Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Heath & Erin are getting married....

We had a great time with Heath and Erin at Daniels Park in Castle Pines, CO for their engagement shoot. They were brave and took our suggestion to get up early for some great morning light. The weather was a tiny bit chilly, but the blue skies and gorgeous views of the foothillls and mountains made it totally worthwhile. We are really looking forward to their wedding in September, congratulations Heath and Erin!

























Monday, May 26, 2008

Sammy & Kosmo

Our friends Jesse & Trista were heading out of town, so we had their dogs Sammy & Kosmo over for a long weekend. They are such the brother & sister, playing, fighting, snuggling. Sammy is a medium sized mixed breed, sweet as can be with a perpetual puppy face. Kosmo is a whipit, a breed that looks like a miniature greyhound. He's super low key, really lovey and....well....fast. We had a couple days at the dog park so they could romp around together, and It was great to see Kosmo really let loose and turn the jets on. Check out these pics...

Sammy on the left, Kosmo right. How frickin cute are they!??




Kosmo checks out the scene, waiting for his moment....


And they're off!


Whenever Kosmo lets Sammy catch up, Sammy definitely gives him an earful...


I love this shot, I was very tempted to Photoshop a little red cape on Sammy. It totally looks like she swooped down from the sky..


Kosmo plays coy...


...but loooves to be chased....


And the tired pups hit the bed for an afternoon nap. Life is ruff.




We're currently formulating a plan to go to their house and kidnap the dogs back for a while.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Chicago Basin Ski Adventure

Last week I was lucky enough to hook up with my friend Chuck and some of the Neptune Mountaineering posse on a greeaaat ski trip to the San Juans in southwestern CO. The trip had fun times and adventure written all over it:

1) Drive to Silverton, CO.
2) Take Durango/Silverton Narow Gauge Railroad to a halfway stop in the middle of the wilderness.
3) Get off train.
4) Hike 6 miles up into Chicago Basin and camp in the snow.
5) Hike up/ski down three 14ers in two days.
6) Catch train back to Silverton.
7) Go home.

Here's a collection of images from the 4 day trip...who says winter's over?

on the drive from Ouray toward Silverton...


the train goes through the spectacular San Juan mountains, just sit back in the open air car and enjoy the ride and think about skiing...


unloading the gear from the cargo car.


tom, dan, cary, chuck, dave....no snow yet. we walked about 4 miles before we could put the skis on....


we finally made camp after dark, and woke up to blue skies and sun on the peaks.


making our way up to Mt. Eolus...




the east couloir on south Eolus. its about a 40 degree stair-steppy bootpack to the top.


i dared let go of a pole to grab a self portrait...its a long way down...notice i'm not quite smiling....only when i get to the top.


tom makes his way down the couloir.


here's a shot of the couloir from across the saddle on north Eolus.


getting ready to ski down the rest of the way back to camp. a cool 3,000 foot descent in springy mashed potatoes!


here's the scoop on our lines for the day. south Eolus with its east couloir on the left, north Eolus on the right. red is the hike ascents, and green is the ski descents. can somebody give me an Amen?


we finished our ski day at 1:30pm, nothing but warm sunny blue skies all afternoon. absolutely nothing to do but eat, nap, talk, eat again, and sleep. all in all not a bad way to take in the afternoon, eh?








bootpacking up Windom peak on day 2 during yet another great sunny day.


chuck and the boys scrambled to the summit, then we all hung out and let the snow thaw out to optimal mashed potato consistency. the conspicuous lack of wind was amazing at 13,500ft. as dan put it: "i could have come up here and sorted my tax receipts".


here's the scoop on the second day. Sunshine peak on the left, Windom peak on the right. red up, green down. smile.


this is the Windom peak hike/ski lines.


that same afternoon, instead of lounging around camp we made the 6 mile hike down valley to camp and catch the train in the morning.


chuck waits for the choo choo.



fantabulous.