Virtual Hiker

White Mountains of New Hampshire 2011

virtualhiker — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 15:28:51 +0000

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

Filed under: Hiking, New Hampshire

Mont Royal Walk

virtualhiker — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 20:36:04 +0000

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:

http://vimeo.com/33868589

Filed under: Québec

Montréal to Dawson City, Yukon

virtualhiker — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 21:27:07 +0000

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

Filed under: Yukon

Tombstone Territorial Park, Yukon

virtualhiker — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 00:36:12 +0000

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

Filed under: Yukon

Borderlands

virtualhiker — Sat, 14 May 2011 16:32:20 +0000

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

Filed under: Border, Hiking, International, Québec, Snowshoeing