AKMtnr OP t1_j7i3odm wrote on February 6, 2023 at 11:17 PM

I took these photos Saturday night (2/4/23). I got lucky with the weather, the clouds were covering the Chugach all day, but parted at sunset. I took this on the frozen Eagle River, between the Yukla Yurt and the Echo Bend area of the Crow Pass trail. From this view, you can see nearly 7,000 feet of rise on the NW face of the peak. This is almost double the rise of in elevation you see on El Capitan from the Yosemite Valley floor. I climbed this one back in May of 2021 (from the much more moderate East/North East aspects).

Photo details: this is a panoramic of a few vertical shots stitched together. Why? Because I only had a telephoto with me and the composition at 100mm was too tight for my liking.

Camera and settings:

Sony A7RV

Sony 100-400mm lens

100mm, f/7.1, ISO 100, 1 second

You can see more of my photography here:

https://www.instagram.com/aholphoto/

sal_fontinalis t1_j7l0rln wrote on February 7, 2023 at 3:53 PM

Spent a night solo in that Yukla yurt around the winter solstice a decade ago. Snowshoed back out to the trailhead next day at noon and car thermometer read -20F. I have no idea how cold it was overnight. In the Midwest now, but would always prefer dead still sub-zero AK air to the sub-zero wind chills we get down here.

AKMtnr OP t1_j7l9l1v wrote on February 7, 2023 at 4:51 PM

Wow, that is really cold, even for here! I also lucked out on the weather, it really wasn't cold at all. It was probably in the low 30's and no wind whatsoever. I could hear owls hooting in the distance and as I got back to the trail proper, I even heard a wolf howl! I'm looking at booking the yurt now but...by the time there are weekend openings...it won't be very dark anymore.

sal_fontinalis t1_j7mojdq wrote on February 7, 2023 at 10:19 PM

With all those big spruces, I remember the owls being hard to spot. That said, I could “see” them in other ways in winter - small mammal tracks in fresh snow, ending in a disturbance, with the imprint of owl wings descending and beating to ascend quickly again. Likewise with lynx tracks in the snow. Follow them far enough, and they often intersect a hare track that ends abruptly in a bit of blood and fur. That place is magic, and your excellent photograph captures it well.