Ten Thousand Years

Hi Everyone,

I've been very, very busy this summer and am only back for two weeks or so before now and the end of the year. I'm two months backed-up on processing and won't be releasing most of the new stuff until December. Nevertheless, I am going to share one of the particularly strange ones with you now.

I was dropped off by float plane on a remote lake in the central Pacific Range of British Columbia, one of the most remote mountain ranges on the Continent. After months of study, I had come to suspect these enormous mountains stretching over 1000 miles north to south offer the most untapped potential for mountain photos anywhere in North America. I believe I was correct.

As soon as the hum of the plane was out of sight, I spent two and a half weeks completely alone (well, there were Grizzlies, goats, marmots and a host of wildlife around at all times) without any reminder of humanity. I backpacked every different direction from my drop-off point every day I was out. I marveled at the sweeping Glaciers, 5000-ft sheer mountain walls, waterfalls, wildlife and some of the best mountain flowers I've ever seen. Above all else though, this place amazed me the most. Donning crampons and ice tools, I entered the interior of an enormous glacier where it was cracking apart and had a rushing river flowing through it. The ice - clear and blue as any I have ever seen, was hulled out in places creating rooms up to 40ft high and 100ft across! I could hardly believe my eyes inside this frigid fantasy world that had likely never been seen by anyone in its entire existence. I spent half of two days inside here getting drenched and cold, and managing to avoid the occasional falling car-sized ice chunk.

I took many pictures and some provide you with a bit more sense of scale than this, but this particular abstract caught my eye. For me it looks like an alien world and the viewer is almost unsure where it leads or what's going on. That's exactly how I felt here, although no photo would ever do justice to the place.

1Ds III, Nikon 14-24 at 24mm, no filters, 1 second at ISO 100, f/18.

Note that I actually remembered to post the larger version this time as well.