backpacking

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Larch Madness

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I missed out the Larch Madness of 2024, for the reason that I was in a completely different continent at the peak of the larch season. Larch madness, so named for the precise and synchronous change of color by the Western larches, whose needles take on a amber hue as the temperatures start to dip in early October. Walking in a larch forest at this time is a surreal experience, with backlit trees exhibiting a golden hue. And since they grow in large clusters, the color is very pronounced both up close and from a distance.

This is one such larch grove at one of my favorite destinations for the larches. I happened to arrive at the right time to capture beautiful reflections at this golden lake in the eastern eaves of the Cascade range.

Okanogan Wenatchee National Forest
WA USA

Wonderwall

One of the perks of being stuck at home is to go back and comb the archives for hidden gems. The improvement in editing techniques can lease new life to old images that I had discarded as 'uneditable'. Lightroom's capabilities to selectively filter regions based on luminance and color ranges have proved invaluable in this.

This was one such image, which proved difficult to edit at the time I shot it (6 years ago) due to the high dynamic range. While I did take a few bracketed exposures of this scene, and shot a few others with a graduated ND filter, the former lacked sharpness due to lack of a tripod to keep the camera steady, and the latter introduced visual artifacts that were proving challenging to remove. With the new capabilities of LR, I was able to control exposure in a much better manner, and restore the photo to what I actually experienced at the scene.

Gifford Pinchot National Forest
WA USA

Above the clouds

September in the PNW is truly the best time to explore the vast hinterlands of the Cascades. The temperatures are a bit cooler, the bugs are gone, fires usually die down, and the occasional storms provide for some photogenic cloudscapes. And it comes with the added bonus of delicious ripe blueberries and huckleberries waiting to be picked up. The stark changes in the hues of the landscape towards the end of the month is just icing on the cake.

I can't wait for the next year to see such mountaintop vistas once again.

You can purchase my 2024 calendar at this link.

Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest
WA USA

The high Caucasus

In August of this year, I found myself wandering through the Svaneti region of northern Georgia (the country). This mountainous province, landlocked within the high mountains of the Caucasus range, was a delight to explore. Snow-capped peaks towering over 15000ft lined the northern border of the country, interspersed by massive glaciers and alpine landscapes. This was the region that put Georgia on the prominent circuits of the European hiking community. And after spending a few days here, I could understand why.

Here is one of the mountain passes I summited during a 4-day trek in the Svaneti region, and is the featured image for August in my 2024 photography calendar. You can purchase my 2024 calendar at this link. And as before, all proceeds get donated to the Sierra Club Foundation.

Svaneti
Georgia

Novarupta

While the term Katmai National Park conjures up images of Fat Bear Week and of gluttonous grizzles gorging on salmon, I found the volcanic wastelands of the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes far more fascinating. The eruption of the Novarupta volcano which deposited hundreds of feet of ash on this vast valley took place in 1912, and it was the largest eruption of the 20th century. Though news of this eruption was overshadowed by an even more titanic disaster, the sinking of the Titanic.

Hiking into this remote valley left me with an itch to explore more of this unique landscape someday.

As before, you can buy this calendar at this link.

Katmai National Park
AK USA

The Core of Novarupta

Most people associate Katmai with its famous grizzles. They are the star of the show, after all. However, there is an entirely different aspect to the National Park that very few people get out to explore.

In the summer of 1912, this park lay witness to one of the largest volcanic explosions of the century: the Novarupta explosion. It created an umbrella cloud 1000 miles wide, and expelled thirty times as much ash as Mt St Helens, lowering earth's temperature by more than a degree. The ash flow piled 700ft deep into the glaciated valley which now resembles a moonscape. This is the Valley of the 10000 smokes, so named for the innumerable fumeroles and vents that were observed in the aftermath of the explosion.

This valley is like no other: a vast ash-strewn landscape with nary a sign of vegetation stretching for miles into the horizon. The distant glacier-covered volcanoes are a reminder of the active nature of this region. In the late afternoon light, I snatched a few telephoto images of this mountainscape to capture the interplay of shadow and light.

Katmai National Park
AK USA

Last Light

Climbing high above the clouds puts one in a special place, a place where your only concern is survival. It seems like a place removed from the realities of everyday life and humdrum work, of politics and power struggles, and of the pressures of time and place. Out here, you can sit and admire the slow changes in the sky as the sun sets, and of the blue mountain ranges giving way to the twinkling lights of cities far in the horizon.

Eventually, the cold takes over, forcing you to settle in for the long night, but not before capturing one last look.

Mount Adams Wilderness
WA USA

Summerlands

As much as I try to escape to the south during the long and dark winters of the Pacific Northwest, I can't imagine spending the summers anywhere else. I imagine hiking through beautiful meadows filled with wildflower dancing to the wind, watching colorful sunrises over alpine lakes, climbing up to mountaintops for panoramic views of snow-capped peaks, and enjoying my own wilderness amidst the Cascades. This scene encapsulates what I love about the PNW summers. And while the wildflowers were long gone, the idyllic mountain scenery was still ever-present.

Glacier Peak Wilderness
WA USA

Morning Reflections

In an alpine landscape, I normally strive to shoot reflections of the mountains catching the first light of the day. But sometimes, it pays to look in the opposite direction as well.

These were taken minutes apart at the same lake in the pre-dawn light.

Inyo National Forest
CA USA