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 I’ve been in Aspen for 2 days now.  Unfortunately I forgot my CF card reader.  I don’t know how to write a blog post without pictures.  Noteworthy things I saw today include: (a) a giant sign advertising the tent to fill out "WAVIERS"<sic>, (2) Dee Snider (Twisted Sister) on skis, (4) Ed Robertson of BNL (I think), and (d) a lady hula-hooping while snowboarding. 

 Wednesday, I had an email conversation with the photo editor at Dead Point Magazine about using some of my photos on their website.  You can imagine how surprised I was to see a slideshow of 12 of my photos from Bishop on their homepage last night.  My website page views have gone from 0 to 29 in the last 12 hours, with visitor locations ranging from Texas to Oregon, Paris to LA.  Now I just need to get a contact page or button up so as to increase the chance of selling a print from zero to slight.

 Brandon had ice tools, a book about ice climbing, and two impressionable coworkers too cheap to hire a real guide, and rumor had it that ice was beginning to form in the park.  A guy has to learn somehow, damnit!  I had an offer on the table to hit the ski slopes for what would have been the first turns of the season, but which sounds more adventurous to you?  I have to admit, I was having second thoughts the night before.  My skis leaned against the wall begging to go down some bumps, and thoughts of the long, cold approach to the ice slab and doubts about my ability to actually make it more than a foot off the ground almost made me pick up the phone for a change of plans.  The pictures below should tell you who won out, the ski lifts or the ice climbing n00bs.

 Last weekend, we hiked to Hidden Falls and killed 5 hours on some smaller ice while waiting on a group of 15 to either surrender their ropes on the main falls or pack up and leave.  They were more than an annoyance…notice the two in the bottom left of the second picture. Yep, the guy in red is actually tying the other guys knot for him.

 We tried out some mixed climbing.  It was a challenge, but I got some satisfaction in knowing that we flailed around less than the jerks in monopoint waterfall crampons using fancy leashless tools.

 One benefit to having my smaller camera along is the video mode.  Enjoy.

 I went ice climbing last week and decided to take my old point and shoot along instead of the d1x.  My reasons were many: lighter, smaller, better battery performace at low temps, video capability, and the knowledge that I just wouldn’t be getting any amazing pictures on the trip.  I’m finally starting to go through the pictures and have once again reminded myself why I shoot in RAW.  I’ll keep the discussion brief by using the following example.

 Enlarge the picture below and take a look at the histogram.  I overexposed the picture a little, evidenced by the peak that is clipped on the right edge of the histogram.  You can see that the ice on the right side of the frame is blown out.  Sure, ice is supposed to be white.  But there IS detail there, detail that I lost. 

 Had this been a RAW image, I would be able to recover at least some of the detail…probably half a stop’s worth.  I started bumping down the exposure and quickly reminded myself that this is not a RAW image, but a JPEG.  Notice the peak is still clipped as it moves to the left.  It’s not rounding itself out and no tail is forming.  There is absolutely no detail contained in the highlights of the ice…I’m just making it a darker shade of gray as I lower the exposure.

 Be on the lookout for more updates.  I have Bishop pictures to post, ice climbing adventures to tell of, and new gear reviews.  In the meantime, I’m looking for a compact camera bag to take climbing with me.  It must be durable, compact and not a backpack.  I have an idea for strapping one to my crashpad, and I’ve also been looking at f-stop’s messenger style bags…other ideas?