Category Archives: Photo of the Week
Photo of the Week: Dan & Janine in Alaska
This week’s photo is meant to make our friends laugh. The absurdity of this photo is especially apparent to anyone who knows us.
In 2000, Janine and I were in Kodiak, Alaska. A walk in the woods or the beach is something best done armed. So with my handy six shooter, and Janine with her sawed off shotgun, we set out to explore the whales roaming the shoreline. Our friend Lynn Noel snapped the photo of us in our best Bonnie & Clyde stance. Yuck it up folks.
Also posted in Humor
2 Comments
Photo of the Week: Fairy Meadows Hut and Holiday Thanks
This week’s Photo is inspired by cold, coziness, snow and friends. All of which many of us are trying to combine this Thanksgiving Holiday week.
We find ourselves in Moab, Utah and are fortunate enough to have been offered dinner with some new friends we met only a week ago. We’re staying at an amazing little B&B called the Cali Cochitta who’s owners, Dave and Kim Boger have been incredibly wonderful as hosts, and it is with them that we will be enjoying the holiday. Traveling is a reminder of how many great people there are in this world, and for this we are thankful this year.
Also for our amazing friends, who regularly shine with kindness and generosity. You all make traveling about so much fun to check in with or meet up for some playtime.
In 2008, along with 18 friends, Janine and I went to the Fairy Meadows Hut in Canada. There, completely isolated in the backcountry, we startled hibernating animals with our laughter emanating each night from the comfort of the warm hut. Friends, warmth, good food and drink – great stuff to look both back on and forward to.
From Janine and Dan – Thanks to all our friends and friends to be – Happy Thanksgiving.
Also posted in Skiing
2 Comments
Photo of the Week: Moab Mountain Biking
Janine had the camera today and exactly twice I heard her yell, “Stop!”
And so I did, and these were her two takes. One classic Moab scene and one funky fun. Both, this week’s Photo of the Week – to make up for missing last week.
Photo of the Day: Sellaronda Ski Race
This week’s selection is meant to be inspiration. Snow is falling, thoughts are turning to skiing and the coming ski rando season is nearly upon us. This photo is from the start line in Corvara, in the Alta Badia.
Last year I did my first races in Italy and had a great time, I also got thoroughly schooled in one of the hardest endurance tests I have ever done. Sci alpinismo, or ski rando racing as it is called in English is massively popular in Europe. The sport combines backcountry skiing with mountain running and alpinism.
One of the biggest races in Italy is the Sellaronda Ski Marathon. Beginning at dusk, the race circumnavigates the Dolomite’s Sella Group using both pistes and service roads – at night!
Participants use powerful headlamps and ultralight ski gear, the climbs are incredibly fast and the descents are on torch lined pistes and typically in full tucks. The sport is 100% full on.
We shot the race in 2008 and it was enough to make me want to try it the following winter. I can confirm; fun, addicting and painful.
Also posted in Dolomites, DolomiteSport, Photography, Skiing
Tagged Dolomites, Italy, Mountain Sports, Skiing
1 Comment
Photo of the Day: Moab Base Jump
Janine and I spent the winter of 2000 living in Moab, Utah. Our address was wherever we parked our van and we were free to roam and photograph anything and everything in the amazing Utah desert.
Just outside town and along the corridor of the Colorado River are the steep towers of Wall Street. There we met some Swedish base jumpers who invited us along to photograph them for a day. We hiked to the top of the wall, shot them prepping their gear, and then photographed the actual jump. Back then, before being inundated with YouTube videos of all things extreme, seeing someone jump off a cliff was not at all normal, in fact it still isn’t – when seen in person.
After they jumped we had still to walk down. While doing so we passed, and said hello, to two other base jumpers headed up. Then we realized that if we hurried down, we might catch them as they jump. Our arrival back to the bottom was perfectly timed with Jimmy Pouchert’s exit. I remember having seconds to get the camera out and an image framed before he jumped. Later, when we first saw the photo on the lightbox, we new we had something special. Thanks to its simplicity, it reveals what it means to base jump.
Photo of the Day: The Airport Bivvy
SP Parker, Susie Sutphin, Janine Patitucci and Todd Bibler find the perfect airport bivouac
This week’s Photo of the Day is purely for fun.
When you travel a lot, are an outdoor type and don’t mind what people think of you – it is entirely normal to do odd things. Like setting up camp in the San Francisco airport after a missed connection while returning home from Canada’s Fairy Meadows. Note, we tried to establish a boundary/privacy screen with our ski bags.
The quote of the night, at 2 a.m., was Todd Bibler’s. As we lay trying to pass out, with speakers blasting, “The red zone is for emergency vehicles, the blue zone for dropping off, blah blah blah”, Todd uttered, “Think we need to set an alarm?” I giggled myself to sleep.
Photo of the Day: The Evolution Traverse
Sunset while on the summit of Mt. Mendel
With 21 years of climbing memories in my head, there is one experience that truly stands out; Climbing the Sierra Nevada’s Evolution Traverse in 2002.
For me, the photo I have chosen is all about beauty, all about a great experience with a good friend, and all about being in the mountains doing what I love.
Late one fall day, David Melkonian and I set off to traverse Peter Croft’s long, long ridge traverse. How long in distance I don’t even remember, how long in hours I do – 17 in our case. Our 3pm alpine start guaranteed we wouldn’t get far before darkness, so we carried a light sleeping bag each and hoped for warm nighttime temps on the 13,406 foot Mt. Mendel summit. As the sun went down, the sky erupted in color and golden light. Dave and I were able to enjoy the solitude and beauty from the top of one of the Sierra’s best viewpoints. Moments later we were huddled in our sleeping bags anxiously awaiting the sun’s return.
The next day is a blurred memory of focused movement traversing miles of granite. The ridge is a defined line drawn out ahead of the climber, always forcing more effort until the last summit and the long descent to the Evolution Basin far below. We were successful in finishing the route, soloing all but the chossey rappel from Darwin’s summit and one tricky spot getting to Mendel’s summit.
In the end we were spent. We slept another night out beneath the stars, but this time in the dry grass of Evolution Basin. I remember laying in my sleeping bag with aching hands, hungry, exhausted but not wanting to sleep, only to take it all in, knowing I had just gone through a great experience.
Photo of the Day and Clip Combo
This weeks Photo of the Day is also a new Clip. Mountain Travel Sobek, one of the world’s leading adventure travel companies is using an image of our’s for their 2010 catalog. The image is one we made in 2004 and is of Janine sitting on a small dock at a lake above Zermatt, Switzerland. The Matterhorn is in the distance.
Making the photo was not straightforward and only exists due to a bit of perseverance. Once a week, all summer, there is a sunrise breakfast at a tram station high above Zermatt. The tram leaves very early in the morning’s pre-dawn darkness. We remember walking through Zermatt’s silent streets, convinced we were wasting our time thanks to skies absent of stars – just thick with clouds. But, we were up and thought we might as well give it a try. In the cabin were several other photographers with their big tripods and towering LowePro backpacks. The tram made an intermediate stop and out the photographers went, greeted by thick grey skies.
We all marched to the lake where we were greeted by black, still waters, no view and clouds swirling about the peaks. The sun would be up in a few minutes but it seemed unlikely that we would see it. As a photographer this is part of the game. More often than not you get weather not to order. In the Alps it happens so often that we sort of accept it. The cussing still occurs but once finished we typically fall into a state of relaxation and sort of enjoy the cancelled work day. And so this particular morning we sat and watched as the other photographers took a few token shots before wandering off in disgust. We remained.
What occurred in the next few minutes was something of a gift – within minutes the skies cleared, the peaks came out and we had our opportunity. Now, all alone we were free to run around and compose as we pleased. Lesson learned.
Connect with us
