Alpine Sufferfest

With no hope of sunny weather plans coming to fruition, we (my climbing party) decided to take full advantage of the training opportunity by scheduling an alpine sufferfest via the Flying Dutchman couloir. After packing enough clothing, food and gear to battle adverse conditions, we arrived at the Long's Peak trailhead. Not long after we began our hike, we climbed above the inversion to perfectly blue skies. Shortly after clearing the crux of the climb (a section of steep ice), we topped out at The Loft (just above 13k). Weatherman jokes were immediately hushed by fog, wind, and every type of precipitation you can imagine. After a few hours of descending a heinous traverse in fog and loose snow, we arrived back at Chasm junction and proceeded to hike the last stretch back to the trailhead. With the exception of a large group of DU students (several were wearing jeans and cotton sweatshirts) that turned around at Chasm junction, we did not see a single person the entire thirteen hour day.

Photos here:

http://www.scottborger.com/gallery.php?gallery=flyingdutchman


I'll have the text portion of the trip report done in the next day or two (check back via this same link).

What a beautiful day in the park! Great shots of a spectacular day out.

Wow, Scott your usual fantastic photos and trip report - some really spectacular alpine climbing shots - Alpinist material. Keep 'em coming!

Really nice series of climbing images Scott; quite the mixture of weather too!. I could definitely see some of these in a climbing magazine!.

Great stuff, Scott! Those got my heart pumping.

Those are awesome, Scott! I love the Diamond reflection one.

Great series, especially since you were climbing AND photographing! The couloir shots really got my heart pounding. Send these to Outside and NGA today!

Scott, great trip report and pictures.

Craziness! That foggy traverse shot gave me vertigo. Nicely done Scott.

Pam

Thanks for the feedback. I'm happy to hear that these images invoked emotions similar to what I was feeling while climbing. Dave, climbing while photographing adds a different element to these types of trips. As a photographer, you have to be a bit ahead of the other climbers so that you take front shots and not butt shots (which rarely work out well unless there is a big sense of scale emphasized by the image. I currently don't own a camera (waiting for the 5D MkII), so I've been borrowing my friends' point and shoot cameras. It's harder the control the manual settings, but it's much lighter and more accessible for climbing. I hope it's not too hard to switch back to a much heavier and less user-friendly setup.

I think you've got a much better collection of photos in this series than in previous trip reports.

#300, 303 and 306 in particular are nicely composed and show the technical nature of the outing. #307 is nicely composed with the zigzag trail and hikers.

Thanks Mel. I agree with your assessment of past trip reports. However, for me, trip reports are primarily about telling a story and documenting an adventure, not just including the very best photos. This is why most of my trip report photos never make it into my galleries. Additionally, I sometimes post trip reports as beta for other climbers.

Great collection of shots!
But rather cruel to us who get pain and tightening in regions best not mentioned here when viewing such shots.

Nicely done Scott! That foggy traverse makes me nervous just looking! A mountain climber I will not lilely ever be. Correction, I did do a fourteener, Mt Whitne, when I was in Boy Scouts - long time ago! I am not afraid of heights it's that sudden stop at the bottom!
John

Thanks Mel. I agree with your assessment of past trip reports. However, for me, trip reports are primarily about telling a story and documenting an adventure, not just including the very best photos. This is why most of my trip report photos never make it into my galleries. Additionally, I sometimes post trip reports as beta for other climbers.

I totally understand Scott and I didn't meant that as a negative comment. From the perspective of what you would expect to see in a climbing magazine, these are much more in on target. They are more dynamic compositions with better angles to show the difficulty of the climb. But I'm just as guilty of taking boring shots when I'm out hiking or 4-wheeling for the sake of a trip report or trail beta.

Ick, Ice, Yuck! Gimme rock. Nice images, Scott.

What an action packed day, and that traverse image (#306) made my stomach tingle!

What an awesome trip! Great photos, really like the 297 DIamond shot.