Photo Journal & Trip Reports

Cracker Lake
July 2012  |  Glacier National Park, Montana

Our first backpack trip in Glacier National Park was a one-nighter to Cracker Lake, in the Many Glacier area. This is easily one of the most spectacular mountain cirques I’ve ever had the pleasure of camping in, with a 3-4,000 foot sheer vertical wall encircling the milky turquoise glacial lake and green grass meadow slopes...

Dunes and Sangres
June 2012  |  Sangre de Cristos, Colorado

This last weekend we went on a little road trip to the Great Sand Dunes of Colorado, followed by a couple nights of camping and hiking in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. We arrived at the dunes in the afternoon on Friday and started the hike into the dunes under a sky full of wild ominous clouds, along with sandblasting winds...

Supermoon on Sneffels
May 2012  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

I’ve been itching for an adventure lately, so early this morning I hiked up Mt. Sneffels in the moonlight again! I left Ouray at 1:30am (ouch!) and started hiking into Yankee Boy Basin at 2:30am. The “supermoon” – aka, the full moon at its closest orbit to Earth – was incredibly bright, and I had no troubles finding my way without headlamp...

Coyote Gulch
April 2012  |  Escalante, Utah

In early April, we headed to Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in southern Utah for another backpacking trip into one of my favorite canyons of all – Coyote Gulch. It’s been about 12 years or so since I’ve been here, but I still remembered how awesome it was...

Dientes de Navarino
January 2012  |  Tierra del Fuego, Chile

Last week Claudia and I and took a zodiac boat ride from Ushuaia to Isla Navarino, an island that is actually in Chile even though it’s right across the Beagle Channel from Ushuaia and Argentina. So, coming and going, four more stamps in our passports, which are nearly full of Chile and Argentina stamps after three months of border crossings between the two countries...

El Chaltén Dream
December 2011  |  Patagonia, Argentina

We’ve just returned to civilization after 8 days camped out in the mighty Fitz Roy range near El Chaltén in Argentine Patagonia. One of my main goals of this return trip to El Chaltén was to capture a photo that I have been dreaming about since my last trip to Patagonia four years ago...

The W Trek - Torres del Paine
December 2011  |  Patagonia, Chile

Last week we spent 10 days hiking the popular “W” Circuit in Parque Nacional Torres del Paine. These spectacular mountains rise abruptly 3000 vertical meters (almost 10,000 feet) above a series of huge turquoise lakes...

Jungle Granite at Cochamó
November 2011  |  Chile

After waiting in the rain in Puerto Varas for a week, we finally got a better weather forecast and headed out for a six day backpacking trip to the impressive Cochamó valley in Chile. We might have jumped the gun by a day or two, since it rained the entire way up; the ten mile hike was totally wet and muddy, with countless bogs and knee deep creeks to cross...

Snowboarding Volcanoes in Chile
November 2011  |  Chile

In early November 2011 we were traveling in central Chile around Chillán and Pucón; this region of the Andes is full of stratovolcanoes (kind of like the Pacific Northwest). There had been a very snowy winter before our visit (November is spring down south), and the volcanoes were still smothered in snow...

Valle de Aguas Calientes
November 2011  |  Chile

After our long bus ride south from northern Chile and a quick pitstop in Santiago, we’ve spent the last several days in and around Las Trancas, a sleepy mountain town set in a gorgeous forested valley below two volcanoes...

Travels in Northern Chile
October 2011  |  Atacama, Chile

In late October of 2011 we rented a 4x4 pickup truck in Antofagasta and spent two weeks driving through remote regions of northern Chile including San Pedro de Atacama and the Atacama desert, Lauca National Park, Salar de Surire, and more...

A View of Aconcagua
October 2011  |  Argentina

One of the reasons for heading through Mendoza on this trip was to photograph Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the western hemisphere. Though I have little desire to actually climb the peak, I was hoping to do some hikes in the valleys around the peak...

Weminuche High Loop
August 2011  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

In late August we did a 7-day loop trek in and around the Needle Mountains, the rugged heart of the Weminuche Wilderness in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. This was the fourth time I've done a week-long backpack trip in these mountains, and as usual we had some crazy weather during our trip, including lots of lightning, thunder, and several stunning sunrises and sunsets...

Trekking through the Sawtooths
August 2011  |  Idaho

For many years I’ve been longing to visit the Sawtooth Range in Idaho, and last week I finally got the chance! We went on a 7-day backpacking trek through the range, starting from Pettit Lake and ending at Redfish Lake, taking a few detours along the way...

Maroon Bells Four Pass Loop
July 2011  |  Elk Mountains, Colorado

In late July we spent 6 days backpacking around the famous Maroon Bells in the Elk Mountains of Colorado. The photos pretty much tell the story so I won’t say too much else except that it was another great trek in Colorado!

Wetterhorn / Uncompahgre Loop Trek
July 2011  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

Last week Claudia and I went on a 5-day backpacking loop in the Uncompahgre Wilderness in the San Juan Mountains east of Ouray. Our route circumnavigated the fourteeners Wetterhorn and Uncompahgre Peaks and took us through a paradise of expansive green tundra, wildflowers, and peaks...

A Night in the Great Sand Dunes
June 2011  |  Colorado

On Monday I headed to the Great Sand Dunes for a quick overnighter. I hiked in at about 10pm, slept on a dune for about 4 hours, then woke up around 3:30am to shoot the setting (nearly full) moon, followed by sunrise...

Epic Spring Ski Season in Western Colorado
May/June 2011  |  Colorado

With record-breaking snowfalls in April, continuing well in May, the spring ski season in the San Juans was a memorable one. May surprised us with several long snow storms that brought mid-winter-esque powder days and smiles all around! Here is a collection of my favorite ski photos from May and June...

Bernese Oberland Ski Hut Tour
April 2011  |  Switzerland

In early April I went on a ski hut tour in the Bernese Oberland mountains of Switzerland. This is the heart of the Swiss Alps, and during the course of 6 days we skied a variety of routes across the largest glacier system in the Alps...

A Winter in the Alps
Winter 2010-11  |  Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Germany

This gallery is a compilation of my favorite photos taken from the 2010-2011 winter season in the Alps, from November through April, in roughly chronological order. I spent most of the season in Engelberg, Switzerland but also did trips to Zermatt, Grindelwald, Mürren, and the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland; the Dolomites in Italy; Obergurgl and Mayrhofen in Austria; and the Black Forest in Germany...

Autumn in Freiburg
November 2010  |  Germany

Photos of colorful autumn colors at the foot of the Black Forest near Freiburg, Germany.

Colorado Fall Colors
September/October 2010  |  Colorado

Photos of colorful aspens in the San Juans and Elk Mountains of Colorado, during the autumn of 2010.

Capitol Peak
September 2010  |  Elk Mountains, Colorado

In late September I spent four days doing various hikes around Capitol Peak, a rugged fourteener in the Elk Mountains of Colorado.

Ouray/Uncompahgre Loop
August 2010  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

This last weekend we repeated one of my favorite backpacking loop routes in the San Juan Mountains - a big circle starting from near the town of Ouray, Colorado, hiking up 5,000 vertical feet to the expansive high rolling tundra of the Uncompahgre Wilderness, then back down into the town of Ouray via the Bridge of Heaven...

Sunset Atop Mount Sneffels
August 2010  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

After climbing the southwest ridge route of Mt. Sneffels on an afternoon when the clouds weren't too threatening, we stayed up on the summit to watch and photograph the sunset. We then descended the normal route in the dark with headlamps and walked back to my truck where cold beers awaited...

Weminuche Wilderness Trek
August 2010  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

During the second of week of this August 2010, Claudia and I went backpacking for 7 days in the Weminuche Wilderness, duplicating the same route that I did solo back in September 2007.

We had all kinds of crazy weather during the trek, ranging from torrential monsoons to perfect bluebird days...

Beautiful Blue Lakes
August 2010  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

Photos from three days of summer camping at Blue Lakes, in the Sneffels Range of the San Juan Mountains, Colorado.

Sunrise on Wetterhorn Peak
July 2010  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

On Sunday I hiked into Wetterhorn Basin, in the Uncompahgre Wilderness east of Ridgway, Colorado. With all the stormy monsoon weather and fantastic sunsets we’ve been having in the San Juans lately, I had hopes of catching another great sunset in the mountains...

Wandering in the Weminuche
July 2010  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

After another fun 4th of July in Ouray, I went on a 5-day backpacking loop in the Weminuche Wilderness in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. I left from the Beartown trailhead, hiked south along the Continental Divide Trail for a couple days until reaching the area of Flint Lakes and Rock Lake...

Quilcayhuanca/Cojup Loop, Cordillera Blanca
June 2010  |  Cordillera Blanca, Peru

After our big Cordillera Huayhuash trek, followed by a rest day in Huaraz, four of us headed out into the Cordillera Blanca near Huaraz for a three day hike up the Quilcayhuanca valley, over a high pass, and down the Cojup valley...