Alasdair Turner Photography

Snowy Owls

2012-01-24T20:09:00.000-08:00

After hearing all the reports of Snowy Owls wintering much further south that usual, I decided it was time to go find some. Working on some good advice from a friend who saw some last weekend, I drove to see what I could find. The weather was less than perfect with strong winds and heavy rain, but it made for good photos.

Avalanche Course at Mt. Baker.

2012-01-23T19:07:00.001-08:00

I just completed two field days with an AAI avalanche course in the Mt. Baker back country. Overall we had a great course despite some pretty challenging weather. We did get a few turns in down Swift Creek which always makes for a great day. Here are a few photos...

Tofino, BC

2012-01-11T21:38:00.000-08:00

We just got back from a trip to Tofino, British Columbia, where we spent the week between Christmas and New Years day. Most of the time was spent relaxing, and for me that means at least some time shooting photos.

The first few days were exceptionally rainy an windy. The sheet of paper taped to the door of the lodge upon our arrival read

"Vancouver Island's Pacific Rim National Park are warning visitors about massive waves, gale force winds and hazardous surf conditions this holiday season."

Prefect for me who does not really enjoy the warm and sunny beaches of the world. The forecast turned out to be fairly accurate...

Chesterman Beach in a driving rain storm.

With the amount of time I spend in the mountains, I get the chance to see a lot of very interesting cloud formations. My early morning walk to watch the sunrise from the beach produced one of the more interesting cloud photos I have ever shot.

What would a trip be without some bird photos.

Not a good photo, but apparently eagles enjoy seagull snacks.

Fox Sparrow

Yet another bad photo of an oyster catcher. I will get a good photo one day.

Driftwood on the beach.

What would a family trip be without some family photos.

The last night of the trip I shot a couple black and whites.

AIARE Avalanche 1 Course with American Alpine Institute.

2011-12-19T17:22:00.000-08:00

I just got done teaching my third AIARE Avalanche 1 course of the season. these courses have one classroom day in Bellingham followed by two days in the Mt. Baker ski area backcountry. For the most part the weather has been pretty cooperative, and despite the low snow pack, we have managed to get in a few good turns.

Route finding in the backcountry.

Terrain trap.

Navigation in poor weather.

Skinning uphill

Rimmed trees.

Rimed trees at Herman saddle

Not the best skinning conditions.

The weather for this last class was forecast to be awful (mid 30's and raining). Saturday turned out pretty nice. Sunday had such a bad forecast I made the decision to not take my camera out. Turns out it was a pretty nice day also. All these photos are from near Artist Point on Saturday.

Skinning toward Artist Point.

Erin's Group on the ridge getting ready to head down.

Erin, showing us how its done.

Kurt

Nice turn!

Skiing off Artist Point.

Ski weekend in the North Cascades.

2011-11-08T10:19:00.000-08:00

Spent last weekend skiing around Mt. Baker. The skiing on Heliotrope ridge was great. The skiing in the Mt. Baker back country is not. We still need a bit more snow to make the skiing a little better.

Photos from the Baker Ski Area back country...

Jason skiing rocks

American Dipper

Heliotrope Ridge...

Justin

Luna the super dog

A Quick Trip Up Ruth Mountain.

2011-10-24T13:48:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I did a trip to Ruth Mountain. It was one of the more perfect fall days I have seen in the mountains. The most incredible thing about this trip was the views of the North Cascades. It is very clearly winter in the North Cascades. October has in the past been my favorite time of the year to climb in the mountains. There is already too much snow in many places.

Hannegan Pass.

Flowers still peaking out of the snow.

Snow on the summer plants.

Bird in the snow.

Bear tracks at Hannegan Pass.

Skiers heading up to Ruth.

Mt. Shucksan in the distance.

Skiers on Ruth Mountain.

Wind patterns in the snow.

Perfect weather.

A Few Photos from a Weekend on the Hood Canal.

2011-08-13T20:34:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend at a house on the Hood Canal with several other new parents. Here is a few photos.

Forbidden Peak North Ridge Climb with Mountain Madness.

2011-07-24T22:03:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a climb of Forbidden Peaks north ridge with Mountain Madness. I have been wanting to climb this ridge for over 10 years and after looking down it after my west ridge climb a few weeks ago it was more on my list of things to do than ever. I got a call on Wednesday asking if I was interested in working a north ridge climb and I jumped a the chance.

The north ridge is not one to be taken lightly. Just getting to the ridge can feel like a climb in itself since it involves a climb up loose rock and a rappel down the other side of sharkfin col, followed by a walk across a big glacier, and then another climb over a ridge on the other side of the glacier.

We spent the night at the base of Sharkfin Col with the intention of climbing over will full packs and then spending the night somewhere on either the north or west ridge (our descent route). We woke up the next morning at 5 am and made the quick decision to go for the whole thing in a day and leave our camp at Sharkfin Col.

Sharkfin col. The notch we used to get to the Boston glacier is located directly above the finger of snow on the left side of the photo that points up and slightly right.

The rappel down the other side of Sharkfin Col at 6:15.

It was looking to be the best weather day of the year so far.

Our objective in the distance.

Crossing the Boston Glacier

There were not to many crevasses on the glacier so it was fairly quick moving.

The north ridge col is located at the lowest point in the ridge on the far west side of the Boston Glacier. Many people miss this and go up one col too early (south). This also works but requires a rappel or two on the other side. I did not like the look of the standard crossing due to a large chunk of snow that needs to fall off, so we climbed up the col just to the south of the standard one. After we got there we made one rappel and I changed my mind about the route variation choice. We climbed back up the col and reassessed our situation. We were planning on climbing the NW facing snow slope that takes you to the north ridge, but after having a better look at the complete north ridge I decided we might as well just start climbing from where we were.

I was very worried about time, since we were not carrying any bivy gear, and although spending the night on the ridge would not have killed us, it would have been a very uncomfortable night. I figured we really needed to be at the summit between 12 and 1 to get down at a reasonable time, and right now (9:30) we were quite a bit behind that time. I put the camera away and we got serious. We climbed the ridge with a few short pitches and a whole lot of moving together on whatever terrain looked to be the easiest. We bypassed a couple of steep snow sections by downclimbing around them on relatively easy ground. The climbing was easy, and very enjoyable. After an hour of climbing we had made it to the snow crest where the NW variation usually joins the ridge.

The only photo I shot on the lower part of the ridge.

The NW facing snow slope that gains the ridge does so at a point where the ridge builds up a lot of snow over the winter. There were still some cornices on this ridge so we had to traverse the slope lower down where it was a bit steeper. We did three full pitches on firm snow with picket anchors. It was now time to relax a little since I was sure we could make it off the peak before dark.

Looking across the first pitch of the snow traverse. My crampon marks visible in the bottom right of the photo.

The second pitch.

The final pitch back to the rock ridge.

John maybe wishing he was somewhere else.

The upper part of the ridge was amazing. Super fun and easy climbing.

Climbing the upper ridge with the snow traverse visible in the background.

The last few moves to the summit.

The entire ridge can be seen below in this photo. We joined the ridge just after the farthest tower visible in the photo.

Opps, I forgot to shoot a photo of us on the summit. Someone else did, so when he emails them to us I will post them.

I took a second to shoot a photo of the n. face of Mt. Buckner.

Much to my surprise we were the first party on the summit, followed shortly after by another guided party. It was 1:00. We were soon warned of the large number of parties heading up the west ridge. We took a short break on the summit and started down. We down climbed and made 3 rappels on the descent to the top of the gully.

The crux of the west ridge on our descent.

We also passed 4 parties still heading up. At the top of the gully was a large group of people who had decided to turn around and were trying to figure out how to rappel (or something like that, I don't really know what they were doing). We walked past them and headed directly to the first rappel station on the right of the gully. After a little route finding and several raps we made the final rap to the snow below the gully and were surprised to find that were also the first group off the peak. We decided not to camp at Sharkfin col where all our overnight gear was, so we dropped a pack and ran up and retrieved our gear cached there. At 7 pm we rolled into the lower Boston Basin camp and started cooking a very needed dinner. It would be somewhere around 2am before the final group on Forbidden passed our tent heading back to camp.

All in all this was one of the best alpine routes I have done in the Cascades. It has everything. It is never difficult, but its length, remoteness and variety make it quite serious. It is a route I highly recommend, however only to experienced parties of very competent climbers.

Back at the car.

Golden Eagle Nest Work with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

2011-07-19T22:58:00.000-07:00

For the second year in a row I spent some time working with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife on a Golden Eagle project. This work mostly consists of going to eagle nests just after the young birds have fledged and picking out all of the remains of prey that the birds have brought back to the young. Golden Eagles nest mostly on cliffs and that is where I come in. Most of the nests are accessed by rappelling from above down to the nest. Occasionally there is no place to anchor above the nest or it is easier to climb to the nest.

Earlier this year we placed a trail camera on a nest with some young birds in it. The first part of this work was to retrieve that camera and collect any prey remains that were left in that nest. Right when we got to the nest a juvenile bird flew over. It is quite common for the juvenile birds to stay around the nest for a while after they fledge.

Juvenile Golden Eagle above nest near the Tieton River.

We collected prey remains and the camera and headed to the Wenas wildlife area to spend the night. This area is one of the hidden gems of Washington. I was amazed by the amount of birds in this area. Unfortunately a very noisy great horned owl kept waking me up throughout the night. I can't really complain since being woken up by an owl is a lot better than being woken up by my neighbors at home.

A night hawk at Wenas Wildlife area.

A house wren also at Wenas Wildlife area.

The next morning we headed the the next nest just south of Ellensburg. This nest was in a beautiful area and despite a little bit of rain and a few ticks the half mile walk was very enjoyable. There was no sign of the birds when we got close to the nest, but after rappelling to the nest it was clear it had been used that year. The nest contained several coyote legs and deer legs. As we were driving the road out of the wildlife area we saw a juvenile golden eagle, but I was not able to get a shot of it. I was able to get a shot of this deer that was a hundred yards down the road from where we saw the eagle.

We made one quick stop to shoot some osprey before we got to Ellensburg.

From there we headed to a nest south of Ellensburg close to Puget Sound Energy's wind farm (also known as bird killing area). After what seemed like several hours of driving on must be Washington's single worst road we arrived at the most unique area of Washington I have been to so far. The top of this high ridge was mostly rock and sand with the only vegetation being some desert plants and cactus that I did not know exist in Washington.

A horned lark on sagebrush on the way to the nest.

Pediocactus nigrispinus - Hedgehog Cactus

The young bird had still not left the nest, so we could not go to the nest to collect remains. Instead we spent a few minutes shooting photos and then left.

On the way back down the "road from hell", we stopped to check out a coyote carcass and found another interesting Washington species...

A horned toad.

Driving past the windfarms I shot this photo. I guess they haven't killed him yet.

Kestrel

From there we headed north to Wenatchee to return to a nest we did last year. From a climbing standpoint this nest is probably the most interesting. It is located on a small basalt cliff that if you look at the wrong way might just collapse and kill you. I think this cliff would win the medal for most unstable rock in Washington. There are also not anchors above the cliff so rappelling to it is not an option. I climbed along a small ledge and through a constriction (covered in mouse crap) to get to the nest.

Me in the nest last year.

From there we headed north to Twist and Winthrop to look at some more nests. One of the nests was located up a very steep slope a long way from the road so we decided to skip it an continue on to the next. At the next nest in the Metow Valley west of Winthrop there was still a juvenile bird. We were planning on tagging that bird the next day with a radio tracking device to gather more information on the movements of the birds. On the way back we stopped at a tree nest in Entiat and collected some prey remains below the nest. After that we headed back to Twisp for the night.

The following day we headed to the Cheif Joseph Damn to meet with some folks from the Army Corp of Engineers who would take us by boat to a nest just upstream on the Columbia River. We visited a different nest from the same birds last year. They biologist for the area had told us that he had not seen any birds since they had fledged a few weeks earlier.

Eastern Kingbird at the boat launch.

Me sitting in the nest collecting prey remains.

We found the carcass of the bird that had fledged in the bushes below the nest (apparently the victim of a coyote). I found a second carcass of a very small bird on a ledge just below the nest. That bird was likely pushed out of the nest by the other one. For the second year in a row it appears this nest failed to produce any young. The nest however had more prey remains than any other nest that we had been to so far.

The pile of prey remains from the nest. Including lots of deer legs, coyote parts, a snake skeleton and the carcass of a small golden eagle.

The carcass of the other eagle.

We were supposed to capture and tag the eagle at the last remaining nest, but when we got there the bird had fledged and was nowhere to be seen. We collected the prey remains from the nest, and headed home.

Mount Rainier Climb with Mountain Madness on the Emmons Glacier

2011-07-19T08:52:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a climb of Mount Rainier with Mountain Madness. It was a return group of folks that I climbed with in Bolivia last year. The Mt. Rainier climb starts with the drive to Mt. Rainier National Park and then a short hike to the Glacier Basin camp. We spend the night there and continue up to Camp Sherman the next day. Although some people choose to climb from the trail head all the way to Camp Sherman the same day the break at Glacier Basin makes for a much more enjoyable hike and an overall better experience.

Wildlife at Glacier Basin camp.

Danny learning the details of the First Light tent.

We got an early start the following morning and headed up the Interglacier to the ridge below Camp Sherman.

Looking at our group heading up the Interglacier.

Once at Camp Sherman we had the option of climbing to the summit the following morning or taking a rest day and heading to the summit the next day. Given the unstable weather we decided to take a rest day.

The view from my "alpine office".

Mountain Madness guide Jamie.

An RMI group heading up the mountain. Although the weather looks good in this photo, the group turned around before the summit due to bad weather.

The ranger hut at Camp Sherman.

Two climbers arrive back at camp after turning around before the summit.

The next morning was clear and cold. The weather forecast for most of the Puget Sound was for rain. We were above that rain, so we roped up and headed for the summit.

Camp at 4am.

A rope team heading to the summit.

Rick, Nancy and Jamie on the rope in front leaving camp.

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Traversing above a crevasse.

Feeling the altitude on a steep slope around 11,500ft.

Rick enjoying the day.

Nancy and Rick with Little Tahoma in the background.

It is always worth taking the time to stop and fix blisters before the get worse. Guide extraordinaire Jamie doing some blister maintenance

Jamie's rope team at about 12,000ft.

Nancy enjoying the weather.

Nancy.

Mt. Rainier is not an easy climb. Danny takes a few minutes to reflect on that fact.

Danny looking a little better after a Cliff Bar and some water.

Danny, Margen and Nancy all went to the summit with Jamie. Rick and I turned around and headed down.

Rick heading down after a long battle with blisters.

Heading down for me was a good excuse to concentrate on some photography, which is always a good way to spend an afternoon.

A rope team arrives back at camp from the summit.

An icefall on the Emmons Glacier meets the clouds.

Interesting patterns on the glacier.

I have spent a lot of time over the years shooting black and whiter photos of glaciers. Much of this was in Alaska from the air. If you have not seen those photos they are posted on my website here. The Glacier photos are under mountain images in the "glacier project" gallery.

Jamie, Margen, Danny and Nancy returning to camp from the summit.

Margen and Nancy drinking tea after climbing Mt. Rainier.

Jamie making it look easy.

Anyone who knows me understands that it is really not possible for me to go anywhere these days without shooting photos of some birds. This bird is a grey crowned rosy finch. They are common in Washington's alpine areas, and very common at Camp Sherman.

Grey Crowned Rosy Finch.

The following day we headed down, getting an early start knowing that food, and beer were waiting for us back in town.

Animals and Birds of Washington's Alpine Environments

2011-07-08T00:18:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to photograph all of the wildlife I have seen in the Cascades for a while now. Although my photo collection is far from complete, I do feel it is large enough for a blog post. So here it is. wildlife of the Cascades Alpine areas.

Pika

The Pika is a small mammal in the lagomorphs family (rabbit and hare) found both below tree line and in the alpine regions. It is rat sized and can often be seen and heard in scree and boulder fields. Their call is best described as a loud squeak. They are pretty hard to get close to so I don't really have many good photos of them. Pika do not hibernate, they live under the snow all winter continuing to feed on the vegetation on the ground.

Hoary Marmot

Marmots are common in alpine areas of Washington and I have spent many hours photographing them. Their call is a loud whistle, which serves as communication and more importantly a warning to other marmots about predators.

Cascade Fox
The Cascade fox is a common resident around Mt. Rainier as many of them are habituated to humans.

Deer Mouse
Any climber who has spent any time at a popular camp and did not clean up their food properly has paid for it with less sleep due to the constant nighttime movements of the deer mouse.

A deer mouse hiding the the bottom of my tent.

Bushy-tailed Woodrat
Any nighttime encounter with a deer mouse pales in comparison to the legendary bushy-tailed wood rat. There may be no other animal quite as persistent and capable of ruining a night of sleep. My encounters with this large rodent have always been memorable. I once had a pair of socks stolen by one of these guys in the middle of the night. We were in the Picket Range and I had not brought a second pair. In another encounter I had some crawling all over my truck while I was trying to sleep in it while on a trip in Eastern Washington. It was an evening of almost constant banging and loud scurrying. These things certainly do not have much grace.
I dont have a photo of one of these alive, and I cant really bring myself to post a picture of a dead one.

You can find a photo here

Mountain Goat
One of the more lovable of our alpine dwelling friends. It is rare that I do a trip to the Enchantments, Washington Pass or the Cache Col side of Cascade Pass without seeing some goats.

Black Bear
Yes they do spend time above tree line in the alpine areas of the Cascades. No I don't have a good photo of one.

Grizzly Bear (Brown Bear)
It is now official that there are grizzly bears in the North Cascades. The photo that confirmed them was shot on Sahale Arm near Cascade Pass.

Chipmunk
Found at most camps in the pacific Northwest at or below treeline.

Varied Thrush
Often heard, but rarely seen, the varied thrush is one of the most common birds that climbers will share the approach trail with. They are about the size of and have similar shape as a robin (which is also a thrush).

Click here for a page at which you can hear its call.

Anna's Hummingbird

I am kind of lying here, because it is more common for climbers to see ruby-throated hummingbirds, but I don't have a picture of one. Hummingbirds are very common in alpine areas of Washington.

American Crow

Crows are less common visitors to the alpine than ravens, but do occasionally make their way above tree line.

Winter Wren

I am still working on getting a photo of a Winter Wren. They do not tend to move above tree line, but are very common in sub-alpine forest.
This is another bird with a distinctive song that is often heard on approach hikes. More information, a recording of the call, and a photo can be found here.

Hermit Thrush
The Hermit Thrush is another bird that is often heard but rarely seen. Their call is one of the most beautiful and haunting of all the northwest birds. A hike in the northwest would not be the same without the sound of this bird. It is most often heard right at treeline in the mountain hemlock and sub-alpine fir.
Click here for a link to a page where you can hear its call.

I know this photo is terrible, but its a hermit thrush and they are hard to get close to.

Gray Jay

Known to many back country users as camp robbers. Chances are if you have stopped for a snack on a popular trail you have had one of these birds land close to you.

Pretty much the easiest bird to photograph.

Clark's Nutcraker
Similar in color to the grey jay and often mistaken for them. They are a bigger bird and do not do as much scrounging for climber food as the jay does. They are more common on the eastern crest of the cascade mountains around Colchuck Lake and Washington Pass. They are also very loud squawking birds.

For more information and to hear their call click here.

Dark eyed Junco
I can't really believe I don't have a photo of one of these yet. They are all over my front yard and they are super common visitors to the sub-alpine fir and mountain hemlock.
More info and photos can be found here.

Mountain Chickadee
The Mountain Chickadee is a close relative of the black-capped chickadee. It is pretty common in the sub-alpine areas just like the Dark-eyed Junco.

Horned Lark
Horned Larks are often seen on glaciers in small groups feeding on insects in the snow. This bird fits in the often seen but rarely close enough to identify. Some day I will get a good photo of one, but until them I will stick with this one.

Ok, I have an updated photo from Eastern Washington. I left the original bad one because it shows a bird feeding on the glacier.

American Pipit
The American Pipit is a less commonly seen bird in the alpine areas where climbers go. They breed in above tree line. I have only seen them on occasion and usually only in places where climbers do not go very often.

Mountain Bluebird
A fairly common resident of the Eastern Cascades.

Grey Crowned Rosy Finch
The Grey Crowned Rosy Finch is also seen fairly often on glaciers feeding on insects. Its a little smaller than the Horned Lark. It looks a lot like a sparrow until you get close enough to see the grey coloring around the back of the neck and on the cheeks.

Raven
It seems every climber has a raven story. These are usually related to some type of amazing feat where the raven has opened up a zipper and removed some food.

Sooty Grouse
Common in alpine areas in the late summer. It seems like Mt. Baker is a pretty common place to see these guys.

White Tailed Ptarmigan
White tailed ptarmigans are fairly common in the Cascades above tree line. Their distinctive chicken like call is often heard right at dusk, as the birds come together in pairs and move to the center of glaciers or snow fields to spend the night. In the winter these birds have completely white plumage. Unfortunately I don't have a photo of any in their winter plumage.
A site with more information and a recording of their call is here.

Golden Eagle
Maybe it because I am better at identifying them, but in the last few years I have have seen a lot of Golden Eagles hunting in alpine areas. Each time I have seen them there has been more than one and they have been hunting as a pair. Marmots seem to be a favorite food of these birds.

Northern Harrier
I have only seen a norther harrier once, and it was on Mt. Baker. Like the Golden Eagle it was probably hunting marmots.

Peregrine Falcon
More common at popular rock climbing areas than in the alpine areas. It is still not unheard of to see a peregrine falcon above tree line.

Osprey
Although not common on the west side of the Cascades the osprey is a very common bird of prey on the eastern slopes. They will sometimes fish in alpine lakes along the eastern crest of the Cascades. I have seen them above Blue Lake at Washington Pass and in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area. They are very common at Colchuck Lake.

West Ridge of Forbidden Peak Climb with American Alpine Institute

2011-07-05T19:56:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a climb of Forbidden Peak over the Forth of July weekend. Conditions are about as good as they could be right now, with the coulour still completely filled with snow, and the ridge mostly bare and dry. We dropped our campons a couple hundred feet above the top of the coulour and then continued in our boots from there to the summit.

Two Skiers in Boston Basin.

We did not seem to bother the year round inhabitants of our camp.

Pika

Marmot

We did not get a super early start, and were at the base of the coulour by 8.

Starting up the coulour.

Above the shrund.

Somewhere on the ridge heading up.

Seen somewhere on the ridge. WTF was someone trying to accomplish with the blue cord added to this anchor? Thanks, I can add this to my collection of crappy anchor photos.

Summit

Heading down.

Another party below us on the ridge.

James down leading.

Another Pika back at camp.

Skiers with Johannesburg Mountain in the background.

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Anika and Kyles Wedding in Crested Butte

2011-06-29T11:53:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos from Anika and Kyles wedding that we shot this weekend in Crested Butte, CO. It is weddings like this that photographers love to shoot. I hope to get out to CO again soon.

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Mt. Baker Glacier Skills Trip with American Alpine Institute

2011-06-09T11:22:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of last week I led a glacier skills trip on Mt. Baker. Despite the bad weather forecast it turned out to be a pretty good trip and we managed to get a lot accomplished. I was a little worried we would not be able to find a crevasse to do crevasse rescue in due to the huge snow year. After a short time of searching for a hole we found an almost perfect spot just outside of our camp. Each person got to fall into a crevasse and each person also got to arrest a real crevasse fall with the weight of a real person. If you spend a lot of time on glaciers and you have not had the chance to do this you should. Its a lot more difficult than "rescuing" a backpack.

Here are some photos of the trip.

This Years Eagle Nest.

2011-05-23T08:34:00.000-07:00

On Friday I headed out to Yakima to do some work for WA Fish and Wildlife. The goal was to put a trail camera near a golden eagles nest. This is the same thing we did last year on a nest of a different set of birds just down the valley. There are some photos from that work here. We did not know if the nest had chicks until we did the long drive on a terrible dirt road to get there. Once there we found two chicks, and just as importantly, a nest that was not too difficult to get a camera mounted on. I shot a couple of photos when I was down at the nest. The female bird was on the nest when we got there, and decided to leave pretty quickly.

The two birds in the nest. There is a piece of food next to them which is what is left of a blue grouse.

Please note that these photos are shot while working directly with the WA Department of Fish and Wildlife under funding from the Woodland Park Zoo. There is no other reason to go to golden eagles nests since they are very easily disturbed.

Seattle Backyard Birds and How to Attract Them.

2011-05-19T11:31:00.000-07:00

When I first bought my house here in Seattle the yard was a wasteland of non native plants and invasive species. One of the only saving graces of the yard was a 50ft tall western hemlock. One side of the yard was completely overrun by 20 ft tall skyrocket juniper with English ivy and holly bushes filling in the gaps. The bird species that frequented the yard was pretty much confined to the sparrow, which is also an introduced species.

Our lot is small (50ft x 100ft) and I never really expected I could create much of a sanctuary for birds, but I did not like ivy or holly, and I hated the juniper bushes. Over the last seven years I removed most of the non native species of plants from the yard and replaced them with native ferns and trees in the hope it might help bring some native birds back to the property. I never expected how successful this would be. This spring we have an abundance of birds in and around our yard, and I am sure it is due to the changes in flora that we have made, in addition to the overall changes in flora choices around the neighborhood.

One of the first things we did was remove the skyrocket juniper. These things were overgrown and ugly. There were five of them and at the ground they were as much as 2ft in diameter. Most people choose to cut trees they don't want to the ground, I decided that if we wanted birds we needed food for those birds. I cut several of the stumps at 4 to 5feet above the ground and left them to rot in place. I have also added a few ferns to grow in the stumps.

The next thing was to remove all holly and ivy from the property. These are invasive species. Ivy supports almost no bird life and crowds out other native species. Holly is invading our northwest forests and is very difficult to remove. several birds feed on the berries which unfortunately causes it to spread even faster.

I am an advocate of large native trees on small lots. I planted several western red cedars a couple Douglas fir and several western hemlock. They were all small saplings, which will be removed and replaced as soon as they get too large for the area. I also planted several vine maples and at least 6 varieties of ferns. Other plants I used are devils club, Oregon oxalis, Oregon grape, thimble berry native blackberry varieties, and numerous other random plants. Not everything is native however. I planted a grape vine, and a whole bunch of raspberries. I also have some anemones to add a little color to the yard.

Our side yard.

Each year the plants in the yard become more established and each year we have more birds. So far this year the list of birds in our yard has been amazing considering the size of the lot. What is even more amazing is the number of birds that have chosen to nest in our yard. Here are a few of the birds. All of these photos were shot while standing in my yard in the Phinney Ridge neighborhood of Seattle.

Anna's Hummingbird

Song Sparrow

All of the following photos are of birds that are nesting in our yard. The bushtits are not nesting this year, but did last year.

A chickadee perched in the grape vine.

Chickadee

A Bewick's wren moving in to a nest box. It seems like the Bewick's is more common each year. There is not a place in Phinney Ridge you can go without hearing the call of the Bewick's.

Bewick's Wren

This pair of Stellar's Jays are currently building a nest in our yard.

Stellar's Jay

Although there is no nest this year, we did have a bushtit nest in our hemlock tree last year.

Bush tit

One more note about nesting birds. The first couple of years we had several house sparrows move in to our nest boxes. House sparrows are pretty agressive birds and dont really help gain native species of birds. I removed the eggs from these boxes and then moved them different locations in the yard. Sparrows no longer use the boxes, and chickadees and Bewick's wrens have now moved in.

Other birds in the yard.

Savanah Sparrow?

Mallard pair that returns every year to the puddles in the ally way.

A juvenile American Robin

Golden Crowned sparrow with a broken wing. This bird ended up at the PAWS wildlife rehab center in Lynnwood.

American Crow.

A sharp shinned hawk in the neighbors apple tree.

Northern Flicker

I made it my goal to get photos of each of the bird species that I have seen in our yard. This however has not been possible, so here is a list of the other species I have seen in our yard.

Starling (A non native, invasive species)
House Finch (Common)
Pigeon (Sometimes)
Peregrine Falcon (Several times a year)

Ruby Crowned Kinglet (Common)
Dark Eyed Junco (Common)

Other species that I have seen from our yard but not necessarily in the yard.

Coopers Hawk (I see this guy hunting in the neighborhood)
Bald Eagle (Probably the Greenlake pair, fairly common.)

Mount Baker Easton Glacier Summit Climb with Students from the Bush School

2011-05-15T11:46:00.000-07:00

This week I did a trip to Mt. Baker's Easton Glacier with a group of students from the Bush School in Seattle. The trip started with a questionable weather report, which is never a good thing when you are hoping to summit Mt. Baker. The first issue is that the road to the trail head is still covered with snow for over three miles. This made for a long hike in to our first camp.

After a long day of walking we got to a camp at the base of the Rail Road Grade (a glacial moraine that runs along the west side of the Easton Glacier). We set up camp cooked dinner and went to bed. Unfortunately we awoke the next day to rain. We decided not to move to a higher camp so we could stay dry. After breakfast I went back to bed. The students entertained themselves with cards.

Looking down the valley to Baker Lake.

Even the birds were wet.

Ricardo

I was surprised to find the rain had turned to snow when I woke from my 4 hour midday nap.

Snow on the cook tent.

Erica

Is the sun trying to break through?

The next morning looked like the weather might get better so we decided to move to a camp that was high enough up the mountain to summit from. The move to Sandy Camp was reasonably strait forward and only took a couple of hours.

Jordan

Maggie

As the weather slowly improved we did some glacier skills practice in hopes that we would be able to climb to the summit the next morning.

Checking out a small crevasse.

Rope team travel practice.

Morning always comes too early for me. We had a 1am wake up.

Camp at 1am with the Twin Sisters Range in the background.

Camp at 1am with Mt. Baker's summit in background.

Sunrise

Isabel.

Starting up the Roman Wall.

Mt. Bakers summit.

On the summit.

The second rope team nears the summit.

Th last few steps to the summit.

The summit.

A slight detour heading down to view some seracs.

A panorama of the summit crater. This was seven photos stitched together.

Once back at camp we ate some lunch and packed up camp. From there we began the long hike out. The really long hike out. Thanks to the crew from the Bush School in Seattle. This was one of the more fun groups of people I have been out in the mountains with. All in all a very rewarding experience for all, including me!

The complete set of photos can be found at http://alasdairturner.smugmug.com/

Montana and it's Wildlife

2011-04-25T09:59:00.000-07:00

OK I know its not quite in Montana, but the rest of North Dakota was so boring to drive through that this small slice of the western edge should just be given to Montana. I entered Theodor Roosevelt National park in a driving rain/snow storm. The 38 mile loop road is worth the drive, especially when there is not a single other person in the park. I did not see one other car or person between entering the gate and exiting. Thirty-five degrees and raining does not make for the best park experience for many, but for me it was fine.

This mule deer was standing near the road. You can see how crappy the weather was by it water soaked coat.

The driving rain was also causing the park to erode before my eyes. There were rivers of mud flowing across many of the roads, and my attempt at a short walk was ended quickly by ankle deep mud that was next to impossible to stand up in.

Now to Montana. To be fair the weather in Montana sucked also. The driving rain and snow continued until I got to Lewistown, Montana. Montana has more birds along the side of the road than any other place I have been. Unfortunately at 70mph its pretty hard to identify any of them. Stopping was now limited since Susan and Cullen just got on the train from Seattle to Whitefish. I had to pick them up in the morning and then we will all drive back home together.

The Montana winters are tough.

Natural predators the Montana way. The main reason I have not eaten beef in 15 years.

I spent the night in Lewistown, and woke up to perfect weather the next morning.

Over the last couple of years one of my new favorite things to do on road trips is to stop at random small wildlife refuges along the way. At this one we were treated to several interesting birds.

Yellow-headed blackbird

A female/juvenile red winged blackbird?

I had a conversation with a friend of mine (who is a very good photographer click here to see his work) about shooting some animals on my trip. I mentioned that I would love to get a photo of a antelope, but that was a pipe dream since you can never get close enough to them to shoot good photos.
Prior to this photo I had never seen one up close and it took me a couple of seconds to figure out that it was a pronghorn antelope and not a deer. I was really struck by the tone of these animals and how stocky and muscular they are. From a distance they have always looked so sleek and thin.

Pronghorn Antelope

My last photo of the day.

Medowlark

Juvenile golden eagle

I finally arrived in Whitefish a few hours late to pick up my wife and our five week old son. The White fish train depot is a beautiful building.

Aldo Leopolds Cabin in the Woods

2011-04-24T08:15:00.000-07:00

For the last few days I have been driving across the country in a new vehicle that I bought in Detroit. I had never driven through Minnesota, or Wisconsin, so I decided to take the northern route across the country. Most of the time when i travel I do not plan where to stop or what to see, and most of the time this works out. As I drove through western Wisconsin I decided to stop for lunch at a wildlife area that looked like it had some potential. I mostly wanted to see a sand hill crane. I did along with some other birds and an otter(I think). As I left to get on the road again I ran across the Aldo Leopold Center and decided that there was no way I could pass up this opportunity. Aldo Leopold of course wrote the book a Sand County Almanac which was one of the first books I read, and one that had a profound influence on me.

This is the cabin where he wrote his book.

AAI Denali Prep Course. How Much is Too Much Snow?

2011-04-13T22:25:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a Denali Prep trip. These trips are usually a lot of fun and often make for some great photography. This trip however got a bit old. Not really the trip so much as the weather. There is only so much time you can spend in a tent without going crazy. For this trip that number is three days. Of course we were forced to get out of our tents every now and then to dig out snow so we did not get buried.

The hike in consisted of dragging heavy sleds to a camp near the base of Table mountain near the Mt. Baker Ski Area. This is great Denali training since Denali consists of dragging heavy sleds through the snow. Once there we built a camp. Building a camp is a key Denali skill. We created tent platforms and built walls around the camp so wind would not crush our tents. Wind however was not going to be an issue on this trip.

After cooking dinner it was tent time. I was looking forward to this since I have a one month old child at home, and there was nothing that would wake me up here in the mountains... At some point in the middle of the night I woke to the side of the tent pressing against me and realized I was being buried alive by constant snow fall that had been falling since I put the tent up. So much for uninterrupted sleep. I got my boots on and dug the tent out. Perfect Denali training!

Morning came, and it sure seemed a little dark, even for 6am. Once again I am buried. I tunneled my way out of the tent, this time with the camera and shot this.

Due to the very heavy snowfall we decided to not move our camp today and just work on camp mantinence since it looked like it would be an all day job.

I spent most of the day in the tent and the rest of it digging.

The next morning.

Another day of heavy snowfall so we continued to dig camp. The next morning.

We now estimated that we had 3 meters of snow. If the wind picked up we would have no chance of digging out our tents. It was time to leave. That however was easier said than done. Moving in snow that deep is very difficult and very tiring. There was also a real threat of avalanche.

It was still snowing hard as we made out way out and I shot this.

After hours of wading though sometimes chest deep snow we made it to the ski area and were able to move down the groomed run to the car. 45 minutes of digging later, the car moved and we were on our way back to Bellingham to learn the technical skills needed for Denali.

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A photo of Cullen

2011-03-30T06:46:00.000-07:00

Cullen was born on March 13. He is healthy and well. The dogs already have accepted him into the family, however they are a little confused about why he does not throw the ball for them.

Letey family photo shoot.

2011-03-26T20:26:00.000-07:00

Just got back from shooting some photos of the the Letey family. Here are some of the photos.

Crow Photo and Some Photos of my Pregnant Wife.

2011-02-21T00:54:00.000-08:00

Went to the zoo today with Susan to shoot a few photos of her new shape before she evicts her tenant. It was an amazing day in the city today and these photos made it even better.

Not my wife, but a nice photo anyway.

Mountaineering and Outdoor Photography Course

2011-02-04T11:44:00.000-08:00

I will be teaching a mountaineering and outdoor photography course this summer. The dates are going to be August 19-22nd. The course outline is listed below. I have been wanting to put this course together for several years and it has finally happened. There has been a lot of interest in this course so sign up now to ensure a space.

A stunning photograph on the summit ridge of Denali. Photo: Alasdair Turner

Impress your friends with your phenomenal photographs you took while climbing Mount Baker this summer! Our new course, Mountaineering Photography, has added a day to the Baker Skills and Climb Course to work with a professional outdoor photographer so you can take incredible photographs in the mountains!

We will start with the basics of how to carry and protect your camera, how to deal with cold, wet environments, and what camera is the best choice for you. We will then spend some time preparing our climbing and camera equipment for a trip to Mt. Baker. If you are a beginning climber or photographer, there is no need to worry, we will cover the skills you need to safely summit the mountain and shoot photos.

Photographic creativity is one trick to creating great works of art. Photo: Aidan Loehr

Our camp on the north side of Mount Baker is in a stunningly beautiful place for photography and offers a variety of photographic subjects to practice your skills. Here we can work on shooting the perfect landscape photo or basic climber portraits. A healthy population of alpine creatures, including ptarmigan and marmots, are also very common subjects at this camp.

The contrasting colors of the sky and the tent bring enjoyment to the viewer's eyes. Guide Richard Riquelme on Mt Baker. Photo: Alasdair Turner

Our route, which ascends the classic Coleman-Deming Glacier, makes for progressively more interesting photographic terrain as we start our ascent in the dark and summit sometime just after dawn. From here we enjoy great views of our route, the many alpine peaks surrounding us, and the San Juan Islands. On very clear days, one can also get a view of the Seattle metro area. Groups in this program are kept small (usually three to five climbers with one guide or six to ten climbers with two guides), and throughout the trip you will enjoy a very rich learning and climbing experience.

AAI Team walking off the summit of Mount Baker. Photo: Alasdair Turner

Skills Covered in the Course

Climbing Skills

Ice axe and crampon techniques
Roping procedures for glacier travel
Route finding and hazard evaluation
Basic crevasse rescue

Photography

Which camera is right for you
How to carry your camera in a place that is convenient
How to protect your camera from all types of weather
How to use the available light
Fundamentals of photography for the mountains including composition, exposure, and depth of field

Rope team crosses crevasse on Coleman Glacier. Photo: Alasdair Turner

Program Costs, Inclusions and Exclusions

Tuition for the program includes the guide's fee, transportation to the mountains (except on private trips), and all group climbing equipment (ropes and hardware). You will need to provide your own photographic equipment (camera, film, batteries, memory cards, etc.). Personal equipment is not included in the program cost, but it can be rented from our equipment shop. A complete list of recommended and required equipment will be sent to you upon registration.
We also offer a porter program for individuals who require physical assistance. Contact us for more information.

On this course, we bring you talented mountain guides who are also professional photographers. Photo courtesy of Mike Powers

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One Month in the Life of Golden Eagles in the Nest.

2011-01-29T18:51:00.000-08:00

Last year I worked on a project with Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. Part of this project involved putting up a wildlife camera on a golden eagles nest. I have had the photos (all 7000 of them) on my computer ever since and finally decided to look through them and find some of the better ones. I picked one from each day from when the camera was put up to the day the birds fledged. It turned out to be almost exactly a month. All of these photos are property of Wa Department of Fish and Wildlife and are not mine.

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Skiing at Snoqualmie Pass

2011-01-18T18:25:00.000-08:00

Kurt, Forest and I spent the day up at Snoqualmie pass today and were happy to find some nice snow conditions for skiing. Unfortunately the photo conditions were typical of the Pacific Northwest in winter.

A few photos from around Seattle

2011-01-06T22:13:00.000-08:00

I went over to my favorite bird watching site in Seattle the other day. Here are the results. Nothing great, but a few nice shots.

Savannah sparrow

Killdeer

Juvenile red tail hawk? Not positive about this, but im not sure what else it could have been.

My Favorite Photos of 2010. My year in review.

2010-12-30T09:57:00.000-08:00

Figured since I don't have any new content in the last couple of weeks, I would add some of my favorite photos from the year.

The year started with an amazing trip to Southern California for the Rose Bowl. After the game, which was worth forgetting, we headed to Ventura and Channel Islands National Park. Certainly Southern California's little gem.

Back to the Northwest for some amazing winter trips in the mountains.

The Olympics in Vancouver.

Bolivia

Golden Eagle work with Fish and Wildlife.

Golden eagle on the back of full size pickup truck.

Close up of golden eagle

Me and the golden eagle

Two golden eagle chicks in the nest.

More climbing (or maybe not) in the North Cascades.

Nearing the summit of Mt. Baker after climbing the North Ridge

Summer in the North Cascades.

A sooty grouse on Mt. Baker

Wedding season. My good friends Matt and Jess.

Election season, and a chance to photograph the president.

Barack Obama

And an ex President.

Bill Clinton.

The fall in the North Cascades.

Mt. Baker at sunrise with a lenticular cloud over the summit.

My beautiful wife who supports my crazy adventures.

A trip to Galliano Island, BC. Pretty much rained the whole time, but I did manage to take my wife to a swamp to photograph frogs. In retrospect that sounds really bad. Who the hell would put up with that?

A pacific tree frog.

Back to the North Cascades for work. I spent almost an hour bothering this guy. He cooperated with this photo, which I love.

Hoary Marmot

Fall is football season. Autzen Stadium night game.

The a trip to Kauai.

An early ski trip to Crystal Mountain. If my dog can learn to fly, then dammit, i'm going to learn to ski in 2011.

Why YOU should go to Bolivia!

2010-12-15T22:29:00.000-08:00

The Bolivia trip I did last year was truly a life changing trip. Its likely I will be going back to Bolivia this year and I wanted to post some photos to show you why Bolivia really is one of the best trips a person who enjoys the outdoors can do.

To start with Bolivia is safe. I travel everywhere with a lot of expensive camera equipment, and Bolivia last year was no exception. The first couple of days I left it all in my room rather than carry it around, because I was worried about having it stolen. On day three I realized that even in Bolivia's biggest city there was a surprisingly small amount of crime. To put it simply, if you use common sense in La Paz you are likely safer than you would be in any major American city. The people are kind warm friendly and honest. No one on our trip had anything stolen or heard of anyone having things stolen. This does not mean we were careless, but I was no more careful here than I would be North America.

Bolivia is cheap. When I say cheap what I mean is once you get there it is really inexpensive to buy things. If you are willing to eat street food then you can get lunch for a lot less than a dollar. A good dinner at a very nice restaurant is likely $10. Hotels are also a good deal and there are plenty of hotels that would meet that standards of North America for cleanliness and comfort.

Bolivia is Beautiful. I don't need to say anything here. Just look at the photos.

Bolivia is fun. The people of Bolivia are some of the happiest people I have met. They add to the enjoyment of what would be a great vacation anyway. La Paz is a big city and the night life is a blast! Great bars, great restaurants and great clubs.

Bolivia has great trekking. Just look at the photos.

Bolivia has great climbing.

So sign up for a Bolivia trip on the AAI website and join me in the country I have fallen in love with.

http://aai.cc/Programs/Location/South-America/

See you there!

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The rest of the photos from Hawaii.

2010-12-06T09:31:00.000-08:00

Here are the rest of the photos worth looking at from the Hawaii trip. You will probably notice there are not a lot of palm tree/ beach photos. This is because I don't really enjoy being burned to a crisp on a beach. I cant sit on a beach and read a book and find that even slightly enjoyable. I also don't find the typical beach a particularly stimulating place to shoot photos. Ill start with a couple of my pregnant wife.

And another of Susan on the beach.

I did the hike out to Kalulau which was very enjoyable and well worth the trip. It claims to be 11.5 miles one way, but I think its likely a little less than that. I would guess about 10. Either way the trail mile markers are defiantly not accurate. I did the hike out one day and slept next to the beach and hiked out the next day.

The last part of the trail down to the beach.

The coast line here is very rugged. Apparently that does not stop the goats from enjoying the view.

An evening view of the stars from Kalalau beach.

A very pretty morning after a rainy night.

Part of the coastline.

There are plenty of small creeks along the hike.

And a few more birds. The Nene is a native Hawaiian goose. It is endangered, but has been reintroduced to Kauai and is subsequently doing quite well.

This is a Hawaiian coot. Another native species.

The negative tides create great feeding opportunities for birds. This night heron was fishing as we were wading about on the beach 40 yards away. I made for a great set of photos.

My favorite, maybe from the entire trip.

One more bird. The great frigate bird is an incredible bird that can say in the air for a week. They have the highest sing surface area to body weight ratio of any bird which likely allows them to spend a lot of time catching thermal updrafts so they don't have to flap their wings much. Another interesting fact is that they cant take off from a flat surface. If they land in the ocean they can not take off again. They pluck fish from the sea in flight.

More Hawaiian Birds on Kauai

2010-12-03T06:26:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I finally found the place to see some native Hawaiian birds. The taro fields here in Hanalei are filled with marsh birds and of course plenty of the introduced species, but the five minutes that is was not dumping rain did make for some good photo time.

Red crested cardinal

Black capped night heron

Alae 'Ula (Hawaiian Gallinule)

Hawaiian Stilt

Pacific Golden Plover

wedge tailed shearwater

Erckel's Francolin

Wandering Tattler

Some Birds of Kauai.

2010-11-30T10:26:00.000-08:00

I have spent the last few days shooting photos of birds here on Kauai. Its nice to be able to shoot photos of birds I have never seen before. Keep in mind that most of these birds although pretty are actually introduced species to the Hawaiian Islands, and that over 25% of the native birds on Kauai have become extinct.

I will post more photos to this post as I shoot them.

Lets start with a couple of birds that are natives.

And one in flight.

And a brown booby

The Albatross might be the most awkward bird I have ever seen, they are slow and clumsy.

Then I saw one fly. This bird might be the most graceful bird I have ever seen fly. From the moment this bird took off it never once flapped its wings.

Im not one to disturb nesting birds, but i walked up on this one accidentally. I shot one photo and left.

I am still working on getting a good photo of a great frigate bird, but its not the easiest bird to capture in the lens.

And a non native species. The cattle egret. These are everywhere here.

Female white rumped shama

Male white rumped shama

hwamei, melodious laughingthrush

Red Crested Cardinal.

Ok I have to admit I am having a really hard time finding any native birds in this place. The introduction of many non native species to the Hawaiian islands has decimated many of the natives. The hike i did over the last two days consisted of sightings of Hawaiian wildlife such as the feral cat, feral goat, domesticated chicken, rats and mice. I should admit however, that I am staying in a house in Princeville. Due to a generous friend lodging was free. Unfortunately Princeville is pretty much an environmental catastrophe of a housing development that would be best off washed in to the Pacific Ocean. I was super excited to here that the main resort here went bankrupt which as far as i'm concerned is what goes around comes around. Oh well, I guess I will concentrate on how pretty the non native birds are.

Hummingbirds

2010-11-26T12:00:00.000-08:00

The cold weather creates a challenge for small birds, and for the last few days it has been below freezing. The hummingbird is the smallest of the small birds that we see here in Washington with an average weight of about 4g (a nickle weighs 5g) there is not a lot of mass to freeze. For them this means they must feed almost constantly in order to have enough calories to stay alive. For me this means that I have no trouble bringing them in to the feeder and shooting photos of them from the warmth of my kitchen. Warmth being relative since the window has to be open. I took this opportunity to practice stopping motion with a flash unit rather than the camera shutter since no camera has a shutter speed fast enough to stop the motion of a hummingbirds wings. Here are some of the results.

This fist shot was lit entirely with the flash using no ambient light. Hence the black background.

This shot was done the same way but with a longer shutter speed and brighter background light.

This photo was shot as the previous photo, but the motion was stopped with the flash. The slight ghosting effect on the wings is caused by ambient light hitting the wings while the shutter is still open before and after the flash goes off.

The shutter speed was set at 1/250 the flash unit was mounted about 1 foot from the bird on its lowest setting which creates a very short burst of light. Now the trick will be to get that perfect shot with lots of detail and just a hint of motion on the tips of the wings to add something extra to the shot.

Stay tuned for more.

Skiing Mt. Rainier

2010-11-22T22:32:00.000-08:00

We did a little ski tour of Mt. Rainier out of the Paradise parking lot the other day. Unfortunately the weather was not the best for either skiing or photos, but the snow was pretty good.

Jason demonstrating perfect ski technique.

Powder

Nice!

Raven

It really is winter now. Sub alpine fir, and mountain hemlock at the paradise parking lot.

November Skiing

2010-11-12T17:29:00.000-08:00

I took a much needed day out of the city yesterday to look for some snow. We found it.

Oregon UCLA Game at Autzen Stadium.

2010-10-22T08:59:00.000-07:00

I made the trip down to Eugene yesterday for the Oregon Ducks stomping of UCLA. Not really a good game, but certainly a good experience. Here are a few photos of the evening.

Another first down for the ducks.

Autzen Stadium

The Duck.

It was a pretty night for a game.

This game was pretty much over after the first two possessions.

Patty Murray Fundraiser with Bill Clinton.

2010-10-20T22:37:00.000-07:00

Here are a few photos from the Patty Murray fundraiser with Bill Clinton yesterday.

One Last Trip to Mt. Baker Before the Winter Season.

2010-10-14T22:39:00.000-07:00

Last week I did a final trip to Mt. Baker for the year. I had a choice of going to either the south or the north side, and because I had not been to the south side all year, that was the choice. It turned out to be a good choice. Pretty views, lots of blueberries, and several wildlife encounters with almost no other people around made for a great final trip of the season.

Sunset on the Easton and Deming glaciers on the south side of Mt. Baker.

The nights are getting long this time of year, so after a lot of sleep we headed up to the glacier to work on some skills. The hike to the glacier was as pretty as I have ever seen it. The sun low in the sky makes for great light from a photo standpoint.

The Twin Sisters from the Railroad Grade.

I have not seen a larger population of marmots anywhere in the Cascades as there currently is on the south side of Mt. Baker. I spent a lot of time bothering these guys. I have always thought I am not the most patient person in the world, but when it comes to patients, the marmot may be the least patient of all. After being scared and running into their hole I quickly set up the shot I wanted and waited less than a minute for the marmot to poke his head back out. It really is amazing that more predators have not figured this out.

The vicious protector of the high alpine.

Curious Marmot

An evening walk in dark and foggy weather made this photo possible.

Looking west at sunset.

The following day I had some time to wander around and check out some of the other wildlife, and head up to the Park Butte lookout. With a forecast of 6-8 inches of rain overnight chances were the sky would be interesting making for some good photos, but in typical North Cascades fashion when I got there it was foggy and wet.

A dusky grouse.

Fall colours.

The mountain hemlock.

Western hemlock trees near camp.

Another curious marmot.

Park Butte lookout on a Cascades fall day.

I dont see these guys often, but its always a treat when I do.

A few hours after getting back down from the lookout the weather cleared for what would surely be a sunset to remember, so I ran back up to the lookout for the second time in four hours and shot the following photo.

The Twin Sisters range from Park Butte lookout.

A Trip to the Enchantments.

2010-09-30T10:37:00.000-07:00

Pat and I just spent two days in the lesser traveled parts of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area. Our cross country journey covered more that 20 miles and some of the most amazing terrain on what may have been one of the most perfect days of weather in Washington this summer.


A perfect lake with perfect colors.

Maybe we should just camp here.

My shadow on the fall larches.

I think this may be my new favorite spot in all of the cascades!

Our tour took us through a well traveled part of the Alpine Lakes which is the only place we saw any people.

The Lost World?

Pat on a summit.

The Enchantments from up high.

So you may have noticed that I did not really go into depth on where this trip took us. We had no real plan on this trip. It was just a trip into the mountains. It was an adventure to cover some ground we had not seen before. We did that. You should too. Go out and adventure in the mountains and see somewhere you have not seen before.

Mt. Shuksan, Sulphide Glacer, Summit and Skills climb with AAI

2010-09-27T14:32:00.000-07:00

This last weekend I guided a trip up Mt. Shuksan. I have said for a while now that photography and guiding go hand in hand, and this trip really reminded me that this is true. I don't like being out in the rain, but guides in the Pacific Northwest spend a lot of their time putting on a happy face and pretending to have fun in the rain. Its often cold, miserable, and not really that much fun. So what does that have to do with photography? Often times the most dramatic skys and the best views are not found in sunny warm weather, in my experience they are found just after really crappy weather, as the clouds start to break and sun peaks through. Photography is all about lighting, and this last weekend made for some interesting photo opportunities. I am fairly sure if I had not been working, I would have gone home due to the weather. Guiding often forces me to stay in a place and suffer through weather that I would not if I was on a personal trip, which makes for great photos. Below are some photos from the weekend.

The North Cascades at dusk.

Mt. Baker at sunrise.

The thing that made this three day trip really great was the fact that we did have one day of good weather. So on the second day we made a break for the summit of Mt. Shuksan. Its almost winter up there, and the conditions were more like a spring climb then a early fall climb.

Mt. Baker with a perfect cloud cap on top.

Interesting clouds over the summit pyramid of Mt. Shuksan.

Approaching the summit pyramid.

Ruth climbing into the belay.

Looking down the route at the group below.

This really feels like winter climbing. Ruth midway up the route.

Half way up the route.

Looking down the summit ridge with Mt. Baker in the background.

Ruth on the summit ridge with the summit behind her. She is sitting down because of high winds.

Mitchel and Matt making the last few steps to the top.

Summit shot.

Heading down from the summit pyramid.

Ruth back at camp after the summit.

We all woke up some time after midnight with high winds and lots of rain. I packed the camera deep in my pack surrounded by two garbage bags for the very wet hike out. Summer in the Cascades is over!

Mt. Baker Skills Climb for AAI

2010-09-12T22:16:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of summiting Mt. Baker with a fun group of Canadians, one of which lives in Surry, BC and has been looking at this peak for many years. He decided that for his birthday he wanted to climb the mountain. So he did. Below are some photos from the weekend.

Frogs!

2010-09-12T16:23:00.000-07:00

I spend a good part of the day yesterday at a beaver pond shooting photos. I have never really realized the importance of beavers in the ecosystem until today. The wetlands they create are incredible and the species that live in them is diverse and beautiful. I got a little carried away shooting photos of frogs. I was fairly happy with the results. So here you go. First few photos are of pacific tree frogs. The last photo is a frog yet to be identified. If anyone knows what it is please let me know.

Not sure what type of frog this guy is so if you know please let me know.

Dragontail Peak Backbone Ridge.

2010-09-08T22:10:00.000-07:00

Last week I did a great trip to the Enchantments for a bit of rock climbing with Tom. This was by far my best work trip of the year. We started with a morning of climbing at Index, on the lower Town Wall. We climbed Great Northern Slab, Japanese Gardens and Godzilla. From there we did the drive to Leavenworth and climbed Classic Crack. The goal of the day was to teach an Englishman how to crack climb. We tried, but as with all crack climbers first days it was a bit of a struggle. All in all Tom did a pretty good job despite showing full on British crack climbing technique by attempting to lay back of face climb around all the cruxes.
The next day we hiked into Colchuck lake to use our newly learned crack climbing technique on Dragontail Peak. Is there any better way to test a new crack climber than to put them on a 30 meter long 5 inch offwidth crack? Below are some photos of the climb.

Tom in the offwidth.

More offwidth fun.

The top of the offwidth pitch.

Looking down the route.

Midway up the route.

Colchuck lake in the background.

The summit.

Sunset on the summit usually means its going to be a long day/night.

We got back to camp sometime after dark, drank beer, ate food and went to sleep. The hike out the next morning was quite nice and we did a little climbing in the afternoon, which was also followed by beer.

A pika posing for a perfect photo.

Dragonfly at the lake.

The trip was ended by a run up OuterSpace the Leavenworth classic.

Tom on the crux pitch with high winds creating some interesting clouds.

Lunch with President Obama and Patty Murray.

2010-08-17T16:45:00.000-07:00

I had the chance to shoot photos at Senator Patty Murray's fund raising event in the Westin Hotel in Seattle Yesterday. Here are some of the photos of the speakers at the event.

To respect privacy I have not included the individual and group photos on my blog. If I shot your photo at the event please email me and I will be sure to get you copies of any photos I shot.