Click Images to Enlarge; Don’t Miss the Slideshow Below

I’m just down from climbing Mount Adams.  What a fantastic trip!  My cousins Tom, Don, Annapurna (16 years old) and Brianne, shared in the fun with my friend Jack and I.

The third highest and second most massive of the Cascade Volcanos, Mount Adams draws many climbers with its close proximity to both Seattle and Portland.  The views of Hood, Saint Helens and Rainer are incredible and the standard route has very little objective hazard.

Saturday we climbed from the cars at 5,300′ to our camp at just over 9,000′.  We ate and watched a lovely sunset, although I would have appreciated some clouds for drama…

After a night of high winds whipping the tents and very little sleep, I awoke early to photograph the dawn before heading up to the  summit at 12,281′.

The wind that had kept us awake in the night continued unabated, making it difficult to feel excited about gearing up and leaving the shelter of the tents so early.  The route climbs a 2,000′ face to a false summit known as Piker’s Peak.  Above this we found the actual summit covered in a large lenticular cloud 800′ above.

By noon the six of us stood in a windy whiteout toasting our success with champagne, tamales, and jerky.  Sadly, the cloud obscured what must be a magnificent view of Mt. Rainer to the north, but the sense of accomplishment was palpable.  Our entire group had made it.  For Tom, Annapurna, Brianne, and Jack this was their first big Alpine summit.

Now came the fun part.  There is no better glissade (sliding down the mountain controlling yourself with an axe) in the country –and perhaps the world– than Mount Adams.  The steep slope we had trudged up from camp to Piker’s Peak was now a fun-filled, fast-moving roller coaster ride to the bottom.  Everyone had grins on their sunburned faces.

This was a fantastic trip and I’d like to acknowledge and thank everyone on it for making it so special.

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FOR BEST VIEWING CLICK FS (full screen) BELOW THUMBNAILS

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(below is a key to buttons just above to the right)

SL = Start & Stop Slide Show; FS = Full Screen; PGC = Commercial Link (ignore)

I spent four days early this year with my friends Charles and Libby trekking and photographing in the Usambara mountains of northern Tanzania.  Traveling between the towns of Lushoto and Mtae, we found the scenery spectacular and the local Samba people very warm and welcoming.  Aside from a harrowing few seconds when the front wheel fell off our truck on a narrow mountain road, we enjoyed every minute of this adventure.

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For anyone interested in touring these lovely mountains, I recommend organizing your itinerary and/or a guide through the cultural tourism office in Lushoto (conveniently located right next to the bank).  Just remember that some negotiation for price is expected.  Also, it is never a bad idea to kick the tires before climbing into a strange vehicle…

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Please enjoy the following slideshow of the Usambara.  I have made the images a bit larger than those I posted from Africa.  This means that viewing the slideshow full-screen will really make a difference.

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Now I am back in Portland, look for several more postings from my trip to Tanzania in the coming days.  I arrived home from Zanzibar with barely enough time to unpack and repack before heading out to ski, ride in snowcats, and make some more images up in British Columbia (note: a post of that work will be up soon).  Now I’m back at the computer with a little time to sort, edit, and blog before the next adventure.  Stay tuned…

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FOR BEST VIEWING CLICK FS (full screen) BELOW THUMBNAILS

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SL = Start & Stop Slide Show; FS = Full Screen; PGC = Commercial Link (ignore)

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A brief post-script for the technically curious:

The photograph below is a 22-image, multi-tier panoramic merger; the native resolution of the file is over 100 megapixels.  This is a technique I’m using more and more to create large-format-like, ultra-enlargeable images.  Look for a future technical blog posting on the tools and techniques used in this process.  It’s anything but point-and-shoot, but the results are VERY rewarding.

For optimal viewing of the slide show below, you should click the small FS button at the bottom right of the show’s frame (below the thumbnails).  Use the escape key to get back.

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FOR BEST VIEWING CLICK FS (full screen) BELOW THUMBNAILS

DON’T MISS THE ADDITIONAL TEXT AND PANORAMIC IMAGES BELOW THE SLIDE SHOW

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SL = Start & Stop Slide Show; FS = Full Screen; PGC = Commercial Link (ignore)

The trip was stunning.  The trek into and out of the high country was through big old growth forests replete with waterfalls and meadows.  We had time to make a side trip to Bogachiel Peak the first day before finding a site to camp at Lunch Lake.

On our second day, we spent the majority of the time exploring Seven Lakes Basin.  There are seven major lakes and a plethora of wonderful smaller lakes.  The weather was perfect and we skinny dipped and ate blueberries and huckleberries by the handful.  In the late afternoon we set up camp along the High Divide Trail above Heart Lake and sought out a high point to cook dinner while taking in the sunset with a view of Mount Olympus and the Blue Glacier.

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The sunset we witnessed that evening was spectacular.  After the sun rimmed down behind Bogachiel Peak, the sky seemed to catch fire with brilliant flames of yellow and red at the epicenter and hot orange coals at the margins.  It was a dream evening for a photographer to be out in the high country.

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My Cousin Don (Beavon) decided he would attempt a monster final day and climb the highest peak in the Bailey Range, Mt. Christie (the high point to the left) before our journey out.  This added many miles and thousands of feet of elevation change to an already long day.  He expected it would take him 7 hours to get to the summit and back to camp.  I was tempted to join him, but my focus was on this area’s photographic possibilities.  To attempt such a trip would have required me to go too fast and too light.

I set my alarm for 4:oo am, and woke Don.  He rolled out of his bivy sac, inhaled a quart of water,  threw another quart, a windbreaker, and his camera into his fanny pack and started jogging down the trail by 4:05 in shorts.   I slept till 5:15 and then got up to catch the dawn shot of his objective shown at left.

That morning Don Duncan and I explored the High Divide area.  This was when I created the panoramic image of Mount Olympus below.  For this image I used my Nikon D700 to composite 14 separate images.  The result is over 70 megapixels and infinitely enlargeable.

At 11:00 am we returned to camp to wait for cousin Don.  Knowing Don’s tenacity, we both knew he would push for the summit no matter the adversity and we were both mildly skeptical that he could pull this “side trip” off in 7 hours.  To our pleasant surprise, he rolled back into camp about 5 minutes early with a big grin and summit photos on his camera.  Between our backpack trip out, the ferry crossing, and car drive we didn’t get back to Don’s house until very late.  He then slept just a few hours before working a 12 hour shift at the hospital the next day.  Amazing.

This was a very fun trip into a spectacular bit of high country in the Olympics.  I would not hesitate to return another year.

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This summer my friends Tony Kaplan, Libby Bailey and I climbed the Disappointment Cleaver route on Mt. Rainier, the largest of the Cascade volcanoes.  Although I had climbed the Kautz Glacier route on Rainier before with my Cousin Don Beavon,  this was my first time leading a group up this meaningful mountain.  We had a wonderful time together and a terrific climb.  I’ll mostly let the photos tell the story with only minor captioning.

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We started the climb through Paradise Meadows in heavy fog.

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The wildflowers and animals were abundant in the aptly named Paradise.  It reminded me of John Muir and his love of this particular place.

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As we emerged above the clouds, we found marmots out in force sunning themselves on warm rocks….

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as well as posing for photographers.

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Tony Crossing a crevasse below Camp Muir.

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Libby approaching Camp Muir

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Camp Muir is a welcome site for weary climbers.

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Climbing through Cathedral Gap.

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Climbers above the clouds.

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Reflections of Little Tahoma.

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Our Camp at Ingraham Flats was scenic.

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Getting some rest for the summit bid.  It’s tough to sleep cramped at 11,200 feet during the daylight, but the alarm is set for a midnight start.

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Strange things afoot in a neighboring camp as we fitfully tried to sleep.

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What a star show!

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After a long night of technical climbing by headlamp, the eastern sky lights up.

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It was a spectacular dawn.

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Surreal light on Mt. Adams.

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Nice light on Miss Libby.  The wind was blowing very hard up here.  I’d guess sustained winds of 35-40mph with higher gusts.

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Crossing a high crevasse.  We crossed many that were open and more treacherous during the dark of night.  In a couple of places we were happy for the fixed lines and anchors set up by RMI.

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Here you can see the wind taking the line.

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Where earth meets sky: Libby’s outlook

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Libby, Tony, and me on the Summit. (photo by Dave Johnson)

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The sharks fin crossing (over Tony’s right shoulder) was terrifying on the way up in the dark.  I worried about it coming down, but with proper care we had no problem.

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The Ingraham Glacier is impressively crevassed this late in the year.

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A tired party descends towards Paradise.

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Tired as I was, light like this made me glad I hauled an extra 20 pounds of camera gear!

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Sunsets don’t get much better than the one we witnessed at Pebble Creek.

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The above photo is a very high resolution panoramic merger taken at sunset from Camp Muir.  It reminds me of Mark Twain’s words after watching a sunset above the clouds on a Hawaiian volcano:

“I felt like the last man, neglected of the judgment and left pinnacled in mid-heaven, a forgotten relic of a vanished world.”

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There you have it.  The first pictographic story post on my new website’s blog.  I would love to hear your comments.

-Hudson

Click image to view larger

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FIRST ENTRY:

Welcome everyone!  This blog entry is to announce the dawn of my new photography website.  As this site grows and changes over the coming months, I will use the blog to post about photography, international travel and conservation issues both cultural and environmental.

Right now I am excitedly preparing for a trip to East Africa in December.

Feel free to post a comment.  Someone has to be the first…

-Hudson