Sleep Deprivation In Death Valley

(a continuation of my DEVA series of images and trip reports)

Death Valley is far more than a hole in the ground, and I honestly didn't even see Badwater Basin in my 2 days there, nor was I upset. I did in fact have some concepts for the basin after sunset including star trails, and moon lighting on the salt flats but the wind was less than cooperative, and plans needed to be adapted.

We were just a short drive from the basin on the first day, but Devils Golf Course was much more interesting to me than the flats of the basin. Fear not, I was about -150ft below sea level so I can at least say I was lower than most places on earth ;-).

This shot is an example of forgoing sleep to get the shot. Neither of us got any sleep the night before we flew out and after shooting star trails in the canyon below here till almost midnight, then eating dinner, and getting just a few hours sleep we were back up by 5am. We were done here by 7:30am, and in the real world, one with trees and shade, we could have gone back to our tents and slept for a few hours. Unfortunately, while Death Valley isn't just a hole in the ground, it is sparsely forested, and shade is a rare commodity. So we'd just have to get by on less sleep to come home with a few good shots.

In the end it was worth it. The point this photograph was shot at was devoid of any texture within half an hour of sunrise, yet our pre sunrise arrival yielded what is a phenomenon known as alpenglow that only occurs prior to the sunrise, and is actually not light directly hitting the peaks but rather reflecting onto them.

The colors and textures of Death Valley immediately disappear upon the rise of the sun, and any chance of a meaningful photograph go with it. Within seconds of the sun rising in this shot all the color was gone on the mountains, and I was left with a cold hazy background that even the warmest of warming filters wouldn't have improved.

While the snow might not be there later in the year, I have a feeling this point, Zabriske Point, which towers above Golden Canyon, is actually a better spot later in the spring or summer. The reason of course is the first rays of sun should rise on the foreground as well as hit the Panamint Range in the background. However, the azimuth of the sunrise in March is such that the sun didn't hit this area till it was fairly high in the sky, yielding too much contrast for good photography if you were including the background mountain range across the valley.

So in the end it's a trade off, the contrast of alpenglow on snow, or a more dramatically lit foreground. Which ever you choose, this is another reason to not visit DEVA during the summer months. The days are long, and the chance to photograph is short. You'll most likely get better images in winter and early spring just because of the fewer daylight hours and lower sun angle. Of course the flowers, and snow capped mountains don't hurt either.

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Death Valley, Deadly To Photography Plans

Not feeling well, I'm spending a night in Vegas lying on the couch, watching TV, and hoping I throw up (yes, hoping) while everyone is out on the town. Granted last night was fun night, I am not sure if I'm sick, hung over, or hung over and sick.

Pretty much confined to the couch (and jacuzzi), I decided to take a look at a few shots using the Acer Aspire netbook which has proved it's value on this trip as a jack of many trades, including a GPS with both topographic and road navigation software. This shot turned out pretty well, although the screen on the netbook has not been calibrated so the colors you see might be a bit off from the final version.

George and I flew out a day early to spend about 36 hours in Death Valley National Park, but after a series of snafus en route, and some delays at the car rental due to long lines and the self serve kiosk being out of order.

Finally on the road, 3 full hours after we were supposed to be and a combined $100 poorer due to travel issues, we arrived in the valley. The bad news is it was cloudy, windy, and terrible weather for photography.

So rather than waste time in the wind where star trails would be impossible, I ran down the list and figured that out best chance to escape the winds was to get into a tight canyon.

The natural bridge was directly across the road and just a few miles away from where we were, so we headed up the canyon and to some degree escaped the brunt of the wind. The sky finally cleared, and the moonlight was perpendicular to the canyon creating nice side lighting. We spent a few hours working the canyon with both film and digital cameras while trying various techniques.

More to come, but rest assured while mother nature was uncooperative in helping us get the most compelling photographs, we did have a great time.

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Throwing In The Towel...

I actually have a few trip reports that were waiting on photos, but they are stuck on the laptop which is short WiFi right now, and my desire to copy the blog entry's onto a memory card and load them onto my PC is pretty pathetic.

I mean lets face it, anyone that reads this blog is looking for 2 things, trip/camping info, and/or the photos. Anyone actually reading the text is in my opinion only doing so to make themselves feel like a literary genius after 5 minutes of spelling errors, misuse of homonyms, lack of spell checking, and just poor formatting (come on, how many times have I let two words run together???).

Any how, I am now up to mid June for my photos...not counting Beer Fest (Mondiale de le Biere - Montreal), and of course the rest of Heather's graduation photos, so consider this a partial update to the last real blog entry of 2008 which was the Snowy Mountain blog.

So without further delay, without all the little jibber jabber that slows down your scrolling to the maps, photos, and trip info...

May:

Heather's Graduation

Memorial Day (revisited) The Davis Path....

June:

Escaping The Heat: 3 Days In the Northern Presidential's (Caps Ridge, Mt Jefferson, Adams, Madison, King Ravine)

technorati tags:New Hampshire, Presidentials, Dry River Wilderness, hiking, backpacking, climbing, Alpine Zone, K20D, Pentax, flowers, AMC, Mount, Madison, Jefferson, Adams, Washington, Madison Springs Hut, King Ravine, Davis Path, Mount Isolation, Crawford, Androscoggin, sunrise, Gorham

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Snowy Mountain, The High Peak That Isn't

Snowy Mountain is higher than two "official" Adirondack High Peaks, yet doesn't get much attention from peak baggers. Generally if it's not required for the 46er patch it's not worth hiking till you knock off the official 46.



The ADK 46 is a sickness of sorts. Luckily my only affliction is avoiding list during my free time. As such I'll eventually hike all 46 (in winter no less) but perhaps 5, 10, 15 years. When you actively seek the patch your life becomes enslaved to checking off peaks as rapidly as possible. I've hiked with people who admitted to a certain peak being a favorite but refused to hike it again because it was checked off the list. On the other hand, I've hiked the same peak in consecutive weekends before with no regrets. Nothing wrong with either route, but the list route just isn't for me.

That said, Snowy is definitely harder than a handful of official 4000 footers, and it's officially only 110 feet shy of being a true 4000 footer.



I've never hiked Snowy but it's been on my "list" for some time. So I lied, I do have list. I should have said, I don't like being committed to schedules.

The first thing I noticed on the drive up in early afternoon was no traffic on the roads or cars at the trail heads. As we drove down Route 30 towards Indian Lake and the Snowy Mountain pullout and trail head the roads remained quiet. At the pull out it was empty aside from a few cars, two of which were leaving as we pulled in. We didn't see the first group on the trail to halfway in, and only saw 5 people all day.



On the trail we were immediately greeted by wildflowers filling the forest floor, and black flies filling the air. The flies weren't biting but they were swarming. At one point, just before the flies disappeared at about 3250ft I had to cover my mouth to keep the flies out while trying to move fast enough to keep them from bugging me to death. Well I'd like to say as a conservationist I wasn't using DEET or any other bug spray because the flys need to eat as well, but truth is like that first sunburn of the year, I just need a little reminder of how bad the bugs can be. However, I usually avoid the DEET till i can't take it anymore. That stuff really isn't good for anyone and the less I use the better.



Aim was breaking in the new boots she got the weekend before for the first time on trail, and with a few attempts at getting some wildflower macros with the test K20D and 35mm Macro Limited we ended up taking a slow 3.5 hours to hike the 4 miles to the summit.

 

At about 3500 feet the trail got steep and deep with about 3 feet of snow still on the ground, along with some water soaked slabs, and a few drippy rock scrambles. Everything that makes a mountain fun to climb in the spring. Well, everything but the rotten snow that didn't hold me too often.

 

The summit has a nice east facing overlook right off the trail which you can see about 180 degrees or more, and there are some additional overlooks around the mountain. Snowy Mountain offers excellent rock climbing, a slide climb, and a recent first ascent of a moderate ice climb. Snowy has no reason to be envious of it's neighbors to the north. This almost High Peak has everything you typically find in the high peaks, plus it has a fully restored fire tower.



We spent about 30 minutes in the cab, snacking and taking photos. The wind was pounding the tower and I'd guess the air temperature was in the high 40s. Unfortunately the sky had clouded up by this point so the views were a bit distracted by the gray skies.



The trip down was a blast for me. Everyone knows my penchant for taking the fast route down a mountain, and give me a few hundred feet of snow on a steep mountain side and I'll be down as fast as gravity allows. Aim on the other hand is slower than Christmas. So no matter how fast Caney, with his built in 4 paw drive, or me with my magical ability to prove the theory of gravity get down the mountain, we have to wait.,,and wait...and wait.



6h45m and 4400 feet later we were back at the car.

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