Page 22 of 26 FirstFirst ... 122021222324 ... LastLast
Results 211 to 220 of 255

Thread: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?

  1. #211

    Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Location
    Hudson Valley, NY
    Posts
    1,692

    Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?

    Quote Originally Posted by bob carnie View Post
    no stairs here, I have a 10 hour day going for the next couple of days sitting in front of this computer and sending files to my printer. All I want to do at the end of this day is lift a beer.
    In exercise-speak, those would be called 12 oz. curls

  2. #212
    Drew Wiley
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    SF Bay area, CA
    Posts
    18,318

    Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?

    I go up a set of stairs about forty times a day around here, often several times between these posts. But that still doesn't do it for me. Last weekend I loaded up
    my Sinar Norma so I could walk relatively fast (relative in this case means pretty slow compared to when I was a youngster). It was a beautiful drippy day over on
    the coast, but I never even unpacked the camera. Wanted a good workout, cause the week before I stumbled onto something with the 8x10 that stalled me in one spot a long time, waiting on the wind and light as the fog moved in and out. This coming weekend I'll probably pack a heavy 8x10 load again and seek out a particularly steep hill, in this case to build my knees up under load. It seem to help alternating week by week in this manner. My biggest problem at this age is simply getting out of the house early enough to avoid slow traffic. Getting harder and harder not to sleep late. But there are also times when I put a priority on getting comfortable with warmer temps, so will pack very light with just a canteen and Nikon, and take a long walk without major uphills. People have different
    strategies; but the key as you get older is to just keep at it - you have to be pretty routine and deliberate. Fortunately, a view camera is a vastly more pleasant
    thing to work out with than some stinky gym.

  3. #213
    Drew Wiley
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    SF Bay area, CA
    Posts
    18,318

    Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?

    There have been a couple instances in this part of the world too recently, though I didn't follow the details. It happens every year. But there was also one of those
    success stories, where some young guy got his leg smashed way back somewhere in the high country by a falling rock, jerryrigged up some kind of splint, and managed to crawl for a week while eating bugs, until he was finally spotted and rescued. That could have happened to any of us. But like I've said many time before,
    I consider the daily commute on the freeway to be a lot more dangerous than the mtns ... at least that's where I've had far more close calls.

  4. #214
    ROL's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Location
    California
    Posts
    1,370

    Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?

    Drew, that fellow, for as much as I know of the event, appears to have handled the situation as admirably as possible under the circumstances. It could have been me!



    Quote Originally Posted by Dakotah Jackson View Post
    http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/58...p-car.html.csp
    A U.S. Bureau of Land Management ranger found the man’s body about 2:20 a.m. Wednesday off the trail about a mile from the trailhead. He was carrying only a camera — no food or water — and appeared to have been unprepared for the day’s high temperatures, which reached over 100 degrees, county officials reported.

    Not only is this idiot stupid but he left his dog in his car!
    Horseshoe Canyon is a remote island district of Canyonlands NP. For those who don't remember, the lower end of Blue John Canyon where it empties into Horseshoe was the scene of the Aaron Ralston arm amputation event a few years ago. It was many years previous to that when I went down to photograph the well known pictograph panels. My wife stayed at the trailhead while I did the shoulder season hike into the canyon to the panels. The 6 mile round trip was one of the most uncomfortably hot and dry, and not very picturesque, southwest canyon hikes I've done – and I was very fit and well heat acclimatized. There is no water available other than what one carries, and even I felt quite heat stressed on the final climb out of the canyon back to the trailhead. Once there, I discovered my wife had constructed a tarp supported on one end by our vehicle to provide the only available shade, where she and our two dogs were waiting comfortably for my return. There's just no substitute for Darwin style common sense. (Warning: the following representative image is not LF)


  5. #215
    Drew Wiley
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    SF Bay area, CA
    Posts
    18,318

    Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?

    I once got a foot stuck big time during early season, punching into something below that wedged it. Fortunately, with a lot of patience, my ice axe managed to leverage things apart and free me without injury. The ultimate horror story is the guy who got his foot trapped by a boulder behind the Brown Cliffs in the Winds. There was water trickling there, but otherwise, he slowly starved to death, and left behind notes of his ordeal, which someone found along with his remains several years later. Overhead chutes with loose rocks are one of those hazards in mtn travel which are especially nice to avoid, or to cross as promptly as possible early
    in the day, before any of the ice thaws that might tend to cement things together.

  6. #216
    Drew Wiley
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    SF Bay area, CA
    Posts
    18,318

    Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?

    Oh... and thanks for the link, ROL, cause I was wondering exactly where it transpired. I momentarily noticed what looked like a view of Wanda Lk on the news, so
    thought it might have been in the vicinity of Goddard; but they never really said. I went up there on four separate occasions trying to get ideal light over the
    Enchanted Gorge, and finally succeeded, though it meant spending the nite on a tiny ledge and shooting form a little wedge or rock barely big enough for the tripod, and certainly not fun to adjust the lens at. Took full 85 lb packs of Sinar gear up there each time. Possibly one of the most spectacular panoramas in Anerica, butya gotta earn it. I'd like to take in the view from the summit of Scylla some time, but worry about age taking ahold of me first. That's quite a hike with a view camera too.

  7. #217
    Land-Scapegrace Heroique's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Seattle, Wash.
    Posts
    2,929

    Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?

    Quote Originally Posted by ROL View Post
    It was many years previous to that when I went down to photograph the well known pictograph panels...
    The pictograph here suggests a key "Essential" that needs more discussion – namely, protection against alien abductions in the high-desert southwest.

    Please hear me out with patience before moving on.

    This image – along with so many others – is just one more piece of evidence clearly supporting what leading anthropologists are coming to accept: Yes, the mysterious disappearance of the Anasazi is best explained by an alien abduction.

    Examine the image closely. The action portrayed here is unambiguous. We can thank the brave Anasazi artist for being quick enough to record an alien life form, a sort of cosmic cowboy, herding several of his tribal companions for safe transport to spaceships waiting above – presumably before the artist was transported himself.

    The fascinating pictograph begs a question for LF landscapers working in this beautiful area: "What 'Essential' can protect me against the fate of the Anasazi whose ancient ruins I'm photographing?" I wish I had obvious tips to share. If I knew more about locating beacons, and how well they work from spaceships, I might start there.

    Whatever "Essential" is best for the situation, it might be wise to sacrifice, say, a portion of your water supply, or a cumbersome emergency shelter, to carry it. ;^)

  8. #218
    ROL's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Location
    California
    Posts
    1,370

    Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?

    What total Heroique Horseshoe horseshit!*

    When I was regressed several years ago I discovered that it was not the Anasazi, but I, who 500 years previous painted these images. It was an immature and subsequently regrettable act of teenage angst. I only recently (in geologic terms) returned to the scene of the defacement in order to see if it was still there, and confirm long buried memories. My signature may be discerned within the body of the main figure. I'm thinking of asking the NPS to install 'No Photography' signs.










    * alliteratively speaking

  9. #219
    Drew Wiley
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    SF Bay area, CA
    Posts
    18,318

    Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?

    The Anasazi are still with us. They're just called Hopis nowadays; and nobdody abducted them except the Feds, back when they put em on a Reservation. There
    seems to be a consensus why they moved down from the cliffs. A severe drought led to deep arroyo cutting, which made it impossible to irrigate their corn patches higher up the canyons, since they relied on passive flow through their ditches, and didn't seem to build serious dams. And the more paronoid they became, the further up the canyons and cliffs they dwelled. What caused the paranoia to begin with is a bit more of a contentious subject. I believe it was inter-clan warfare. Each canyon seems to have its own totem symbol at the head or it, apparently serving as a turf warning. Reminds me of the gang graffiti around here, marking territory.

  10. #220
    Drew Wiley
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    SF Bay area, CA
    Posts
    18,318

    Re: Landscape hikers – “10 essentials” or not?

    The "alien" figure in the middle is easy to explain. He was obviously wearing a multi-beam LED headlamp. Only the shamans could afford to shop at REI back then.

Similar Threads

  1. LF hikers ― is “Map & Compass” a dying art?
    By Heroique in forum Style & Technique
    Replies: 195
    Last Post: 7-Mar-2014, 10:39
  2. California Landscape
    By belle in forum Image Sharing (LF) & Discussion
    Replies: 81
    Last Post: 1-Nov-2013, 15:14
  3. B&W landscape photography
    By Ugo in forum On Photography
    Replies: 51
    Last Post: 30-Mar-2005, 08:39
  4. MF vs LF for landscape
    By Larry Gaskill in forum Style & Technique
    Replies: 6
    Last Post: 29-Nov-2000, 00:04

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •