Skolai Images

Hey Folks

Why 2 posts so close to one another? I just got an email from this fella, whom I met and hung with in Chile this last winter (their summer). We went down to the Baker River together, along with a bunch of crazy folks, and all had a good time. We were there for 4 days, but the trip took another 2 days traveltime. It was quite a mission. (more…)

Hey Folks

Thanks so much for all the comments and emails I have had from readers so far, it’s great. I’ll try to keep up and be better about posting images, new and old and writing something about what’s going on. It tickles me that people out there are interested, thank you.

On another note, I would like to write this post in salute to Mr Paul Schoch, from Wisonsin, whom I never met, but wished I had. Mr Schoch went missing in Skolai Pass this fall, in mid-September. I won’t offer details here, other than point to a newspaper story for those of you who aren’t familiar with what happened. Mr Schoch’s tent was spotted, by my father, as we flew over the area looking for him, after Paul hadn’t shown back up at the landing strip for his scheduled pickup.

Newspaper Story

It saddens me that someone came to an unfortunate end in a place I love so much, and to which I return, often more than once, every year. Skolai Pass is possibly my favorite place anywhere. I was so excited to take my parents to this place, and show them a place I hold so deep. At the same time the reality of the wilderness was made perhaps no more evident than by Mr Schoch’s disappearance. It IS wild, rugged and remote country, and from what I’ve read, Paul seems to have valued those kinds of places as I do. In some weird and almost unspeakable way, I think I’d rather come to rest in a place like that than somewhere else.

It serves little purpose for me to speculate as to what may or may not have happened. What’s important is that his family and friends find some solace knowing their husband, father, or friend, died in a beautifully wild and truly awesome place. I wish them all my most sincere condolences and most heartfelt sympathies. Their grief, I’m sure, is in some way an important part of his death (as grief always is) and also a reflection of his life. To his memory, and to all those who knew and loved him, my deepest regards.

Sincerely

Carl

PS - This photo is of the Russell Glacier, and Mt. Bona, a 16 421 foot high peak, on the south side of Skolai Pass, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks

Well, this shall be my last post from the Lower 48 states, for a while at least. Tomorrow on the eve I fly to Alaska, and settle down for some winter fun. It’s been a short trip, and tons of fun with my parents - hopefully it won’t take 3 more years for me to get the chance to see them again.

I’m looking forward to getting back to Alaska, and if the weather is at all reasonable, trying to get some more images from Wrangell St. Elias. I also have a boatload of files to process, website updates to do, emails to return, and more computer stuff as well - which I’m not so eager to undertake, but, it seems, I have to. I have a ton of writing I want to, and also have had a few books recommended to me that I am keen to read. On top of that the moose rut is just starting to get underway, and that will be fun to photograph, so it seems I’ll be kept busy. I guess that’s good.

For now, I’ll just post this picture of my mum and her new friend from Banff National Park, waving us all goodbye.

Cheers

Carl
Banff National Park Photos.

Hey Folks

Well, here I am in Banff. I’m still riding around the countryside with my parents, who give new meaning to the word “doddering”. We’ve visited nearly every public toilet in western Canada, which has been a real treat. So far, I haven’t had to unleash any violence, but I may resort to that medium of regulation sometime in the near future. My patience has been the mainstay of what stability we’ve managed to clutch. Dad doesn’t listen, and mum mumbles; a potent combination.

Actually, they’re doing OK, and I’m really enjoying showing them some of my favorite parts of the world. (more…)

Hey Folks,

Here’s a photo of us rafting down the Upper Marsh Fork of the Canning River - essentially the headwaters of the Canning in the Brooks Range, close to the continental divide. The river here has eroded its way through the layers of bedrock to form this really neat little mini-canyon. I hopped out of the boat to take some photos of the run. Actually, we ran it several times, and I shot each time, some horizontals, a few verticals, some wider, some tighter, trying to get different compositions of essentially the same scene. (more…)

Hey Folks,

Here’s another from my recent trip to the Rio Baker, or Baker River, in Patagonia, Chile. In this photo, Santiago Ibanez is running the very first rapid on the river, a relatively small drop from a calm pool into a tumbling turbuent pool. Santiago ran the drop several times during our trip, and this was probably his sweetest line. He paddled back over to me after the drop with a huge smile, and said how good it felt. I was grinning from ear to ear myself, because I’d already viewed this photo, and was just as happy aas he was. I showed him the image on the LCD on the back of my camera and he loved it. I knew I had a nice chance of catching a little rainbow in the frame, and the line he took put him right in the middle of it. Thanks for a great photo, Santiago. (more…)

Hey Folks

Here’s another of my buddy Matze, running a little drop on the Baker River, in Patagonia, Chile. The Baker River is absolutely awesome, 4 or 5 of the biggest Class 5 rapids anywhere. It’s huge water. I was fortunate that some of my friends were nice enough to get out of bed early one morning and come run the Baker in nice light. Matze took this crazy line after doing some scouting - it wasn’t his smoothest line, but he made it OK. (more…)

Hey Folks,

This photo is of my friend Ken Kruger running an 8′ drop in a rapid known as “Terminator”. This photo shows about 1/100 of the rapid. Terminator’s HUGE, and aptly named. We were running a whitewater rafting trip down the Futaleufu River, and the water level was high. While all the guests walked the rapid, and we ghosted the boats down the river, the kayakers paddled it. I got into position below this drop, and was lucky to get Ken with his mullet flying (more…)

Hey Folks,

Here’s a photo of a friend of mine, Matthias Melcher, whom everyody calls, for some reason, “Matze”. This was taken in the first few weeks of my time in Fuateufu, Chile. It had been raining incessantly for some time, and this little creek called “Crazy Creek” was running high. Matze wanted to paddle it (I think because it had the word ‘crazy’ in the name), though he’d never run it before, and never scouted it either. In fact, I believe maybe only one or 2 people had kayaked it previously (Matze’s a little bit crazy). (more…)

hey Folks,

As the light slowly faded at the end of the day, I hung around this little park. There was just a great mix of people around, toddlers, teenagers, adults, old folks, the weather was great, and I enjoyed the mood. I saw this old man ambling through the park, pushing his cart, stopping, watching, resting, and walking some more. As he parked it here, in front of a small pool of water, I thought I’d take some photos. (more…)