Light on the mountain

I realize that I have been taking quite a few snow scenics lately - so many that my blog posts might seem a tad repetitive.  But in my defense it has just been so beautiful up on the mountain that I have not been able to resist!

I also think that my scenics are getting better.  The past couple days I have been working on including the foreground in all my landscape photos.  Rather than simply taking a picture of a mountain in the distance - I still include the mountain in the distance - but focus on the ice covered bush in the foreground. I think this has made my landscapes much, much better. I particularly like the top picture.

I have also played with the depth of field.  Sometimes I like everything in focus - I think this makes for a better landscape in general.  But at other times I make just the foreground in focus.  When I do this it focuses the eye on the 'ice covered bush', and that bush better be interesting!

Patrick

Animal Tracks

Ptarmigan tracks

Yesterday while I was skinning up the mountain I noticed some animal tracks in the snow.  They were tiny and looked like vole tracks.  This got me excited because as part of a plantlore exhibit that I am helping with at the Alutiiq Museum we desperately needed a picture of a red backed vole - the vole species native to Kodiak.  I did not have a picture of a vole, nor could we find one in the museum collections, and we ended up having to use a photo from outside the museum.

So I was excited to see red backed vole tracks.  Maybe we could use a photo of the tracks in the snow in the exhibit?  So I took a picture (see below) and then noticed that there were other tracks in the snow.  I saw ptarmigan tracks and those of a snowshoe hare (big white bunny).  I like how you can see that the ptarmigan dragged his/her tail in the snow, and that the hare has such large feet.  The hare has snowshoes on!

Anyway, it turned out that the picture of a really cute red backed vole still trumps my tracks in the snow for the plantlore exhibit.  But that's mostly because the vole is needed for the 'Fall' panel, and the snow so clearly screamed 'Winter'.  Oh well, but the next time we need something pertaining to a vole I got it!
Patrick

Human track

Snowshoe Hare Tracks

Red backed vole tracks

Rime and Dust

Yesterday I climbed up Pyramid to find that it had been rimed.  Everything above above 1500 feet had been covered with an inch of ice.  You could tell that the wind had been blowing from the east because on sticks and blades of grass the rime formed sort of an ice flag on the downwind side.  If it had been sunny everything would have sparkled, but in a way I like the muted light.  I could see the sun trying to beam through the clouds and it provided a soft and golden light.

Surprisingly enough the skiing was actually pretty good.  At the very end of the storm a dusting of snow coated all the ice.  It made for a flat and carvable surface.  Patrick

A little powder

Thursday night it rained hard - almost an inch and a half of rain.  But it was also pretty cold and it even snowed a bit at the airport.  So I was hopeful it would be an epic powder ski day at the pass.  1.5 inches of precipitation generally equals a foot and a half of new snow!

So after work I picked up Ryan C and we headed to the pass.  Driving up we noticed that the mountains did not quite seem as pasted with new snow as we had expected.  We skinned up the mountain and found 'only' 6 inches of powder.  It was kind of funny how devastated I was to find 'only' 6 inches of powder.  It was great skiing, but I had expected so much more.  And up above 1600 feet most of the new snow had been blown away leaving the boilerplate exposed.

Usually it is the other way around.  I go up to the pass expecting ice and slush and find unexpected powder.  Or sometimes it snows way more than expected at the pass.  It's all good. Ryan and I had a good time skiing and enjoying the dramatic views.  Patrick

Ryan skins up the mountain

Boilerplate and drifts on high!

Still pretty good skiing!  Powder!

Dogs at the beach

Yesterday afternoon Nora and I took the dogs to White Sands beach for a walk.  The tide had just started to come in and covered the flats with a thin sheet of water.  The dogs waded out into the water and it created a cool optical illusion.  It looked like they were walking on water.

The sun had just set and all was golden and the dogs were splashing through the shallows.  A good moment.  Nora and I watched for a while and then took the dogs for a short walk in the woods.

Patrick

Spring corn in January

These pictures are from the day before yesterday.  Earlier in the week it poured and the snow all melted out down low on the mountain.  Wednesday was sunny and warm but most of the mountain was a sheet of ice - except on the sunny slopes where I found Spring Corn! It felt more like skiing in late April than January.

Of course then it rained some more, got sunny again, and then last night I hope it snowed.  Now it is sunny again.  A very weird and quick weather cycle.  My fingers are crossed for lots of snow!

Patrick

If you look closely you can see my ski tracks high up in the bowl

Walks in the woods

Last weekend Nora and I took the dogs for a walk on Russian Ridge.  We had not taken the dogs to this neck of the woods in a long time.  It seems a lot of trees have been blown down lately, and weirdly enough someone has been intentionally cutting trees down so that they fall over the trail.  Still the trail was mostly good and the sunlight raked through the trees.  Green and Gold.

We hooked up with one of the trails I mountain bike on and followed it for a while back towards the car.  Very odd to walk a trail that I am usually flying along on a bike.

The bottom three pictures are from evening walks in Abercrombie with the dogs.  It's been weird weather lately.  Mostly warm and wet with quick storms in between.  Last night it poured but the temperatures were in the mid 30's so I am hopeful of snow on the mountain.  Today it looks like sunshine.  So sunshine yesterday morning - then an inch and a quarter of rain and high winds - and now sunshine and calm.  Weird.

Patrick

Watching the Moon

Nora and I thought there was supposed to be a lunar eclipse on Saturday night.  We looked, and looked and nothing happened (top photo).  Then we found out that it was actually supposed to take place around 7:30 on Sunday night - or, as it was called online where a simple full moon will not suffice, a super, blood, wolf moon lunar eclipse!

Driving back Sunday evening from checking on Stuey who was sleeping over at a friend's house we saw all the people gathering at Mill Bay beach to get ready for the eclipse.  Nora had me go home and return with a camera.  We actually had a hard time finding parking!  But it was cold.  So we decided to drive home and watch the eclipse from our house up on the cliff.

The clouds started to come in (we woke on Monday to snow), and nothing happened for a long time.  Then the moon slowly started to disappear.  And then it did disappear and turn red.  But Nora was highly disappointed.  'That's it',  she declared.  I think because it was hazy it was sort of hard to see.   Still, with the zoom on my camera it did look pretty cool. (But I got much better pictures for the one back in 2010 - even without a big zoom - click here for post)

Later, after Nora went to bed, as I watched the moon reappear I put the camera away, and got out the binoculars.  Why didn't we think of binos earlier?  So, so much better.  Next Lunar eclipse we are watching through binoculars.  Patrick