Photo Journal & Trip Reports

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San Sophia High Camp
San Sophia High Camp
May 2020  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

It's pretty rare to be able to camp up high in Colorado. In the summer the threat of thunderstorms above treeline is too terrifying, and in the winter it's just too damn cold. But in mid-May I had a perfect window of opportunity to hike up and camp at 13,200 feet up on a high ridgeline here in the Sneffels Range of the San Juan Mountains in Colorado...

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Rock, Rust, and Lichen
Rock, Rust, and Lichen
May 2020  |  Ouray, Colorado

Rock textures photographed while hiking in the mountains around Ouray, Colorado.

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Canyons Close to Home
Canyons Close to Home
April 2020  |  Southwest Colorado

Yearning for some closer-to-home adventure this spring, we ventured out for a few quick overnight backpack trips to explore some canyon and desert areas along the Dolores and Gunnison Rivers, both major river drainages of the San Juan Mountains where we live in southwest Colorado...

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2019-20 Winter in the San Juans
2019-20 Winter in the San Juans
2019/2020  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

Here is a collection (in chronological order) of my favorite photos taken during the 2019/20 winter here in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado.

From December through March, this was one of the best backcountry splitboarding seasons in memory here in the San Juans...

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A Hair-Raising New Years in Ouray
A Hair-Raising New Years in Ouray
January 1, 2020  |  Ouray, Colorado

My last hours of 2019 ended with quite a hair-raising experience, and I have a crazy story to tell you from my outings last night to photograph the New Years fireworks.

I had an idea last night to snowshoe up to a cliff overlooking town to gain a unique perspective of the fireworks over the valley, so at 10:30pm I bundled up, strapped on my snowshoes and headlamp, and started trudging up through knee deep powder towards my destination...

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19 From '19: My Favorite Photos from 2019
19 From '19: My Favorite Photos from 2019
December 2019

2019 has been an active, adventurous, and productive year for me, and as it comes to an end I thought I'd present a selection of my 19 personal favorite photos of the year. I'll talk a little bit about each one below...

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Autumn in the Dolomites
Autumn in the Dolomites
October-November 2019  |  Dolomites, Italy

In late October and early November, Claudia and I traveled to the Dolomites in northern Italy for two weeks of hiking amongst jagged peaks and golden larch trees. I've spent time the Dolomites in the summer and winter before but was excited to visit during the autumn when the larch trees turn yellow and orange...

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Valldemossa
Valldemossa
October 2019  |  Mallorca, Spain

In mid-October we traveled to the Mediterranean island of Mallorca, Spain, for a week of holiday with some of Claudia's family. Though Mallorca is most known for its beaches, we opted to stay in Valldemossa, a quaint old village full of narrow cobblestoned streets nestled in a valley at the foot of the mountains...

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Autumn in the San Juans
Autumn in the San Juans
October 2019  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

The fall colors in the San Juan Mountains have been beautiful this season, though the persistent clear blue skies have put somewhat of a damper on the photographic potential. But it's always glorious to walk through colorful aspen groves regardless of the weather, and we did have a few short windows of more interesting skies and light to enjoy...

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2 Weeks in Grand Staircase Escalante
2 Weeks in Grand Staircase Escalante
September 2019  |  Escalante, Utah

In the second half of September Claudia, her father Gundolf, and I spent two weeks in one of our favorite canyon areas of southern Utah - Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument*...

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Wind River West Side Trek
Wind River West Side Trek
September 2019  |  Wind River Range, Wyoming

In early September I backpacked for 10 days in the Wind River Range in Wyoming. This was my fourth long backpack trip in these fantastic mountains, but this time I did a one-way shuttle trek along the western side of the range through the Bridger Wilderness starting from the Elkhart Park trailhead and ending at Big Sandy to the south...

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Roaming the Uncompaghre Wilderness
Roaming the Uncompaghre Wilderness
August 2019  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

During the first two weeks of August I revisited several of my favorite backpacking treks in the Uncompahgre Wilderness in the northern San Juan Mountains of Colorado, for a total of 8 days of hiking through a good portion of the wilderness...

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High Above Ouray
High Above Ouray
August 2019  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

Last night I camped up on a high ridgeline in the San Juan Mountains about 4,000 feet above Ouray, Colorado, and enjoyed a fantastic sunset and sunrise from my airy perch.

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Summer Green in the San Juans
Summer Green in the San Juans
July 2019  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

After the enormous winter of 2018-2019 in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, by the end of July the snowpack has finally melted off enough to call it summertime in the alpine now. Last weekend we hiked a very pleasant three-day shuttle route through the vibrant green mountains west of Silverton...

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Mosquito Warfare in the High Uintas
Mosquito Warfare in the High Uintas
July 2019  |  High Uintas Wilderness, Utah

In late July we backpacked into the High Uintas Wilderness in Utah, to a couple high basins at the head of the Stillwater Fork of the Bear River. These lakes form the headwaters of the Bear River which flows north out of the Uintas, through Wyoming and Idaho, then back around south into Utah and the Great Salt Lake, making it the largest river in the North America that doesn't eventually reach the ocean...

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Late Early Summer in the San Juans
Late Early Summer in the San Juans
June-July 2019  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

Last year in the spring of 2018 I was talking about how that winter's meager snowpack had caused summer to arrive a full month early in May, and I was able to trek from Ouray to Telluride in mid-May when normally that would be a mid-June type of thing to do...

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Through and Around the Great Sand Dunes
Through and Around the Great Sand Dunes
June 2019  |  Colorado

Eager to go backpacking while the mountains are still filled with snow, in early June we returned to the Great Sand Dunes in southern Colorado to trek for three days all the way through the dunefield then back around them...

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Spring Skiing in the San Juans
Spring Skiing in the San Juans
April-June 2019  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

If you've followed my blog for a while, you may wonder if I've given up on snowboarding since I haven't posted hardly any ski/snowboard photos this winter. Well, while I haven't been posting much, I have been out on the snow a lot this season, especially this spring!

2018-2019 was a winter to remember in Colorado, with roughly 160% of average snowpack by late winter...

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Starlight on Sneffels
Starlight on Sneffels
June 2019  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

The winter of 2018-2019 in the San Juan Mountains has been one for the records books, with about 600% of average snowpack at the start of June. With all this beautiful snow in the mountains this spring, lately I've been having some hairbrained photo mission ideas - one of which was to hike up Mt...

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Rainy Day Hike in the Needles District
Rainy Day Hike in the Needles District
May 2019  |  Canyonlands National Park, Utah

In mid May we met up with family from Germany in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park in Utah for a couple days of camping and hiking. Our timing wasn't great, as it rained more than I've ever seen in the desert! But we did get one somewhat dry-enough day for my brother-in-law and I to do the ultra-classic hike to Chesler Park and Druid Arch...

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A Snowy Sunrise in the San Juans
A Snowy Sunrise in the San Juans
May 2019  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

The exceptionally snowy winter in the San Juans keeps on going into May and our snowpack is currently 187% of average for this time of year! As I've been out splitboarding lately, I've been admiring all the peaks draped in thick snowpack, and thinking about how they'd look with colorful sunrise light...

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Explorations in the Mojave Desert
Explorations in the Mojave Desert
March 2019  |  Nevada, California, Arizona

As is usual in late winter, Claudia and I have been itching for some desert hiking and backpacking time, so this March we spent three weeks camping and backpacking in various mountain ranges and wilderness areas in the Mojave Desert in Nevada, California, and Arizona...

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Mount Hayden Backcountry Lodge
Mount Hayden Backcountry Lodge
February 2019  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

This weekend we had a wonderful stay at Eric Johnson's Mount Hayden Backcountry Lodge. Located in Richmond Basin in a remote corner of the San Juan Mountains between Ouray and Telluride, the lodge is surrounded by a powder playground of skiable terrain...

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Roaming Around Southeast Utah
Roaming Around Southeast Utah
October/November 2018  |  Utah

In late October and early November we spent a dozen days camping and backpacking around in the deserts and canyonlands of southern Utah, including the San Rafael Swell, Robbers Roost/Dirty Devil area, and Cedar Mesa...

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Snowy Ice Lakes
Snowy Ice Lakes
October 2018  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

With fresh snow in the San Juan Mountains and dreams of winter I couldn't resist heading up high for a quick early season winter camp at Ice Lakes Basin near Silverton. I got a little more than I bargained for with two feet of fresh powder and knee-deep postholing through a snowstorm up there! In the morning I was treated to some fiery light for a few moments at sunrise, for a different kind of autumn color...

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Hut Tour around Grindelwald
Hut Tour around Grindelwald
September 2018  |  Switzerland

In mid-September after our treks in the Bernina Range and Val Masino in southeast Switzerland and north Italy, Claudia and I traveled north to the famous Jungfrau region near Interlaken in Switzerland...

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Val Masino
Val Masino
September 2018  |  Bernina Range, Italy

Eight days into our trek around the Bernina Range, we took a little train and bus detour and visited Val Masino in Italy on the southern end of the same greater range. The mountains around here are sometimes referred to as the Val Masino Alps, or the backside of the Bergell or Bregaglia Range...

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Around the Bernina Range
Around the Bernina Range
September 2018  |  Switzerland/Italy

In early September we flew to Zurich, Switzerland, took a train to St. Moritz, then embarked on a 9-day trek around the Bernina Range in the Rhaetian Alps. Named after the tallest peak in the range, Piz Bernina, the Bernina Range is a rugged and heavily glaciated mountain range along the border of southeast Switzerland and Italy...

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8 Days in the Weminuche
8 Days in the Weminuche
August 2018  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

In mid-August Claudia and I backpacked for eight days into the Needle Mountains in the Weminuche Wilderness of the San Juan Mountains in Colorado. This was I think the sixth or seventh time I've done a week-long trek in this particular range, but I was still able to find some new routes to take and new places to camp and photograph along with some old favorites...

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Through the Grenadier Range
Through the Grenadier Range
July 2018  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

In late July we went on a 6-day backpack trek in and around the rugged Grenadier Range in the Weminuche Wilderness of the central San Juan Mountains of Colorado. Along the way we scrambled up several 13ers, hiked over numerous high passes, and visited some gorgeous remote alpine lakes...

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