Capturing the beauty of Utah

Those that know me, know that I'm never far from my camera. And for good reason... you never know when you're going to see something photo-worthy, so if you want epic shots you need to always be prepared!

I try to find something photo-worthy at least once a week... sometimes the shots come out, some times not so much. Here are a few I've had sitting around, 3 of the 4 are recent...

Late-day Sun-Ray

This one is from the summer, taken from the top of the North Side bench. As the sun set, a low level fog set in, and the 'layers' of mountains made for some neat 'sun-rays' through the fog.

Red sky in morning, sailor take warning.
But to a skier in Utah, this can mean... POWDER DAY!

This one was taken coming up Rt. 80 through Parley's Canyon, coming from Salt Lake to Park City. It took a few tries before I captured someone's tail lights streaking by, and by that time the vivid colors had already started to dissipate. Live and learn I guess...

Mount Olympus in the starlight

This one was taken on a sub-zero roadside on my way home from Deer Valley. I had to put stand the tripod on the roof of the car in order to get a good angle over those trees. Since it was dark the auto focus wouldn't work, so I had to manually ballpark it. My lens has distances written on it, but those are more-or-less guidelines, because in hot or cold temperatures things expand/contract and the distances can be off. It looked in focus on the little LCD, so I didn't take another... but when I got home it was clearly out of focus. DOH. Still, I think it captured the beauty of the mountains with Orion's Belt overhead...

Lonely sunrise

The crown jewell of my scenic collection, I took this one from the hang glider launch on the North Side one moring leaving for work. This photo is pretty stunning, but to see it in real life what breath-taking. I couldn't tell you why, but as the sun came up over Lone Peak, there was just so much color, it was incredible! This was another tripod and slow-shutter-speed shots, I wanted a low ISO and a 'smooth' look. Since the mountains and houses didn't move, they're nice and sharp, but because the clouds were moving I got that smoothed look I was going for...

Adventure Thursday is BACK

Had a GREAT day skiing at Brighton today!!! I, and a few of my Deer Valley buddies, had the day off today, so we made a plan to ski Brighton together. Besides myself, Brooks and Chris came out, and we got an early start (we were in the lift line before the lifts were open). Sandy met us there only a run or two later. After a few more runs we bumped into Ben and one of his buddies that's here visiting, so we were a group of 6 most of the day.

I wanted to go to Brighton because I recently signed up for a 'big mountain skiing' clinic at Alta/Snowbird... and skiing in a wedge on the flats of Deer Valley doesn't really prepare me for that type of skiing. Those that know me know I have a bit of pride, so I wanted to get some 'big mountain' practice in before the clinic.

Brighton is great for that type of skiing- they get tons of snow, it's steep, all the lifts are high speed quads... and my absolute favorite thing about Brighton is the anything goes attitude there. You want to duck a rope and ski out of bounds? Ok, but you're on your own. You want to ski in the double-diamond, experts only areas? Go for it... but know that a wrong turn might lead you off a 40 ft cliff. Seriously.

I don't recall mentioning that I wanted to practice big mountain skiing, but since I've been to Brighton more than the other guys I became the unofficial leader... which meant those suckers had to follow me down whatever gnar I could find. And we found some gnar! Cliffs, rocks, steeps, pow, tracked out crud snow, sun crusted snow, thaw-freeze snow... there was a caucophany of textures underneat our feet.

While not skiing scary lines, Chris and I peer-pressured Brooks into jumping off what I would call a medium to large sized cliff (considering how hard the snow for landing). He stuck it beautifully.

We're taught as instructors to be careful what we allow our kids to do, because "monkey see, monkey do" can be a real problem. Apparently Chris wasn't listening, because a run or two later Chris wanted to try his first cliff jump ever. The snow wasn't real deep or soft today, but we were able to find him a nice little drop to try out. He said he was nervous, but didn't seem to hesitate much before commiting and popping right off it. The landing was a non-event, and with a big smile he said he wanted to do more!

Since hucking cliffs is sometimes involved in big mountain skiing, and since it's quite possibly what I need to work on the MOST, we took some time jumping off things. We were like little kids... find a rock, jump in the snow. Find a bigger rock, jump in the snow. Chris' first one was pretty mellow, but his second was of decent size...

Chris' second-ever cliff jump. Brooks acts as air-traffic-control from below.

The biggest air of the day award goes to Brooks, who launched himself long distance off a boulder a little later in the day. The landing was soft and he nailed it. He came to a stop, then fell over :-) DOH! It was pretty sick though...

Brooks LAUNCHES off this rock, sails throught he air, and sticks it!

I think I need to award myself the wipeout of the day award, even though only Sandy and Brooks saw it. I got myself in a position where I needed to turn around in order to jump a small cliff and land in soft snow. By the time I managed turning around, I was pretty close to the drop. I think I commited fully, but I was so close that I didn't get any real speed and instead of launching out and away I just droped and sunk to my nipples. I followed this with an epic faceplant/cartwheel in the snow, and wound up on my feet 20 ft below the cliff (and my perfectly parallel-parked skis). It was painless, and hillarious, bruising only my ego. I seem to have this chronic problem where I do these drops going too slow and faceplant. Guess I need more practice... we'll have to hit Brighton again, ASAP!

All in all we had a blast. Found some new favorite spots on the mountain (and some spots I will never return to)... got some great skiing (with some great skiers).... and I nearly made it the whole day without falling, not bad considering the terrain we were on most of the day. Possibly one of my favorite ski days ever...

A hike is a hike

As it seems to be the case for most of the adventures I set out on, I never made it to my intended destination (the Lone Peak cirque). I did, however, very much enjoy getting out. I got some exercise, saw some neat things along the way, and got to spend some time in the mountains. I like the mountains because they always serve a healthy portion of reality... this time I was reminded how little I am, in a very big world.

I thought this picture summed up how little I feel in the mountains...

Having never hiked up Lone Peak before, I wasn't sure which trail was the best/fastest way to the top. I wound up following a trail that cut across the hill for a ways before going straight up. The trail had snow on it, but it was hard wind-scoured snow, which was then packed down by other people... pretty easy going.

Following in others footsteps

Most of Lone Peak still bares the scars from the big fire here this past summer... a lot of the mountain is defoliated, with nothing but the stalks of torched brush sticking up from the snow.

It's sad to see all the burned trees and brush

Overlooking the burned brush, the view out into the valley was great. Having not flown the North Side in a while, it was nice to see the "bench" from above again... it's pretty with snow on it. It was a clear blue-bird day, and I could see all the way to the Opher mountains on the other side of the valley (where the flying site 'Commodore' is).

Looking into the valley you can see Draper, the North Side, and the Ophirs in the distance

Being alone and all, I lacked the motivation to move quickly up the mountain. As it got later in the day, I had to face the realization that I could EITHER make it to the summit before dark, OR make it back to my car before dark... but NOT both. Even though I have Monday off too, I decided sleeping unsheltered on a mountain top was more fun than I signed on for this time, so I started my walk of shame back down, having never made the cirque. After studying some maps later, I wasn't even half-way there. There's GOT to be an easier/faster route to the top?

Look at these deer tracks... was this deer sliding and even doing slalom turns?!

All in all it was a fun time, and I'm definitely glad I did it... next time I'm starting earlier and not stopping until I reach the top, even if that means camping overnight!!!

I'll end this entry with one artsy photo, of a leaf that survived the fires, survived fall, and now is just sitting there surviving the snow. Pretty inspiring if you take the time to think about it.

Lofty Aspirations

Finally another day off, and again I'm just not masochistic enough to force my feet into ski boots today. My feet appreciate the favor. I'm off tomorrow, so depending on how they feel, I might ski a bit tomorrow...

Today, though, I feel the need for adventure. I want to get out, enjoy the outdoors and sunshine... even if it is only 12 degrees today. I'm heading for a little hike/mountaineering excursion up Lone Peak. I've always wanted to go up to the cirque, and the closest I came this summer is flying over it... I never made the time to actually get up there. That's the plan today, we'll see how it goes...

Anyone staying indoors where it's warm and reading this can track my progress at www.instamapper.com, username 'flyhigh013' and password 'whereisryan'. You should check it out, it's pretty cool. Be sure to look at the map in satelite view (there's a drop down menu in the top right corner of the map).

More to come if I make it back alive :-)