White Mountains of New Hampshire 2011
We spent a week in a chalet in the White Mountains of New Hampshire between Christmas and New Years. The weather (freezing rain, and eventually just rain) discouraged hiking on the bigger peaks, so Mount Chocorua was the most ambitious summit of the trip. We mainly stuck to valleys and notches; hiking into the Greeley Ponds and up to Nancy Pond were the highlights. Hopefully winter shapes up in the Whites in 2012, so that we have another opportunity at bagging some peaks in the snow in February or March. Have a great start to the new year everyone!
The route up Chocorua (Piper Trail)
Approaching Chocorua's summit ridge, this was the best snow we had during the week!
Magnificent view of the Presidential Range from Chocorua's summit
It is a wonderful craggy peak, but beware of the ice
Our next outing was the Boulder Loop trail off of the Kancamagus Highway
The forest had some icing sugar on it near the bluffs
Heading down
The afternoon of our third day was spent adjacent to North Conway Village on the White Horse & Cathedral Ledges
The crux (hee hee)
Enjoying the view of North Conway from White Horse Ledge
A short walk into the Greeley Ponds trail is wonderful in winter
The outlet of the lower pond
Looking North from the lower pond
A stop at Sabbaday Falls is always a treat in winter, especially with digital tilt-shift!
Our final hike was up to Nancy Pond, just South of Crawford Notch
This is the cascade along the Nancy Brook, just before the uphill battle begins
We made it up to Nancy Pond just in time for the sun to duck behind the trees
Mont Royal Walk
Beautiful mid-December day in Montreal. Winter is still yet to set in. Took the metro to station Édouard-Montpetit and walked over the three summits back to NDG.
The route
Old ski lift, brush, and U de M sports field
They're still building them big in Westmount
And a little video, click to link to Vimeo and watch in HD:
Montréal to Dawson City, Yukon
Well this is a first for me; I have been too immersed in travelling to actively maintain the Virtual Hiker blog for months. I have been on the move practically every day since the end of May. At this point I will begin retroactive postings covering my travels around Yukon and Alaska, as well as my late July and early August travels around Iceland and the Faroe Islands.
On May 30th we left Montréal and drove to Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, arriving the next night in my hometown, Winnipeg, Manitoba where we prepared for the long journey ahead to Dawson City, Yukon. The trajectory from Winnipeg went through Regina and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, then Edmonton and Grande Prairie, Alberta before hitting Dawson Creek, British Columbia and the start of the Alaska Highway. After Dawson Creek, we hit a real gem, the Liard River Hotsprings, before crossing into and out of Yukon Territory and finally arriving in the capital, Whitehorse. There we spent two nights at the Robert Service Campground, an interesting little sociological experiment, and then drove the final six hours to Dawson City, which would be our home for the coming week.
Packing the snacks in Winnipeg
Beautiful prairie skies from the David Laird Campground
Stone Mountain Provincial Park, British Columbia
Fabulous Liard River Hotsprings
Downtown Whitehorse
Log cabin skyscraper
Parks Canada's S.S. Klondike
Whitehorse from above
Canyon City ruins near Miles Canyon
Canyon City townsite map
The Yukon River
Miles Canyon
Leaving Whitehorse we continue in the path of the stampeders to Five Finger Rapids
Dredge tailings on the outskirts of Dawson City
The historic Yukon Hotel in Dawson City
St Andrews Church, Dawson City
Gold Dredge #4, a National Historic Site of Canada
Onboard Gold Dredge #4
The dredge bucket line. Note the full-sized wheelbarrow for a sense of scale!
Bonanza Creek
Placer mining stake for the Klondike Visitors Association claim along Bonanza Creek
Dawson City as seen from the top of The Dome in the late evening (around 11pm)
The S.S. Keno and Dänojà Zho cultural centre in Dawson City seen from The Dome
Dawson City along the mighty Yukon River
Tombstone Territorial Park, Yukon
One of the places that I was most excited about in the Yukon Territory was Tombstone Territorial Park, just a short drive along the Dempster Highway out of Dawson City. Our initial plan was to backpack in to Grizzly Lake, undeniably the park’s most popular location, and spend two or three nights camping at backcountry sites (there are sites at Grizzly Lake, as well as Divide Lake and Talus Lake), thereby making a small circuit of the Tombstone Range, and doing some scrambling along the way to attain good views. The long winter and delayed spring put a stop to this plan however, as the backcountry sites remained closed due to persistent snow and fragile terrain conditions due to saturated soil. So instead we decided to take a day-hike along the Grizzly Lake trail. There were storm systems bringing high wind, rain and even a bit of snow coming in and out of the valley all day.
Our route finished just beyond the highpoint of the trail, and we decided not to continue down to Grizzly Lake
Even the ptarmigan showed signs of a delayed spring
Working our way up to the ridge
Looking back towards the Dempster from the ridge
Mount Monolith and part of the Tombstone Range
Me and the Chamonix
Nearing the highpoint of the trail
A snow squall hits us on the way back
Borderlands
Last spring I was invited to begin working on a project for the Foreman Art Gallery, located at Bishop’s University in Lennoxville, Québec. The resulting exhibition Stanstead Project, or How to Cross the Border is concerned with geographical and geopolitical borders (as presented by artists Ursula Biemann , Christian Philipp Müller and myself). My work for this exhibition, which opened last week and runs until July 30, 2011, focuses specifically on the wilderness border zone surrounding the towns of Stanstead, Québec and Derby Line, Vermont. This border community has been radically altered since September 11th, 2001 by the implementation of CCTV, and increased border security among other policies. In juxtaposition to the carefully monitored townsite, there are hundreds of kilometers of wilderness where a six-metre-wide cutline separates Canada from the United States. Between September 2010 and February 2011 I explored this cutline through the landscape surrounding Stanstead, making photographs, video, and capturing GPS tracks along the way. Presented here is the documentation of my journeys, and the completed project with a curatorial statement by Geneviève Chevalier can be seen on my website here. If you are going to be passing through the Eastern Townships, take the opportunity to see the show and send me your opinion. If you have never visited Sherbrooke and Lennoxville before, they are quite charming places with plenty of sightseeing opportunities and culture.
First walk to the cutline, September 5th, 2010
Scouting video locations along the cutline, September 25th, 2010
Google Earth view of the GPS track that became the Borderlands book (January 7th, 2011)
Walking the cutline on January 20th, 2011 to make some winter photographs
A no trespassing sign near a labyrinth of trails leading to the cutline
My first view of the cutline on September 5th, 2010
This barrier put in place on Rue Lee separates the town of Stanstead from Derby Line
Lines are painted demarcating the boundary on all streets spanning the border
Cutline view on September 25th, 2010
Fall sets in along the cutline
Making large format photographs along the boundary (right) and Golf du Lac Lyster (left)
Monument #539 along the cutline, looking West
On Church Street, next to the Haskell Free Library and Opera House
Living on the edge..
Boundary marker in town next to one of the newly constructed barriers
In the no man's land between Canada and the US (Caswell and Main)
Photographing the cutline in winter
Large format camera perched near monument #540A
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