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| Tombstone Mountain & Talus Lake |
Back in 1990 when I walked south-north through the Yukon Territory I took many photographs, all of them on transparency film. Recently I've had a few of these scanned. One appears in the September issue of The Great Outdoors as I've written about the walk in my column. Here are the others.
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| Post-storm light on Pilot Mountain in the Miners Range |
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| In the Ogilvie Mountains |
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| Sunset over the Yukon River at Fort Selkirk |
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| All my gear |
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| Tombstone Mountain and Talus Lake |
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| Stop for soup in the Richardson Mountains |
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| In the Richardson Mountains |
Photographic note: When I checked my notes I found I'd taken more camera gear on this trip than I think I have on any other long distance walk. I carried Nikon F801 and FM2 SLR bodies, Nikkor 35-70 f3.3-5.6, Nikkor 24mm f2.8 and Sigma 70-210 f4.5-5.6 lenses, a Tamron 2x converter, and a Cullman 2101 tripod. Films were Fujichrome 50, 100 and 400. In total I shot 66 rolls of 36 exposure film (batches went in my supply boxes). The total weight of my camera gear including padded cases was, I am now shocked to discover, 9lbs/4kg.
Having read your book of this great trek a number of times it is great fun to see additional photos.
ReplyDeleteGreat photos Chris. And what an amazing journey it must have been. I'm currently in the Pyrenees on a trek reading your book Rattlesnakes and Bald Eagles, and hope to lay my hands on a copy of your Yukon book. The Yukon is somewhere I dream of going to, but am still slightly wary of grizzly bears. I know this fear is "emotive fear" and that the grizzlies are not interested in me unless I surprise/disturb them and their cubs. But what a fantastic hike your Yukon trip must have been. However I will be wildcampg here in the Pyrenees in bear country (there are very few, population of 30? Brown bears introduced from Slovenia) and am assured by locals that they have an inate fear of man and do anything to avoid contact. Did you carry pepper spray in the Yukon Chris?
ReplyDeleteThanks Jay. I didn't carry pepper spray. I don't think it was around back then. In the Yukon the bears aren't used to people and stay well away. I saw a couple but none very close. I took all the usual precautions of course, especially not storing food or cooking where I slept.
DeleteAbsolutely wonderful photos from a wild corner of the planet.
ReplyDeleteLooking at that kit laid out takes me back. I backpacked around Patagonia over 20 years ago with almost identical gear. ME sleeping bag, Phoenix tent, MSR Whisperlite all in a weighty pack. My shoulders are aching just thinking about it again. Still have it all though, if nothing else it was all indestructible.
ReplyDeleteGreat photos Chris. I love the Yukon myself. It's amazing to see the variety of the landscape too. I hiked the Donjek Route in northern Kluane and the country there looks very different from the Tombstones and the Richardsons.
ReplyDeleteI adored the places names there, names like 'Cache Lake', 'Deadman's Canyon' and 'Grizzly Creek' always had me wondering as to the stories behind them.
Mark (Waring)
All about this trip of yours has always been amazing and inspiring ever since I took on big time backpacking myself. Thanks for sharing the pics. Love the first one with the Tombstone mt. wild profile and the classic looks of the old times.
ReplyDeleteA great selection of images there Chris. Did you scan them yourself or use one of the companies who do this? I'm told it's a time consuming business processing a large number of slides as a DIY job. I imagine there will be a lot of readers with old slides sitting at home not being viewed much these days.
ReplyDeleteDave Porter
I don't know how Chris scanned his slides (would be interested to learn!) but there are companies who will do this for a fee – and the results can be amazing. Even print negatives can produce 6MP files and I believe fine-grained Velvia and the like can resolve even higher. Of course, the quality of the original lens is a contributing factor.
DeleteI regularly shoot black and white film and, with the right lab and scanning, you can create very sharp, high-resolution digital images from analogue photos.
I used ag-photolab.co.uk. I can't remember who recommended them. I'm pleased with the results. The files are 2-4mb.
DeleteChris, will your book on the Yukon be republished? Coincidentally, I'm currently reading a wonderful book - Cold Flashes - A Literary Snapshot of Alaska. Its an anthology of brief essays by Alaskan writers and it captures the essence of place amazingly (not that I've ever been there). Highly recommended.
ReplyDeleteI read your Yukon article in The Great Outdoors, and envy you meeting a pack of wolves and how you said you never felt alone. The closest I've managed to come to that was trying to spark up a conversation with a marmot standing five feet away from me outside its burrow in the Pyrenees. A bit one sided but enjoyable nevertheless! Plus a wonderful encounter with a Griffon vulture checking me out on the descent of a ravine there, circling and then swooping in before veering off at the last second maybe 10ft away. But I'd love to encounter wolves in the Yukon.
Thanks Jay. I'll look out for that Alaska book. I hope my Yukon book will be republished - perhaps just as an e-book.
DeleteA griffon vulture ten feet away sounds exciting - they're big birds. I've seen them in the Pyrenees but not close up.
It would be awesome if your Yukon book could be republished with lots of the photos you took! The ones you've had scanned are so great - would love to see more!
DeleteYes Chris the Griffon vulture experience was exciting. There were no other people, so I had the gorge/valley to myself. It was a pretty hairy three hour descent and I took a rest half way down. I could see the vulture was curious about me, circling above, getting nearer and nearer before swooping far away across the valley before banking around and making a beeline for me. It was amazing how it didn't even flap its wings, just soaring on the thermals. We were looking right into each others eyes. What a privilege! As it banked away a few feet from me I was stunned by the size of the creature. It must have had a wing span of ten feet or more, and its torso was almost as big as a pig? Like when you encountered the wolves in the Yukon, its these types of encounter that make such journeys so memorable?
ReplyDelete