(As always, click on images to enlarge.)
[Photo: Full moon rising over Dix Range with Gothics Mountain in the foreground: 7:30 PM]
Maybe it was the 11-below wind chill (high for up there) a half hour past sunset that had me feeling vulnerable amidst the grandeur. As I was taking these moonrise images, two issues were working hard to steal from the glory of the moment.
[Photo: Full moon offset from Gothics Mountain: 7:32 PM]
Number one; my camera was malfunctioning. My last two and a half hours had been spent troubleshooting a way to photograph what I came there to photograph. As best as I could discern (for those who know or care) the mirror of my Nikon was locking in the up position, preventing me from seeing through the camera viewfinder or LCD display—in short, I was shooting blind.
[Photo: Sunset from Algonquin: 7:16 PM]
Upon reaching the summit, I put the camera on my tripod, set the camera mode to Manual and spent the next hour and a half guessing at composition, exposure and focus in preparation for this moon rise. I took only a fraction of the images I normally would have.
[Photo: Mount Marcy in the final moments of sunlight: 7:10 PM]
The other issue was my feet. I could no longer discern feeling in the front half of either foot. Not even my new 40-below-rated boots and $70 socks (that's right) could overcome my lack of motion, being stuck to the tripod. I had been 'working it' on top of the mountain for over an hour and a half. The warm blood just wasn't making it all the way down to my toes.
[Photo: Layered mountain ranges to the west-northwest just prior to sunset: 7:05 PM]
It had snuck up on me like one night at Bristol Mountain Ski Club during my senior year of high school. That night I received frostbite on several of toes, destroying the small capillaries, ultimately with the ends of several toes turning black and falling off. They all 'grew' back, but they lack the ability to circulate blood adequately in cold situations.
[Photo: Algonquin's shadow growing towards Giant Mountain: 6:47 PM]
My intent with this climb had been to shoot this evening's sunset and moonrise, spend the night experimenting with time-lapse photography of the mountain ranges under spectacular moon light, then wrap things up by capturing the sunrise and moonset in the morning(both at 6:59 AM). I had had been monitoring Adirondacks High Peaks weather conditions around the full moons since that past November, waiting for clear conditions along with manageable wind and temperatures (i.e. not -50 to -70 wind chills). This full moon was the first to meet all the criteria.
[Photo: Lengthening shadows below Iroquois Peak: 6:26 PM]
So, my well-laid plans were thwarted by the unforeseen. Would my feet have gone 'north' if I didn't have to spend so much time standing still—God only knows. It certainly became a topic of prayer for me that evening. Well, without my camera functioning properly, it was time for me to head down the mountain. I started-off at about quarter to eight, with ice for water bottles, and made the futon-comfort of my mini van condo by eleven-something.
[Photo: Snow on evergreens in the alpine zone: 6:26 PM —my camera froze-up just after taking this picture]
Good News: Circulation and feeling slowly came into my feet after about an hour of heavy exhilaration heading down the mountain.
[Photo: Alpine evergreens against a brilliant blue sky: 4:56 PM]
More Good News: My camera functioned flawlessly the following day as I tooled around Lake Placid then zig-zagged my way home via Old Forge.
[Photo: Getting ready to hit the path: 12:49 PM]
I easily packed 20 lbs too much for the journey . . . the story of my backpacking life. A half mile in (still on level ground) I stripped-off three layers of upper body clothing. Until I reached the alpine zone I wore only a base-layer T-shirt and mid-layer long-sleeve shirt.
My original intent had been to climb Marcy for this excursion. After the way things went with my camera, I was glad for not having doubled the distance.
I liked how the Denali snow shoes I rented performed . . . at least until I ran into two groups skiing and snowboarding back down the mountain trail—what the freak!!! One couple had specially designed down hill skis and binding that allowed them to ski both up and down the mountain!
[Photo: Wilmington, New York—always in search of fine art subjects—March 20th]
[Photo: Geese on Tupper Lake during my ride home on March 20th]
[Photo: Geese on Tupper Lake during my ride home on March 20th]
No comments:
Post a Comment