John_Scurlock

Unfortunately we did no photography between Kelowna and the Bugaboos. We had a very tight plan and were obligated to stick to it.

She doesn't bracket, I do usually, but not always(+/- 2/3 stop).. in any case we are both using 'burst' mode. We both shoot aperture priority, all RAW all the time. If we are photographing a fire lookout from close in, we will switch to shutter priority at 1/8000th sec. I agree, two slightly different setups that yield very good and complimentary results.

They know the plane well over in Oroville... one time, the main part of the process was the agent questioning me about the social life in Bellingham, since he was young, single, and had just transferred to Oroville from some large city in the south. Being double his age, I was not really in a position to be very helpful... though I'm guessing the night life in Oroville is fairly limited after about 5 pm, and he said as much.... yesterday there was a slight kerfuffle when they realized "Miss Abegg" was half Canadian. Her Canadian passport fixed things however.

yes aid.. and a gift... It's allowed me, and us, to see & photograph things hardly imaginable.. & I should add, it's a pleasure to work with such a talented friend and collaborator as Steph.. in every respect I consider myself fortunate like you cannot believe..

sent you a pm

That LO series was sort of an accident -- when we were at Robinson, just decided on a whim to go over to Goat... and then realized if we went to Mebee, HLLO, and Lookout Mt, we'd have visited seven LOs in one trip. and in the LO vein, we are trying to stimulate an effort to save the Mebee Pass LO... many obstacles but I've started a conversation with folks at the Okanogan/Wenatchee NF.. there's lots of interest from LO aficionados... it's the last of its type and a true gem. The short term goal is a new roof and a proper door. I'm guardedly optimistic about it. Pics taken in 2008 show it to be pretty solid, despite its appearance from the air. The plywood you see in those pics is definitely not "historical" but that is what saved it, when it was put up in 2002 in a bit of a pirate operation. If something actually gets going I'll post up about it in here somewhere, since we will be dependent on volunteer efforts, donations, and micro grants, likely. My guess is we will need less than 2500 for materials and helicopter sling load from the East Creek trailhead, should this all come to pass.

It seems likely that these are your tracks, from Steph A's photographs found at these links -- Steph's page from that flight and Ski tracks at HLLO these shots taken late in the day shortly before return to Concrete.

We did actually photograph it in passing, same with McGloughlin. However, we were up at 12K to photograph Crater Lake, we needed to be near 14K for Shasta, we were a bit pressed for time and so opted to simply tag those two from above & keep moving. We would have had to descend nearly 5000 ft to get Thielsen in a proper fashion and then get back up to altitude.

Did any of you climb Horrible Mountain? I thought not. Horrible Mountain As a bonus you get to drive across Mt. Misery ( here and here ) on approach. It's been suggested that I inadvertently photographed Mt. Misery's summit register: Misery summit register? I cannot confirm as I did not examine its contents. Depending on your mood Horrible Mountain could go either way, good or bad. Plus no need to lug any burdensome climbing gear. Sturdy tires and a credit card will do the trick. One could easily take a six pack up to Horrible's summit.. which could moderate its horribleness...

well these aren't quite like actually hoofing it... and I'll only mention three, but.. it was a memorable year all in all... 1. Waddington & the Homathko Icefield, March 24, one day up and back with my gifted friend & collaborator Steph Abegg Waddington 2. Canada - four days in May, 2100 mile trip to the Rockies, Columbia Mountains, Valhallas, again with Steph Rockies/Columbia Mts 3. Canada again, this time solo, September 26 to 29, Columbia mountains from the Bugs to the Premier Range, with a dash of Robson thrown in... Cariboos Sir John Thompson Sir Sandford Robson

So there we were... (I was fortunate to have a few of those moments with Austin)... Bonanza Peak Really Isn't That Great Of A Mountain On one of the flights I did with him, we were headed over to Bigelow because he thought there might be a glacier on it's NF, which would have been the easternmost glacier in the North Cascades if it did exist. The line of flight from Vashon took us directly across Bonanza Peak. Here I was, zooming along with the great Austin Post, past this amazing mountain. I banked the wing, I said something like, 'isn't that incredible? Let's go around it again..' He'd taken like, a single photograph with the little digital cam he was carrying; he looked over at me and said, 'nah... I've seen that plenty... let's get out of here..we've got more important things to do..' I didn't propose too much more "scenery" after that!! [img:center]http://www.pbase.com/nolock/image/75772011/original.jpg[/img] There we were, part II: The Day Austin Post Died At Washington Pass Meadow On one of the outings we took him on, we were up at Washington Pass, strolling about. JR was there, along with a few other folks. Austin decided he wanted to head over to the north side of Washington Pass Meadow, where there is an old trail - it predated the highway of course, and he'd helped build it back in the 1940s. I was amazed, having been there many times and not realizing there was a trail over there. Well, Austin wanted to walk over there and dig around a little to see if any ash layers from Glacier Peak could be found. So he and I made our way over there, found the old trail, and walked perhaps a half mile to the west. In an open area there, he sat down on the ground and poked around with a swiss army knife, as we did not have a shovel. After finding nothing, I suggested we head back, since the rest of the group might be wondering where we were. We got off the trail a little, ambling across the meadow at his slow but steady pace. We were most of the way back when he turned to me and said, "you know, I'm kinda tired. I think I'll take a nap." Before I had a chance to say anything, he sat down on the ground and simply fell over sideways. I thought, holy crap, this is it... he's croaked.. right here in front of me..! Now what am I gonna do, way up here in the middle of nowhere? So I walked back over to him, checked that he was indeed breathing, snoring even, so the tension was off a little. So then I thought, well if it was me lying down like that, he'd take my picture. So I stepped back a little and took his picture, and then sat down and waited about fifteen minutes until he stirred around, got up, and we headed back to the group as if nothing had happened!! [img:center]http://www.pbase.com/nolock/image/75773867/original.jpg[/img] I was on the phone last night with Roberta and re-told this story to her and believe me, we had quite a laugh over it..

Here are four of my favorite images of Austin: July, 1957, starting up for the Worthington Glacier: [img:center]http://www.pbase.com/nolock/image/76339477/large.jpg[/img] At Johns Hopkins Sta. 5, July 24, 1971 - L to R, Jim Sanders, Bob Howe, Marion Millett, Austin Post [img:center]http://www.pbase.com/nolock/image/76339478/large.jpg[/img] Austin & Dave Bohn At Lamplugh Glacier, 2000 (David Bohn is the author of the book "Glacier Bay: The Land and the Silence") [img:center]http://pbase.com/nolock/image/76339479/large.jpg[/img] Austin in his study at his Vashon Island home, 2007: [img:center]http://www.pbase.com/nolock/image/75767703/large.jpg[/img] Oh, and just one more, Austin's panorama of the Hubbard Glacier in the Wrangell-St. Elias Mountains, constructed from three separate images. The peak at L is Hubbard, Mt. Vancouver is at center distance. Valerie Glacier joins Hubbard just above the glacier front. The width of the front at tidewater is approximately five miles. [img:center]http://www.pbase.com/nolock/image/75914946/original.jpg[/img]

Austin Post died peacefully yesterday morning at his home in Dupont, Washington, surrounded by his family. He was 90 years old. He was my friend, mentor, and role model. He was a northwest original in the most complete sense, achieving greatness from a markedly humble beginning. He was a titan in the field of glaciology and aerial photography, and his passing truly marks the end of an era. His photographs greatly influenced climbers, skiers, and scientists, and continue to do so. He was adamant that there be no services, and so I suggest that everyone take a few minutes today to browse through the red CAG and pause with a few of Austin's images. That would be a good way of thinking of him, and I know that wherever he is, he'd appreciate it. JS

That was shot during a three week stretch where I flew into the Beartooths, the Wind Rivers, the Sawtooth Wilderness, Borah, Glacier National Park, the Crazies, the Swan range, the Bob Marshall Wilderness, the Centennial mountains... the Cabinets, the Mission mountains... all starting the day after my wife moved out... you can roll in obsession, passion, angst, sleeplessness, caffeine, climbing, aviation, long empty stretches of nowheresville, and some of the greatest wild mountainous terrain in the lower forty-eight.... I will never get over it.

yes it is, no matter how you get there: Granite if there is a god, perhaps it is using women to smite you.. & if so... you are not alone..!

as well you might wonder why pics of that stuff aren't in s & s, to which I might respond, they would have been had it been as easy to fly up there as when we had pie in Chilliwack... little did I know DHS was hot on my six o'clock... well we are all on good terms now... just ask Steph some time bout it..!

that's the gods truth believe me.. You've done more to unveil those lines than anyone I know, thanks! you know, I've been fortunate like you can't believe.. Darin's comment reminded me of the literally countless times I've seen ice threads rising up some nameless cliff, ending in the middle of some other nameless cliff...out in the middle of absolute nowheresville.. I can't remember who I was with, Wayne, Dave B, or it could have been Darin in a conversation we had, who said that very thing - 'Ice to Nowhere'.. unbelievable how much of it is out there. But in many cases, so hard or impossible to get to.

that's the gods truth believe me..

No worries, I wasn't home anyway..got down at dusk from Lava Divide & left home little after 6 this morning for work... but from looking at the clouds here in Whatcom county today it just seemed like the Wx was somewhat worse than what I was expecting. There was still that brownish tinge in the clouds that led me to believe that smoke was still drifting over, either in or above the clouds.

Did you go to Maple Pass? I was wondering. It's been murky with clouds all day up here N of Bham... didn't really look like a good day for the near mountains anyway. Weather reports have been saying clear above 4000 for the next day or three..

and also from the 19th. Oval Pk as at far left, Mt Tupshin is at R distance. The main mass of smoke at L center is in the vicinity of Stehekin, and the smoke on the R skyline is from the Wenatchee fires. this image was obtained from near Kool Aid Lake:

and this one (taken on the 19th on an early morning flight with Steph A) in the W fork of Agnes creek isn't being fought, [img:left] http://www.pbase.com/nolock/image/146171256/large.jpg[/img]

The smoke plume yesterday did make it all the way up the Strait of Georgia: [img:left] http://www.pbase.com/nolock/image/146184587/original.jpg[/img]

Silas Wild has traveled extensively and repeatedly down there.. you might benefit from talking to him. I'll send you a pm.

yep, we sure wondered bout that. It was an amazing discovery only made because we were trying to navigate through steep rocky timber just below the E ridge.. it seemed recent, based on its condition, though there was no fur or other remnants nearby..the two images I posted of it - Here and Here One of the MBVRC blog readers today has likely tracked down Welsh through ancestry research.. Seems his name was Emil, he died in 1962 - Welsh Grave Marker - and is buried in Bayview Cemetery in Bellingham. He may have worked for the predecessor to Diehl Ford back in the teens and twenties; they are searching their old files for more information. And today I visited the original image hanging on the wall in the USFS office in Sedro Woolley - the frame made from old USFS guard station canned goods packing crates from long ago.. Welsh Image In Sedro Woolley