Rocky Mountains
Last summer Scott successfully worked towards earning his private pilot's license, which meant that we spent a decent amount of time in the air as he built up flight hours. I have to say, it's quite the nice perk to have a boyfriend who can whisk you into the sky! This particular flight was on the Fourth of July, and we were treated to an incredible sunset on the flight back to Centennial Airport.
Up next: a brief post with some images of alpine wildflowers and mountain views!
Yikes; it has been almost two months since my last post. I'd like to say that I waited to work on these so that when the early summer heat (I start to melt when it gets over 85 degrees) started to kick in I would have a way to daydream about cooler days. But in reality, my busy schedule and heavy editing load at work makes it difficult and not very appealing to edit at home. I have had a few little breaks however, and finally was able to edit some images from this past winter.
On an early morning in the middle of January, Scott and two of our friends, Katie and Ben, packed up our gear and headed to Rocky Mountain National Park for a day of ice climbing near Black Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. We planned to skin up (using skis with strips that attach to the bottom to allow you to ski uphill) to our climbing destination, spend the day climbing on the ice, and then ski back down to the car.
Unfortunately, the conditions that morning were not exactly ideal. The winds were blowing around 60 miles an hour, with temperatures well below zero and some light snow mixed in for good measure. We decided to head towards the climbs despite the weather, and set off skinning up the mountain. This was the first time I had skied in the back country, and only my third time skiing in the big mountains at all, which made the day even more interesting for me.
After a few hours of skinning we decided to stop and eat lunch in a somewhat sheltered spot in the forest. The sun managed to poke through slightly once or twice while there, and we got a tiny break from the wind as well. We boiled snow to make water for our instant noodles, stumbled around in the extremely deep snow, and just tried to keep warm as we made our lunch.
After refueling with some instant noodles and granola bars, we popped our skis back on and continued up. We encountered quite a few people coming down the mountain that looked haggard from the weather, and let us know that they wouldn't recommend going all the way to where we were hoping to. One man told us that he had been completely blown over by the wind on one of the lakes, so I was fairly intimidated at that point.
When we got higher up, and the trees started getting thinner, the wind became even stronger. The visibility was extremely low at times, and standing upright was difficult when the big wind gusts came through. We reached a point where it was particularly bad and all decided it would be best to bail and head back to the car.
After making the decision that we should head back, we opted to go down the main (and smoother) trail, instead of the "shortcut" that we had used on the way up. Before beginning our descent we had to stop and rip off the skins on our skis, and prepare our skis for the downhill portion of the trip. The wind was brutal at the spot we stopped at, with snow whipping our faces relentlessly. It was so windy that Scott had to stand and brace me as I clipped into my skis, since every time I tried to stand on one leg to do so I was getting blown over.
We did manage to get down safely, despite my poor skiing skills, and were very glad to get in the car with the heaters blasting. The guys had some nice ice formations on their beards, a testament to the frigid temperature.
Next time: More winter adventure photos (this time a successful ice climbing day). Be sure to check back soon (I promise my next post will not take 2 months to publish)!
I have been living the Colorado life to the fullest so far (climbing every weekend, hiking. including hiking the tallest fourteener in Colorado, a camping trip, and lots of great beer and food) which has kept me quite busy and kept me away from my computer for the most part. This Sunday we finally had a somewhat lazy, plan-free day, which gave me a chance to get a new post up here.
These images are from over a month ago, when Scott's Dad and I helped to move Scott out to Denver. It was a short trip, but we wanted to get at least a brief taste of the mountains while we were there. We ended up driving up to Guanella Pass, which always provides stunning views. The wildflowers were blooming all over as well, which made it extra pretty.
Next up (which I still have to edit), are images from a hike up part of Longs Peak. So check back soon for lots more alpine views!
In order to keep the last post somewhat short I only posted about half the images from our trip to Colorado. We woke up on our last full day there to a beautiful morning overlooking the Twin Sisters. Scott's dream is to climb The Diamond so we camped both nights at the Longs Peak campground, and on our way into town that day we stopped at a lookout point to grab some images of the beast that is The Diamond.
After a delicious (and leisurely) breakfast in Estes, we decided to hike to the base of a climb we wanted to do, with the tentative goal of trying to climb it. We got a late start that day though, and by the time we arrived at the base we wouldn't have had enough time to get through the climb before it was dark (and we did not have the provisions necessary to climb or hike back in the dark unfortunately). It was still a beautiful hike, and the route looked like an extremely fun one; and so, yet another climb has been added to our to-do list.
That evening we made our way back to camp and after eating dinner I set up my camera for a time-lapse of our tent. I grabbed a few stills as well since it is my goal to one day create a book of images from all the places we have camped, and I must say, the one after dark may be one of my favorite images that I have taken.
The time-lapse is an extremely simple and short one, but I wanted something more than just a still image to document the evening there.
The next day on our way home Scott wanted to stop again to get some more images of The Diamond, and take one last look at the mountain. It was a nice way of wrapping up our trip, and solidified for us that we need to climb it at some point.
