Chattermarks

EVENT INFO:
Join North Cascades Institute for a book release celebration for John Scurlock’s Snow & Spire: Flights to Winter in the North Cascade Range. November 30, 2011 7-9 pm. Skagit Station Meeting Room, 105 E. Kincaid St, Mt Vernon. Free!

John Scurlock makes his living working as a paramedic for the Bellingham Fire Department, but finds his soulful calling soaring high above the North Cascades in a small yellow aircraft that he built with his own hands. Flying in all varieties of unpredictable weather above the raggedy peaks and yawning glaciers of our American Alps, he leans out the window, does his best to focus his digital camera and snaps photos.

The results reveal a vast landscape buried in snow and encrusted in ice, a wintery terra incognito of terrifying beauty and austere grace: the frost-bound North Face of Mt. Triumph, impossible cornices on Cloudcap Peak, fire lookouts encased in rime, the Pickett Range hidden in mist, Mount Baker’s shining snowfields, Ripsaw Ridge and Skagit Queen Creek and Park Creek Pass in snowy, silent repose. This is the terrain that holds the world’s record for most snowfall ever recorded in a single winter, and Scurlock’s photography unveils the artistic potential of this seldom-seen northern range: something primitive, forbidden and inaccessible, yet also profoundly and exquisitely beautiful, according to Scurlock.

Cornices on the Southeast Ridge of Cloudcap Peak

» Continue reading Snow & Spire: Flights to Winter in the North Cascade Range

“I think we’re going to the moon because it’s in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It’s by the nature of his deep inner soul… we’re required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream.” ~ Neil Armstrong

In the fall, the Skagit River is flooded with dying salmon. I have spent three weekends in the past two months trying to capture the essence of these amazing creatures on camera. I am still not sure whether I succeeded in doing so, but I am happy to share my experiences.

Hanging out with snorkeling gear in 36-degree water probably isn’t everybody’s favorite thing to do, but since I moved up to the Environmental Learning Center, it has become my preferred hobby. The place I like to go is the Cascade River just upstream of where it enters the Skagit. When the salmon are running, you know where to find me!

There’s something extraordinary about being amongst these primordial beings and watching them in their natural habitat. It’s like I get to peer in through a secret window into the lives of one of nature’s wildest creatures. While watching the fish swarm around me and make their redds, defend their territory, court a mate, or just plain get feisty with each other, I begin to understand a little more of the complexity of this species. I don’t know their whole story, but I try to imagine all they have been through. Seeing their scars and bacteria loaded scales gives me a clue.

A dying, diseased female humpy on the final legs of her journey back to her native spawning grounds.

» Continue reading Swimming with the Salmon

I like taking photos. I really like taking photos. I have taken tens of thousands of photos in my life, many of them over the course of the past three years. There is some human desire to capture and save moments of our lives, experiences, places, and people, and relive them. Today’s technology allows for people to capture life in the form of photographs at an almost unimaginable rate. In January of this year, Facebook reported that a record breaking 750 million photos were uploaded to Facebook over the course of a single weekend. Printed and put into physical photo albums, the resulting stack of all of the albums would be taller than six Mount Everest’s placed on top of each other. All from one single weekend.

While I do enjoy taking photos, there is also something to be said about not taking photos. When I hold a camera in my hand, or even just have a camera in my possession, I am unable to be fully present in the moment. There is always a bit of me asking “Should I take a picture of that? Will I ever see that again? How can I share this with my friends?” I am not completely experiencing life in the here and now. I feel a moment I will never experience again has slipped away. Over the past few years I have been wrestling with a balance between taking photos and not taking photos. Leaving my camera at home for some outdoor excursions and taking it with me at other times seems to be a decent compromise.

» Continue reading Living Life in the Here and Now

This week has brought the first significant snowfall to the North Cascades Environmental Learning Center. Sitting at a relatively low ~1,200 feet in the range, the Learning Center is generally snow-free through the year, though the La Nina weather pattern this winter promises to bring us more of the white stuff than usual.

With last weekend’s sold-out Thanksgiving Family Getaway passed, our year of programs at the Learning Center has come to a close. While we still have a small crew of staff working up there every day, wrapping things up for 2010 while simultaneously planning 2011, campus is quiet and still. The snow brings a magical hush to the woods and lake, and the closure of the North Cascades Highway means there aren’t many people passing through the area anymore. The wildlife pretty much has the entire neighborhood to themselves.

Here are some photos from Tuesday, November 30, taken by M.Ed. graduate student Nick Mikula. Enjoy, and hope to see you again at the Learning Center next year!

» Continue reading Snow at the Learning Center

It’s hard to imagine a more inspiring place than the blooming, alpine meadows of the North Cascades to take a wildflower photography class, or a better instructor than Mark Turner, co-author of the Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest handbook.

On July 19-21^st with 15 photographers under his wing Mark embarked on a 3-day wildflower photography workshop. On day 1 we did class work (ie: learning your camera and some tips and techniques) and on days 2-3 we undertook amazing hikes and field excursions to implement what we learned.

» Continue reading Wildflower photography with Mark Turner

The transition from spring to summer has been a long awaited and hopeful one to those of us living in the Pacific Northwest this year.

This past week, our hopes have finally been fulfilled as the summer sun no longer conceals itself from behind overcast skies and the snow so prevalent upon the high peaks surrounding North Cascades Institute‘s Environmental Learning Center melts away to reveal the rocks of this rugged landscape. One of the best ways to take in and experience the summer in the North Cascades and Skagit Valley is to go hiking, to see places you have not seen before!

As a way to welcome the season of summer in the North Cascades and Skagit Valley, several staff, graduate students, and board members of North Cascades Institute hope to inspire you to enjoy this beautiful onset of summer weather by sharing their favorite hikes in the region of the Skagit Valley and North Cascades.

Ptarmigan Ridge Traverse – Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest

A favorite trail, after 40 years and perhaps 400 hikes! An impossible task! Nonetheless, one favorite takes me out the east face of Table Mountain from Artist Point, then onto Ptarmigan Ridge. The trail winds along the ridge, slowly rising as it traverses the east slope of Coleman Pinnacle, then winds around to Lasciocarpa Ridge and ends at The Portals. Pass through The Portals and step onto a Mount Baker glacier. The scenery on this hike—when it is not cloaked in fog and cloud—is simply amazing! On the way out, Mt. Shuksan looms over the left shoulder and Mt. Baker soars upward straight ahead. Marmots whistle and pikas squeak. Pink and yellow monkeyflowers nod over the trickles and seeps, and groves of lupine wave in the mountain breeze. If you know where to look, mountain goats are nearly guaranteed, resting in small groups in the meadows (or on snowfields on hot summer days), the nannies and kids in small herds, the billies solitary on shaded ledges in unlikely places often high on the rock walls and ridges. A winter trip out this trail is also possible, with skis the best way to go and always with an avalanche transponder. The winter scenery is fantastic, but the risks are a bit greater. Lots of people make it part way out this trail in late summer and fall. The section along the east face of Table Mountain is perhaps the most heavily traveled trail in the entire North Cascades, but most do not go beyond the fork to Chain Lakes. If you don’t want to share this remarkable place, go in winter, but do go!

~John Miles, North Cascades Institute Board Member