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| The Fam -- Photo credit Ena Scott age 6 |
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| Camping at Sibbald Lake-Sunrise |
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| Morning frost |
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| Some type of tree Lichen--Usnea? |
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| Hike to Eagle Hill/Ridge from Sibbald lake. K country on the left, indigenous land on the right/north |
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| He can see over the steering wheel now.... |
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| Carla and Papa's day off. A fine Wednesday to hike up Barrier mtn to the fire lookout on top. |
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| Carla offering chocolate....except that she removed it from the box! (She's always tricking papa!) |
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| Piggy came too...maybe she stole the chocolate! |
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| Barrier lake and Mt. Mary Barclay centre right |
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| Carla poses in front of the mighty Yam |
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| Can't find this in Ben's Handbook. Looks like Jasmine :) |
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| Gray Jay |
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| Carla and Flaco on the summit heli pad. She brought him some treats :) |
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| Green bottle fly? |
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| Tree with a large burl |
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| Calypso orchid/fairy's-slipper/venus's-slipper |
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| Shooting star/peacock/roosterhead |
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| Carla on the way back down the mtn! She looked up all of the above in Ben Gadd's Handbook to the Canadian Rockies, which the author donated to my school when he visited my outdoor class last year. |
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| Biffy graffiti at the icefields |
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| Graffiti on Carla's bedroom door. |
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| Oh I wanna be a dog.....being human these days, is gettin' too crazy, I just wanna be a hound. |
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| Ramon on trumpet centre row 3 in from the left |
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| Summit of Boundry Peak below Mt. Athabasca. Named because it is on the boundry b/t Banff and Jasper National parks |
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| Whistle pig! (Hoary Marmot) |
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| The 4 legged check out the 2 legged. |
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| Mooning the human |
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| The Ram of the herd |
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| Morning view upon waking up in the back of the van. |
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| Mt Wilcox....objective for day two. My notes say I last climbed it with Studley a 1/4 century ago. Took us 1:24 including a 5 minute snap. Took me around 4 hours this time! Why? old age/did Boundry peak the previous afternoon/fair bit of lolloygagging/mostly becuase of snow and had to stay on the ridge the whole way, which entailed taking time to suss out some tricky moves. |
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| Had to stick to the ridge to avoid potential avy slopes |
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| Crux just below the summit (summit is actually behind me) Colombia icefields in the background. Bit of a drop on the RHS. Had to squeeze b/t the snow and the rock. |
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| Willow Catkin-'pussy willow' Note the critter poking his head out? I emailed Ben Gadd and he said, " I’m guessing that it’s a seed or some other bit of vegetation that has landed in the flower and stuck there. I love the coincidental face, with the eye-like spot and the nose. Given the shape and color, it could also be angel crap that fell from the sky . . ." |
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| Ben says, "This one is easy, Steven. That little Engelmann spruce (or maybe it’s a subalpine fir) has been damaged by low temperatures and wind -- freeze-drying, abrasion by sharp snow crystals -- it had to endure through the very long, very cold winter we had. Takes a lot of meteorological abuse to do that much harm to a hardy upper-subalpine individual such as the one in the pic. The lower, undamaged portion was protected below the snow surface, where temperatures are a little warmer and the wind is not a problem.
Did you see the same sort of damage to other trees about that height or smaller in this location? It’s not a global-warming thing, really -- although the warming climate has lots of little trees invading meadows that once had few.
If they can keep growing, attaining a height that gets them above the zone of snow-blast, which is strongest close to the snow surface, these trees may become flag trees: bushy at the base, where the snow protects them, then a metre or so of mostly bare trunk above, through the freeze-drying/snow-abrasion zone (a few branches on the down-wind side, the flag), and bushy again higher up, where there is much less flying ice."
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| Purple saxifrage? |
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| Lastly....Lichen on a rock...a crust lichen. Love the perfect circle. |
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