Bugaboos

Bugaboo Provincial Park is Canada’s mecca for alpine climbing. Visible from near my house, they aren’t far away as the crow flies, but it’s a six hour drive around to the East Kootenays to the access road and the 4-hour slog to Applebee Dome, the base for climbing these stunning spires.

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I went in for a top-secret mission with details hopefully to be released in the fall, but also managed some incredible climbing with a few of my close friends, including the classic Beckey-Chouinard route on South Howser Tower. My fingers are still recovering from the course granite and their constant trembling because of overwhelmingly fun climbing. Here are a few shots from the trip:

Getting vertical

Early summer is a great time to get out on the rock and prepare for the alpine climbing season and, with any luck, actually get out into the alpine. I’ve managed to clear off a week and therefore, Bugaboos here I come! Here are some recent climbing images. Back in a week with hopefully a few more.

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LOOKbetween

I just returned home from an incredible week in Virginia and environs, participating in the annual Look3 photo festival. This, the fourth year of the gathering, involves a meeting of the veterans and those aspiring to be such, where mentors such as National Geographic photographers mingle with young talent and dole out ideas and tips, not to mention some visual magic. This year it was a bit different than the normal event; instead of being a top-down format it was focused instead upon emerging artists and their input on what the future of photography holds. I was fortunate enough to have been invited.
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Look3 was held at a rural location (Deep Rock Farm) near the town of Charlottesville. The city itself boasts a downtown promenade (where the festival is normally held) replete with murals of wildlife hung in the trees. Back on the farm, it was three days of sun and fun featuring a slideshow held on two evenings on a hill overlooking a lake, under the stars. Days consisted of battling the heat in said lake, watching England vs. USA in World Cup action and of course some workshops / chat sessions about business, publishing and storytelling. The organizers included LOOK3, BP, Nick Nichols, David Alan Harvey, Burn Magazine, National Geographic, Leica, Canon, LowePro, and Adobe, among others.

Please check out the LOOKbetween tumblr and check out some of the other photographers here. You will be blown away by their work!

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And finally, the following is my 3-minute presentation: my current “project” on all things Patagonia. Enjoy!

There are no words

Spring birds

This is the season where I usually have to put my camera away to focus instead on some biology and nature guiding work. That said, there’s often a chance to sneak out the big lens, because you never know when something colourful is going to brighten up a rainy spring morning.

You probably get the idea that I really enjoy birds. They are part of my career (with the biology and guiding) and offer an enjoyable distraction on the trail. Here’s a slideshow of some birds that have been kindly obliging in the past month and a half, migrating through, or nesting in Colorado, Ontario, Alberta and/or British Columbia. Keep an eye out in the latest Kootenay Mountain Culture magazine coming out tomorrow, where I finally get a chance to cross borders and publish a story of wildlife in a core outdoors magazine. It’s about migratory birds.

The Gathering

Last weekend I had the privilege to be invited to the Red Mountain Gathering, the second annual vortex of April pow skiing and media mayhem that composes this exceptional event.
Gathering website

What happens is the organizers at Red Mountain and Powder Magazine (among others: Bernie and Albert specifically) bring together the old dogs-  ski photographers and icons such as Ace Kvale, Mark Shapiro, John Falkiner, Hank deVre, and Wade McKoy - to present some of their work and talk about what it was like to telemark in Verbier in the 70’s with their group of buddies. These guys were the real deal: a group that grew and spawned the modern day ski industry as we know it. Powder Magazine also brought in their young guns such as Christian Pondella, Jordan Manley, Eric Seo and combined their talents with some of the local guys like Dave Heath who, incidentally, put together a great retro show, perfectly suited to the scene at Red. All in all, much alcohol was consumed and some of the best skiing of the season was had on the slopes of Red Mountain.

Here is the show I put together, to give folks a sense of both the lighter and more serious sides of this profession, as a tribute to these heroes of ski photography who have battled dangerous and challenging conditions for thirty years and are still around to tell their tales.

Discovery Cabin

Here’s a slideshow from five days of skiing at the Discovery Cabin in Wells Gray Provincial Park, BC.

This trip took place on top of arguably the most unstable snowpack on record for the Trophy Mountains, forcing us to stay clear of any and all avalanche terrain for the duration of the trip. Still, we had a lot of fun and climbed some impressive peaks. A special thanks goes out to Ian of Wells Gray Adventures for his hospitality and for keeping us informed of the Olympic hockey results over the radio. Also, thanks to all the folks on the trip for being so energetic and fun. It was a classic backcountry cabin adventure in yet another amazing part of British Columbia.

Beer League Hockey

This video pretty much sums up the commitment and passion required to play in the Kootenay Lake rec league, Nelson, British Columbia. For those of you who play, this may be just another video recorded in the presence of 12 half-dressed men. For those who don’t, but have a spouse who insists on a carbo-load at 5:30pm and a Red Bull for dessert, this might enlighten the situation. Game on!

Testing gear

My good friend Cam Shute and I were out the other day in Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park, our backyard big-mountain haven. He works as a product engineer for Genuine Guide Gear and had a ski crampon to test. I figured I’d tinker with a day of SLR video while Cam was busy putting his prototype through the ins and outs. Thanks to his wife Genevieve for holding the fort with their newborn Mateo…

Ski Crampon Test from Steve Ogle on Vimeo.

Winter?

It looks like we brought a bit of the tropics back with us. British Columbia is in the middle of a Pineapple Express. This is when a warm storm rolls in from Hawaii and slams the temperate northwest. Still, it’s great to be back in winter, or whatever the slush version is called.

I’ve finally had a chance to get some new images up in the FRESH section. They’re a more complete gallery of images from SE Asia. But to get back to winter, here’s a slideshow from last year’s Cold Shot Foto Faceoff, taken during three days of the Coldsmoke Festival here at Whitewater Winter Resort. Whitewater is the best reason to get out of bed every morning, Pineapple Express or not.

Check out the show and standby for more winter updates!

Steve Ogle Coldsmoke 2009 slideshow from Steve Ogle on Vimeo.