Fifteen days in the wilderness, 5 camps separated by over a hundred miles. Six of us joined up for this epic scouting mission.
Known for its vast icefields, rivers, glaciers, the Boundary Range of western BC has some of the most impressive mountain peaks on the continent. While camping on glaciers, valleys, and high ridges, the weather changed abruptly from completely cloudy to completely clear, with interludes of snow, fog, and rain. There was even a rare and surprising aurora borealis, completely unexpected at this latitude and time of year. The images are diverse, from wildflower laden meadows in the low valleys, to immense glaciers at the base of impressive mountainous peaks, many unnamed and likely never photographed before. While the weather is always a challenge with mountain photography, the moments of beautiful light made this my most memorable trip to date.
Starting near Ambition Mountain, we camped in a low valley surrounded by massive peaks, streams, wildflowers and two small ice caves.
The booming skies and cold nights eventually gave way to clouds and rain. Then a low fog rolled in on the second day, and somehow brought with it an infestation of mosquitos. We relocated to camp 2 on a snowy ridge near Kate's Needle. Of all the mountains I photographed on this trip, Kate stands alone; the northwest face makes a perfect needle at the summit. She was a very finicky mountain, only showing herself for minutes at a time between fog and low clouds.
Still, the area was beautiful. The weather caused me to miss an epic shot of a river in the low valley making a perfect S-surve towards Kate at sunrise. We waited out the weather for 3 days, as the fog finally began to lift on the morning of extraction.
From here we moved to further west along the Stikine River to Flood Glacier, a massive glacier over two miles wide. The west face of Kate was visible along with her partner mountains behind the glacier. We all agreed this was the most beautiful place we had ever camped. The meadows were filled with streams, paintbrush, heather, lupines and snow. We had clouds, atmosphere, and great light. It was a photographer's dream! We hiked for hours, exploring every slope, valley, and wildflower grove within miles.
There was even a waterfall we discovered while scouting with the drone, and as luck would have it the Milky Way lined up perfectly over the mountains at about midnight.
Eventually the skies cleared and gave way to a massive heat wave, which meant it was time to move on. Camp 4 at the base of Chutine peak was at the shore of a glacial lake at the base of the mountain. The days were very hot, nights relatively cool, and again we spent hours hiking through the meadows, over glaciers and up steep slopes.
Two completely unexpected phenomena happened at this camp. One was a parhelion, a sun bow of sorts created by refraction of crystals in the atmosphere. A very rare occurrence.
The other was a booming aurora borrealis. To say seeing the northern lights at this latitude at this time of year would be an understatement. One of the guys got out of his tent at 2am to relieve himself, and started yelling,"Northern lights! Northern lights!" We all jumped out of our tents and grabbed the cameras. After a few shots at camp, it became clear that the show was only beginning. We hiked about 45 minutes to a nearby stream we had scouted earlier and shot the aurora behind the mountains which lasted until the colors were drowned away by the rising sun. In my many times shooting the aurora, never had I seen such a variety of green and pink colors. It was truly amazing.
The highlight of our stay at Chutine was a long hike up an adjacent ridge, where we camped on a thin snowy ridge at the base of Mt. Chutine.
Day 13, we were all a bit tired, stinky, and worse for the wear. While not planned in our original itinerary, we saw this gnarly peak like something from the Northwest Territories while heli-scouting between camps and knew we had to visit. We camped ON the glacier, right at the base of this amazingly photogenic, but unnamed peak.
While intended to be a scouting trip, and despite many days of bad weather, a heat wave, mosquitos, black flies, and a sprained ankle, these 15 days are ones I will never forget. The photographs were as enjoyable to process as the trip itself. I hope you enjoy and thanks for taking the time to look.
Cheers,
Chris
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