Late snow

[MattBurt]

American Basin is in the San Juan range of the Colorado Rockies near Lake City. It's a popular summer destination for the spectacular views, numerous waterfalls, abundant wildlife, and seemingly endless wildflowers. The Hinsdale County road crew gets the road, Cinnamon Pass, plowed to the top in mid to late May every spring. At that time there is still usually 5-10' of snow at the high point at about 11,000'.
This early plowing is a gift to backcountry skiers and fortunately for me it always comes around my birthday.
I took Friday off work to go up there and spend the day ski touring with a couple of friends. The night before they got 8-12" of new snow that skied like it was still winter in the the morning.
It was Ullr's birthday gift to me and it was indeed a happy birthday.
I hope skiers in my landscape pics are acceptable here!

Climbing up for the warm-up lap.
IMGP1862-Edit by Matt Burt, on Flickr

Just off the 14,058' peak of Handies
IMGP1955-Edit by Matt Burt, on Flickr

Feeling small
IMGP1963 by Matt Burt, on Flickr

[RSL]

Fine stuff, Matt.

[BobDavid]

Love the first one...

[luxborealis]

Spectacular conditions and photos, Matt.

[MattBurt]

Thanks!
It's always challenging to get good photos on these trips because I already have a lot of things to keep track of for survival and I'm at my cardio maximum for much of the day between climbing, skiing, and the altitude (lowest was about 11k that day, highest just over 14,000').

I've found a user preset with the right settings (ISO 400, AF-C, f/10, +1ev, Av mode) helps a ton. I can just compose and fire away and know I'll most likely be stopping the action with a reasonable exposure.

[HSakols]

Ohhh Bliss!  I'm looking forward for our pass to open so I can put on my boards. Wish I were there!

[John R]

Excellent images, especially the BW.

JR

[Chairman Bill]

Some great stuff there, and pretty much all monochromatic