In the fall of 2001 I tried in vain to get a reservation for the Pear Lake Ski Hut in Sequoia National Park.  It turns out to be a very popular hut to reserve (evidenced by the fact that I’ve yet to be able to secure the hut for another weekend).

In late December I called to see if any changes had occurred in the availability of the hut - and I was in luck.  There was a cancellation for the first weekend in January.

A group of us made the trek out to the Sequoia Kings Canyon Park where we started our ski.  The hut was wonderful and the skiing fantastic.

This photo was taken with my Mamiya 35mm camera while out skiing runs on a bright sunny Saturday.  The weather was perfect and the snow conditions were great.  It’s always a challenge to decide whether to take the big SLR on trips like these.  The weight is really a pain but the photos are usually worth it.

In this image, I like the contrast of the silhouetted skiers up on the horizon, the wispy clouds behind them and the sun illuminating the single patch of snow up by the horizon.  To me this photo really captures the uphill part of a backcountry ski trip - the long slogs up the mountain required to enjoy the awesome downhills.

Since this trip I’ve gotten a lot better at taking the ‘action’ downhill shots - and I’ve had opportunities to shoot those photos on a few good trips.  But on this trip, I felt like I really captured the switch-backing uphills.

It’s that time of year again, and I’m looking forward to more weekends of fun in the snow.

This photograph is from a 2003 road trip I took down to Las Vegas from San Francisco.  I was driving across the Nevada and California deserts when I came upon these large dunes.  I stopped and walked around the dunes and surrounding area for a while with my Nikon 35mm SLR, most likely an N80 model.  I shot this on slide film, probably Fuji Provia 100.  I really was not good enough to be shooting slide film (the exposure requirements are much stricter with slides) but I butchered my way through it.

These dunes are not protected so they are a popular recreation spot for those in the neighborhood with 4-wheelers and such.  While I was visiting there were a few tooling around and you can see some tracks in the sand.

I was really struck with how they stood out from the surrounding desert - which does not have the same pure sandy floor.  These dunes just rise out and stand in the middle of the flat surrounding terrain.

This photo reminds me of some of the images that you see out of Namibia, though that sand is much more orange - which makes me think of my upcoming trip to Africa.  I am really excited to be adventuring to someplace new, and on our itinerary is a visit to Namibia and the Skeleton Coast which is one of the driest regions in the world.  We’ll be spending a few days in the desert checking out the sites and some of the dunes there.