I'm Obsessed with a Tree

I'm obsessed with a tree. I've lived in Boulder for almost 4 years now, and I drive past this tree multiple times a week and I stare at it every time. I've only stopped to take photos of it a couple times, but I have a desire to shoot it every time the background is interesting.

I first shot it last November after a light snow.

In the last year I've seen it just begging to have a photo taken of it, but I'm usually in a hurry when I'm going to or from Golden on CO 93.

I finally stopped again on Saturday.

I will continue to stop and take photos of this tree for a very long time, I think. 

First Snow of the Season

After months of waiting for a fresh coating of the white, powdery cocaine, snow is finally filling the mountains of Colorado. Like addicts falling off the wagon, Eric Poore and I met before dawn to get our fix. We headed to St Mary's Glacier, where we were guaranteed at least some rock free skiing with a layer of fresh on top.

We were the only car in the parking lot. I was giddy taking my first gliding steps uphill, the nylon skins gripping the heavy, wet snow. God, I've missed this!

Navigating through the rocky trail we made it to the lake to find a beautiful winter wonderland. Needless to say, I'm excited for more of this.

Eric has had his right hand in a cast all summer with a broken wrist. He's psyched for the freedom of the brace, but can't wait till he can fully use his hand again. 

Eric flips his binding's risers as we get onto the glacier. 

It was white out conditions when we got to the top of the glacier. 

Halfway down our first run Eric swaps out his Dynafit skis for a pair of snow blades. 

Eric scopes out the slope skier's right of the glacier. 

Eric really wanted to ski the couloir we skied back in early August. He had broken his skins earlier and was having to boot-pack, so he decided to boot-pack the couloir to see what the conditions were like. I skinned around to the top and waited for him. I loved this tree weighted by the burden of the fresh snow.

Eric booting out the top of the couloir. 

Eric advised me not to follow him down the couloir, since it was pretty boney. I went back to the previous face and got the run of the day in. Great turns in good snow. Makes me so excited for the rest of the season!

Maple Canyon, Utah

I drove out to Outdoor Retailer this year with fellow photographer, John Lloyd. After the show we drove down to Maple Canyon to pull on the weird conglomerate rock structures there. John convinced me to go for a hike to catch the sunset above the canyon. I think we saw a part of the canyon that most climbers never see. We just missed the sun setting over the pass, but it was still incredibly beautiful.

The hike out was one of the more unpleasant parts of the trip. We somehow missed the trail and ended up hiking miles around on a 4x4 trail, tripping over loose baby-head sized rocks. We were psyched to get back to the car. I definitely want to get back to Maple to climb more and maybe actually see the sunset hitting the canyon. 

Fall Colors Photo Excursion

My roommate, Sam, yells through the door, "Scott, a buddy of mine and I are going to try to find a ghost town. Do you want to go?" Eh, why not.

We drove around the mountains of the front range, not really finding a ghost town, then we decided to just drive to the 4th of July Trailhead. The fall colors are going off right now. We didn't actually make it to the trailhead, so we just stopped and decided to explore the woods.

I had my Sony A6000 with the 18-105 F/4 with Optical Steady Shot (Image Stabilization) and I just hand held these shots at 1/15th to get the blurred water shots. IS is pretty amazing. I had my tripod in the car, but that was soo far away.

Happy Fall everyone!