We quickly left our anti-rock shelter and made our way up a safer turnoff towards Thunder mountain.  We hiked up about a quarter mile and found a chute which looked decent enough. So upwards we went.

The chute itself was a lot like the Baldy Bowl. The snow was soft and at times we had to posthole on up. But for the most part, it was uneventful. Which is good. I even had that moment you get when surrounded by nature. Which totally made waking up at 5:30 worth it.

We gained the ridge and headed up to Thunder mountain where we got to see some brightly dressed skiers and snowboarders. We took a short break up here and planned out the route some more.

Telegraph Peak was the next destination. From Thunder it didn’t look too bad. But as we descended to the saddle, it turned out to be decievingly deceptive.

After much planning and consideration. We decided against taking the NW route in favor of exploring the NE face. This is the steeper route, and more technical.

An avalanche was probably the greatest risk today. The top layer of snow was pretty soft and fractured in good sized chunks as we traversed. So we set up a system of crossing on at a time and keeping eyes on each other and for falling rocks.

The traverse for me was a bit more difficult. Tim had broken the trail across, but with me weighing in at about 215 pounds including the pack, I would just sink in further. This was pretty tiring. By the time I met up with Tim at the base of our target, I was wiped.

Five minutes and a few sips of Gatorade later, we started up. The snow was the same as the first chute. Tim and I took turns breaking trail and implemented our “rock watch” leap frogging system.

As we climbed up, the slope just got more and more steep. Which was to be expected when we looked at the route from the bottom. But as always, the route looks scarier from the bottom. But it’s the scariest once you’re up there.

During our initial assessment from the base, we knew the last 100′ would be steep. But when we got to the transition from steep to steeper, we were right.

At this point, the chute we went up started getting icy and really steep. I really had to kick in to break the ice and swing the axe like real weapon to get some a grip. On the plus side, there was a nice tree that I could grab on to and grip.

After what seemed like endless climbing, we finall made it to the top. The view from there was one of the best I have yet. It was quite amazing!

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The next objective was Timber. This would be the third peak and about another 600-700′ of gain. We looked down one of the canyons and decided to cut the route short. Looking back, this was probably more tiring than a climb up to Timber would have been. Lesson for the future, don’t cross country over snow covering rocks. It was punch through central.

After 11 hours, we finally made it back to the parking lot at Icehouse Canyon. Objective complete.

Here’s a great video that Tim put together that summarizes the day.

Mountaineerin Manker Flats to Icehouse Canyon – Extreme Edition

Lastly, do not try this route unless you have experience and are with someone who is trained. Chances are, I would have frozen or gotten stuck at some point.

With headlamps on, we started at around 6am from Manker Flat parking area. Parts of the road leading to San Antonio Falls were covered with ice. So some caution was needed until we got to the rockier portions after the hairpin going away from the falls.

At the register, we shed some layers, ditched our headlamps, and carried on. The snow coverage on the trail itself was mixed until about a half mile in. Then it covered everything. There wasn’t any ice, and the snow was already a little slushy. So crampons weren’t needed. Just a little extra caution.

Charging up to the Ski Hut, we med up with the group from the San Gabriel Mountains Discussion Forum group who were holding an informal training clinic. We hung around for about an hour here meeting others and just waiting around for the last group members to get up to the Ski Hut. Unfortunately though, the group started up past our cutoff time of 9am. So Tim and I decided to leave the group and do our own thing. First off, we should his friend how to self-arrest. This was made difficult with the warm sun softening the snow a lot.

After about a half hour of this, we started our climb up the center. I’m not sure on the names of the chutes, I’m going to have to find those out later. But our goal was to head right up the center chute (where the rock formation comes to a saddle in this picture).

We were making some pretty good time up it too. Tim did a good job creating the path for us to follow. After about 40 minutes, we were three quarters or so up the Bowl. This is where Tim wanted to change course and start another approach up a different chute. I decided to stick to the original route, while Tim broke left and went about his approach.

Truong and I went up the intended chute. In the chute, the snow was just powder. I was pretty much post-holing mid-calf or up to my knee with each step. This got pretty tiring. On top of that, the snow was doing a good job of balling up on my crampons. This was extremely tiring and annoying. But at least at this steep portion, I wasn’t worried about a painful slide down the mountain if I messed up.

Finally at the top of the chute, it was pretty gusty. We Baldy looked like a chimney with the way the snow was coming off of it. Baldy itself looked pretty miserable too.

We were done for the day. No summit today. Been there, done that. Instead, we traversed the lip and started the glissade down.

Second half of the glissade:

Check out the rest of his gallery here, http://keeganuhlphotography.com/wilderness/icehouse2010/index.html

Thanks for sharing!

I had checked out John Robinson’s The San Gabriels, and decided to snap some shots of the photos in the book to share. Probably copyright infringement, but I thought it would be cool to preserve some of these digitally (albeit roughly). You should definitely check out the book if you are interested in San Gabriel mountain history.

Timescapes Timelapse: Mountain Light from Tom @ Timescapes on Vimeo.

WRIGHTWOOD, CA – Firefighters are dwarfed by towering flames as they set a backfire to try to stop the 3,500-acre Sheep fire from reaching the town of Wrightwood, a half-mile away on October 4, 2009 near Wrightwood, California. The wildfire began near Lytle Creek and is threatening the mountain ski community of Wrightwood and other communities. Strong erratic winds and a steep terrain is driving the wildfire through the San Gabriel Mountains, charring more than 3,500 acres and destroying at least four homes so far. Approximately 1,000 firefighters are battling the blaze. (David McNew / ***** Images)

This was taken on 9/5/09 at 9:33pm.

I’m trying to figure out what mountain is burning on the left, and to me it looks like Baden-Powell. But I’m thinking that’s too close to be BP and thinking it’s Waterman with Twin Peaks slowly going up.

Anyone know what peaks those are?

UPDATE (taken 9/6/09 at 2:24am):

Damn, it’s really engulfed now.

These unique environments do have their own challenges though. From extremely harsh sunlight, to overcast days, to awesome sunrises in the desert. Well, over the year and half of hiking that I’ve done, I’ve always had my camera with me ready to snap a photo at a moments notice.

Over this time, I’ve also refined my picture taking and generally know what settings my camera should be set at. But it’s still a lot of trial and error. Thank God for live preview and expansive memory cards. Since my first hike on July 14, 2007, up until the time of this posting, I’ve taken a hair over 5,400 pictures.

So this post is about tips that I’ve come to use during my hikes and my general opinion on how I like to take photos. Hopefully you find this “guide” useful and give it a try.

1. Keep your camera close and easy to reach – This is assuming you have a small point and shoot. Even if you have a super zoom, you can get a small case and carry it across your shoulder. But the key is being able to get your camera out in at least 5 seconds. I keep mine in a case zip-tied on my right suspension strap. This allows me to unzip, pull out, and turn on my camera with only my right hand.

2. Shooting subjects – For me low angle images are king. Especially if you get a good silhouette. But chances are you’re on the move or are just too tired to bend over and to try to compose the image. So my advice is don’t. Just blind fire a couple of shots. Don’t expect anything fancy to come out, but you never know; and you may even be surprised when you check out the pictures on your computer.

Also, posed shots are great, but candid shots are even better. There’s nothing better than catching grimacing face as someone nears a peak.

3. Shooting subjects off center – The rule of thirds should apply whenever possible. There’s a time and place for being front and center. But I think pictures look better off center. The point here is that you’re most likely trying to capture the person with the surrounding background. Why obscure the main subject which is nature? Sometimes I like to put the person at the far edge just to give a sense of scale to the overall image.

4. Shooting subjects in the sun – Summer months, overcast days, snow on the ground, or a setting sun can ruin your image if the sun is behind your subject. Depending on the angle of the sun, effective flash range I’ve found is about 3′ with the sun in the image. From my guess, with the sun about 60 degrees angled from the camera, range is about 5′. It’s pretty much trial and error. You’re just going to have to play around with the settings and camera distance. Regardless, your image is most likely going to be slightly overblown or underexposed.

For the picture at right, I decreased the exposure to -1. The shadows are extremely dark, but the sky and some of the edges of the branches still have color.

5. Get a minipod – Find a Guerrilla Pod or a mini tripod. These prove pretty valuable when on the trail and you want to take a group shot or a solo shot. Or if you just want to take pictures of yourself without setting up a tripod, get an extender.

6. Shooting macro – Spring is around the corner, and with it comes the blooming flowers. It’s at these times that you would want to take up close shots. Chances are, your camera has a macro setting. Use it. This tells the camera that you’re going to take a close up shot and focuses the lens on the closes subject.

However, if you want to get a good bokkie shot, where the image is in focus while the the background is blurred, then leave the macro setting off, stand between 5-10 feet and zoom in the target. This doesn’t work well on my point and shoot, but may on yours. It should work relatively well on a superzoom though. You can also try this on people too.

7. Manual settings – I prefer to go full manual with my camera. With a p&s there’s really not too much to worry about except for exposure and ISO. If it’s bright out, just leave it at ISO 100. I also tend to decrease my exposure to -2/3 so as not to blow out some parts of the image. If it’s a really must have image though, take 3 or 4 shots at different exposure settings.

If you’re shooting at dusk or early morning, jack up the ISO until you get the properly exposed shot. Avoid going to the max as there will be a lot of noise.

8. Shooting at night – I wouldn’t use the flash to take pictures of people unless you want some hikers being angry at you for blinding them. If you want light, use your headlamp. Here you would have to turn up your ISO to the max, chances are though, you’ll still get something blurry. Play around with the exposure and see what you get. Anything between +1 – +2 stops and chances are your picture is going to be unusable.

9. Shooting the sunrise/sunset – Shooting sunsets can be tricky. The key here is a tripod. But if you don’t have one handy, then you would have to hold the camera a bit steady. Exposure settings should be 0 to -1. Anymore and you image might come out dark. Try to set the exposure to 0 to +1. You may have to hold the camera extra steady else your image may come out a bit blurred.

You can also up the ISO here. Crank up it up incrementally and see how it comes out.

The sunrise at left is over the Salton Sea as we charged our way to Villager and Rabbit peak.

10. Shooting water – Still water is pretty easy. It’s moving creeks and waterfalls that are interesting. If you want a blurred motion, you’ll have to crank up the exposure to +1 to +2 and set the camera on something steady. If it’s a bright day though, your sky or background is going to be blown. There’s kind of a fine balance here. You’ll just have to find it. Also, if able, drop your ISO to 50. This will decrease the sensitivity of the sensor some which might compensate a little for the increased exposure.

11. Playing around with long exposures – This is especially fun to do at night. I recently found out that my camera is able to do 1″ – 15″ exposures! I haven’t been up in the front range at night to play around with city shots. But I have been up in the desert and took some pics from Red Box looking towards Monrovia. Here the ambient light from the city gives a good image.

The image at right is inside one of Allison mines. Here I had setup my minipod and propped it up on a rock and just let them pass with their headlamps on. It took about 4 different people to come down for me to figure out the timing. Good thing we had a decent sized group. But this is a 15 second exposure.

Those are pretty much all the tips that I can think of. Overall though, my style of shooting involves taking mostly candid shots when I can. Of course I always like the group shot, but I would prefer the random group photo over a posed one. Of course it’s pretty tough to get everyone looking in the same direction at any one time. Also, what I like to do when I’m in the back of the group is to take shots of the group in a line as they go down the trail. If the trail starts to curve, then even better. And I’m a sucker for silhouette shots too. I think the last picture would have been perfect if I had gotten more of the reflection.

Hope this was helpful. If you can think of any other points that I missed out on or want to add to or discuss something, then leave a comment. So go out and take some photos. The world is a big place that needs to be captured.