The Experience

What is …………….

Mountain Bike Peru

I thought things were getting a bit mudane of late thought I’d change it up some what.So down South America way there’s this town called Ollyanta (locals), or Ollyantaytambo (touri) veritable mtb mecca …. my Guide Chet suggested we hit up some Inca ruins up high…. Olly’s at 10 grand so 14grand seemed like it might be a nice good view destination to bivy at. So it was decided open bivy up high in the southern Andes. We had to carry overnight packs while the horse led by two brothers 8 and 10 carried the bikes.Clear sky night at Minus 10C at night with lots of frost and mega stars … and the big dipper is turned around. What can I say the downhill was long and very cool. Ever Mountain bike Peru?? Just do it and bone up on yer Spanish.

new work

new work printed on 300lb silkscreen paper mounted on panel

I was inspired by the beauty of of this orchid.

new work

Harper Government’s Oil Spin

Conservatives Spin Oil on the West Coast

My old friend Rick helped clean up the crude oil from a small spill in the early 1980’s at Long Beach near tofino Pacific Rim National Park … it was an ugly job and a decade before exxon valdez up in Alaska.

You know about exxon valdez in alaska don’t you?

What do we know about the Harper Conservative Federal Government.

Well we know they are in power ……. unfortunately via an electoral system that is not truly representative of the people

WE know they extoll the tar sands which is environmentally unsustainable.

WE know they want oil on the west coast of Canada, pipelines and tankers for China.

We know they are an environmental embarrassment to the world and Canada by not supporting
the Kyoto Protocol when we should be leaders.

WE know the Harper Government now wants to rewrite the fisheries act and any other acts and laws that have the potential to slow economic development of oil pipelines pulp mills etc.

We know the Conservatives want to and are negating public debate and consultation, due process and transparency in forums that are not only environmental.

Many people, groups and organizations and previous governments have worked long and hard to ensure environmental integrity.

The 2012 Olympics had an introductory show that highlighted the environment with state of the art 3-D holograms of the orca and grizzly and spirit bears.

With no environment we just have the spin and the holograms.

Does that matter to you it matters to me.

Four previous fisheries ministers even of the same party do not agree with Harpers Government and their proposals

My conservative MP says I am not on the same page as him ………… I told him he was right.

You have to write and call all these dickheads and let them know what you think ……… tell them that you support oil on the west coast of Canada….. if you really do.

Enbridge has had major oil spills from ruptures in North America… research it …. Kinder Morgan too. Halliburton in the Camisea Project near Machu Picchu in Peru has had 5 pipeline ruptures since 2004.

There’s collateral damage, thats fact ….. is it something that you can live with? It might be alright if you are oblivious and don’t know what British Columbia has to offer.

The West Coast is a nutrient pool unique. Do you want an oil slick on it? What are you going to do?

UPDATE OIL PIPELINE Rupture RED DEER ALBERTA JUNE 8 2012 Threatens city water supply OIL SPILLS HAPPEN

NO OIL ON WEST COAST OF CANADA get rid of the Harper Dictatorship

Corner Store Newfoundland

 

Semi classic store great ethnographic syntax … short and to the point.

 

 

Surf Vancouver BC

Well, when the light is good you gotta get out. I found myself alone, not that I found myself but I was in an interesting local area with a sunny day forecast before the sun rose, knowing that the sun also rises so I’ll take a walk with my camera. A pleasant surprise to find a tide ebbing and thinking that this would be a great place to practice some kayaking surfing before heading out to the west coast. Before long a couple surfers arrive and I wander over and crank a couple of shots. Funny this is only 10 minutes by car from downtown Vancouver. Enjoy the weekend.

Alsek Enviro-Portrait

I grabbed this shot rather quickly on slow film on a cloudy day with a bit of rapid motion happening.

Raft guide portrait. Where Alsek river Yukon near the BC border.

Adventure how can you find it? You don’t find it the mall.

Alsek River Yukon. Cruising by Grizzlies and Moose while bumping along on the water. The naked vein of grey churning glacial till, erosive and cold full of eddies and whirlpools great company wild land its Canada.

Endangered Vancouver Heritage Building Carleton School

I went to elementary school here Joyce and Kingsway. It was great. I remember November just after Halloween clear day, a day where you can see every tree on the N Shore etched against the sky in all clarity, grade 3 recess Mt Seymour first snow brilliant I was dazzled portent of the all the mountains to come.

I was there recently. It was almost all the same except smaller. So big when I was little.

A year or two ago a homeless man was murdered in the shrubs in the front of the building. I wonder if it has been solved?

if you are not happy with a shot or you want better light go back again ……..

Environmental Portraits

The environmental portrait. What is photography. Photography is light and how it is rendered. Photography asks questions.

Like whats the story here. Look at the people look at the terrain. This was a small Dene aboriginal girl near the arctic circle.

It’s after 11pm the light “magic hour” the photographer’s cinematographers dream light exists for hours. The weather is harsh here its alpine and trees are small. We traveled by bike on this trip part of a compilation of stories we did on the yukon and adventure.

On this iron-worker I used fill to bring up the detail in the facial shadows.

Bit of a tricky shot to light top of highrise in a breeze we were (and gear) tied in.

Watch the condensation on Camera Gear reduce the differential of hot and cold on camera will fog lenses when moving to a warmer place in extreme cold do not breath on camera gear it will ice up. And sleep with batteries on overnight trips.

Grizzly Bear Hunt Begins

British Columbia fails to stop the Grizzly Bear hunt. It began on the weekend. Just as they are coming out of their dens after winter.

If you want it stopped write your MLA in Victoria BC Out of country people can do this to. A hardcopy letter is better than an email and a telephone message is better than a letter, do all 3 just let the powers that be (shutter…to think that these people do in fact have power over me arrggg) know that you do not support such atrocity.

Natures Way Seed Pod

I’ve been working with dried nature. If left outside in the elements they get wet soggy, soft and rot. Rot then the bugs get to it. Downloaded a podcast from either NPR or the BBC about forensic entomology and the guy that started to really define it in the 1970s. Hunt it down its great.

If you look at even the smallest piles of rot the contain bug/nematode action. I was looking at a small group of pine needles the other day pushed together into a small “log jam” and there were small earth worms inside. This was on the cement at least 8 feet from the soil.

So rot is attractive to macro life. Decomposition it all goes to soil and from the soil we get growth. Call me podzolic. While you go on with your day to day a whole world exists. Perhaps an untapped world with benefits to medicine even. One my climbing buddies was doing his PHD in Pharmacology studying plant/fungal relationships for that application.
Think about it.

There’s a also a great book called SOIL can’t remember the author but its fantastic the story of humus and decomposition real interesting and not dry at all.

enjoy the seed pod

Ski Whistler Spearhead and Winter Camp

In behind Whistler there is a bit of a secret ski adventure. The Spearhead Traverse isn’t a secret to the locals or coast mountain travelers but a secret to those that come from afar to ski the lifts.

The area is dangerous to skiers that have no backcountry experience. Unpacked steep slopes beckon but have their own secrets. Avalanches are common and happen frequently and without warning and the variety of snow conditions can be a challenge to ski. Wind pack, crust, slop, powder, ice just about everything can happen here, its usually a great 3-4 day trip but has been done in less by people that have usually skied it before.

And it’s great to sleep in the alpine open above 2000m and just roll over and see the sun rise.

Snow Graphic

One of the things I really like to do is play with shape and form in nature.

This struck me as being kinda cool snow melting into a tarn. Reflection too. What do you think??

Sun cups are formed by the sun radiation. Sometimes they provide great steps and on those early alpine mornings they freeze so you need crampons. If you look close you can see red algae in the snow its not blood from ski accidents but ….
… Red snow algae is a unicellular, photosynthetic plant which, in the spring, accumulates on the surface and within the upper 20 to 25 cm of old snow. It is concentrated in shallow depressions where its dark colour absorbs solar heat and further deepens the growing “sun cups.” Under a microscope each spherical cell is seen to be about 4 times the size of a human red blood cell. Their thick walls and bright red carotenoid pigment help protect delicate cells from intense ultraviolet radiation.

for more on red algae go here whistlernaturalists.ca are a great group with tonnes of info.

Adventure Yukon

Adventure in the Yukon in Canada’s north. We Mtb -ed a portion of the Canol Road a great trip in wild tundra land with caribou and the Grizzly. Lots of river crossings most shallow. You have to resourceful and independent. Rescue is difficult. A sat phone might be nice … we did not have one. Few people in a vast tundra-ed landscape.

The Canol was put through in 1942 as an access road for an oil pipeline that was barely used. Cost millions of 1942 dollars. There are some remnant leaks and dumps of military vehicles enroute we just about made it half way and the were beset with a broken derailleur.

Grizzly Bear Germans

Germans present Christy Clark with large petition regarding habitat threat commemorating Exxon Valdez disaster.

Does anybody in Canada get it? Countries that have experienced loss of habitat and wild areas (European Countries) want Canada to stand up to the plate and realize that we have profound natural areas full of biotic wonder in need of protection.

Biotic wonders – the Grizzly Bear, The Orca and forest and ocean ecosystems.

It’s interesting that when our provincial and federal governments want to hold a big party they bring Canadian iconography like the Grizzly and the Orca into play. The holographic show for the 2010 Olympics featured these animals.

Yet these governments do very little to protect them. They are only used as representation all is forgotten now that the party is over.

We shoot the Grizzly and in the not to distant past have shot the Orca when they were a perceived threat to salmon stocks.

Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei Speaks Out Again

Ai Weiwei
Famous Chinese artist, known for disturbing the cultural norm of what China is and represents globally.
The government of China fearing this artist, has repeatably detained arrested and manipulated the truth to give credence to his arrests.
The government of China made him disappear for 3 month last year.
They can do that in China if they do not like you and he is famous in the west so his disappearance was questioned.
The less famous would have really been disappeared.
He intones that nations that deal with China ignoring the multitude of human rights issues that exist there are
just as culpable as China itself.

“If you’re dealing with a nation like China and you’re not talking about human rights and judicial justice, then you’re part of the crime,” Ai said in an interview with CBC’s Q cultural affairs show.

Canada bends over backwards to deal with China economically, we support human rights crimes in China and Tibet
for making money. Harper is an economist right? Do you vote? Do you want oil on the west coast of Canada?
Check out the recent CBC radio show Q with Jain Gomeshi for interview win Ai Weiwei it will soon be up as a podcast on itunes
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/03/22/ai-weiwei-q.html?cmp=rss

N Korea Horror Story Escape

If you think we have it rough in the west, or if you get peeved in traffic, or have a sore back or whine about expensive gas .

Read this unbelievable account of life in N Korea.

In some countries they don’t get to vote.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/mar/16/escape-north-korea-prison-camp

First Light in New Westminister

The light is right this morn so I thought I’d add this silhouette. Transportation is proving to be very important in big cities especially Vancouver and the lower mainland.

We have several problem areas. Access from the Fraser Valley is terrible and will continue to so. We lack transportation that is viable and fast that doesn’t involve internal combustion engines. We are more concerned with twinning road bridges over the Fraser River rather than building rapid transit out to Chilliwack.

We have marginal rapid transit out to Maple Ridge – Mission as well. Maybe that will change one day the airshed will love it and so will commuters stuck in gridlock.

Ski Manatee

It seems a bit odd but in Eastern Canada today its warm on the west coast its snowing.

So I thought I’d post this contrasting shot today … Manatee echos warmth, the mammal is found in Florida, they may even be a threatened species there I can’t remember. I do remember seeing pictures of them with prop blades etched into their skin. They are slow moving and come to the surface every-once-in-a-while to get air. And get hit by boats towing water skiers
They like warm water

So the Manatee Range in BC west of Pemberton just north of Whistler got its name because a few of the peaks looked like the beasts + the first people that skied into this area named the peaks in the 1960’s had a very cold trip so it may of reminded them of warmer climes.

Coast Mountain explorer John Clarke a modern day John Muir who my friend Lisa Baile is writing a book about ….. was on that trip his first expedition … he went on the trip with one of those old fibre fill/cotton sleeping bags you know the ones with the duck hunters on the flannel interior… and froze his butt off. He said it took him a week to warm up after he came home from the trip.

This photo was from a climbing trip into the area, we used skis to get around notw the suncups. A tarn is a small alpine pond. Note also in the photo where some of the cornices have melted off probably causing avalanches earlier in the season. This area is used by heli-skiers in the winter.

Beach Graphic

I like the layered feel in this photo. It doesn’t hit right away. The sand has texture, the sky has texture and the water has a mottled texture.

George Clooney Arrested

For the right thing.

Sudan poor dying … warlords/president preventing food from arriving. Crisis in the making.

As if Darfur was not enough. I had a conversation earlier today on intervention. Should we in the west intervene or let crimes atrocities occur.

It takes guts to intervene. Change occurs when people act together.

We as Canadians effectively support China and China is preventing positive humanitarian action to occur in both the Sudan and Syria.

The civil war in Syria has gone on for a year now needless atrocities. Slow inaction. China along with Russia vote in the UN against doing the right thing.

It takes guts to do the right thing.

Motives who knows but the two powers are content to let them duke it out. Just saw the Pianist with Adrian Brody, The Russians sat on the the other side of the Vistula River in the winter of 1945 letting the Poles and the Germans in Warsaw duke it out before they crossed later in the spring and repatriated Warsaw, many many died before hand violence and starvation, motive — they weakened both Poles and Germans, assimilated Poland into the eastern Block and over ran the softened German army all the way to Berlin.

http://www.globalnews.ca/george+clooney+released+after+sudanese+embassy+protest+arrest/6442602239/story.html

First Light

Nothing like a tropic morns first light to work the angles. What drew me to this was the line of potted cactus around the rim of the pool.

Really like the ochre cast as it reflected the warm light. Everything is juxtaposed by the angularity of the structure. The frame of the cactus and the structure of the building itself.
The sky’s blue gives a nice edge contrast.

Yellow Water Storage

Thought I’d brighten up the day with something that foretells the coming of SPRING. Found this graphic tower south of here. Water is a real commodity in the drier countries of the world. Something that is not on most peoples radar. WE turn on a tap and it comes out and clean too. We are so lucky to live in Canada in Most parts of Canada.

However you wouldn’t want to drink the downstream river water that flows north into the Arctic Ocean from the tar sands in Alberta though.You know about the tar sands right? I won’t editorialize though its tempting but we have to keep the day bright.

Spring snow this morn after a howl of a windstorm an explosive deepening low 100km speeds out in the gulf galiano, mayne saltspring got bombed.

Pano N Newfoundland

What a great wild place. The Vikings first made landfall here via Greenland. Windswept humid alpine.

Photo Update

Its been pretty busy of late. I am back and here are a couple of photos.

I have had an ongoing visual attraction to anomolies in nature. Erratic boulders are so different. They are deposited by glaciers on their retreat.
This one is like an egg erroded by the wind and sea-borne humidity you can see some exfoliation on the surface. Maybe when it exfoliates and cracks something will pop out
and save the planet.

The other I love for its pastel-ness, the softness and the odd wonder of the sand as it comes inland. It might ask a question. The wind is pretty powerful.

Winter Photo Workshop

Expect this one to be filled quickly. Shape and form in nature. Limit 12 bring skis or snowshoes for full days.

Update this is sold out, thanks so much see you then.

If road conditions warrant a cancel we will re-schedule.

Update thanks for everything the class was a success

Vintage Photographers Ansel and Dorothea

Ansel in 1942 working Yosemite and Dorothea Lange on the road in the depression 1936 documenting social upheavals in the FDR era.
Great shots. Notice the POV action Ansel employs with the platform he shot Moonrise over Hernandez the same way.
Both inspiring photographers

Workshop Spring Portrait Fawn Lily Tripod Management

Erythronium oregonum. The white fawn lily is a delicate little flower something sensual, among the first to emerge in the wildflower spring.
Springing forth parting the ground in the shady understory giving its own light for a limited time.

It does not transplant well so if you see them leave them be.

Tripod was strung out and teetered over a 5 foot gap over a seaside bluff just before a shower hit, a few quick shots.

reminds me of The Who pictures of lily I wonder why …… lily oh lily

updated this We found a chocolate lily

Thanks for attending the workshop Great Lily finds by the sea. As you can see a tripod is super useful as well as a Flash. Yes Lindsey Manfrotto is a quality pod.

Earthquake Geology Toad Forecasting

Biologist Dr Rachel Grant of the Open University, in Milton Keynes, UK, was routinely studying the behaviour of various colonies of common toads on a daily basis in Italy around the time a massive earthquake struck.Her studies included a 29-day period gathering data before, during and after the earthquake that hit Italy on 6 April 2009.
The quake, a 6.3-magnitude event, struck close to L’Aquila city, about 95km (60 miles) north-east of Rome.

Dr Grant was studying toads 74km away in San Ruffino Lake in central Italy, when she recorded the toads behaving oddly.
Five days before the earthquake, the number of male common toads in the breeding colony fell by 96%.
That is highly unusual for male toads: once they have bred, they normally remain active in large numbers at breeding sites until spawning has finished.
Yet spawning had barely begun at the San Ruffino Lake site before the earthquake struck.
Also, no weather event could be linked to the toads’ disappearance.
Three days before the earthquake, the number of breeding pairs also suddenly dropped to zero.
While spawn was found at the site up to six days before the earthquake, and again six days after it, no spawn was laid during the so-called earthquake period – the time from the first main shock to the last aftershock. “Our study is one of the first to document animal behaviour before, during and after an earthquake,” says Dr Grant.
She believes the toads fled to higher ground, possibly where they would be at less risk from rock falls, landslides and flooding.

Alpine Art Coast Range BC

There was an impending storm in the distance, it crossed the valley, covered the peaks, and inundated me and the snow cups on which i stood.
It came raging with dark squalls and electric light disappearing as fast as it arrived.

and left me with shape and form

Canada Vote

We in Canada have an upcoming election; and it is hoped all around that Canadians VOTE for change.

In other less fortunate parts of the world governments don’t let their people vote because they do not want to lose dictatorial power. This is true in LIBYA SYRIA CHINA North Korea and Myanmar. The people recently demonstrated against a corrupt government in Egypt and won.
People can win only by being united.

You Don’t Want Change Don’t Vote. WE are fighting a war in Afghanistan don’t make those lives lost a waste.

The video is somewhat graphic but it depicts the reality of oppression of what is really happening in less fortunate parts the world. Savour your freedom. Many have fought for it.
filmed with d7000 and post processed in imovie

Issues you might want to consider are:

1. The protection of our West Coast Salmon Fishery.
2. Offshore property ownership of Canada
3. The Tar Sands in Alberta
4. Harm Reduction in Downtown Vancouver.
5. The proposed pipeline to Prince Rupert from Alberta
6. Oil/Development Tanker traffic on the west coast of British Columbia.
7. The Kyoto Protocol
8. The Prosperity Mine Proposal and The Destruction of Fish Lake (85000 trout) in the Chilcotin
9. Support of the Grizzly Bear Trophy Hunt in British Columbia

I believe most of these issues are of concern for the livable future of all Canadians.

Have you heard of them, do you care, have your candidates addressed these issues? The present conservative government has not.

Geological Data Japan Earthquake and Cascadia Fault

Here’s some recent news from my geologist buddy Marco.

The plate displacement during the recent Japan quake was roughly 27 metres, of which 7 metres were vertical movement, so the starter wave was already that high. The wave made it more than 10 miles inland in places. A wave traveling through deep water will not change its wavelength while its traveling, but only once it hits the shallows. The travel time is quite extreme, pretty well 1000 kph, or slightly less, so in the case of the Cascadia fault, the wave would arrive only 5 minutes later on the West Coast of Vancouver island. The Japanese fault is pretty close to the same distance the Cascadia Fault lays from Vancouver Island. Kind of sobering if you think about around the campfire on Vargas Island in the Clayoquot.

Richmond BC Earthquake Geology Japan Study

Don’t move to Richmond or any delta or riverine areas in the lower mainland with sediment deposition. Read what happened in Japan. If the big one comes jiggle jiggle sink sink. water and soil becomes one. Mud.

The duration of the Japanese earthquake, about five minutes, could be the key to the severity of the liquefaction and may force researchers to reconsider the extent of liquefaction damage possible.
“With such a long-lasting earthquake, we saw how structures that might have been okay after 30 seconds just continued to sink and tilt as the shaking continued for several more minutes,” Ashford said. “And it was clear that younger sediments, and especially areas built on recently filled ground, are much more vulnerable.”
An event almost exactly like Japan’s is expected in the Pacific Northwest from the Cascadia Subduction Zone, and the new findings make it clear that liquefaction will be a critical issue in the young soils there.
“Young” sediments, in geologic terms, are those deposited within the past 10,000 years or so.
“Entire structures were tilted and sinking into the sediments, even while they remained intact,” said Ashford, who is based in Corvallis, Ore. “The shifts in soil destroyed water, sewer and gas pipelines, crippling the utilities and infrastructure these communities need to function. We saw some places that sank as much as 4 feet,” or 1.2 meters.

Coast BC Dodd Narrows

Water mercurial malleable a cold weight bent by the tide waiting for the monthly moon to dodge and skip the stars — here no wind.

Spring Floral Arrangement

Clematis in floral arrangement. Its been such a cool spring that the sprigs of this vine are just shooting through the soil now.

don’t feel especially wordy like these flowers though something lush and robust about them like kiwi fruit the soft first bite pastel and yielding tip of tang

Andy Warhol looking up

Andy always had a look up attitude. Hope you do too.

Ts’yl-os Provincial Park Chilcotin BC

This is a valley. It is glacial. Carved out eons ago. A big U-shaped valley. It’s called Tchaikazan.

Amazing Tsunami Video Scary

A bystander took this incredible video. A true natural disaster biblical in proportions. Don’t under estimate nature.

China’s the Greatest

Dozens of lawyers and activists have been arrested or detained in China recently following calls for Middle East-style protests.
China activist Liu Xianbin jailed for 10 years
“Today I saw how legal tools were used to convict someone who is not guilty,”
Liu Xianbin was previously sent to prison for two-and-a-half years for taking part in the nationwide protests of 1989.

As Canadians/Americans do we support China? Another generation is born we take the easier road of complacency, avoiding change, heads in the sand.
The future will be interesting?

UPDATE
Artist disappears, for speaking out.
China detains famous artist Ai Weiwei for economic crimes.
Any dictatorship will destroy all opposition. People that speak out go, People that have ideas are a threat. You destroy all thinkers, Writers/artists, teachers lawyers and doctors.
People that might be capable of facilitating change are nuked.

Supercrack of the Desert

Super Crack of the Desert

“so singular so unique” symmetric cleaving the desert

This climb really inspired me. The art of nature aesthetics of the line and the excitement. This line was true, pure.

I had this picture, from a calender, in my room for years. The guy in the red t-shirt with the yellow Scottish lion on his back approaching the overhang it was adventure. This film is great.
Wiggins Webster Becker

Hipstamatic in Libya

Its an iphone app to make your iphone photos look square in a good way with some colour shifting that that puts an arty hit on your creation. Without of course going into Pshop to do it by an action or manually.

Many journalists are using this type of documentation as either backup or to augment their assignments in addition to the dslr.

Checkout Burn magazine

Hosting another workshop in May Weekend 25 Gabriola Island

The Blackberry Disease

Sissy Hankshaw vouches the more you use your thumbs the more you will be just like me.
“I have mutation and it is with my thumbs and its from typing. They are giant.
And u 2 can b just like me and not use a blackberry anymore”

“Would I do it all over again. Probably not. Everything has consequences. But I hitchhike well” she said

Tom Robbins Even Cowgirls Get the Blues is a good read

Japanese Quake Tsunami Miyako Huge Breach Grade 5 Whitewater with Vehicles and Ships

For the last 3 days I have posted on this natural disaster so check out the previous posts.

I filmed this on on the D7000 and converted it in post to 16:9 wide screen again I slightly blurred it to get rid of moire lineage.

The raging surge has breached the towns dyke/breakwater/tsunami barrier and cascades through the town with ships vehicles and debris. The wave here is 20+ feet. Wave breaches at turn in river, the flow is constricted/obstructed by the bend thus breach occurs.

Japan Tsunami Coast Town Grade 3 Rapids

White water is judged on a 1-6 grading system. This little town had grade 3 running through its streets

I filmed this video broadcast with a Nikon D7000 HD on tripod slightly out of focus to get rid of the monitor screen lines.

Japan Earthquake Sendai Airport Photo and Google Earth, Farm Village Destroyed

click the thumbnails for better bigger resolution

Massive quake hits N E Japan 8.9 Tsunami Near Sendai Airport helicopter must of got off and taken this aerial. It was on CNN … I noticed watching footage that this still photo had part of Sendai airport in it….. So I google earthed it and got the beta ( lay of the land literally). image is from 2003 and from 2.7km in elevation

The town east of the airport is just devastated as the wave comes on. High point is bridge that crosses canal is only safe point two cars on bridge.

According to goog earth the wave surmounted a 5-6m beach tree berm before continuing onward to airport. estimates of wave travel speed are are around 10metre/second 20 mph roughly. The natural scale of this geological event is hard to realize. Pray for these people they had little warning. Happened at about 940PM PST. 540 UTC approx 250PM Local
Airport to ocean 1 kilometre …………. Beach berm width 300 metres or just about 1000 feet
Oblique view below


Update
Most recent sat photo at day 4 post quake at right

UPdate Village destroyed see link below on day 2

UPDATE Monday quake +3 I have posted some recent amazing videos see most recent posts

this peaceful farming village gets obliterated, cars are fleeing on roads. In goog earth fly to

38 11’04.39 N and140 56’56.34 E

elevation is less that 2 metres…. geologically it looks like the wave’s energy was focused by the topography of the bay absolutely devastating.
SENDAI AIRPORT Wave
distance from ocean to stranded truckers is 1.4 km or .8miles similar video Via BBC in the UK Truckers are on the overpass where the camera in located upper centre left

Bryan Adams Autographed Record Album Found

Found this Bryan Adams signed album at a garage sale in Vancouver. Just by fluke riding by and sorted through some old records Cuts Like a Knife Signed Bryan Adams 1985. 26 years ago! It was in a darker pen so I highlighted in Pshop with grey to make it more noticeable in the photo you see. Interesting what you can find in garage sales if you spend the time to look. He used to work at the Tomahawk Restaurant in NVan near the Lions Gate bridge that bridges the gap (first narrows) between Stanley Park and the North Shore. Local boy does well, good food at the restaurant too.

Conservation Photographers Enbridge Great Bear Rainforest

This is a trailer SPOIL its about how we will not let an oil pipeline from ALBERTA TAR SANDS be constructed to the west Coast of British Columbia. You can not support this. This ecosystem is incredibly unique.

we have a real short period of time do you think we should do any thing about it?

Storm Mt. Baker Powder Plumes Avalanche

Ever drive in the Fraser Valley and notice the big hulking mass of snow and ice to the SE. Well that’s Mt Baker and its roughly 10700 ft high. It’s a volcano not active right now … it only vents gas and steam but it will probably active again. Maybe the mega-thrust earthquake we are way over due for will liberate the solid lava plug now damming the magma, waiting, like some pregnant pimple waiting to issue forth. Who knows …geologic years are gauged in the thousands, could happen tomorrow or a million years from now. Ahhh the whimsy of nature.

Anyway a bit of morning digression …. the past few days before this low gave us snow, it was extremely windy at high elevations. Hearlding a buildup of Premo avalanche conditions. Since the high winds came from the west they scoured west and probably NW facing slopes and deposited all that snow on their opposite sides south and south east sides. The snow lays deep on those aspects ready for triggers big pillows of snow. So be safe. The scoured slopes on the north are now loaded again with new snow that has dumped in the last 48 hours, since these slopes were scoured by the wind, probably down to hard-pack they probably will not hold large amounts of new snow well, so these slopes will potentially be unstable. So heads up.

Hike Nootka Island

Naturalist attack hiking, you want to go somewhere the crowds don’t go and see wild ocean terrain with great photo ops. Everyone has heard of BC’s West Coast trail. Hit the Nootka Trail its better in my opinion. for more adventure yet, getting there is sweet adventure in itself you fly in. Any trip that begins with a flight is fun. Want to know more lets go.

New stuff and recommended check out the gutenberg project and Librivox for audio books all free.

Recently downloaded Robert Falcon Scott’s Journals of his South Pole expedition …. great naturalist observations of sea ice, bergs, penguins etc
as audio book 500megs of mp3’s to an itouch ….. bomber stuff as in bombproof state of the art as good as it gets, take a 50m leader fall on it and the gear won’t even come close to pulling. How can you beat that?

Ski Powder Telemark

N Selkirks Esplanade Range Mottled light high lit falling crystals one foot powder pillow avalanche free.
ski with a guide here for the best experience

George Clooney For President

“Clooney plays a flawed presidential candidate in his next film, The Ides of March. He’ll direct the movie he co-wrote, giving his character lines he’d like to hear from a presidential candidate. But despite occasional overtures from the California Democratic Party, Clooney has rejected the constraints of conventional politics. “I didn’t live my life in the right way for politics, you know,” he said, sitting outside the Central Pub in Juba, scarfing down pizza. A smart campaigner, he believes, “would start from the beginning by saying, ‘I did it all”

I don’t often put this stuff in my blog but since George Clooney seems like a pretty reasonable guy and has some social conscience with his involvement in Africa and (now myself having a more personal take on Africa) and doesn’t tow the normal hollywood garbage and is more independent even as a film maker. Read the Newsweek articleI put it in.

Conservation Book

Enough of you have been asking about archival prints and how printing fits with the framing.
There used to be a shop on 4th Ave years ago called Mido Framing. They used to frame up some of my early Ciba prints.
They charged a price of course and it was expensive they had to make a buck , now its really expensive. But now I do my own archival
framing and printing which reduces costs.
If long term protection for your art is a concern. You should use acid free papers and matts. For traditional glass framing the diagram shows how I take to market photographic prints pre-glass in an acid free conservation book….. And never hang your art in the sun.

Ernst Haas Okanagan British Columbia

Ernst was one of my early mentors. An eye for colour, Euro came to the states post WW2…. Hit NYC and shot film lots of first generation Kodachrome and Kodacolor. An eye for colour forsure. Shot lots of stuff from still life to fashion. This was taken in the interior near Pentiction.

Storm on the wind. A warm wind. A warm summer wind and electricity in the air so the little hairs on the back your neck just stand right up.
Do you know that feeling? A summer storm coming.

Salish Sea Georgia Strait

The Gulf it’s big. There is current. There are waves, sometimes there is swell.

You can see across the gulf on clear days. San Juans to Ballenas, Sunshine Coast to Active Pass.

Sometimes you can’t cross the gulf.

Water with Your Columbine hey rosetta

While Arcade Fire has been on my radar for many years check out Bowie with them on utube, and sort of continuing with my outdoor growth theme Listen to Hey Rosetta’s new album “Seeds” Yer Spring and you know spring is coming. Its that poet orchestral thing.

oh, did I mention NFLand one of the hottest,coolest places in Canada from Burgeo to Gros Morne to St Anthony that’s where hey rosetta’s from.

the tag the tag now that you have watched this often enough drinking from the cup
ballerina tag
what are we missing … you tell me …. what is endearing … what is honest .. attention to detail in all art, textures revealed, visual artist, wordsmith whatever spring is 30 days away

On Mt Baker at Sunset

This is enroute to the Coleman Headwall which is on the nw side of Mt Baker. Bruce and I tried to get a start on it but it was guarded by some pretty deep crevasses and tottering serac blocks all dripping wet and slouching. We slept in big crevasse at 9000 ft to keep out of the wind. Some climbers woke us up at about 3 and we went back to sleep till 5. We passed them at 530 below the Roman Wall. They got lost? And got to the summit just as the sun rose. Baker is just under 11000 feet 10 seven I think.

Vancouver History Nostalgia Corner Store Series

I’m feeling a bit nostalgic today. When we were small these stores were on every corner. Jaw breakers, doublebubbles Bazooka Joe’s etc. a few years ago now I went on photo quest for the remaining ones, high property values were making them scarce, ….(just like agricultural land now is under pressure in the lower mainland, I digress )

This is one of my faves. The grocer helping the lady with her purchases. The shop keeper taking a vested interest in providing a neighbourhood service.

I stalked this shot getting the location wired long beforehand, figuring its exposure to the sun and when the best time to shoot ( spring morning) and getting there at the right time to create the document I wanted. Just by fluke the grocer walked out with his customer, one of those moments where you look through the viewfinder and can’t believe your eyes, so good to be true. Like seeing deer stalked and bluffed off a cliff by a wolf in Knight Inlet. Kodachome on tripod. They don’t make Kodachrome any more.

Won a Canadian Magazine Award for a series of them in Canadian Geographic.

Perennial Seedpod

Found this little seed pod awhile ago and its been sitting on my light table in a ziplock. Shot it with a macro. Delicate little thing its super light and about a centimeter long 2.54 cm to the inch. Its feather like stock makes it a whim to the grace of the winds, ready for a journey maybe close or far away from its mother source, metaphorically, looks how we started too.

Dog Sledding Yukon/Whistler

I was up in the Yukon a few years ago for the Yukon Quest and some other touri stuff.

The dogs were great and were well taken care of. Owners loved them.

We just had an unfortunate incident up in Whistler where dogs were murdered by a dog-sledding operator. This happened after the season last year
when all the tourists went home and the snow melted, I think 100 out of 300 dogs were shot and knifed and thrown into a mass grave.

Why were they not dealt with in a humane way? Total greed situation easier just to do away with the dogs at the end of the season rather than find homes for them.

Why have so many dogs if you have to cull at the end of the season?

This company should be exposed and have their business license taken away. They are beautiful animals.

Mountain Bike Golden Ears

Golden Ears Provincial Park

Rain January. The thing about the East side trail is that it follows Gold Creek till it becomes braided and meandering about 6km from the parking lot before it peters out.

The thing that’s great about it, is that no one is on the trail especially in the winter months.
In the summer the park is pretty busy ……. now no one.

Ride your bike like the shot shows. You can not ford this this tributary stream without taking off your boots if you’re hiking … with a bike you can power through…. don’t lose your balance though or you’ll get wet.

It was fetid but great with mist and rain enveloping us, mossy understory and some storybook settings deep in the trees where you expect a gnome or a hobbit to peer out. Ride it, I think its in my book mtb adventures in SWBC.

I rarely capture stills from video but I liked this one. Photos don’t have to be sharp to convey the atmosphere. I masked a couple of copies and digitally crafted the colour this what I got.

just posted this 2 months late filmed in a rainstorm camera d7000 in ziplock bag, marcus and I on a tear over rock water and trail.

Infinite Sea

I like this shot I was inspired by viv maier whose work was found in an abandoned storage container and purchased by a real estate agent in the eastern states for 400 dollars.

Historic find beautiful artful photos that document life in the 50’s and sixties. A female Fred Herzog of Chicago. A solitary French nanny with a 2.25. Check it out.

The couple shot here … I like for a bunch of different reasons, but not obviously the watermarks because it it such a good stock shot it can be easily ripped, it might be nice in Maui right now its raining here in Vancouver.

Alpine Flora

Happy New Year.

First image of the year posted here art nature original 10000 pixels square. Big print fine art paper.

This is from British Columbia in the Coast Range in the area known as Granite Country. Want to go?

False Hellibore is kind of a lush alpine plant, grows quite big, the first frost hits it pretty good as most of the plant is fleshy full of water. Like us guess the first frost would hit us pretty good too if we were naked and alpine think we’d wilt at the edges??

Found this hiding in a small granite cove surrounded by avalanche debris. I figured I was lucky.

In the Wild

This echos the ethos of adventure, creative adventure, a place in the heart of it all, its capture the very nerve of elemental soul, the embodiment of.

A friend gave this to me it’s a gift……. view in full screen.

there is no always

Catch the Light

for the h …. art of it all

don’t say you’ve got nothing to give give it to africa

Hoar and Avalanches

These are the crystals that help avalanches run.

Hoar provides the ball bearing slip that heavy weighted snow can slide on.

Hoar forms during a cold period of weather.

Hoar can form in the alpine or at sea level.

During the heavy rainfall event presently occurring one inch of rain translates into a foot of snow 2.54 cm x 12 in metric

Today the freezing level is about 5000 feet Major Snow avalanche situation above and below that for run-outs chutes gullies walls that shed to lower levels.

Below 5000 ft it is raining rain is percolating into the snow pack it will eventually freeze later this will provide a surface for snow slip more if it clears and hoar forms.

New India Family Lion

Dec 2-3 marked the anniversary of the disaster that happened in 1984 A government affidavit in 2006 stated the gas leak caused 558,125 injuries including 38,478 temporary partial and approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries and over 15000 deaths.

This is a shot of my T-shirt purchased in Bhopal. Union Carbide was responsible for the disaster Dow Chemical bought the company in 2001. Some 1st world corporations in 3rd world countries take advantage of cheap labour, inadequate safety regulations, no regulations to max their profit margins. Just exploitation.
The poor people there are still coping with the results and trying to hold the corporation and its CEO responsible. Who is responsible?

Currently Dow is suing the Government of Canada for $2 million, through NAFTA’s Chapter 11 investor-state dispute process, as part of a challenge to a Quebec ban on the use of lawn pesticides.

Is DOW Chemical in the Tar Sands? Where are the Tar Sands.

“…forgive me jesting again, but the NDP is kind of proof that the Devil lives and interferes in the affairs of men.” – Stephen Harper, 1997

Fin is my man and MP The Tanker Ban on Canada’s west coast was narrowly passed yesterday LUCKY 143 for to 138 against. There is inadequate or outdated response for spills on this coast. Good to be back its worse in the 3rd world.

Lake So Blue

A remote post: was lucky to have a photo adventure in the most blue of all alpine lakes.

A hidden ridge revealed this gem of a lake, a mere dot on the topographic, there was no question that this would be the destination. No question.

Iron staining here promoted this colour unreal and un-photoshop’ed. We hiked up a series of joined undulating ridges scrambling up to around 7500 feet (2500m),
before returning.

Fish Lake Letter to Harper and Dumb Reply

Here is correspondence with Harper Gov’t concerning Fish lake …. Mining Effluent Regulations?

From : Greg Maurer Received : Jul 3 2010 9:17:26 AM >>>

Mr Harper,

You can not possibly support turning FISH LAKE in British Columbia’s
Chilcotin into a tailings pond.

That’s stupid. What do Canadians stand for….. not this.

This is a productive lake with 90000 trout, heli pilots I have talked
to say they can see schools of them massing, it’s not a toxic swamp in
the boreal forest of Ontario that no one cares about.

Where does the manipulation of nature for the almighty buck stop?

Do you ever get a chance to get out in nature like your predecessor
Trudeau? He canoed the Nahanni National Park Reserve of Canada with
his sons.

Perhaps you should? Take something away like Robert Service wrote in
Call of the Wild ‘hear the text that nature renders’

Most Canadians would not support this

Greg Maurer

http://www.alpenglowpro.wordpress.com
http://www.alpenglowpro.com
On 9-Jul-10, at 10:18 AM, Prime Minister/Premier ministre wrote:

On behalf of the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, I would like to acknowledge receipt of your message regarding the Metal Mining Effluent Regulations.

You may be assured that your comments have been carefully reviewed and are appreciated. As this issue falls under the jurisdiction of both the Honourable Gail Shea, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, and the Honourable Jim Prentice, Minister of the Environment, I have taken the liberty of forwarding copies of your correspondence to them. I am certain that the Ministers will give your views on this issue every consideration.

Thank you for writing the Prime Minister.

P. Monteith
Executive Correspondence Officer
for the Prime Minister’s Office
Agent de correspondance
de la haute direction
pour le Cabinet du Premier ministre

Mr Monteith and S Harper,

Its not about mining effluent regs

Its about setting a precedent that its OK to destroy lakes their water, fish and other intrinsic biota

for economic gain in this case mining (Prosperity Mine who’s prosperity certainly not yours or mine and its our lake)

its not OK to do that for any reason

Relay that to Stevo

Iron Man

Adamant Range.
Read some guys blog recently that he put a bolt or two in this rock. I asked him what gave him the right to deface this peak so beautiful.

The crux on our route was half way + up the spire airy 10d free, shallow fingers on an out there face glacier polished on each side so it’s just toes in a quartz rimmed crack and sketchy finger tips wide, tipped in A3 pins ( angle/leeper exotic stacks flared) if you aided on deep breaths.

Iron Man its not the movie or a song it’s a granite peak in in the N Selkirks west of Golden, heli in out of Palmer Creek. Its in British Columbia hope for high pressure and 4 good days a little crisp in September. Nice line.

Bowron Traverse

The Bowron Lake circuit is a classic. East of Quesnel past Barkerville and Wells, on the flank of the Caribou and Premier Ranges West of Valemount, is a wilderness lake system that is a real adventure to explore. I took a kayak many canoe.

Found this stump on my travels on a Maui like beach and filled the shot with a little fill flash and there you have it. Stump and a stormy backdrop.

School Time

Staying with the Pete Turner theme, this hunted and spotted shot from the depths of Surrey, British Columbia echo the start of a new school year
Memories of new school September smells of fresh paint and a quickly fading summer with chill mornings, blue sky and the bus you just can’t miss.

America SW

On the road Moab Utah. In the desert south of Salt Lake City. Land of Mormons and old mine sites. Get yourself to the canyonlands.

Went into a coffee shop asked for a cappuccino and they said cup of what?

Like the colors and design reminds me of one of my mentors Pete Turner.

Meager Creek Landslide Natural Disaster

Here is an overview of the natural disaster that unfolded at 530am Friday morning in British Columbia just north of Whistler/Pemberton.
A massive landslide occurred blocking two major water-flows creating natural dams composed of unstable volcanic debris mixed with vegetation trees etc.
The dams will give way when enough water pools behind the two debris flows.

It’s interesting to note the power of the landslide where the slide meets and blocks Meager Creek. The landslide flow went uphill and washed the forest away for several hundred vertical feet before turning north to block the Lillooet River.

Updates: Landslide update… river water has found away through…only 30% of population in affected area responded to evacuation notice

My letter to Editor Walrus Magazine Links to Heighton’s book excerpt on Nangpa Pass Incident Nepal/China

Link to great on site photos Way to go DBSTEERS Pemberton SAR Please make a donation to them Check out Steers’ flicker site too

Twillingate Iceberg Alley

BC is Burning wow The humidity here is just like Thailand what a contrast to NFL. These photos should cool.

sorrows for twillingate 07/21/10

the capping cold atlantic in grasp hands hope reach for life nought

sorrows for twillingate
sorrows for twillingate

in the heart of the coast
in newfoundland east

sweet land of bergs that come all the way from greenland
in flounder the waves are strong we flipped
it wasn’t long til peace came
first a shiver then a quiet quite quiet.
we passed from this to next.

in honor for those past

http://www.lportepilot.ca/News/2010-07-21/article-1594157/Its-a-very-dark-day-in-this-town/1

Go to Newfoundland, I was fortunate to be here, I know the town, its scenic and coastal wild way different from Tofino soul and history. Explore and discover a good place for the July’s in your life. Kayak the Bay of Exploits with Paul out of Lewisporte.

I saw prayers made with plastic rosaries

thanks for the inquiries

just a short note here for the response and inquiry for prints for recent subject matter flowers and the dfly ….. thanks
I’ll be emailing prices shortly and yes I print archival

E.O. Wilson Naturalist

It was a sluggish slime-coated nymph that had metamorphosed into an electric needle of light as quickly as it appeared it hurtled away in a shearing splinter of radiance.

Biodiversity specialist, biologist E.O Wilson reveals and proposes that the foundation of our planets life lays in the small stuff we don’t know about but go about destroying in all ignorance with the intricacies of value yet unknown.

I have been reading of late on the disappearance of salmon runs from Alaska to California. Every river on the westcoast has suffered. Did you know there are microorganisms so small in the ocean, only discovered mere years ago, almost undetectable even to microscopy but play a very important part in the survival of salmon?
Its these smaller entities in nature, unknown that when disappeared can have consequences to larger species.

We have algae blooms stimulated by warm water, thousand acre gyre’s of floating plastic, billions of gallons of crude oil in our oceans, if you were living there in subsistence, gathering your food to survive as a waterborne animal you might notice something awry. You think? (Hell yeah its a no brainer eh. –forgive the colloquialism.)

As usual my subjective pursuit of objective truths are defended with vigour but sometimes wonder if it does any good … who cares I do it anyway. I am tending to get more activist/art oriented… Who will defend for those who can not speak for the founding blocks for humanities survival they represent. AT Least write some letters.

“You are capable of more than you know. Choose a goal that seems right for you and strive to be the best, however hard the path.
Aim high. Behave honourably. Prepare to be alone at times, and to endure failure. Persist! The world needs all you can give.
~ E. O. Wilson

Link to E.O. Wilson on video.

Link to Albatross Deaths Pacific Gyre “the plastic garbage patch” Chris Jordan Photos

FISH LAKE GOOD NEWS but not a done deal

Today the panel that makes enviro assessments to the federal government made recommendations to the federal gov’t regarding converting FISH LAKE into a tailings pond. (Interesting that our provincial gov’t OK’ed it.)

THEY recommended not to do it. The HARPER government still has to make the final decision, so write some letters don’t just cross your fingers. But it’s really good news I wrote a lot of letters hope you did too, I even contacted singer Neil Young’s manager.

Today the federal review Panel of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) made their long, and anxiously awaited, recommendations to the federal government re Taseko Mines proposed open pit gold and copper mine: the mine that would destroy Fish Lake

“The Panel concludes that the Project would result in significant adverseenvironmental effects on fish and fish habitat, on navigation, on the current use of lands and resources for traditional purposes by First Nations and on cultural heritage, and on certain potential or established Aboriginal rights or title.

The Panel also concludes that the Project, in combination with past, present and reasonably foreseeable future projects would result in a significant adverse cumulative effect on grizzly bears in the South Chilcotin region and on fish and fish habitat.

Corporations are Not Stupid

On April 9, 2010, Halliburton bought Boots and Coots, the largest oil-spill cleanup company on the planet.
 
Oil giant Halliburton announced late Friday that it will purchase emergency response oil control company Boots & Coots in a deal valued at around $232 million.
Boots & Coots shares soared on Monday by more than 25%.Goldman Sachs, who’s joined at the hip with Halliburton, unloaded 44% of its stock in BP.

Enbridge, the corporation that wants to pipeline tar sands oil to BC and have oil tankers travel the BC coast

is Not Stupid either……….

They have been spending big, big bucks trying to spin positive around oil transport on BC’s pristine coast. Last week’s tanker ban announcement by Michael Ignatieff has put Enbridge into a panic. The Corporation and its share holders have much to lose. They’re throwing millions into their pro-tanker propaganda.
Full page ads supporting tankers on BC’s coast from Enbridge’s phony grassroots “Gateway Alliance” group are appearing in the Globe and Mail. Op-eds and letters attacking a tanker ban have appeared in the Times Colonist, Vancouver Sun and National Post.
In the last decade Enbridge has be responsible for a multitude of environmental violations and spills totaling thousands of gallons; this is just one example from Enbridge on Wikipedia.

In 2006, there were 67 reportable spills totaling 5,663 barrels on Enbridge’s energy and transportation and distribution system; in 2007, there were 65 reportable spills totaling 13,777 barrels. UPDATE Late July 2010 Huge Enbridge Pipeline break Wisconsin Kalamazoo River polluted with 20000 barrels of crude

We have over 27,000 km of kayak-able coastline here in BC and it’s pretty much a huge nutrient pool for thousands of marine and terrestrial species.

But then again do we need beaches? This was in the recent travel section of a Louisiana newspaper great positive spin.

Corporations are Not Stupid…..just build an all-inclusive resort a bit back from the coast …. no worries eh?

Alpine Adventure Eden

4 griz sighted 1 sow 3 cubs of the year great coats well fed no worries see salvator at summit for cowboy coffee take spray just in case

play this music Madm Canadian from Montreal in a separate window read the text and imagine the time I had here …. fusion of art and music also her super conceptual album ooom get it vimeo http://vimeo.com/12416751

In the Alpine

The past months have been perfect for the formation of moss.

Wet and mostly damp especially here on the coast, Pre-historic and usually low to the ground moss has a good relationship with dirt and otherwise fecund matter to which upon it hosts.

Hopefully the weather will change and it’ll all dry up.

Fortunately for the last several days I have been in the rainshadow in the drier mountains of the coast in search of alpine wildflowers. East of Manning Provincial Park in an area that I wanted to visit for sometime, referred to me by an old sot miner/naturalist, I was super lucky to be in the right place at the right time.

In alpine meadows below melting snowpack hidden in copses’ of Englemann spruce profuse outcroppings of columbine were easily found. I have never seen petals with such a variety of colour… salmon, yellow, and lily white.

The thing about columbine they are so fragile, willowy and definitive of the contrasts in nature. Gone Like a Fleeting Moment, in what can be harsh terrain with extremes of weather, what they imbue upon the landscape a living thing beauteous,
if only for moment maybe a week in year, hey, that’s natures way a fragile emergence in the wildflower season.

On Found Objects

More on that later but found objects are so sweet especially when they can be put into projects.

Talking with a friend today stirred up a memory, he was talking about found objects especially in rivers frequented by canoeists, forgotten beers etc

I once lost a case of beer ……… left it to cool in a lake near Whitesaddle Air for two weeks while I was in the high mountains of the Waddington Range …….. the heli pilot drank it while I was gone …… I was ripped when I got back because no cold brew on hot May day (a travesty) and there was no beer store for mega miles of dirt road, and the heli pilot makes quite a bit of cash and could easily afford his own but there are temptations …. and I suppose that was one of them. Guess that was a lost object for me but a found one for him.

Reminds me of another semi-related heli-story … worked up in the Yukon for a summer geo-survey stuff on vertical crumbly mountain walls tagging veins for arseno-pyrite real haywire stuff remote, all on rappel and jumars … heli’d into pocket glaciers front skid tow ins only so steep…. everyday sometimes in the fog of low scudding cloud using murky surrounding walls for the only bearing, semi insane … the pilot was on the edge all summer he sat in his tent alone at nights harbouring his scotch at the end of the summer he shot himself … just a bit of a side story …. ask me about the Jesus Bolt (its the one that holds the rotor on — they sometimes fail.

Renovations …. Don’t do it

Many of you have wondered, and some have known that I have been immersed in a consumptive construction project for sometime, I basically deconstructed and rebuilt a 50 yr old house almost by myself,
it has been somewhat body and soul destroying, some have written me off in in the process. I am about to rejoin the land of the living very shortly; and claim back my life and loves also look forward to workshops in NFL and and Nepal as well as day tutorials within 6 hours of the lower mainland See Progress Photos Here NEW UPDATES added

Quote of the day “BP has put more birds in oil than Colonel Sanders.” ~ David Letterman

Fish Lake Demise

And why do they call it FISH LAKE er maybe it has fish in it … 85000 trout ( I have been to a lot of lakes in the Chilcotin but this one is profound …) . This lake is in a pristine area close to several provincial parks and 2 salmon bearing rivers.

I have posted on this issue before there is a lot of backgrounding on this blog so please find it.

And on Wednesday June 9, the B.C. Liberal government granted Taseko Mines a controversial, renewable, 25-year mining lease for its “Prosperity” gold-copper project by Fish Lake.

It’s still not too late to save Fish Lake! The project has not yet passed its federal environmental assessment, and since the process is already underway the new rules may not apply to Fish Lake. Please check this website, http://www.sierraclub.bc.ca for updates and more action alerts coming soon.

Have you supported this travesty? Are you supporting this? Do you mind?

Here is a letter I wrote to the review process when the big corporate company Taseko mines was petitioning NOT to let a film be shown by the local First Nations saying it was propaganda

commissioned cat work

click on the thumb to see this most recent art piece

“Make as much trouble as you can before it’s all over.”

As I write this H.Rollins Black Flag ex band member is performing in Vancouver this show is among other things I have missed lately.
He is a master of monologue, current comment, hip and not trite. He is a firm believer in activism to do what you believe with passion..
On this tour he is oft ending his shows with “Make as much trouble as you can before it’s all over.” And that means in good way to contribute against what is often seen as the norm and destructive to a sustainable way of life, politically, environmentally and think outside the box….. what was right for past generations may not be for future. And do it before you go . Change can be good

I have a link to a utube video called Burning Ember of Rage a couple of months ago catch it.

Lose Your Bearings

Olafur Eliasson the 43 year old installation wunderkind has just concocted perhaps his most striking one in Beijing where visitors lose their ­bearings and all sense of a three-­dimensional world. I think perhaps our present provincal government have spent some time there during its construction because it appears that they have lost their bearings and their relationship with the people and the land. Just a bit of editorial comment.

Homage to William Albert Allard and Alexandra Morton

Salmon it feeds the people, it feeds the forests and everything within
primal footprint

Salmon are s a c r e d.

Who is W A Allard? Talented Nat Geo art Photog took fill flash shot of a Peruvian bovine bull in similar vein except with a red liquid background.
goog it.

Louisiana Burning

I just checked some of the local news footage out of Louisiana. The oil rig is really spewing an unholy mess.

I feel sorry for the gulf states; they do set a precedent however

Our coast in BC is more pristine. Do you think we should entertain Oil rigs off the west coast of BC?

listening to Melissa Auf Der Maur – followed the waves heart BC

UPDATE May 13 2010

WEST COAST STATES California, Washington and Oregon propose ban on Offshore Oil Drilling
The move by senators from California, Oregon and Washington, all Democrats, was largely symbolic because there are no plans at present to open the West Coast to drilling. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, a Republican, withdrew a modest plan for new offshore drilling shortly after the gulf accident.

UPDATE May 30

Top Kill Fails See Spill in relation to BC COAST

UPDATE June 15 2010

BP hopes to soon start a second containment system — a burner on a semi-submersible drilling rig that could incinerate up to 420,000 gallons of oil a day. The company had hoped to start the system as early as Tuesday.

Scientists have estimated that anywhere between about 40 million gallons to more than 100 million gallons of oil have spewed into the Gulf since a drilling rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers. Though the latest cap installed the well has been capturing oil, large quantities are still spilling into the sea.

UPDATE July 10 2010

Current US government estimates of the spill range from between 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day.

hockey night in Canada

it was like this… Bill and I had skied the much powder of Kimberly, Whitefish, Manning after a retreat from suisseland sojourn 2000 metres metier realized

and it all echoes back to canada eh to hockey night in Canada in some bluesy motel with 1308. but quite unlike the time in Algerciras  down from Malaga/Torremolinos( where we washed underwear in the bidet) reading  michener’s opus the Drifters which post dates On the road in a different vein ….. (and by bus) . Note the birthday Christmas toque  Leysin.(by the tea kettle)

Larry Jorgenson

Its not just protecting the environment and conservation areas its about managing fisheries and and forests and assuming responsibilities for ourselves and territories

in a way that hasn’t been done for a long time.

these areas are our connection to our land and that is what make us

that’s where the Heiltsuk connection comes from and we want to have that healthy.

its not about us but for the health  of our children and grandchildren.

And if we do not raise a generation of kids that are as committed as we are then we have lost it all.

Larry Jorgenson Bella Bella

excerpted from documentary “The Koeye River Grizzly Research Project” film by Twyla Roscovich  — Calling from the Coast .com.

I met Larry briefly in Bella Bella through my cousin Pauline Waterfall. He is active with Heiltsuk youth and Koeye Grizzly.

These words echo truths in our connection with the land and nature and its elemental relationship with mankind: to lose sight of that and not to
pass its value forward does mean we have a great and real chance to lose it all.

Do research Twyla’s website for insightful footage of places and issues out of the minds eye of most British Columbians and your basic touri.     i.e. tourists

And if we do not raise a generation of kids that are as committed as we are then we have lost it all.

And if we do not raise a generation of kids that are as committed as we are then we have lost it all.

koeye, kynoch, kitlope alliteration       do you know where thes places are? and their significance.

Pocahontas is Dying

Photo Workshop Langtang Nepal

Stay with me for details for this one. Leaving October this year. Photo Trek to Langtang Himal from Kathmandu.
Digital photography of unique mountain cultures in villages rarely seen off the normal travelers track.
All logistics taken care of. Good food porters mountain lodges for digital debrief sessions. Multiple base camps for day trips to specific areas. 4 to 6 photographers accepted.

Details are below click the Photo

British Columbia Ephemera

Anahim Stampede .. I remember rudimentary bleachers in July of that year from Tweedsmuir in the back of beyond with fox and fog, tarns and stone caches, the falls out of Turners’ Lake and 89 switchbacks in an area we have both visited since but just not the same… as it was.

This used to be a real rocking, real cowboy stampede that was considerably more authentic than Calgary’s. It might be still.
My ticket is faded and wrinkly now.

Location Hwy 20 East of Bella Coola, East of the Rainbow Range, West of Williams Lake, West of Riske Creek, West of Hanceville (Lees Corner), West of Tatla Lake … go to the Chilcotin the glacial upland of the Fraser Plateau.

Walrus Magazine

Read this magazine it’s great ….. and Canadian.

Here is my comment going to letters to the editor; regarding “Bystanders” a short story by Steven Heighton. (Just have word that this will be published in next issue its out now May10 2010 great article on hockey by MacFarland)

In response to Steven Heighton’s Short Fiction “Bystanders”

A similar event largely unreported, occurred in Fall 2006 on the Tibet-china Nepal border at Nangpa Pass.

Innocents, Tibetan refugees including children and a nun were murdered by Chinese soldiers, shot from a distance slow moving targets in thigh deep snow in full view of a guided western climbing expedition.

The leader of this expedition balked at interfering/reporting the incident concerned he would loose economically.

Several of his guides under the threat of employment termination leaked the story to miniscule response from western press and governments.

Heighton’s piece metaphorically responds that we can not idly standby taking no action personally or nationally as ineffectual bystanders.

Many Thanks to Steven for making us think. Now all we have to do is act.

Walrus Published Letter Here

“I want world sympathy in the battle of of right against unright.” Gandhi 5.4/1930

Greg Maurer Photographer alpenglowpro.wordpress.com

BC Liberals Support CEO Making Nature Better

Russell Hallbauer, CEO of Taseko (Prosperity) Mines wants to drain FISH LAKE, between world class Yohetta Valley/Chilko Lake-Ts’yl-os and Big Creek Provincial Parks and remove 85000 existing rainbow trout and create a tailings pond.

Do you want him to create “Prosperity Lake” with bigger and better fish after the mine has used the original lake for toxic tailings?

Hmmm I wonder why they called the lake Fish in the first place?

BC Government and its Liberal funded Environmental Assessment Office support this travesty.

The protection of Teztan Biny Fish Lake an issue for the local First Nations people, it is an issue for ALL Canadians.  Teztan Biny is only one of a number of freshwater lakes across this country of ours that is slated for extinction in the interests of corporate mining. In other words, our governments are allowing the “right to mine” to supersede the rights of local inhabitants to protect their water resources for future generations.

Yes corporate man should manipulate nature and local inhabitants sense of place for economic gain … do you agree?

Log Gabriola

There were log beachcombers years ago like the TV Series with Bruno Gerussi. But generally I think now it is not cost effective to operate such a business due to gov’t and mill regulations.

The rates paid for salvaged logs in a direct sale will vary from GLS rates. When invoicing a direct sale, GLS checks pricing to ensure fairness.
Salvaged logs are generally of lower value than fresh green timber. A major reason for the lower value is the refusal of some mills to consume salvaged logs. This narrows the market considerably. The mills are afraid of hitting metal, despite the best efforts of salvors and receiving stations to eliminate this hazard. Also, salvaged timber can be toredo damaged, beach worn or have sand impregnated cracks.

If you want this one, which has probably escaped from a boom in recent storm action go to the east side of Gabriola Island… it is de-barked and ready to be milled looks like fir and is pretty straight.

According to Ministry of Forests in Nanaimo the log if it is fir and and D grade it is likely worth around 400 CDN but you need a 250 CDN permit a boat gear to get it to a mill to collect.

Old Trail Map Vancouver and Area

Check this old trail map from the 1860’s; also note that Vancouver burned to the ground 20 years later in June 1886.

Note that Hastings, was located at what now is New Brighton Park. A memorial plaque and cedar stump are now what is left of the small townsite .

January 15, 1886 On January 15, 1886 the first issue of The Vancouver Herald appeared, the city’s first newspaper. Note that it bears the name ‘Vancouver’ more than two months before incorporation. One interesting item was an advertisement placed by George Black, proprietor of the Brighton Hotel at Hastings, B.C. That hotel was located at what is now the north foot of Windermere Street.

“This fine and commodious new Hotel,” the ad read, “has been recently completed, and is furnished with every convenience for the comfort of guests. The situation and accommodations are unsurpassed on Burrard Inlet, which has become the most fashionable WATERING-PLACE in British Columbia. The prospect is charming, the sea breezes are invigorating, and the facilities for Boating and Bathing are excellent. Private sitting and dining rooms. Suites of apartments for families or parties.

“The Bar is entirely detached from the main building.

“First-class stabling and feed for horses.

“Buses to and from New Westminster twice a day.”

We think the “buses” referred to are what we would call stagecoaches. The Herald’s last issue would be October 12, 1887.
from http://www.vancouverhistory.ca

How do YOU Protect Canada?

Often I feel like I’m a madman with a sign, there are so many issues to defend. Through my background I have spent much time in Nature, the outdoors, mostly in my province which is British Columbia.

It all comes down to what you want. Do you want an environment. Do you know what you want ….. be informed.

People get all fuzzy when they come to Vancouver because they have not seen anything like it.
Great I am proud of my city I was born here.
I rode around the seawall the other day met people from all over the world and told them you could spend several lifetimes here and not experience all the natural wonder. We have 27,000 kilometres of kayak-able coastline 2.5 Germany’s can fit into BC. Exploration and discovery if you want its here but sadly it is being quickly eroded.
The beauty of our city is something to behold and is easily showcase-able its initial image is positive but is superficial.

Just like the Olympic marketing ploy of Whistler; I traveled to Squamish he other day brilliant sun 15C not a snowflake in sight this winter yet they have a snowplow running on the salted highway and and a new vehicle chain-up sign at Britannia Beach. Carry chains beyond this point from October to May. They moved that sign south by about 30 km and then its like December to February if at all.
It’s all apart of marketing speak to make something seem as it is not.

In the outstanding Olympic opening Grizzly Bears and Orca’s are used as iconic representations of this province yet we do little to protect them. Grizzly’s are hunted, Orca populations are stressed, by pollution, lack of salmon and in fact pre-1950’s we used to kill them too.

As we speak a lake ironically called FISH, with 85000 trout has been given the go ahead by our forward thinking provincial gov’t to be used as a mine slag pit.
UPDATE NOV 2010 FED Gov’t steps on provincial gov’t and laid down the law …. FISH Lake is saved for the time being.

Dutch Shell (Nigeria eco-disaster fame) is about to develop in the headwaters of the Stikine, Nass and Skeena which will threaten our north coast Salmon. We have lost the south coast fishery.

All this and more is out of the minds eye of most people. If the gov’t sez it’s alright it must be?

But then again you can not change it can you? 2 out of 4 million people did not vote in the last provincial election. I urge you to vote, contact your federal and provincial MLA’s make them work for their 160+ grand/year. Maybe your children will see the land, and get a sense of place does that matter to you?

IED’s are taking out Canadians in Afghan land did they die for nothing? How are you protecting Canada?

…… am I irritating you

James Balog Photographer Ice

I’ve been following James Balog for many years, first as a climber because he has climbed in many of the areas I have,** and as a photographer, one of his most famed projects involved a series of animal portraits in studio settings that are just …inspiring. Very talented and very art nature centric.

Trained as geomorphologist, and being a mountain traveler/alpinist he has a good grasp of the alpine environment.

You might say he he has a “sense of place” and an ability to convey it.

For the past couple of years he has been involved in documenting ice and how it has been transmuting, that is to say decaying, moving, changing form and disappearing.
He is documenting through remote time lapse photography his latest project is called The Extreme Ice Survey.

Check out these 2 links which are every bit as erudite as Al Gore’s talks except with pure real-time documentation.

The video is fantastic..

The lecture informative.

In November I attended a lecture that glaciologist/climatologist Dan Smith gave on his studies of glaciers in the coast ranges of BC.

Years ago he was consulted by VANOC about holding the current winter Olympics in Vancouver Whistler. He told the truth, El Nino forecast and climate getting progressively warmer earlier winter snowpack melt sooner. Not a terribly good idea.

**… he incidently did one of the first ascents of Slipstream a beautiful line of frozen alpine ice that comes off of the northside of Snowdome very near to Mt Kitchener in the Columbia Icefields in Banff/Jasper Park in the Canadian Rockies.

Generic Reporting

Have you ever noticed how we have become accustomed to the same lacklustre reportage, how the interviewee gives the same answers, or in the case of politicos don’t answer but talk around issues and its accepted, and its accepted, and its accepted, like people don’t think and if they do think why don’t they say anything? How the interviewer does the same old stuff probably to the protocol to the station he works for because they think the viewer wants it that way and,or stations, newspapers have other hidden agenda or advertisers they are trying to appease.

I thought this to be pretty apt one Brits take on the whole matter.

I got this off Terry Glavin’s Blog BC writer/journalist currently in Afghanistan.

We don’t want generic stuff do we? Define generic …..

New Work

Client Commissioned work from the cave. Calibrated workflow by Haris at Chromalink. Limited Ed print. This is where everything comes from.

Silhouette’s are Cool

Always liked them. This was taken at Whistler.

And this was shot in another part of the coast range of British Columbia where you don’t have to pay to day ski.

More Grizzly Bears

I was asked by my community to write this little blurb to augment existing bear awareness in hope that it would facilitate some positive action

On Bears

Bears are wild animals. Not many people really think about that.

They don’t rely on anybody to feed them they do not go to Safeway.

They survive on their own instincts.

If you were fending for yourself you would be eating anything you could get your hands/paws on.

Bears have excellent noses. Very acute smell detection. Just as an eagle can spot microscopic things from very high up. Bears can detect smells from very, very far away.

In Bear areas close to human areas much care is needed to keep food sources/garbage contained so they DO NOT attract Bears.
In British Columbia we have many communities that are close to bear habitat.

If you were a wild Bear you would go to where something smelled good enough to eat.

Bears are not violent. Bears will however defend their babies and the food they worked so hard to find.

If something or someone gets in their way or if they feel threatened in any way they will attack.

So if you live near a wild place where there might be Bears, you have to make sure you keep all your food and garbage securely contained. This is called Bear Proofing.

You Must do this because if a Bear realizes that he can get food once in your area he will come back again. This is called an Habituated Bear. Out of habit, which you have unwittingly caused by leaving your food/garbage unsecured, the Bear will Return.

Habituated Bears can not be rehabilitated they become problem Bears. Then they sometimes have to be killed.

We do not want this. It is our fault and it can be avoided if people took the time to contain their food and garbage.

I have included a few Grizzly Bear photos to show what a magnificent wild animal this bear is.

Before I forget our British Columbia provincial government the Liberals under Gordon Campbell supports Killing the Grizzly Bear. If you don’t like this let him know.

Send a letter to him now. Contact Gord

More on Bears in BC

Wim Wenders Quote

A long time ago I wrote this quote down, have referred to it, and have drawn inspiration from it.

“it is better to have a few images that are full of life than masses of meaningless ones”

So slow down, look at what you are shooting and maybe pre-visualize before going into a “situation”

Wim Wenders is a German film director.

I knew someone once that also liked one of the movies he directed in 1984 …. Paris Texas.

Book I am currently reading “Angle of Repose” — Wallace Stegner

Telemark Ski Pemberton

This was an excellent trip. Almost the best powder I have had. Mike and I built an igloo in just a little while and had a warm comfy sleep. Just above freezing inside, +4C, almost sweated in my bag while not wearing much of anything, minus 30 outside. It was an Alpine Club of Canada trip there was a guy outside using chopsticks for tent pegs. The weather was perfect and we hatched plans for an even more adventurous expedition the Lillooet Icecap.

Overnight the fellow with the original pegs had his tent turn into a hoar encrusted bivy sac.

Haida Care about BC Do You?

Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines wants to build a pipeline from Alberta to The North Coast of BC.

The Alberta tar sands, where the oil would be coming from, “one of the biggest unnatural disasters going on in the world right now,” and said it’s “crazy. a goofy idea” to ship oil from Alberta to southeast Asia at the same time that Canada is importing oil. Said Haida Nation President Guujaw.

“It is unbelievable what these people will calmly get up here and propose to us,” he told the audience of elders, chiefs and other islanders. “They themselves would risk nothing in doing this, they have nothing to lose.” Here’s a CEO Pat Daniel (Enbridge) that made
6.5 Million Dollars in personal wages last year… that’s more than some NHL hockey players!

“I’m not going to say we’ll be affected, because there is no damn way this is going to happen,” Guujaw said.

“What we’re talking about today doesn’t feel good inside,” said Diane Brown. “To lose our food source is not an option, you can’t pay us anything to get that back. As a grandmother and a woman of the nation, I can promise you that I will do everything in my power not to see this go through.”

Does this feel good to you. If it doesn’t see Artist Robert Bateman destroy a painting and let some one know how you feel.

Beautiful BC Canada Fish Lake

Hey Where’s Fish Lake

BC Environmental Assessment Office has issued an Environmental Assessment Certificate for the proposed Prosperity Mine.

BC Liberals are they for the environment? Not really.

Well you might say gosh the BC Environmental Assessment Office ….. sounds like a bonafide big deal gov’t organization they must know what they are doing …… it must be OK NOT!
They have given the provincial go ahead for the destruction of Fish Lake for Prosperity that is the Prosperity Mine…… a green light

Of course the BCEAO are affiliated with the Liberal government, and the government is affiliated with big business and development, a lake we don’t live nearby nuke it who cares a few might but the majority is dumbed down we can probably get away with it we’ve got thousands of lakes in British Columbia who cares?

Ever been to the SChilcotin? It’s a great area discover and explore 5 hours away from Vancouver you might have a limited time to do so Because Fish Lake 85,000 trout have been given the OK to be destroyed … that’s Prosperity Eh

If you ever take the time to drive to Chilco Lake and the surrounding environs you might want to drive up the road to Fish Lake great view of the summit of Mt Waddington and see the lake as a tailings pond.

Whoa though………… the federal gov’t still has to give the go ahead. (You believe the Conservatives will do the right thing like the Tar Sands?) But it’s one step closer the province has pretty well given it a green light. Is that progress?

Hey but that’s prosperity…………… not on my watch. See Rollins utube vid below

I have an earlier post on this issue in an old post on this blog please search for it……… Jan07 and June07

And if you don’t want this to happen on Your watch you can send letters to the Ministry of the Environment both at the provincial level and federal level and Dept of Fisheries at the federal level. Its our land as Canadians we have some rights.

You can at least read about the issue and maybe sign the Online Petition .. .. as a photographer I have been to some pretty special places and this one of them very near to Chilko Lake Ts’il?os Provincial Park.

Its absolutely Crap one day your children will want to venture out of the city and away from all the distractions of urban life you can show them these P H O T O S and say I supported this mine or did nothing to stop it …… and you can be proud.

Change is You Henry Rollins

A new year, Can change happen Do we need change?

On your watch, whats going to happen on your watch?

Global Warming, Carbon Footprint, Copenhagen Tim Horton Drive Thru Please Pick the anomaly. Whats going to happen on your watch?

Been following Henry Rollins for a long time. Ember of Rage. Governments will not do it People have to do it.

Homogenized Generic Dumb-ed Down Do you have an excuse? Do you have an ember or is it extinguished?

War The Tar Sands Inadequate Transit. Homelessness

Prayers for Peace

A new year a new decade maybe we can have some of this.

art rock seymour

Eric Hamber Traffic vs Copenhagen

During the last week of school before Christmas break I was caught in a traffic jam.

It was morning 830AM and parents were driving their high school aged kids to high school.

What a deal who would have thought they could not walk?

These are kids over thirteen … beyond the abductable stage .. if that’s a fear to justify. The snow was not thigh high there was no snow the weather was perfect.

A couple of hundred vehicles were involved pretty well gridlocking traffic all for ……. as much as I could figure…… just to drop kids right at the door step of the secondary school.

Traffic was bogged down all the way down 33rd to Oak and up to Cambie.

We are paying for this convenience … What is Global Warming? Some one must know?

Copenhagen the idea begins at home Was it a successful??

Why on earth do you have to drive your adolescent kids to school everyday?????

Am I wrong what do you think reply many read this blog a couple hundred a day not often does anyone reply………

Banff Jasper Parkway

Before ice is all gone hit the rockies

Had to laugh a couple of years a go the big tour bus company Brewster out of Banff was taking a load of oriental touri up the parkway….for miles they saw no habitation just mountains and trees and the odd moose. Entrepreneurs ever they questioned what was wrong with the land? the Guide said nothing … they replied then why are there no resorts here?

Maybe we should put resorts here now that the Harper government is promoting tourism to China instead of human rights ….. money talks eh.

Tell that to Huseyin Celil a Canadian held on trumped up charges now in solitary confinement for the last 2.5 years. Does he have human rights, does he have money, I digress I won’t even mention Tibet. There is always something to pray for. What is right and what is wrong?

Wade Davis

He’s a cultural anthropologist. You would be entirely remiss if you did not checkout his recent Massey Lecture Series. You can download the 5 podcasts from CBC. Well worth it.

What I do is burn those podcasts to disc and listen to them while traveling through the mindless traffic of the lower mainland, intensified by mindless politicos that refuse to look ahead into the future and forward think rapid transit.

The median that runs out to the hinterland of the Fraser Valley is now destroyed, clearcut void of trees and birdlife in prep for a new highway. This median would have been a gift for rapid transit, a magnetic train, or another form. JUST MOVE PEOPLE FAST IN AND OUT OF THE CITY that should be the priority

Bombardier http://www.bombardier.com/en/transportation/sustainability/technology?docID=0901260d80048cf1 a Canadian firm has built rapid transit rail all over the world CHINA and Japan included but not in BC you say ……….. idiots

Now we will never get it there because a highway will occupy the space….. (logistically future transit construction disruptions will be too excessive to the traffic flow and never cause new construction to happen.)

What for? More congestion because in a few years the new twinning of the Port Mann will be at capacity again you’ll still be in line but who knows maybe you’ll be retired in 5 years and won’t have to commute. What a waste of space and money. Tell me I’m wrong.

So maybe the next time you sit in traffic on the trans-canada from 200th westbound to the Port Mann you might wonder why Europeans laugh at our transportation inability.

Oh yeah … Wade was a park warden in Spatsizi Park in Northern BC. Near Iskut near the Stikine, near Eve Cone, near Dease Lake near Bob Quinn Lake near Kitwanga all of course north of Smithers eh

Poppy A Day to Remember

In Flanders fields the poppies blow – John McCrae poem famous

Its interesting to think now that we are in Afghanistan most military deaths are inadvertently caused by poppies.

IED’s and arms are purchased with funds created from the selling of poppy opiate by-products.

If we stopped this drug for arms trade we would limit the danger our troops are exposed to.

Why is this not happening?

I think of what it must be like to fight in a foreign land and all the machinations that creates, all the innocents hurt, traumatic stress there and on return, the costs of it all the money the human hurt.

I hear the moan of bagpipes in the distance its almost 11AM.

Storm Light

In All Storms

there comes a time when the light shines.

yesterday between fronts a line of squalls ended with some clearing just as the day transited into evening

fleeting it disappeared quicker than ocean foam of a breaking wave.

Photographers love this light it combines magic hour with the low arc of this seasons hemisphere, so saturated and intense.

Where will you be when this light shines?

Lauren Harris Stump

The tale of 2 stumps. Years ago Lauren painted a stump on the shore of Lake Superior. Interesting light homage to the tree dead and gone to heaven.

Here is a stump in Port Moody. This ones nursing new life in an urban setting. Harris’ Stump is estimated to be worth over 2 million Canadian selling this week.

Fall

Welcome to British Columbia. Fall is in full mode rain to day but sun tomorrow.

So get out and shoot the leaves and if you can try to isolate the light trees behind a black background to make your shots stand out.

Rethink Space

More on defining space. What space are you in?

What can you do with this space. What is shape form balance?

This was taken at an abandoned gas station in West Vancouver.

Defining Space

Waterpod Project

It’s been a busy few weeks and I am back.

Check out the Waterpod Project in NYC. A sustainable waterborne living environment on the waterways of New York

http://www.thewaterpod.org/about.html

Conceptualized by artist Mary Mattingly this project brings ideas of past works into the process while elicting the collaboration of other artists. Two artists from Vancouver Mira and Derek Hunter are involved as well.

Inspirational Mountain Biking

Live to ride article scanned and posted in Sept 08 Post scroll to it

I recently scanned this classic article from an old issue of Mountain Bike magazine 1989! It inspired me to explore in wild areas. If the resolution is too low for you and you can not read it I’ll re-scan.

Three bikers traverse an Alaska mountain range, raft rivers, bushwack … lots of fun… of course in the name of adventure ( fast and light). Get into these wild areas before governments develop these habitats.

Interesting to note (updated from Feb 2010): On adventure ….. National Geographic Adventure is winding up now …… they figure adventure is dead the MTV generation does not want adventure they say …. social networking scores big maybe …. armchair adventure now… that generation is old before its time maybe ….. regression do we need adventure? Can you garner a sense of place without adventure … is adventure too much work? What is a sense of place?

Kill Grizzly Bears in BC

Animals hunt for survival ……. Ignorant humans do it for the trophy.

Can you? Do you support this? Our provincial Liberal Campbell government does.

Film maker Twyla Roscovich produced this excellent video on Grizzly bears and current hunting practices. Take a look……

The Grizzly Bear hunting moratorium has been off for a few years now. It is unfortunate that this hunt occurs can you stop it? Do you care? What can you do? 2000 Bears have died since it was lifted. What is interesting and sad there are no clear numbers of the bear population so who knows if hunters are forcing the population into extinction?

I was fortunate to spent a summer in Glendale Cove on Knight Inlet at Dean Wyatts operation. Gained a total appreciation for wildlife in all of nature. Was in the area from March to September and saw a pretty full cycle very interesting once in lifetime wildlife interactions. Eg. Grizzly sow piggybacking a cub across a river. Kayaking with thousands of pink Salmon, Wolves chasing a deer over a bluff, wolves forcing a group of deer into the Ahunwati bay and then running the shoreline of the bay to intercept their landfall eagles fishing between ocean swells and yes even the birthing of seal pups…. yeah these things really happen while you text message on your blackberry but maybe not for long its up to you……..

Hard Change in Iran: “I wrote Musavi, it came out Ahmadinejad.”

I was talking to my Persian video rental store owner, he thought it pretty disgusting the way the recent elections were held.
Iran has a few problems…it was known beforehand a honest election would be hard to sustain.

A group of men known as the Guardian Council decides who is permitted to run for president in Iran.

We also know that the campaign did not take place in “fair and healthy” circumstances, as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claims.

Reporters Without Borders, the Paris-based media watchdog group, calls Iran the “biggest prison” for journalists in the region.

The government regularly jails dissidents.
On the eve of the election, Web sites were blocked and cellphone text messaging was disrupted.

A wave of arrests (numbering in at least the dozens) has been reported since Friday; on Sunday afternoon, a 28-year-old journalist in Tehran told one of our reporters that members of the Iranian intelligence service had just come to her office and taken away a colleague.

Washington Post Op-Ed piece June 17/09 via Radio Free Europe

These seem like old tactics pre WWII in Germany, Tactics for countries that have no freedom of speech and run by despots. Familiar? Just void the intelligentsia.

Surf’s Up Brooks Peninsula

I was fortunate to be a guest of Tatchu Adventures. BC surfing excellence hosted by owner Clay Hunting who also along with great surfing supplies gourmet meals all……. can you believe it ….. in a wild BC west coast environment.
The ragged green edge of the world … Can not beat it!

The west coast of the Brooks juts out into the Pacific about 17 kilometres, a ragged topographical discontinuity, its west face runs 10 kilometers along the Pacific. Its submarine aspect is gently sloping so as to produce perfect surf. Spring, Fall and wild Winter really pump. Just ask Clay and surfer/filmmaker Aaron Jackson.

It’s an experience you won’t want to miss. We Zodiac’ed out from Fair Harbour and hung a right at Union Island and scooted by the Bunsby’s to the west side of the Brooks. Boards were tied down and spray was flying as the Zodiac’s hull cut through infinite wave trains of breaking swell.

In the 1990’s the area was thoroughly documented “The Brooks Refugium Project” was a a multi-disciplinary study of this unique peninsula. Why is unique? It is thought that the Brooks missed the last ice age so it has plants and terrain not affected by glaciation. So …. stories can be told from this gathered data.

Photos Ripped Off

Check this link out. Grocery owner in Eastern Europe takes photo from an internet blog and uses it for advertising. Every photographers nightmare.

Online Photographer

Watermark your images.

trees

Oil the Peak

You ever think of about how good something was? I think of that sometimes you don’t realize it’s importance/value until it is gone.

Common sense tells us that OIL can last only so long. It is not infinite. A lot of good things come from oil yet we are squandering this resource every day on it as fuel.

We synthesize it for gas and waste 20 litres of it per year on oil changes per vehicle.

A world without cars, can you imagine?

We are becoming the tools of our tools

We are being programed by our computers

We are being bought by the supermarket

We are being seen by television

We are being driven by the cars
The universal dictatorship of cars.

I read in the newspapers as very sad terrible news that the car industry is in crisis

and they are selling less and less cars, and it is sold as a Tragedy.

Which is the proof that the machines are mastering us.

This fact is quite revealing, because it breaks the last remains of human common sense.

It should be received as good news: Fewer Cars thats great.

Its good news for nature, because it would be less poison.

Its good news for walkers – the prehistoric human beings who still use their legs, instead of wheels – because we will be less killed.

But it is sold as a tragedy: A world without cars, can you imagine?

Eduardo Galeano author “The Open Viens of Latin America”

Do you have children?

Do you Care About British Columbia?

Still feeling a might down from the results of the election. And its just not me its plenty of others too. The Tyee

I was born in Vancouver. I have traveled to practically every corner of this province in basically every mode of transport possible.
This province is special very few have intimate knowledge of the geography. Its physical, biotic, cultural attributes and their relationships. The ecosystems as an example are profound here but they won’t be if wilderness development continues. The realization of this appears to be way beyond the scope of the average person.

Those that do realize the importance will defend it. Those who do not will not.

How do you defend it … be active … show that you care … vote … be vocal

The prevalence today is potential worth in economic outcome. If you can’t make a buck from it it is worthless.

Run of river power projects. Unsustainable ocean based fish farming. Off shore oil development Coastal Tanker Traffic

No Results

There are 4 Million people in British Columbia

2 Million did not vote in last weeks provincial election.

Change did not occur. Do you want change to occur?

Do you want an oil pipe line to Prince Rupert from Alberta?

Do you want oil tanker traffic on our coast?

Do you want offshore oil development? Do you want to sit in traffic every day or ride a train to work?

Do you want a pristine province?

Gordon Campbell Naked

Gord the naked truth.

Yes it is election time in British Columbia.

We have major homelessness, inadequate public transportation europeans laugh at us…even quadrupling the Port Mann is not going to help, poor health care, poor education, Paramedics do not have parity, The Grizzly Bear hunt still takes place, Industrialized corporate salmon farming is destroying our wild salmon stocks, we still export raw logs, we have no endangered species act, and an 8 dollar minimum wage could you live on 64 dollars a day?

but we have the Olympics next year. 3 weeks I would have much rather had things taken care of at home seen those billions put into a Bullet Train out to Chilliwack and the poor taken care of.

Werner Kramarsky

“How is it made?” Not, “Why is it made?” That’s not nearly as interesting to me. In the initial moment, how was this made? What happened? What happened when the artist put the pencil or pen or brush to paper? And because it is almost impossible, when you work on paper, to correct it, that initial moment is crucial. It interests me that somebody had the courage and the idea to make that original mark.

USA’s foremost collector of contemporary works on paper

About art, you take it to the table, your idea, put it the paper, and it can’t be undone that inspiration with purpose or sometimes without its the pure volition, commitment to to the process the beginning of something, a start for something new

that might, just might give change to another venue, thought, process.

Its looking between the lines, taking the time to do so, and not asking the obvious.

Marshland Train Brings

Trains bring and trains take away.

Jasper Johns free

I’ve wanted to free shape from it’s ground, and then work the shape so that it has a definite relationship to the same space around it…….so that it has clarity and a measure within itself of it’s parts …….and so that, with colour and to reality the shape finds it’s own space and always demands it’s freedom.”
Jasper Johns Akademie der Kunste Berlin 1999

While I was Pollocking in the basement Paul Jackson Pollock (January 28, 1912 – August 11, 1956) today with cans of enamel spreading with sticks brushes and rollers on a black floor in waves of texture in
flowing layers with varying degrees of opacity .. freeing actually. I was thinking of Jasper Johns. I guess its all about being feeling free. if you know what I mean

Recent music Great Canadian Band Great Lake Swimmers Rocky Spine currently listening to Dorfmeister/Kruder

Kayak Hotsprings Cove Winter

Darcy and I had started from Nanaimo driving over the spine of the island west to Tofino. Then we headed out to Vargas Island and spent a night. It was January.

Paddling NW over to Whaler Islets we had a low rolling swell running at 6 feet or so spaced with 100 foot crests not a ripple on them. Semi Foggy.

When we got back to Vargas Darcy suggested we head over to Hotsprings Cove on the other side of Flores the following day. I said OK.

Up really early the next morn really frosty, light fog but you knew it was going to clear. The morning blue was just hinting through the mist.

We got beyond Whaler and the breeze started to build from the south.

We were in a double and by this time between walls of water…we were way out there to avoid any breaking shoals. The wind helped us on our way. Every-time we got on top of the crests (they were way less than a hundred feet between now) the wind was just howling, way down in the trough it was silent. We arrived at the hotspring. I was really glad Darcy was bracing in the back.

The next day a front was firmly established and we snaked our way through the narrow passages at back end of Flores. Later we got out in the open at the bottom end of Clayoquot. It was really interesting pretty full conditions we ended up paddling over the reef wash under The Catface which seemed way safer than going out further. The waves were breaking right over Mink Islet. We should have stayed in Ahousat eh but did not. Had a bit of standing wave action as we got closer the Vargas from the exiting water from the Meares area. Forearms got a bit of tendonitis. It was really dark when we arrived at the wharf. We unloaded and headed to the pub.

Nature is Grand

I was running around the Fraser Valley recently and have favorite photo location near Hwy 7 where I go to regain and try to retain some sanity…… I know its difficult.
The moment we lose nature we lose a panacea for a variety of ills, maybe I am wrong? …. That’s why I like to see checks and balances on all development for without nature some of us will go completely crazy.

anyhow

I saw this coyote probing for rodents so I strapped my 200mm ed on and watched him get closer.

At this time of year they haven’t shed their winter coat. Notice how it blends perfectly to its natural foraging environment.

authority

World Economic Collapse? “Let my People go Surfing”

Have recently been perusing “Let my people go Surfing”

Yvon Chouinard’s (the founder of Patagonia) 2005 dictum on sustainability and the transcendence toward local based economies from a reluctant businessman’s point of view. Much of the book is devoted to Patagonia’s philosophies on the environment, business and design.

The World Watch Institute*

…state of the world report in 1991 stated “with an annual output of $20 trillion, the global economy now produces in 17 days what it took and entire year to generate in 1900. Already, economic activity has breached numerous local, regional, and global thresholds, resulting in the spread of deserts, acidification of lakes and forest, and the buildup of greenhouse gases.

If growth proceeds along those lines of recent decades, it is only a matter of time before global systems collapse under the pressure”

Hmmm, that was 18 years ago. That was before industry in the far east torqued in.

What happens when you become dependent on world economy and growth that can not be sustained?

Rather timely one would think.

Everything needs to be re-thought. Your place in the world needs to be re-thought. Where is your place in the world? What do you value in your world?

*Worldwatch Institute delivers the insights and ideas that empower decision makers to create an environmentally sustainable society that meets human needs. Worldwatch focuses on the 21st century challenges of climate change, resource degradation, population growth, and poverty by developing and disseminating solid data and innovative strategies for achieving a sustainable society.

Current Fashion Sea Level

This local fashion photo is a toned black and white print. Not selenium but sepia not film or with developers but digital sepia via Photoshop. It constantly amazes me that a computer program sequenced in binary code ones and zeros+ logarithms can basically eliminate the use of film ….. all you need now is to update to digital DSLR + lenses + your digital darkroom and workflow programs to physically output in addition to thinking about what you want and how to achieve it in an efficient way.

The snow is gone at sea level so get out and make your photographs.

Note this photo are there any things that make this interesting to you visually. How it was framed? Positioning of the subject? Why did I make the horizon line off kilter?

New Ski Fashion

Check this out now! I want everyone that has even thought about Telly skiing to don one of these. They are in limited supply at your nearest outdoor store. They look so good and keep you warm too.

In Memoriam Larry Burrows, Arne Naess and Robert Mardon May

The dawn of a new year has brought some memory of those who have passed.

We are rapidly coming up to the anniversary of Larry Burrows death.

For those who do not know he was a gifted art photojournalist who died when his helicopter was shot down during the Vietnam conflict on
Feb 10, 1971. His camera a Leica and remains were found 27 year later in 1998. The helicopter containing 3 other young war journalists exploded in the air when hit by 37mm South Vietnamese anti-aircraft shell. Photo portrait here is taken 3 days before his death.

Here is his what is left of his Leica 27 years after the fact. click the thumbnail.

Check this link out for more info…The Online Photographer

Arne Naess

‘Like Wordsworth, he lamented the attenuation of such awareness in later life through loss of contact with animals, plants and significant places.’

It must be all about loss. Losing what you have without knowing until its gone.
Will it be too late then I guess its up to you isn’t.

Once you are gone…who cares…is it all about you?

Anyway just a couple of thoughts Arne was a Norwegian and mountain climber to boot.

Inspired by reading Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (Silent Spring spurred a reversal in national pesticide policy—leading to a nationwide ban on DDT and other pesticides) Incidentally Canadian David Suzuki was inspired by the same book……..READ IT

He threw himself into the environmental work founding Deep Ecology which concentrated on soft technology and non-interference in the natural world…. he believed that you had to confront technology and economic growth.

Today we have economic growth at the sacrifice of everything, food quality, everyday consumer products with toxins and the geography of the environment.

He believed, through his personal philosophy “ecosophy” ecological harmony/equilibrium that human beings can understand by expanding their narrow concept of self to embrace the whole planetary ecosystem.

Now there’s an idea maybe its not all about you after all maybe we should forward think to make a better more survivable world.

Not really a surprise he remained pessimistic about the 21st Century up was pretty optimistic about the 23rd.
when he figured population control results technology would be non-invasive and children would grow in natural environs.

We are on the cusp of change and who knows where that will lead. Maybe war, or some other upheaval, technology will have to change otherwise we will be destroyed, will we revert back to more simpler times in more natural sustainable environments? These are future questions.

Arne Ness led an expedition to climb Tirich Mir 7690m in the Hindu Kush in 1950. He passed on January 12 2009 at 96. He was exuberant, and full of frolic compared to Dalai Lama and Gandhi. More at The Guardian.

Bob May

Adventurer Arctic Legend and Pioneer

Son of a park ranger ( Manitoba’s Riding Mountain National Park) and committed naturalist parents ( father was an entomologist) Joined hudson Bay Company in early 1930’s at 17.
At 18 went to Northern Baffin Island. and adopted traditional Inuit life as only “qallunaq” white man in region and assumed duties as doctor, teacher, trader and nurse. Became an expert in arctic survival. Guided a McGill University research team in that time period members said ” Bob May can out-eskimo the Eskimo.”
In early winter 1939, he almost perished with 3 other Inuit in an ocean storm 30 Km off the east coast of Hudson Bay. They lashed themselves to the deck of their boat to be kept from being washed overboard. Two months later on a hunt trip they ran out of food after 14 days. While the others were looking for caribou he chopped through a metre of of ice and caught a small trout. Four days later he managed to kill two caribou. The next day the others returned with more food. It was minus 35 the whole time.. He was an original member of the Canadian Rangers the arctic militia group. During WW2 they provided information that was vital for transatlantic military flights.
Over the years he overcame many trials the environment presented, produced a large family, became a well known and respected guide, and a champion of Inuit culture and the arctic environment. Passed in November 08 at 90.

Ski Powder Esplanade Range

I was fortunate to ski in the Esplanade Range in the Northern Selkirks with Golden Alpine Holidays A truly amazing experience. Super alpine guides great food and fantastic lodges. Recommended if you like powder, safety oriented experienced fun-loving guides and terrific mountain scenery.

Alpinist Wahoo Tower

Here’s are a couple of photos from the coast range…..this is a great place to ski out of bounds. You get good views of some towering peaks too. This side of Wahoo Tower I think has only been done Climbed once A. B. Buttress by Fairley/Driscoll/Durtler I believe that was the combo. The exit off the south side is a piece of duff.
You can see this little gem from the summit of Monmouth at the beginning of the traverse. When you are on top of Lillooet and Dalgleish its a bit closer as the Manatee range is a stones throw away. If you have nothing to do for a couple of weeks do this trip its outstanding… you might want to allow a week for bad weather or some Dharma time. Telephoto was 80-200 2.8 ed nikkor maxed at 200mm on a high overcast day. Aside from the Waddington Area there are a some really good rock routes to do. The Serl/Down route on Queen Bess would be one and say something like Warbird in the Klattisine bang a few of those then there’s always the Toba ….. there’s a lifetime of granite out there.

Avalanche: They Will Dig You Out

These guys will dig you out. But you gotta make sure you don’t get buried. They are pretty efficient at finding bodies.

No Through Road

This is my friend Too Much. Some of the best roads we followed didn’t go through. But that didn’t matter.
Less traveled yes
This was taken in British Columbia in the back of beyond it was hot unlike today near Watson Bar 40k away from the truck.

Alpinist British Columbia Bardean

Sharpen your tools that is ice tools…axes crampons and sharpen yer focus too because that is what you are going to need for Bardean in winter.

One of the yet to do problems of the local coast mountains so get rid of your bouldering futons and embrace some real winter excitement.

The avalanches are over everything has been scoured down to the base layers…. if we get some stable weather the conditions may be right for these once in a lifetime climbs. (Actually the ava hazard is still high due to rainfall warnings 1 deg C at sea level translates into a lot of snow higher so be patient) It’ll be an adventure you’ll probably have to fly in to the base of the climb upper Chehalis/Statlu area. There is a cave halfway up the Tuning fork if you want to hunker down. Rescue will be difficult, so don’t entertain it.
It looks a lot steeper than it is, a third of the route is quite steep just look up.

Tarred In the Tar Sands

All North Americans should read Andrew Nikiforuk’s Tar Sands – he tells the story as is.

You will not believe what is happening in ALBERTA CANADA. Take a Stand. Write a letter.

We as Canadians/ NAmericans should be totally ashamed this is an environmental travesty.

The harvest of bitumen, is not cost effective or sustainable.

The clearcutting in Northern Canada’s boreal forest, watershed destruction and chemical pollution air and water, wholesale energy waste and greed is something you would expect to take place in a 3 world country without any moral or ethical conduct or accountability to the world you live in.

Do you believe in this? Do you support this? Do you have children?

When all is said and done the big oil companies will just walk away and laugh and you/we will be footing the cleanup costs.

It’s complete and utter CRAP. CRAP. CRAP. The tar sands should be the death blow to the HARPER and conservative Government ……See Dead Duck posting below

Powder Cap Ski Traverse

For those of you that like to ski and winter camp there are a few nice 3 to 4 day alpine jaunts in the Whistler area,
the Powdercap Traverse starts in the Brandywine Creek drainage and exits at Callaghan Creek you get pretty high and the views are vast. Here’s a shot of Randy Stoltmann coming off of Ring Peak. He was a excellent skier.

Alberta Tar Sands DEAD DUCKS

A Complex Issue

What’s a Couple of hundred ducks? “A complex issue” environment Canada is quoted on a April 07 kill of 500 ducks on one of Syncrude’s massive bitumen tailing ponds. Seven months later no results. Why?
It’s a no brainer eh? Syncrude is joint venture project with 7 oil companies and employs 5,000 people many of which are on a retainer or 20,000 dollars/year just to stay with the company. That’s a lot of money. In fact that’s 100 million.
A proposed one million dollar fine for a small environmental glitch where you can actually see something dead in real time like birds is a pittance; As opposed to not seeing things dead immediately.
Unknown are the results of long term exposure to toxicity levels in the Athabasca River flowing into the Arctic Ocean, or emmisions (Syncrude is Canada’s largest greenhouse gas producer and only 40k’s away from Fort McMurray) and damage to the Athabasca watershed in ground water and flow disruptions ( Syncrude uses 2.5 Trillion gallons of water a year thats about 760,000 bathtubs and water glasses annually, a third of the 2.5 million population of Denver,Colorado).
But we can make an educated guess.

We fight wars we see the dead immediately. The tar sands are a long way away out of the minds eye for most of the world but the effects are equally devastating. You just don’t see them right away.

As reported in the Canadian Press last month 11 million litres of toxic water leaks PER DAY from geologically unstable dyked ponds. http://blog.macleans.ca/2008/12/30/how-to-fix-the-leaking-alberta-oil-sands/

11 million litres per day my vehicle takes about 60 litres so thats about 184,000 vehicles with a full tank thats a lot of traffic jams

or the average Canadian toilet flushes 13 litres (way to much) thats about 847,000 flushes per day That’s as if the whole population of Quebec City + 100,000 got together and flushed each day.

That’s a lot of pollution. Great Photo

That heads into the Athabasca River Watershed and spews into the Arctic Ocean at Inuvik. But we don’t see it….its in the back of beyond the wilderness . Do we care?

Will big mammals like the Beluga or Narwhal retain this in their blubber, Will the Inuit suffer, The ecosystem is being compromised now.

5 to 10 years before something like the development of bacteria to nuke toxicity in tailing ponds gets to the field lets see 11 million x 365 x 10 years = 4.2 billion litres

All that science whether it was ecologically/environmentally viable should have done beforehand instead of going for greed as a common denominator.

Science and fact is not about hope or faith its methodology is concrete. write a letter

Free Range Chicken Feast

After over 20 days out and getting back into civilization of the Nepali outback our Tamang porters were able to score some free range chicken. What a deal … Safeway was closed and the local farmer had some birds to spare. “No feed lots just free range,” he said. “No way can this be true?”

With no Kitchen Aid or Bosch appliances in sight. The porters were fortunately adept and attune to the ways of the Himalayan outback

and lit a fire boiled water and first de-feathered the birds before de-gutting and stewing.
By headlamp we chowed down our firs meat in days since our organic grown yak in Ghunza.
Namaste my friends.

Avalanche Warning

Seems like people never learn. Winter mini rant ….. Its super cold for 2 weeks and guess what it doesn’t snow.

Even outside on my porch at sea level I can see the hoar crystals build day by day.

You know a warm front with lots of moisture is going to come eventually and override the frigid air … so it snows.

The snow lays on the hoar now an unstable surface layer just like ball bearings.

Then it waits for the trigger are you going to be the trigger?

Sometimes the trigger can be a sound, a yell or a scream even.

So can you imagine 8 snowmobiles in the rockies going into one of those big bowls with over 30cm overlaying ballbearings. Suicide man. Why are they there anyway? Whats the objective donuts or highmarking a slope, ….birdwatching?

Although this is in the Himalaya and its seracs falling and not fresh snow you get the idea. You can’t get out of the way when its couple of hundred thousand ton mass is moving a couple of hundred k’s an hour even if you are on a snowmobile…. if you are on the sides you might have a chance but really its best not to be there.

If you want to go this is what you do before…..these guys are ava techs at 2000 metres in Rogers Pass in the Canadian Rockies.

dig a pit, do shear tests, look at the crystals, note the weak layers then maybe go for it……..

Portrait of a Mountaineer

So you know that feeling don’t you?

When that wind pack is crunching underfoot under the labour of a heavy pack laden with rope, water, layers and at …… elevation.

that crisp minus air drying out your nose and throat, the nip on your fingers

Well you can go outside right now its just after 7 am pst take a deep breath of life and get that same feeling and imagine the vista.

Sunrise is due to happen shortly

Coastal BC December 20 08 high pressure minus 10c go make use of it take your camera and keep those batteries warm.

This shot was in the high coast mountains around 200k airline nw of Vancouver Fury Gap a high pass in the Waddington Range Chris Spencer on the left Wadd on the right and Hickson in the back. You want to see mountains go there.
Sylvain Saudan once said to me the the coast range is unparalleled wilder than the alps people in Canada do not realize the resource they have here wiki him.

The guy in the shot here is one of the most solid mountaineers I know Doug Herchmer. We climbed C.Spencer that morning. I think I have have a shot of that at alpenglowpro.com

Progressive Eh?

Lower Mainland BC

Development continues and according to local wildlife biologists the heron (the prehistoric looking crane like wetland dwelling bird) is down in numbers approx 50% this year

Likely caused by unchecked development…..progressive would you say?

My accumulation of development documentation continues.

Thanks to all that turned out to my Art of Seeing overview at BCIT GVRD Fall Parksfest.

Toba Walls

I was fortunate to to fly into the Toba Inlet area last week on probably the last day this year before the big snows come to the mountains of the coast. The Coast Ranges of British Columbia. The walls in these valley’s are truly wild. Like 3 or 4 Squamish Chief’s stacked on top of each other. Makes the wall in Squamish seem pimple like in comparison. This is granite country and photo ops are everywhere.
I have plans to photo workshop in this area as the snow leaves next year 09. Interested?

On this day expert mountain pilot Mike Thompson dropped us into 2 alpine lakes that hadn’t iced yet, in his expeditionary, exploratory aircraft the Piper Super Cub.

Yukon Revisted Stoltz

So what’s happening here?

Well were on a sandbar in the Yukon on the Alsek River just finishing off a raft trip.

The last of the season end of August. A STOL cargo plane comes to pick us up and sinks its front wheel 2 feet into the soft quicksand of the bar.

Droning on the Stoltz (Austrian) is trapped like a bee in jar.

The pilot gets out and takes stock and suggests that all the guides get on the back of the Stoltz and bounce up and down to free the wheel.

This works and the wheel pops ejecting 2 of the guides out the back door and on to the sandbar as we race into the air. If you look close there are two dots way back down the wilderness runway.

Fall Mountain Bike

Try to get out and photograph before the weather dives into November fetidness…if you can mountainbike all the better but take the camera.

Digital Scans

Busy today scanning film to raw.

Extreme Mountain Bike

Adventure Texas Creek traverse into the Siwhe Drainage
overnight fast and light. south of Lillooet BC a few windfalls do you like carrying a mountain bike? Make sure its a hardtail or it’ll eat up lots of calories and turn you into an old boy sooner than later.

Palin Conservationist

this was too good of a juxtaposition

caribou ed abby and palin

Adventures/Explorations

With this excellent high pressure on the west coast of British Columbia I wish I could say I have been out exploring …. exploration is about connecting blanks on the map not only topographically but in your mind as well   a sense of place and your relationship to it… do you have a sense of place? I feel most at home outside in all weather preferably in wilder places as long as I have food am warm nothing could be better.

September is my favorite month. In the mountains you can get a first frost the days are warm but not super hot

the air that you breath is not heavy with with August heat its fresh and cool kept under boughs chill waiting for your passage. I am waiting remembering those days now they seem forbidden.

Travel Photography Location

Back from shooting assignments and new found secret locations in the east. West meets east for brief subversion episodes.

Logistics organized for next year first offering of photo workshops here where is here? You can bet on adventure and stellar photo ops in environments so unique that they will inspire all your creative juices to flow with abandon Explore and Discover stay tuned for more photos. I’m just back.

Glacier Creek

In the West Kootenay on the upper end of Kootenay Lake another run of the river power plant is being proposed.

This is near the Fry Creek Lardeau area north and east of Kaslo at Glacier Creek. Of course it is pristine. The firm is from Montreal. Some of the best and biggest trout in the lake spawn in these creeks. If you have a chance go there this summer its pretty wild you can hike from the Lardeau area to scenic Jumbo Pass or up Fry Creek to Grey Pass?……

Ever heard of these places? Probably not that is why they stand a good chance for development. Do you care will your kids care? Where will you go to see nothing but nature in 50 years.

gotham dreams and Blackwater

NYC from the top of the Met. I like this softness here and contrast of nature and the skyline.

Jeremy Scahill’s book
Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army (Nation Books)

has just come out in softcover … a recommended read and asks a lot of pertinent questions about war
and mercenary security. These people operate with impunity without rules of engagement or honor there are 100,000 of them in Iraq they get paid 1000 dollars minimum per diem per person. 50% of every dollar in taxes goes to the military. (There is a movement afoot to not pay taxes to force a decision on Iraq.
They were also in New Orleans after Katrina.)

The Author speaks here excellent piece that explains the situation very well

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqM4tKPDlR8

and see the Empire State Building in the background too.

Kayak Wilderness Hut

A totally cool artful ecological installation space.

www.halikonlahti.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&amb;id=22&Itemid=98

Lost Diane Arbus Photos Found

Interesting fact I found while recently in NYC. Small time book dealer from Philadelphia purchased a collection of old photos in 2003 in Brooklyn. Some of them were depictions of obese women in Tutu’s and dancers with pythons stuff the american writer Greil Marcus calls “Old Weird America”.

Turns out many were Arbus’s she used to frequent Hubert’s Dime Freak Show in the 1960’s. It was located in Times Square but has since disappeared. Bob Dylan and Tom Wolfe also used see the odd (ha) show.

Check out this book recently published by Gregory Gibson

Hubert’s Freaks: The Rare Book Dealer, The Times Square Talker and the Lost Photos of Diane Arbus.

Its a good read about freaks, curators, underground history and Arbus.

A Southeby’s Action sold one of here works in 2004 for just under half a million.

Susan Sontag in On Photography wrote ” the most striking aspect of Arbus’s work is that she seems to have enrolled in one of art photography’s most vigorous enterprises – concentrating on victims, on the unfortunate – but with compassionate, purpose that such a project is expected to serve.”

Friedlander at Met

Checked out the Lee Friedlander show in NY at the Met his series of black and white profiling landscape architect Olmstead. So it’s Friedlander rendering nature. My fave isn’t on the net an erratic and some bush….but I like this one F’s style shows here without question…..go to Nymag.com for some more examples…

Books to get inspired by…

Travels with Herodotus Ryzard Kapusciski Vintage Press Polish Journalist travels with Herodotus in mind Excellent from translation

Kem Nunn Dogs of Winter and Tijuana Straits Both excellent novels Lit bent imbued with surfing passions

nyc Moma

Brooklyn Posters detail alpenglowpro

Trying really hard to subvert a few tropes just outside NYC with a bit of ambiguity.

Moma in NYC two modern works juxtaposed.
Recommended to visit. Loads of ART Dali to Klein etc etc a great trip. More images to come.

Take your time: Olafur Eliasson my interpretation MOMA… Pinto man talk soon

More Olafur…..I loved this Icelandic artists installations. There were more at PS1 but photos were strictly prohibited. The up flowing waterfall and the mirrored disc in the sky were outstanding transforming space and giving it outside dimensions. Where is your place in the world. Maybe we should all ask that? More coming.

This building has such great space. 100asa 4.5 @ 15thsec so sez the meta data

Are your Visions Arcadian?

A Utopian vision of pastoralism and harmony with nature….where is that attitude now?

We are still in the clearcut economic reality of development until you can’t develop any longer.

We lost a heck of a lot of stuff in the last 150 years…can we afford to lose more?

The term Arcadia refers a Greek province….the province’s mountainous topography and sparse population of pastoralists later caused the word Arcadia to develop into a poetic byword for an idyllic vision of unspoiled wilderness. The Utopian vision, Arcadia, is associated with bountiful natural splendor and harmony.

They had a lot of thinkers back then…..

Maybe thats why I feel free in the mountains pour être libre dans les montagnes

Pastoralists van Boise Creek Valley a tributary of the Pitt River.

Whistler Alpine Panorama

Here is something worthwhile if you like panoramas have a few left on recent run.
All the peaks are named with the elevations too 4 feet long 7 inches high…

click on the thumb for a bigger view

nature and illustration a great combo

Warm Day Kayak BC

Just looking forward to kayaking this season with this unseasonal weather day 20C. Get ready to dip your paddles….don’t forget

To get up early for the photo ……….this was taken at 530am + dew on the yaks gentle lapping of the incoming tide the odd gull mewing….you know the routine.

Dalai Clique

As new membership director for the “Dalai Clique” I encourage you to join now.

We can truly unite and subvert.

Marketing spin is full on in Asia today.

yes of course I am just kidding it seems everything out of China recently that is negative untoward is blamed on the “Dalai Clique” who is obviously responsible for everything from Tibetan terrorism to Olympic disruption.

It is an example of China marketing false facts and that is marketing Chinese style which is essentially propaganda with not much degree of separation from the Mao days. Unite and subvert facetious of course lets join the “Dalai Clique” eh .

Is China a dictatorship with lack of freedoms, no political ethic, what do you think?

How to see….the art of seeing……seeing things in different ways….and not only one way
some visual practice here

Monarch Ski

A ski traverse in the coast mountains of British Columbia can be pretty wild. The Monarch Icecap Traverse was a storm ridden experience. Days and days of storm and howling blizzard .(one great memory is being awakened by shouts in the night….. a big cornice collapsed on one of our 3 tents at 3am, it formed off the top a (5+ foot 1.75 metre) snow wall designed to protect the tent from the blasting wind but after 5 days the top of the snow wall became even with the surface of the glacier…thus the wind formed the cornice…. we dug out the tents by headlamp)..started on the Talchako Glacier near Monarch and ended up on a logging road that fed into hwy 20 just east of Bella Coola. Very hard trip for a skier with no technique crappy boots and a lot of heavy expensive photo gear.

Good scenics when it did clear….WE flew in and skied out …watch for Grizzlies on the last day as you come out of the alpine and into the forest north of Ape Lake…wild land we were late coming out.

Monarch Pano here a day south of Ape Lake                                     click this thumb for a larger image.

Invasive Plant Land

Sea shores have invasive plants too. This is a hidden location within the GVRD. What is the GVRD?
And Where is this location?

Is the Salish Sea just a trendy spin?

Like some trendy housing development…named…Babbling Sweet Brook Abodes..or Cedar Mills clusters of multi dwellings in clearcuts maxing out the space hear the babbling of people through the walls.

or SUV’s – expeditions for a trip to the supermarket, explorers for non-explorers, pathfinders for those with no direction home

Marketing: The art of convincing people what they think they need.   What do you need?

Are you tired of Georgia Strait? How about the Pacific Ocean?

Almost Nuked by Headless Driver

So I was just sifting along at 90k today on the Barnet Hwy going east…….A SUV Driver less than 100 metres away from me stops in the middle of the highway..at the Barnet Marine Park…there is a left hand turn signal as well as a left hand turn lane for the Barnet Marine Park….but this driver was stopped in the middle of the highway and not in the left hand turn lane….he was confused when the left hand turn lane signal light turned red.

There was a Porsche 911 3 metres off my back bumper. I had to take evasive action and passed the SUV on the left, having to turn into the left-hand turn lane…scooting around him on left and then moving right to pass…….heart in mouth….the SUV driver still stopped in the middle of the highway …if he had decided to move as I moved around him…. I would have had to bash him on his drivers side….to get by him…or maybe hid the light standard…..anyway the idiot stayed put lucky for me……..

Go figure….. I shot through the intersection slowing and accelerating again in a split second the Porsche had slammed on the binders rubber smoke just a spewing.

I glance to the offending idiot in the SUV he was headless. Ever seen headless drivers in Vancouver?

Upper Pitt Hydro Project Nuked

Just a short blurb here….this just goes to show what the power of the people can do.

Now it we could only sway the Gov’t to abandon

Gateway and get rapid transit out the 401 median to Chilliwack

….something like a magnetic train like they have in Europe or Japan….

Then we could get away from the the North American standard of freeways and pollution.

Upper Pitt River

Here is a disgusting proposition.

Industrial activity in Provincial Parks. Will park employees voice their disapproval? Will You?

So what’s it all about…..its about power creation… dams and flow disruption in the Pitt River watershed….8 tributaries rich salmon habitat to be disrupted a pristine wilderness area closer to Vancouver than Squamish.

Do you agree with industrial activity in BC Parks? Do you know what a precedent is?

Write a letter Do it ….. UpperPittRiver@gov.bc.ca comments@northwestcascadepower.com

and to BC Parks PineconeBurke@gov.bc.ca

Tibet Deaths

Tibet a canker on China’s backside. Why …does China support freedom?… Is it happening there?

Why?….natural resources, imperialism, economy. Tibet as threat, religion as threat Dalai Lama as threat.

It’s disgusting that we put economy and wealth ahead of morals and ethics.

China…. do you support China? Is there an echo of Europe 1936?

How will China save face….when are the Olympics again?…

Oh yeah…there is one coal fired power plant coming on line each day in China…..what do you think….where is China…

Beijing – Tibet / Vancouver – Downtown Eastside

Embarrassments both what are the commonalities here?

I wrote a letter to the Vancouver Sun last year about the disgrace of the DT Eastside and the Olympics I drove through the area today nothing has changed.

Endangered Species

Way of the Dodo… Dutch settlers clubbed the last 50 pound flightless bird to death in Mauritius in 1680. The 7 ton Stellar’s Sea cow only took 27 years for it to disappear at the hand of Bering Sea fur hunters. They loved the meat, it tasted like veal. That was 1768.

According to George B. Schaller (1980) 150 vertebrate species have vanished since 1600. Now extinction rates are accelerating everywhere.

When habitat is reduced by 90 percent of its original size 50 percent of the plant species will become extinct.

Most people only notice bigger species like the whooping crane or orangutan.

It is estimated that we are losing 10 – 40,000 species per year. We know more about stars in the heavens than the 1.7 million species of life that have been described thus far but thats a drop in the bucket because more exist and who knows they might harbour a cure for some disease, who knows….. when they disappear it will be too late.

Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson

“The one process ongoing in the 1980’s that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is a folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us.”

Canada Post has recently produced an attractive commemoration issue for Canadian Endangered Species.

Trapper Nelson

In the early 1900’s Floyd Nelson, a Washington prospector was inspired to build the Pacific Northwest’s first backpack…..probably the first one that was widely marketed in North America. He came up with the idea after a trip to Alaska where he used a First Nations pack. He modified the design and used pack cloth for breathability. Click Here More Info

When I first went to summer camp up Indian Arm near Vancouver …Camp Jubilee….my parents bought me this pack…I used it until I was about 14. I remember doing a hike in the UBC Research Forest with a Cub Scout group and cooking up hamburger patties in foil with onions over an open fire….I spilled some of the grease from that meal on the pack…I think I can still smell it today.

That was the same trip where a kid rubbed his feet raw by wearing, ankle cut rubber boots instead of hiking boots.

Ice is Nice

Years ago after skiing 5 days in the Tonquin we headed to Jasper for dinner. I rarely buy souvenirs but I couldn’t pass up an Ice is Nice t-shirt. The design was cool an ice climber in silhouette. I had that for years until it basically rotted off my body.

That was in March and March can be pretty cold in the Rockies…. any way here is a shot of famed Norwegian ice climber Slim Doag….in the Canadian Rockies eh. There is good ice in Oslo too….apparently.

Just as an aside American ice prodigy Jeff Lowe, a real famed climber of monumental proportions upwards of a thousand first ascents including the Himalaya has been fighting MS for the last 10 years…that sort of just blew me away found that out just recently.

Photo Workshop Schedule 08

Stay Tuned for up coming schedule for 08…..I am going back to Asia this fall in November….Himalaya with side trips to Cambodia and India.

There will be 2 coast mountain workshops ( 5 day ) that will include air travel and base camps. And One 7 day Rocky Mountain Canada Workshop.

And weekend workshops will continue this year lower mainland GVRD and Gabriola Island based.

and……..alpenglowpro was placed on The Tyee’s  BC Blog List today  check the link out……

PC’s, Progressive Conservatives,Tories,

You decide eh…

Bali Global Warming Conference – Foreign Perception Are Canadians Really that Inept….Disgusting

UN Canadian Peace Keeper Dies as Israeli’s Intentionally BOMB border outpost – Pure Gutlessness Here Who’s Accountable?

Chuck Cadman Bribe Denial – An Admission of Guilt would be so much Better…  This Reinforces Political Cynicism

Brian Mulroney Wrong Doings – What’s there to say here are you surprised?

Downtown Eastside Harm Reduction Policy – A no brainer, Physicians, Scientists agree yet there is opposition.

Homelessness – People continue to Die on the streets of Vancouver Whats wrong here?

And Not to mention Afghanistan …… how about shipping by AIR a company (lots) of Leopard tanks to Afghanistan……how much does that cost??? You gotta do stuff like that when you are at war…I guess.

Are We at War??

Abbotsford Hiking and Mountain Biking Singletrack

So I have been on a bit of a mountain bike binge of late you might have noticed?

In east Abbotsford McKee Hill this weekend. Go there and hike and ride before its too late. Its under threat.

Developers are on on the land grab…… houses cover the flanks of the hill….a 500m hill…..Existing trails are just amazing…super groomed intermediate single track dips and curves, bumps and drops excellent training ground in a super pretty environment. Now it is under threat.

The town council will they realize that people Need park area. A sea of houses exist in the surrounding environs.

The Mckee Hill area is an amazing resource for walking, photography and the peace that comes with being in the trees. It doesn’t need to be developed.

Do you want this??

Mountain Bike Traverse Gabriola

So after an enjoyable afternoon we found ourselves in Silva Bay quaffing back a few brew and decided to go for a ride. We headed out and decided to huff up the height of land above Berry Point Road and down the Yogi Trail and headed over to the Surf for a sunset brew before climbing the height of the land again and descending to Sandwell where we pushed along the beach and back to the south.
The next morning, we headed out to traverse all the island highpoints. We peddled from sea level xing the new 700 acre park in the centre of the island and then headed out to near Fern road and the Legends area and ripped over to Coats Road and connected with South Road and had breakfast at Suzy’s then peddled up the Yogi Trail and back down to Sandwell and home. We were out for 4 hours and it was great, total sunshine and super scenics

Beautiful Gabriola

Location found. Go for the light. Freeze your fingers off wear long under wear pre-visualize.

Can you tell me where this is……

Spielberg Darfur

Hey conscience rules Spielberg pulls out of creative director job for Beijing 2008.

“At this point, my time and energy must be spent not on Olympic ceremonies, but on doing all I can to help bring an end to the unspeakable crimes against humanity that continue to be committed in Darfur.”
“Sudan’s government bears the bulk of the responsibility for these on-going crimes, but the international community, and particularly China, should be doing more.”

Chinese support of genocide in Sudan has nothing to do with peace, just suffering. How do you support China?

Sudan, with its vast oil reserves, sells some two-thirds of its oil to Beijing. In turn, Beijing sells weapons to the Sudanese government.

China spent 37 Billion Dollars on its military last year.

Winter Sleigh Found Object

Years ago this was the way to go. This was the time before plastic crazy carpets and toboggans.
I like the original detailing of tow rope. Hemp so fragile now it powders off in your fingers.

Go Fast to ICBC and the Hospital

So if you were between the Port Mann Bridge this morning and Riverview at 8am.This is what you would have seen. People overdriving the conditions and wanting to become a red spot on the side of the road.

Speed typifies the driving style today. Few police little radar and lots of fatalities.

Forward think.  3 RCMP cruisers Fire truck 4 firemen 1 fire emerg response team 2 firemen EMT 2 ambulances 4 paramedics 4 RCMP officers Lots of manhours…… Fuel for all transport to station to scene and return. Hospital support Doctors and nurses Operating Room staff   Lots of man hours 3 car smashup emotional and injury trauma to victims, families and attending support staff.  Insurance outcomes everyones pays Man hours lost in traffic by bystanders…..hundreds Can you put a price on someones speeding?? Maybe the faulty party should pay for everything all the lost wages, manhours??? A couple of one handed grab shots as I drove by 125th at f3.5

Ancient BC Chart

I found this old chart at a garage sale on the island. This edition was last published in 1937, original information on the map dates from late 1800’s.
It covers terrain from Saltspring Island to Vancouver all the way up Howe Sound into the Elaho and all the way up to Queens Reach and Princess Louisa Inlet and north to Texada Island.

The detail shown is of Queens Reach note the little published fact that Indians travel from the head of the sound to Desolation Sound in 2 days. I looked on the the newer topographic and the route climbs to a pass and drops into the Little Toba River drainage which then leads to the head of Toba Inlet which leads to Desolation Sound.

The map 1 metre x 3/4metre is really neat in that it shows a lot of aboriginal place names and other paths less traveled.

I was fortunate to have some time in the alpine near Mt Alfred this summer. See the reflections shot in Sept posting.

Click this map to get an even bigger shot. Pretty cool eh……love the hatch marks that denote steepness of the terrain.

Comox 1st nations

Catlo´ltx, own name.

Connections. The Comox constituted a dialetic group of the coastal division of the Salishan linguistic family.
Location. On the east coast of Vancouver Island including both sides of Discovery Passage, between the Puntlatch and Kwakiutl.

Subdivisions
Clahoose, on Toba Inlet.
Comox, on both sides of Discovery Passage between Chancellor Channel and Cape Mudge.
Eëksen, about Oyster Bay.
Homalko, on the east side of Bute Inlet.
Kaäke, on the southeast coast of Valdes Island.
Kakekt, at Cape Lazo.
Sliammon, on Malaspina Inlet.
Tatpoös, on the eastern part of Valdes Island.

History. The Comox were visited by Europeans somewhat later than the Cowichan (q. v.), otherwise their history has been the same.
Population. Mooney (1927) estimated that in 1780 there were 400 Comox on Vancouver Island and 1,400 on the mainland. In 1906 he gives 59 and 265 respectively.

Notice how smallpox decimated populations of this population.

Whatever happened to Polaroid?

It was the early 70’s everyone used to have one of these cameras. It came with a thin metal clip that you could sandwich the developing print in and put it into your pocket when it was cold.

Life Without Goretex

I was sorting through a bunch of old stuff the other day came across this old postcard…not many around like this any more. Remember that first adventure away from parents, that first bush trip where you scared yourself silly in the dark not sleeping all night waiting for a bear to crawl through your lean to. Remember heavy weight and trapper nelsons and frying pans.

Alternatives and New Ideas

“One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea”

Walter Bagehot British journalist, economist. (1826 – 1877)

Who’s Elisabeth May some say she is Canada’s Barack Obama. There’s a great utube vid on what this woman stands for haven’t got the link here but it shouldn’t be too hard to find. When all is the same why not seek something different.              “Maybe he’ll be a black man or maybe a woman” NYoung from the album “War”

Are you scared of new ideas?

http://www.greenparty.ca/en/node/3360

Snow

Ice Climb Field BC

This is a frozen waterfall in Field BC. The Field area has a profuse number of waterfalls. Located on the 401 near Lake Louise the town in winter only sees the sun for a few hours each day. Its pretty cold there in mid-winter.

Lots of elk around on the flats and they frequently get hit by semi trailers at night.

Most of these waterfalls or seeps drain huge avalanche bowls and thats pretty standard for the Rockies….so there is sometimes an added challenge to the climbing……..use common sense and try to avoid the x-factor.

Ski Touring West Coast Style

Mt Ipsoot near Pemberton pretty easy trip just your average weekend ski-mountaineering 4000 vertical 15-20km weight haul maybe 40 pounds but if you loose the tent and just take bivy gear thats about 7 pounds off the back. If you loose he camera gear thats another 5 pounds. If you take a summer bag thats another 2 pounds saved. etc

However

If you like to carry weight over hills you can contemplate this….. a guy I knew carried two 1 pound jars of hot Thai sauce over the Lillooet Icecap on a 3 week ski-mountaineering trip from near the Lord river to Meager Creek….and really didn’t think anything of it. Extremely strong guy big thighs.

Storm Ski

The new year and skiing in storms. Wind whipping down the alley of dawn. High winds can deposit powder pillows and cornices on the leeside.

Climbed with a guy from Milan once (Guido Serra) told me a story of a group that skiied to the top of Monta Rosa in the alps around 5000meters just after a storm they gathered on the summit for a photo, 15 of them, the cornice broke and they disappeared leaving only the photographer behind. So if you’re a photog try to stand in the middle of the summit. eh

Secret Photo Destination Today

This morning a secret photo shoot in the valley for my students in UCFV Art of Seeing. Stay tuned for new photos.

Student Photos ART OF SEEING UCFV

Here are a few student assignment submissions (more to come) from my Art of Seeing course.
Good examples of shape and form, decisive moment, visual weight, rule of thirds, motion and the s-curve way to go! It was a great class. Thanks so much. See you next semester.

Over the Gulf

The gulf..the wide vastness with something more than we know, its alive and to touch it, to smell it, the closeness of the sea…do you live near the sea…and the surf at night breakers off shore the baying lions of the sea misty warm with herring breath in the cool of the morning the dull throb of a ship in the fog the rain a clear passage of light mid-storm, the gulf more than we know.

Gabriola Thanksgiving Artists Walk

Unfortunately This is the first year I will be unable to participate. The Alpenglow Gallery  WILL NOT  be opening this

Thanksgiving. My father is quite ill and is about to be admitted into palliative care. Thanks for all your support. Our family is

spending Thanksgiving in the hospital.

Clarke Country

Just got back from photographic adventure in the coast mountains of BC. Covered some steep ground……the famed mountain explorer John Clarke traveled here years ago on a traverse from the north. Here is one shot taken from a portion of that high mountain ramble. As luck would have it I was in a transitional weather period in the mountains where we had ambient transitory and some diffuse light. I favour these conditions as they make for interesting shots. Often the light can be washed out in the afternoon not really my favorite time to shoot but big cumulus were drifting past, some quite dark and dense with moisture. This area has alpine scenery that is just amazing, storybook tarns, granite cliffs, heather and grass and flower meadows abound. I plan workshops here in the future, another secret location away from the masses. Ready to discover. There is a possibility we can arrange a trip here before mid-October via float plane let me know ASAP. Lots of photo ops lots of rambling.

Gallery Show Success

Just finished a one week showing on Gabriola island and sold quite a few pieces. Some mixed media.

This is a symbolic piece and should look good on the wall. A troika of Kalashnikov’s as imagery are superimposed with a blooming iris and text with red acrylic, framed by a border of black acrylic.

Show Teaser Gabriola Island August 17

This is small teaser to a gallery show on Gabriola Island opens on the 16 of August rough work here on lake somewhere in BC do you know where?? I’ll put more up if I have time. I taught a workshop here last month.

John Szarkowski Dies

John Szarkowski is credited with establishing photography as an art form.

He helped validate photography, especially documentary photography in North America as an art and made others notice the work of such notable photographers as Diane Arbus, Jerry Winogrand, Lee Friedlander, Walker Evans and Edward Weston. If you haven’t heard of these photographers do some research and it’ll help you discover what a good photograph is all about.

Diane Arbus 1962

Get your hands on his 1973 book Looking at Photographs: 100 Pictures from the Museum of Modern Art.

“As an artist you look at other peoples work and find out how it can be useful to you” J. Szarkowski.

Found Objects Are Sweet

Always travel with a camera. I noticed this field of summer dandelions with a dysfunctional-kid-pushed shopping cart in the middle of it. It was red, excellent I thought. A Velvia scene rendered in digital.
I brought it home and had a bit of fun in Pshop and knocked out the green. Just fun in the summer.
High pressure is in so prepare for blue sky and tweek that white balance to get the parent shot.

Storm Light Coastal BC

Breaking heavy weather in spire country British Columbia Coast Range.

Lhasa … Fresh News Mt Everest Ruin of A Path Less Traveled

2008 Olympic Games

LHASA, June 18 (Xinhua) — China will begin Monday building a “highway” in Tibet on Mount Qomolangma EVEREST, the world’s tallest peak,  without asking Tibet.

Budgeted at 150 million yuan (19.7 million U.S. dollars), construction of the Paved road will kick off at Everest North Base Camp 5,200 meters above sea level.

The project aims to turn a 108-km rough road  to the Base Camp into a blacktop highway fenced by undulating guardrails.

The project will take about four months. On completion, the highway will become the major route for tourists and mountaineers who are crowding onto Mount Qomolangma, known in the west as Mount Everest, in ever larger numbers.

glacier work

This is a hidden glacier old under a blanket of new snow.

Fish Lake To be Destroyed??

Read Previous post regarding this beauty lake Please scroll down a few entries Jan 24 07

A couple of more posts are coming thanks to all for attending recent workshop 2week ago the flowers were great…..

Gallery Showing

Today I received confirmation for  mid-August for a showing of new work photographs. These will likely be a variety of photographs local and afar  and some with activist statements apropos to our day. ARTWORKS GALLERY  Gabriola Island BC   Gulf Islands.

Graphic Industrial Linear Form

Always look for repetitive shape and form. This situation/location intrigued me. In the darkroom I decided to amplify to create an interesting linear representation.

doug coupland could have used this product shot

Doug Coupland could have used this in his recent Canadian memorabilia book. I am not sure he may have something similar but it comes from an era certainly different from now. I found this on a hiking trip way away from everything behind a rock in the moss.

Colour in Canada

I thought I’d add a bit of colour today….soon everything is going to be budding out.
A bit of Albers and his colour theory inspired this.

Spring when its not wet is road hockey time. Wanted to use a semi fast shutter with a bit of fill for the shadows and strobe to blur some of the real fast action. Don’t rely on a motor drive all the time plan for the decisive moment.

Mt Seymour Video

Take a walk in the British Columbia Coast Mountains. See the text that nature renders.

Dalai Lama Bad For Biz

So how do you market and sell the Dalai Lama to make a profit?

How do you market compassion, forgiveness and tolerance to make a profit. Is there economy in it?

Business leaders in CANADA and CHINA think the Dalai Lama is bad for business. China thinks he is a terrorist and a threat to their nationalism. What do you think? China does not want CANADA to acknowledge what the Dalai Lama represents otherwise CHINA threatens  the loss of economic partnership with CANADA. Do we need China?

Can you change this?

“Queen’s University is selling its investments in two Chinese oil companies that are doing business in the war-ravaged Darfur region of Sudan.Principal Karen Hitchcock said yesterday the university has directed its fund managers to divest its investment, endowment and pension funds of PetroChina and China Petroleum.” I am proud to see Canadian Students at Queen’s University be the catalyst for this change. They took a stand.

Someone told me a while ago that they were only interested in living an opulent lifestyle at what ever the cost. Is your lifestyle at the cost of the Sudanese, the environment, or…….

Student Photo and April07 Workshop Schedule

One of my students recently sent me this photo. Kudos on your award Frank. Note the perspective at play which leads your eye to background, the element of perspective is good leading to the far background, the uniqueness of the terrain and light is good…but what really makes me take notice are the blue pools of light that highlight the unique geology….the photograph really succeeds on many levels….
Contact info@alpenglowpro.com for more information… I’ll be emailing meeting times.location etc…

UPDATE: Alpenglowpro will be teaching 2 Photo courses at UCFV in Fall of 07  The Art of Seeing and Pre-visualization and Developing a Personal Photographic  Style

Rethink Adventure

Just go do it. Bring a camera and picture the reality. Get in as close as you dare.

Spring Mountain Design

Windblown ridge top perched evening light minus 15 full moon about to rise. That was the moment. Exit by headlamp back to 1500 metres for a hoar-frosted goodsleep night.

Eco Note of the Day

Only
those
able
to see
the pageant
of evolution

can be expected to value
its theater.

Aldo Leopold

The art of seeing encompasses more than the visual

Be Active and Support Change, Question Authority

Nothing can change if we do not facilitate it. Many people can prompt change. Or perhaps we do not need change?
Its in your court. First of all you just have to think about it. Decide for yourself.

Are we going to pay the price of living too conveniently? Is the planets environment sustainable? Is the planet going to suffer?

I was parked by Tim Hortons the other day the amount of traffic in the drive-thru area was incredible. In North America how many drive-thru’s are there? Is the planet going to pay for our convenience? Are your children…..maybe we should think about it.

here are a few hints on how to become an activist

http://www.sierraclub.ca/national/activist-how-to/how-to-be-activist.html

Nepal

Nepalese soldier on patrol Lali Kharka NE Nepal. Early morning.

A group of soldiers were moving fast through this little village to protect the area in case of a Maoist insurgency.
Because of the angle of the morning sun I had an opportunity to create a graphic representation of the mountain environment,the soldier,and introduce the idea of political conflict into the image. The reign and sub-standard rule of the monarchy has since been downgraded and battles with the Maoists have stopped, there is now peace in Nepal.
No Nintendo here at 2000 metres in the cloud peaceful and content with the mantra of the mountains.

Travel and Photography

Have got some photos coming from Asia this one echoes the decisive moment. A travel photo workshop is being planned for India in Oct/Nov08.

Kangchenjunga the 3rd highest in the world sunset from the Sikkim India

About Enviro Throne Speech

Its debatable which throne our premier Gordon Campbell was on when his staff agreed to cut all provincial greenhouse gas emissions by 1/3

Hey I would of thought that pretty progressive but thats by 2020 thats 13 years down the road I thought it might be a couple of years. I guess this global warming thing is not really that serious…why not add another decade?

Our Canadian Life?……Lost?

News today “11,000 jobs in the auto industry lost”. Sure we have to get out of transport, internal combustion that is, we could employ those people in a similar industry going green with hydrogen….But that has nothing to do with it …we are going to import cheaper internal combustion cars from CHINA!!!! yes….Buzz Hargreaves head of the auto workers union ” how can we compete with a Chinese auto worker that makes 350 dollars per month…thats less than two days wages for an autoworker in Canada”.

Also this says nothing of China being the most polluted country on earth, they state they have no interest in pollution controls because they are 50 years behind the west in development. Sure we want to deal with China why not??

What of Kyoto…thats crap CANADA buys products that may be cheaper, sub-standard, but from a country without ethical environmental or moral controls….what a saving eh….yeah I think we should work on our emission standards ?

We do not have the balls to say No. And manufacture goods for ourselves that are environmentally and morally sound and save the Canadian way of life. Of course I could be wrong???? Are Canadians apathetic do they think?? Or maybe the Canadian way of life is different than I know?

Secret Locations

Taking advantage of the recent high pressure I was lucky to find a couple of natural nuggets just waiting to be found.
One of my favorite locations within the GVRD…which is the Greater Vancouver Regional District in SW British Columbia. I frequently take students here as the area lends multiple opportunity for at least three different adventures, all with great photos. This years workshop schedule will be up shortly.

Fish

Many go fishing all their lives without knowing it is not the fish they are after…..Thoreau
Hey maybe its nature …….what happens when its gone??

February The 1st Weekend

Winter faire du ski, snowshoe??? Proves to be good tomorrow but cloudy, stormy in the alpine on Sunday so don’t fall through a cornice.Here’s a small cornice on Mt Seymour, just up and right of the skier.

Dion Seems Like A Nice Guy

He probably is but that’s not enough to sequester my vote. The environment, sure its a hot topic. For anyone that has been outdoors for the past few decades you would have to be blind to not notice changes. Climate, ozone, intensity of the sun, the onslaught of pests taking advantage of environmental stresses are and have been impacting flora,fauna and eco-systems negatively.

When Kyoto was ratified in the 90’s a change could have been enacted then. Maybe it would have slowed down some changes, who knows….another decade has past and now climate change has become very topical. At least the word is out and the average joe might now be able to enact his vote to make change happen. Will there be a positive impact who knows.

Dion supports trade with China so is inadvertently supporting everything from pollution to social injustices. What we need is to use our own resources mental and physical to put Canada on the map. China wants Canada’s banks to become more involved in investment. Once that happens withdrawal from that sphere will become very difficult.

Canada’s manufacturing industry is devastated….the once thriving Canadian apparel industry, for example, has almost been totally nuked. The Liberal’s could have changed that but they did not.

I will not vote Liberal or Conservative, they are not forward thinking enough for me, they will jump on any current bandwagon to get a vote, a positive change has to be made.

http://www.gatewaysucks.org/send-instant-letter

Unfolding Environmental Travesty

Fish Lake South Chilcotin

For anyone that does not know about this area…. it’s amazing. Hiking, fishing, mountain climbing, wild pristine, wildlife profuse, high scenics, high eco-values bio-diverse etc,
Go there, hike the Yohetta, ocean kayak Chilko Lake, ski-traverse glaciers unreal beauty land. Relatively untraveled but easy to get to if you want to. GO…. its Heart and Soul wilderness country. It takes about 10 hours from Vancouver.

On a mountain traverse a few years ago from Goldbridge, north of Whistler, we ended up near pristine alpine Fish Lake very near Chilko Lake in Ts’ylos Provincial Park and just North of Big Creek Provincial Park. I could not believe the amount of fish in this little alpine lake. They were jumping like I had never seen before in any lake. Since, I have talked to helicopter pilots that have literally seen schools of trout in this lake.

Now, it is poised to be on the forefront of a precedent setting environmental issue that has nothing good for British Columbia’s future.

Now industry actually admittedly wants to destroy a productive natural entity for short term economic gain. Where does it stop? Is this right. Sacrifice a lake for economic gain?
Is that OK?

“Taseko’s plan for the Prosperity site is to build a dam from waste rock and tailings
just above Fish Lake on Fish Creek, effectively killing both.”

Unbelievably that is their actual intention. What’s wrong with this picture? It is not ethically or morally right…… is it???

“Kate Glover, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Environment, said last week the ministry would make no public comment on the two mine applications while they are in the process of an environmental assessment.
She did note that Fish Lake is home to an estimated 85,000 rainbow trout, of which 4,100 to 4,900 are caught annually.” Vancouver Sun Dec06

Precedent setting is this action to actually admittedly destroy a natural entity for short term economic gain. What of our children? Prosperity is for the developer and not for what is left behind.

In a hundred years, if we last that long, people will have nowhere to go that’s pristine and unsullied by industry. Most people in British Columbia do not realise what we have in pristine natural environment is actually a resource and years down the line people will be want to come here to experience it. WE will be lauded for saving it now for that future. Do you care?
If you do let this guy know how you feel.
Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Paul Sproat, Regional Director General,
Major Projects Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada,
200-401 Burrard St., Vancouver, B.C.,
V6C 3S4.

More China News

Contrasting headlines in todays Globe and Mail. China’s military hardware spending 37.5 Billion dollars US. Research and development to put China on top in digital warfare likely double that amount 80 Billion.

China destroys satellite via satellite.

China wants Canadian Banks to invest more.

What does this mean to you?

Stucture Series in Winter

A Few Winter Shots from my structure series. Last week I mangaged to get out and scoop a couple photos with the snow …wandering through Surrey on my way to Cloverdale. Changing envrronments impact and modify the landscape. How do these non-natural structures affect you?

Road trips are great ….. dharma running…. Eat is another landscape structure photo. This impacts the visual landscape. Do you take it for granted or does it make you ask questions.
Eat is so big does it typify the people in Idaho. Could the sign be bigger? Why is the orange truck in the image? Does the truck have anything to with economy? What about the colours are they significant….who is Joseph Albers. What is colour theory? How does it make you feel?

Great Winter Weather

Been out shooting some pixels, you sure do not need to be the conservator like with film. Its fast maybe too fast sometimes, you have to challenge yourself to slow down compose and think, still….. use a tripod.

Spent a couple of hours on Indian Arm checking out the ice and some of the winter storm damage, lots of debris in water, a few docks nuked. A chilly day but didn’t really need gloves….. bit of breeze on the way back pretty excellent day.

Winter white-out Alpine Traverse

This photo was over-exposed to get beyond 18% grey that the meter reads. You want white snow not grey snow. So it is OE 1.5-2 stops. This was a raging blizzard but a must travel day with sleds on a 2 week + trip we were late on this one. Storms came off the pacific one after another. The Monarch area is up near Bella Coola. We topo ed and GPS ed luckily avoiding cracks that would swallow you whole and not spit you out until the finality of global warming brightens some anthropologist’s day.

Winter High Pressure Activities

Storms this week have dumped mega snow all of it powder so go out and enjoy it. Kayak in the morning and go for a ski in the aft or evening. I was skiing the Powdercap a couple of years ago, of course carrying an inordinate amount of weight… the shot here is taken witha 5lb lens that I woofed for 4 days and god knows how much elevation gain…but it was all worth it….the composition here a sliver of light crested a ridge and gave this fleeting view for less than 5 minutes… then it was gone. My friend Mark and I were winter yaking in I Arm when the snow was down…and we’ll be doing the same this weekend…..get out and enjoy if you are on the coast of British Columbia…..and see some light.

Glacier Melt Factoid

New recent glacial/hydro data confirms that glacial ice in the Canadian Rockies is now melting 24 hours a day everyday. This is the first time it has been documented in living memory that ice is melting during the night. There are 1300 glaciers on the east side of Canadian Rockies supplying water to the east and north, all are receeding. What will happen to water supplies in Calgary, Regina and Edmonton?

Winter Ski/Camping

Here are a few shots to get you outside later this week the light will be great so take advantage of it. Skiing should be good too. If you are in the backcountry take beacons and probes and never ski alone.

One fellow on our Powderdap Traverse broke through the ice while getting water for dinner. So we lit a fire to dry his stuff out. It was a great trip skiing up Brandywine Creek and heading north into the high country below the Vulcans Thumb and across the vastness of the Powdercap icefield then down to Cahalghan Lake then down to the Sea to Sky. A good trip to for an intro to multi-day ski traversing relatively not as dangerous as other areas in terms of avalanche exposure.

Lillooet what a great trip more extreme 3 weeks climbed the east ridge of Monmouth with super views all the wayout to Wahoo Tower – Waddington – Chilcotin – etc.

Ski-Mountaineering

This photo was taken in the Adamant Range in the N. Selkirks Mountains of British Columbia
With the highest peak of that range in the background Sir Sandford Smith
In Keeping with the winter theme here for a couple of days yet.

Happy New Year

We Over nighted here one February years ago. Inversion trapped the fog in the lowlands below…sunny above 1000m.
Best to everyone for 2007.

Merry Christmas

Hope everyone goes out and gets a bit of snow underfoot and enjoys the holidays.

Gateway Project/China/Transport

Gateway is a BC provincial liberal mandated transportation project to facilitate trade with Asia primarily China. That’s the excuse ….to facilitate the movement of internal combustion traffic into regional centres so there’s a supposed economic outcome but what is the true cost……ethically, morally, to health and well being and to the legacy to our children?

The Greed Principle
Why are we dealing with China anyway it is ethically and morally wrong but we as Canadians refuse to take a stand against our government. Religious persecution is rampant, industrial development is unchecked, pollution is unchecked and excessive enviromental degradation is disgusting,(Pollutants including mercury from China arrive on the westcoast in less than 5 days), internal political persecution is profound, China supports renegade nations like Sudan and contributes to the genocide in Darfur with arms and ordinance, supports other violent regimes, denies freedom of speech. In addition, Tibet’s violent take over by China, should be regarded as a travesty.

We support this as Canadians..its win win economically. We invest in China like its the best thing since sliced bread………
are we that Gutless??????

Scientists say that Vancouver BC Canada is one of the most liveable regions in the world. Yet our government wants to increase
internal combustion traffic (against the science just like global warming) by building more roads and twinning existing bridges to flood the region with more vehicles. Common sense tells not to do this its a no brainer

Europeans laugh at us. Our transport network is totally inadequate. We should have rapid transit running out the 401 to Chilliwack.
Where is the forward thinking? Planners go to university what for?? We have the opportunity to shine. Yet we do not. Do we have children?

Question Authority let the powers that be know that we can vote them out of office.

Federal Liberal turncoat David Emerson is leaving for China on a trade mission at the beginning of January 07…… show your disapproval write a note to the Federal Government. Not only did the Emerson affair corrupt political process and set disturbing precedents in ethics, his government is embracing trade with China to say nothing about environmental issues abroad and at home.

WRITE A LETTER TO BC GOV’T OFFICIALS QUESTIONING THE WAY THEY THINK ON TWINNING THE PORT MANN BRIDGE
http://www.gatewaysucks.org/send-instant-letter

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Winter Ski

More Ski Photos off-piste

Coast Mountains

Nothing like touring in the coast ranges of BC with camera in the pack.

My Personal/Physical Gallery Space

Gabriola Island gallery space. The Alpenglow Gallery Framed prints and cards. Opened on the Thanksgiving weekend.

This is my base camp for gulf island explorations….a two day discovery mission of composition and the art of photography starts here and travels the scenic coast of Gabriola Island. Optional modes of discovery, exploring new angles can also include sea kayaking. Gabriola Island is a unique and special place to discover.

The War Series

Do you support war? Any war, here, there, or anywhere? Are you at war? Is your nation at war? My nations warriors are in Afghanistan
I don’t support my government. War is not the answer….The Dutch are there too and they have not lost a man….

Below Mixed Media Photography/Acrylic +text WAR Series #3

Snow and Ski

It’s snowing everywhere above 1000 metres. So get out and enjoy.
You can shoot into the sun meter or underexpose and you get a shot like this. In this shot clouds helped diffuse the sun so lense flare was not a factor a lense hood is always a good idea as it keeps the ambient contrast
at a minimum.

Never Forget

Never Forget…Never forget that we too can become extinct so it might be time to take steps to change this.

I figure we have already past the environmental threshold. That is the the threshold which the environment can sustain itself. We are struggling. Things may get worse. Will Kyoto make a difference now? I wonder? Figure all the pollution caused by internal combustion engines, most cities have traffic gridlocks twice a day, figure all the drive thru’s in NAmerica, the convenience we have now is going to be pretty inconvenient when it starts to kill us or impact the life we take for granted. What do you think??

Photo Post

Windsurfing BC cold fingers and a stormy wait for the light. The epitome of location, light and environment.

Site in Build Mode

This Blog site alpenglowpro is in build mode. Header windsurfers added today.

November December storm light is lush and saturated. This November the west coast of Canada has seen little sun. If a frontal system is in change up in the late afternoon 3-5pm there is a good chance a fleeting glance of sun will grace the landscape.
A location photographer that is savvy with the environment and weather, might align himself to be in position to take advantage of the light.

Be prepared to play the waiting game.

Explore and Discover

These are the key attributes to life. Be conscious and have a conscience. ALWAYS Question Authority