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I saw this theme come out just before I headed up north for a long weekend of dangerous stuff - only one week out of sync with the themes in real life!
Friday I was brushing up on my winter skills by taking an avalanche awareness course. Very interesting stuff learning to forecast the avalanche danger on different aspects of the mountain, using weather forecasts and precipitation and wind histories - all a bit "classroom" but vitally important to establishing what the local danger in any one hill might actually be. Then we went out up onto the North face of Ben Nevis to examine some potential avalanche hazards, examine snow layers and in a safe and controlled way, start very small avalanches to see how the snow fractures differently.
The conditions were brutal - 50mph winds at about 500m up and gusting far higher. One of our group (we started with 4 of us "students" and two guides) was blown off her feet as we were walking along the path and seemed to tear her MCL, so she had to be walked back down again after just half an hour out on the hill
An hour before we went out a Swiss guy was avalanched down about 100m in the gully next to where we were heading - it just goes to show that even though our mountains might be small, they're no less dangerous than the Alps in their own way. Fortunately he didn't need an evac and managed to walk out of the coire back to his car (hobbling).
Friday night I then drove back down south again to wild camp in the southern-most part of the Highlands, near Killin. We pitched our tent part of the way along a route to Meall Ghaordaidh, which is a very unremarkable munro and usually fairly boring. However, it benefited from requiring a NW approach, avoiding the worst of the forecast 50mph winds that following day and we could choose a couple of different approaches depending on conditions the following day. Which was brutal! Westerly winds probably higher than forecast and freezing level at about 500m, so plenty of fresh snow coming down and ice being blasted across us as we walked up. I made sure we kept to the windward side of the mountain on our ascent and descent - although it meant we had to walk a little more into the painful wind, we'd avoid the transported snow on the Easterly side of the mountain, which would be ripe for avalanche. We saw one group of walkers taking the opposite approach and heading towards the Easterly side - an easier walk but they would have faced a much more dangerous climb up above the snowline.
Anyway, the descent was pretty hairy. We drifted a little too far East at one point and as visibility disappeared during yet another snowstorm I realised we were about to cross onto an Easterly face. It was fairly steep - 35-40 degrees or so and therefore lethal. I was standing below my friend, who took one step onto the slope. Just a couple of feet away from me, across the entire face of the slope a crack appeared in the slope. I yelled to him to get back on the ridge (which he did) and a sheet of windslab about 6" thick and the size of a large dining room table broke away and fell down the slope. It wouldn't have been enough snow to carry us (unless very unlucky) even had we been standing on it, but it reinforced how careful you need to be, even when you know what you should be doing (because it's easy to "drift").
The rest of the descent was done very, very carefully - taking a bearing every minute or two (since we often couldn't see because of the whiteout) and picking our way down some fairly steep stuff - always keeping again to the windward side. Ice axes were in constant use (although not for arresting any slides) and there was quite a bit of front pointing down the steeper stuff. I did enjoy the bum slides down some of the gentler soft snow slopes, though!
Just over five hours after we set off we were back at camp, a bit sore from the exertion (despite being a short walk, it was quite "tense") and the prolonged crampon work had put quite a bit of pressure from my boots onto my shins. I thought they were just a bit sore, but when I had a bath back home I realised I'd manage to mangle my shins quite badly - which needed some topical attention!
Week 8: Topical by Paul M, on Flickr
So, a very long story for how and why I came to take this photo
Lighting was from a single strobe, off frame left and above the scene. Reflector to the right of frame. Large aperture (f/2.8) meant a bit of natural light came in from the window, but that was ok for the image I wanted to create. Light modifier was a large gridded softbox which I flagged down to a circle about 70-80cm in diameter (using tin foil!) to give the effect you see. I then processed quite heavily in lightroom to make it as gritty as possible, without going black & white or selective colour - I wanted to be able to see the red of the sudocrem and my wounds!
The grain and desaturation may not be to everyone's taste (as might my feet!). Similarly, the choice of a very large aperture to throw the toes slightly OOF to accentuate the shins and tub of cream is a decision which might not work. If I were shooting again, I might shoot it in square format with more empty space to the left and right. But this is what I have... PABD!
The things I do to myself to get a photo on theme!
Friday I was brushing up on my winter skills by taking an avalanche awareness course. Very interesting stuff learning to forecast the avalanche danger on different aspects of the mountain, using weather forecasts and precipitation and wind histories - all a bit "classroom" but vitally important to establishing what the local danger in any one hill might actually be. Then we went out up onto the North face of Ben Nevis to examine some potential avalanche hazards, examine snow layers and in a safe and controlled way, start very small avalanches to see how the snow fractures differently.
The conditions were brutal - 50mph winds at about 500m up and gusting far higher. One of our group (we started with 4 of us "students" and two guides) was blown off her feet as we were walking along the path and seemed to tear her MCL, so she had to be walked back down again after just half an hour out on the hill
An hour before we went out a Swiss guy was avalanched down about 100m in the gully next to where we were heading - it just goes to show that even though our mountains might be small, they're no less dangerous than the Alps in their own way. Fortunately he didn't need an evac and managed to walk out of the coire back to his car (hobbling).Friday night I then drove back down south again to wild camp in the southern-most part of the Highlands, near Killin. We pitched our tent part of the way along a route to Meall Ghaordaidh, which is a very unremarkable munro and usually fairly boring. However, it benefited from requiring a NW approach, avoiding the worst of the forecast 50mph winds that following day and we could choose a couple of different approaches depending on conditions the following day. Which was brutal! Westerly winds probably higher than forecast and freezing level at about 500m, so plenty of fresh snow coming down and ice being blasted across us as we walked up. I made sure we kept to the windward side of the mountain on our ascent and descent - although it meant we had to walk a little more into the painful wind, we'd avoid the transported snow on the Easterly side of the mountain, which would be ripe for avalanche. We saw one group of walkers taking the opposite approach and heading towards the Easterly side - an easier walk but they would have faced a much more dangerous climb up above the snowline.
Anyway, the descent was pretty hairy. We drifted a little too far East at one point and as visibility disappeared during yet another snowstorm I realised we were about to cross onto an Easterly face. It was fairly steep - 35-40 degrees or so and therefore lethal. I was standing below my friend, who took one step onto the slope. Just a couple of feet away from me, across the entire face of the slope a crack appeared in the slope. I yelled to him to get back on the ridge (which he did) and a sheet of windslab about 6" thick and the size of a large dining room table broke away and fell down the slope. It wouldn't have been enough snow to carry us (unless very unlucky) even had we been standing on it, but it reinforced how careful you need to be, even when you know what you should be doing (because it's easy to "drift").
The rest of the descent was done very, very carefully - taking a bearing every minute or two (since we often couldn't see because of the whiteout) and picking our way down some fairly steep stuff - always keeping again to the windward side. Ice axes were in constant use (although not for arresting any slides) and there was quite a bit of front pointing down the steeper stuff. I did enjoy the bum slides down some of the gentler soft snow slopes, though!
Just over five hours after we set off we were back at camp, a bit sore from the exertion (despite being a short walk, it was quite "tense") and the prolonged crampon work had put quite a bit of pressure from my boots onto my shins. I thought they were just a bit sore, but when I had a bath back home I realised I'd manage to mangle my shins quite badly - which needed some topical attention!
Week 8: Topical by Paul M, on Flickr
So, a very long story for how and why I came to take this photo
Lighting was from a single strobe, off frame left and above the scene. Reflector to the right of frame. Large aperture (f/2.8) meant a bit of natural light came in from the window, but that was ok for the image I wanted to create. Light modifier was a large gridded softbox which I flagged down to a circle about 70-80cm in diameter (using tin foil!) to give the effect you see. I then processed quite heavily in lightroom to make it as gritty as possible, without going black & white or selective colour - I wanted to be able to see the red of the sudocrem and my wounds!
The grain and desaturation may not be to everyone's taste (as might my feet!). Similarly, the choice of a very large aperture to throw the toes slightly OOF to accentuate the shins and tub of cream is a decision which might not work. If I were shooting again, I might shoot it in square format with more empty space to the left and right. But this is what I have... PABD!
The things I do to myself to get a photo on theme!
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