Mono Lake winter kayaking
Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2005 5:13 pm
This isn't technically the "High Sierra" but hey, you can see the High Sierra from here and it's a place all of us High Sierra-ites recognize and love!
These were all taken on a solo winter kayaking trip I took this last February. It was a 3-night trip and I had to drag my fully loaded kayak a mile over the snow to reach the shore of Mono Lake via snowshoe. It was awesome!
Keep your eye out on the February issue of National Geographic Adventure magazine in the "There & Back" section in the back. This image should be there. It was a fantastic experience working with them and I hope to contribute more.
This was taken around the same time as the above image, looking west towards the Sierra crest in a break in the weather. There is no Photoshopping on this image, it's just as the original Velvia 50 slide captured it.
Here I am dragging my kayak through the rabbitbrush and sage. I took this image with a 15mm fisheye lens right up against my rudder. Thank God for tripods and 10-second timers!
I paddled out to the island and spent one night out there, and on the way back late in the evening I hit a storm during the 2-mile open water paddle which was pretty exciting. When I set up my tent it flew off into the lake and I had to wade out and retrieve it. This was about a 20-minute exposure which shows the wind whipping my tent around. I layed down inside with my headlamp to warm up which is why there's a hot spot in the back of the tent. It was c-c-c-c-old. I wanted to do a much longer exposure but I wanted to go to sleep even more.
Here's my baby ready to go! It was an odd combination of paddling and snowshoeing. This is really a unique opportunity to paddle a high elevation inland lake in the winter. The water is 3 times saltier than the ocean so it doesn't freeze over. I'm surprised more people don't do it. In fact the rangers who issued my boating permit thought I was crazy! Maybe I am, I hope to do it again this winter.
These were all taken on a solo winter kayaking trip I took this last February. It was a 3-night trip and I had to drag my fully loaded kayak a mile over the snow to reach the shore of Mono Lake via snowshoe. It was awesome!
Keep your eye out on the February issue of National Geographic Adventure magazine in the "There & Back" section in the back. This image should be there. It was a fantastic experience working with them and I hope to contribute more.
This was taken around the same time as the above image, looking west towards the Sierra crest in a break in the weather. There is no Photoshopping on this image, it's just as the original Velvia 50 slide captured it.
Here I am dragging my kayak through the rabbitbrush and sage. I took this image with a 15mm fisheye lens right up against my rudder. Thank God for tripods and 10-second timers!
I paddled out to the island and spent one night out there, and on the way back late in the evening I hit a storm during the 2-mile open water paddle which was pretty exciting. When I set up my tent it flew off into the lake and I had to wade out and retrieve it. This was about a 20-minute exposure which shows the wind whipping my tent around. I layed down inside with my headlamp to warm up which is why there's a hot spot in the back of the tent. It was c-c-c-c-old. I wanted to do a much longer exposure but I wanted to go to sleep even more.
Here's my baby ready to go! It was an odd combination of paddling and snowshoeing. This is really a unique opportunity to paddle a high elevation inland lake in the winter. The water is 3 times saltier than the ocean so it doesn't freeze over. I'm surprised more people don't do it. In fact the rangers who issued my boating permit thought I was crazy! Maybe I am, I hope to do it again this winter.