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 an 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.

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.

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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 to 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 know 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.

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.

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.