dylan_taylor

YAAAAAY! way to send mike and jay! I drove past the bustop almost every day for 15 years, never went in there. The lower hose looks nasty, nice work!

I've only been there during [our] winter season. From what I hear, there are plenty of good days in the summer dry season (June-aug are often ok, some folks have had decent though limited success in september). If you are flexible with your schedule and enjoy seeing all the other stuff that Ecuador has to offer than you can just go up to the huts when the weather gets good. One benifit of local guides is that they can often be hired spur of the moment (except during busy holiday seasons). Organizations like Safari, Ecuadorian Alpine Institute (big, gnarly 4WD A-team-style van), and some of the others mentioned also provide the transportation as well as the guide. If you walk around gringolandia for a while, you will see plenty of outfitters' offices that you can inquire with. Good luck, and good hunting.

The standard route on Illiniza Norte is a fun hiking route that you can do in flip flops if the weather is good, however, tennies tend to perform better in the occasional snow patch. Illiniza sur has gotten a bit more technical over the past few years. La Rampa no longer exists (as a snow and ice route anyway). Rumor has it some locals have been scrambling up it as sort of a bowling alley/rock climb. I'd prefer the normal route, which still comes in quite nicely, sometimes even with a pitch or two of ice. Summit is top left corner: My favorite out of all the peaks down there has been Antisana (i've never been to El Eltar or Sangay so i can't comment on those heaps.) In December 04 we saw no one there. It is the one peak you do not use a hut for (real camping in the grass, and human feces are hard to find!!!). True adventure, big glaciers, big slots, and no well-beaten trough to follow if the weather shits the bed. Here's a shot just below the summit cap: Then there's cotopaxi... Cotopaxi is sort of the dream volcano, though quite busy. The hut is fairly clean (much more so than the dingy green-slime-filled hovel at the base of Illiniza Sur - seems like we all got sick there - just from breathing the stale air in that place). The route is usually straight forward, and quite scenic. The summit is top notch If you're lucky you'll see Tungurahua and Sangay erupting simutaneously. As for local guides, there are some decent organizations with both good and bad guides (a lot are freelance and will work for anyone). However, I can not recommend them because I am biased because I am a U.S. guide. I've worked with Ecuadorian guides and I can say that the training standards are far better than Bolivian standards, but that doesn't always correlate to performance. I watched a "veteran" guide shortroping three clients (one of whom was my girlfriend) down a 40 degree neve slope with a horrible runout. He was almost tripping my girlfriend with a huge bight of slack, as he was speaking on a cell phone. I will not work with him again. Caveat Emptor: You get what you pay for. Suerte. Dylan

have fun in CO

Gosh, my poor, mysterious ice formation. It is so misunderstood... And finally: and and and

Darrin, those are amazing. Jeezus Mike, what an onslaught. ski porn almost...

well said...

"Alpine" or "Rock" Almosts: Jonny C., Bhagirathi III, India: Jonny C., West face of Piergiorgio, Marconi Valley, Patagonia:

Bouldering almosts: Bouldering in the buttermilks: Bouldering in Tapovan Meadows, Gharwal Himalaya, India:

allyoucaneat, that glacier skiing shot is awsome.

And finally, another scenic, a forest fire near my folks house near Boulder. I shot the photo from the driveway. The sparks are from a tree exploding...

And, well, I guess there is no "people" or "cultural" catagory, but...

my scenic runner ups? Shivling night and day in the gharwal himalaya, India

This photo of this mysterious ice formation was my runner up for the ice catagory...

rock climbing... J. N. on Hoop Dancer (Indian Creek)

Bouldering... Jonny C in the Gharwal Himalaya:

Humor????

Skiing...

You are documenting the goat's inate tendency to seek out pee to satisfy its craving for salts. If you wrote an article for National geographic about "The salt-seeking mountain goats of snow creek wall and WA pass" than your photo would be full of journalistic integrity, but if you were to use these photos to portray "the goat in its natural habitat" than some might have issues with that.

I agree with most of the things you said, and I think they are well said. But, regarding above, devils advocate: A sports photographer takes a photo of a basketball player squatting with the ball in their hand, about to leap up and make the shot. The photographer forgot to change the batteries in their D2X and the motordrive is working super slow. The next shot they get off is when the ball has already swished through the net, and the player is about to touch ground again. The photographer is frustrated. They missed the "f(t+.5)" moment when the player was airborne, legs askew, enormous hand palming the ball, look of concentration on their face. Rats. Thats ok, the photographer goes back to their laptop, opens up photoshop, and creates that image that "actually existed" by creating a composite of images they shot throughout the game. If a sports photographer ever did that, I would strongly disagree with it. I agree with griz in that, hey, if you missed the shot, tough luck. There will be plenty more possibilities. What was it Galen Rowell said? "Chance favors the prepared mind". I think that if one uses photoshop as a tool, just like graduated filters, polarizer, etc, to help technology mimic what the human eye would have seen in that particular moment then that is legitimate because it is part of taking a really good photograph. We all know our cameras and our film and our lenses can't always do what our eyes can do. But the problem is when we use our technology to do more than what our eyes can do. Photographers do it all the time. In my book, thats not a photograph, thats a photo-illustration. Just as valid, but I think it ought to be listed as such in the caption. "photo-illustration by so and so". That way, the photographers that had perfect light perfect composition and, IMO most importantly, perfect moment can get from us the credit and praise they deserve.

maybe you can stay at my parents house if you take care of the cats.

where do you plan to use it? The cheapest phones and service plans, i think, are from global star and maybe Inmarsat?, and the phones themselves are smaller and more portable, but they only work up to about 60-70 degrees of latitude (and thats with a clear field of view) and they don't work in the middle of the oceans, or in most of africa or in parts of southeast asia, and probably others too. For the best coverage you would have to get Iridium phones, but they are bulkier and pricier. I rented mine from outfitter satellite - they've got them all. It was the cheapest monthly rental, but they ream you on the fedex overnight shipping(over $100 round trip). In alaska, you can rent them from a bunch of places in anchorage (or from air taxi's), it costs more, but you get it right away.

why wouldn't wiregate ovals work for a carabiner break? shouldn't the rope be over the spines anyway?

Wouldn't lower altitude at the same place mean higher pressure and better weather? Yes it would, I am not such a good editor, huh. Yes! I wrote it backwards, i meant lower pressure, not altitude, oops.

Mike, you know I live in a giant bucket.