to find a snow finger that lead directly to the rock and was not blocked by a moat.

Our next worry was if we would find a place to sleep once we were on the rock. We had heard that there was some places to bivy on the route, but from below it did not look promising. Luckily we found a site big enough for three of us. Degay slept in a second site just below. From the site we had a great veiw of Eldorado Peak and Morain Lake below us.

Sunrise on Eldorado Peak. Time to start climbing.

The climb itself was abosolutly stellar. The rock was great, and the climbing was enjoyable.

This shot shows all of the ridge from the knife edge traverse to the summit. The crux of the route lies just on the other side of the knife edge ridge. The chimney mentioned in Beckey's book was beyond the actual crux of the route one pitch below. The crux was full on 5.8 climbing made harder by the fact that I did not worry too much about going light on this trip carrying two camera lenses and a tripod in addition to several other luxury items.

Looking back across the knife edge ridge at Barry. The crux of the route came just after this pitch.

Once through the chimney the cimbing eases considerably and you are treated to some amazing pitches of low fifth class climbing on perfect rock.

Pat climbing into the belay with Eldorado Peak in the background.

Pat is getting a little sick of me and my new camera lens.

Barry looking down the entire ridge from near the top.

Degay on the summit.

This route was one of the better routes I have done in the Cascades. Although not technically difficult the whole package makes for a serious outing. There are two ways to approach this route. One is to rap off the West Ridge Col and descend to the base of the ridge. We decided not do go this way due to the seriousness of rapping off the ridge in the unknown below. It is a quicker way to go than our route, but it misses many of the things that made this trip so enjoyable.

Most of the photos in this trip report were shot with a new lens. I have previously been shooting most of my alpine trips with a Nikon 18-200mm VR Lens which makes for a very good all around lens. On this trip I decided to bring a second wide angle lens which I bought just a few weeks ago. I was very impressed with the lens and love many of the photos I shot with it on this trip. It is a Tokina 11-16mm Lens I will add a blog post in the next couple of weeks entirely devoted to photos I have shot with the new lens.