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There are few more iconic rocks in Colorado than the Flatirons of Boulder. Ease of access, good trails albeit steep trails, and a variety of activities you can do in the area all contribute to their popularity. However, the rocks themselves are the real stars and steal the show every time. 

Although there are several popular viewing locations, the most classic view of the flatirons is from Chautauqua Park. Although it's an amazing view, its been shot millions of times and does not allow for the same level of connection as a hike up amongst the flatirons themselves provides. The views and variety of images that can be made up there is really amazing.

Recently I hiked up for a certain image I had wanted to shoot for quite some time. The problem with trying to get that image, is that you need very specific conditions for it too work. After several recent snowstorms I thought those conditions just might exist. So an early alarm and very steep trail later I was up behind the first flatiron. Unfortunately, the shot I had envisioned didn't quite work but several other interesting shots did. As I mentioned before, the opportunities are endless up there....

I also added a little video of the morning below. Hope you enjoy! 

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The video:

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Inversion

There is a world that seems like it must be a dream, it must be an imagined place, such is its calm and beauty. Its a world above the clouds. The air is still, often silent, and always special. 

I recently spent a morning in one such place, just outside Boulder Colorado. After checking the forecast the previous evening, it seemed the odds of an interesting sunrise was high but made no mention of fog or a possible inversion. My alarm went off, I let our dog out to use the restroom and noticed it seemed foggy. I got excited and as quietly as possible, ran to check the satellite image. I changed plans and started a mission to get above the cloud layer that had engulfed the Denver/Boulder metro areas. Racing through the early morning fog, I drove up a local road that is often above these cloud layers, no luck, it was a thick one. It's impossible to know how high these clouds go, so I gambled on a favorite local hike that is almost always above the clouds....It worked, I entered a dreamwold....

Although it truly does seem like a dreamworld, there is a very real natural phenomenon at work. It is called an inversion and they occur many places across the country/world. Although common in more moist climates (west coast of the US for example), there are fairly unusual in drier ones, like Colorado's front range. An inversion occurs when a warm layer of air gets above cooler lower levels, which is the opposite of normal temperature gradiants. When the cooler layer is trapped below, it is prevented from mixing with the layer above until it warms up (from the sun). All of this is a very rough way of describing how it is possible to rise above and enjoy the space above the clouds. To enter a dreamworld....

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Below is a little video from the morning above the clouds....

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Some of my more popular climbing images the past year or two have come from a pretty unusual time to shoot any climbing but especially ice climbing, at night. Part of it is due to my relative lack of climbing photos (I'm not a great climber) but part of is due to how unique and fun of an experience it is. There are not too many people willing to climb ice around at all (in certain circles yes but as a % of the population it is very small) and fewer still that are willing to hang off a wall of ice using metal spikes/tools when the stars come out.

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There are good reasons few people do this of course, it's cold while everyone else is back in warmth drinking/eating, the ice feels different than during the day, you need extra gear, and oh yeah you can't see. With so few attempting climbing at night, it makes it that much better when you find a few adventurous souls willing to try it for the hopes of a few good pictures and hopefully, a good time. Fortunately for me, several of the climbers from Veterans Expeditions have been willing to try it the last couple years.

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Now that we've done it a few times we are starting to have a general idea on how to do it safely. It starts by lighting a fire in the ring next to the ice climbing park as 1-2 volunteers walks around to the top to set a rope. Once the rope is set, the fire is going, and the moon starts to rise...it's time to climb. Being prepared for this experience as mentioned above, not only requires a certain attitude but additional gear. You need a headlamp, extra layers of clothing, hand warmers (especially when you're not moving), warm socks/boots, and for us a way to start the fire. We've done it with and without a fire, and a fire is the way to go. There's just something about being outdoors in the cold dark winter night, totally alone, and hearing the fire crackling. 

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Shooting at Night:

Shooting at night always has a few additional challenges than during the daytime; there's no light (other than the moon depending on it's phase) so being able to see what you're doing/shooting is difficult, things are colder including batteries/fingers, and you need to use longer exposures that blur motion. Particularly the latter makes shooting climbing at night particularly challenging and another reason you see so few pictures of it. 

In another post that will be released soon, I will go into the technical and physical specifications of a night climbing shot. Here are a few more images from the shoot a couple weeks ago. 

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vetexicea BTS video of an ice climbing trip with VetEx

As I start to learn more about shooting/editing video I hope these will become more and more interesting!! Hope you enjoy for now!

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Ice climbing is a little intimidating at first (at least to me) as you are using metal spikes strapped to your feet and a metal ice pick (actually called an ice tool) to go up sometimes vertical walls of ice. So it can take some getting used to....This trip I didn't do any actual climbing as I was shooting most of the time but did rappel down on a rope one day to shoot between 40-60 feet off the ground. 

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After shooting the ice climbing trips several times it becomes challenging to shoot new angles and interesting images. Thats's where getting on a rope or getting on the ground can help, different angles of climbers at different focal lengths.

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I'll have a few more blog posts about this one so stay tuned!!

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One of my favorite winter hikes in the front range is sugarloaf mountain. It's fairly quick and the views are unique amongst the smaller foothills peaks. So several times a year I like to hike it and explore new compositions and angles to shoot from. This was no exception, although per usual in the winter, it was quite windy. I included a short video to give you a better idea of conditions. 

sugarloafA little BTS gopro video of sugarloaf hike

After an early alarm and drive into the mountains, the wind forecast picked up and was scheduled to have gusts 40+mph. As I pulled into the parking lot, the cloud cover was concerning but the wind wasn't too bad, a welcome surprise. After climbing a 1,000 vertical feet above the parking lot (and man, I am out of mountain shape so it was not pretty) the wind finally appeared. It was not as much fun as I had hoped as the wind chill dropped even further and it was all I could do to keep my fingers working...

The sunrise did not go off as I had hoped, which is always a possibility, and makes the early alarm a little harder to bear. However, there was some very interesting light for a few minutes and an opportunity to test some new gear, including a GoPro I can use to better document these little adventures. Below is a little GoPro of the morning to give a better sense of the experience...
 

Welcome to my new website! I hope you enjoy and please feel free to communicate any comments/questions/suggestions you may have. This was a lot of work and I look forward to continue posting new images and blog posts moving forward (so please check back often!!). The blog section will primarily function as a trip report hub with little videos and from time to time images from different adventures you may be interested in. Thanks for reading this far and hope you will continue to stop by!!

Cheers

Eric 

A Golden Eagle and Me