Posts Tagged Whistler-Blackcomb
May 16, 2011 – Blackcomb Lake
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Picture of the Day on May 16, 2011
Blackcomb Lake
Monday, May 16, 2011
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1708
I hope everyone had a nice weekend. Mine was nice, although I again failed to get out to take any pictures. Other than my trip to Hawaii earlier this year, I really haven’t taken much of anything in quite awhile. I’m just sitting here going through the archives, but those will run out eventually. After that? Who knows!
Anyway, this is Blackcomb Lake. It’s located on Blackcomb Mountain. (Shocker!) The weather was crappy, which was a common theme in the Pacific Northwest last summer. This summer is off to just as great of a start. (We’ve only had TWO DAYS THIS YEAR over 62 degrees! That’s 16.67 degrees for you celcius types.) I think I’m in a grumpy mood. Oh well, it happens.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens. 1/200s, f/11.0, ISO 200. Focal length: 16mm.
Subscribe to the Picture of the Day via: April 22, 2011 – Whistler Mountain
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Mountains, Picture of the Day, Winter/Snow on April 22, 2011
View from Whistler Mountain
Friday, April 22, 2011
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1752
One last post here to round out the week. And, in honor of the fact that both me and mother nature seem to be having a tough time letting go of this winter, I’m going to post another skiing shot. (Sadly, I won’t be making it up skiing this weekend – but my season is far from over!!)
This was taken from the summit of Whistler Mountain, at Whistler-Blackcomb Ski Resort in British Columbia. The normal picture that you’d take from up here would include Black Tusk, but I like this view too. The weather during this particular trip up there was a bit weird though. I took it in January of 2008, but the snow was a lot more like what you’d usually find in April. There was a warm spell that rolled through (that does happen from time to time up here in the PNW), so the snow, while pretty to look at, was kind of grabby and nasty. As in, it wasn’t quite warm enough to be soft and slushy like the *good* stuff you get in the spring (at least, not this high on the mountain, down low it was a lot nicer), but it wasn’t quite cold enough to be fully frozen either. (Yes, I prefer ice and hard-pack to grabby, but both of them are way at the bottom of the list.) Anyway, enough about the skiing. I like the view, and that’s what we’re here for.
Notes: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS (Point and shoot). 1/1000s, ISO 80.
December 14, 2010 – Blackcomb Mountain
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Mountains, Picture of the Day on December 14, 2010
Blackcomb Mountain
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1676
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Canon 55-250mm IS lens. 1/400s, f/11.0, ISO 200. Focal length: 55mm.
October 21, 2010 – Blackcomb Mountain
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Mountains, Picture of the Day on October 21, 2010
Hiking on Blackcomb Mountain
Thursday, October 21, 2010
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1431
Hey look, it’s the return of Mediocre Image Thursday! With even less fanfare this time!! (Meaning, I didn’t call it out in the post title. That’s what passes for fanfare around here.) This picture was taken while hiking around on Blackcomb Mountain (part of Whistler-Blackcomb Ski Resort, of course), a couple years ago. This was taken before they had any officially designated trails on Blackcomb (they did have several on Whistler though), a couple of years before they opened the new Peak-2-Peak gondola. To get up to the top, you just followed the routine for those who were skiing on the glacier, which is to say, you rode 2 chairs up from the village, then took a bus over to the bottom of the 7th Heaven chair, and rode it up to the top. (And then the glacier is on the other side of the ridge, and is lift served by two t-bars.) So, if you’re a hiker, you just get dropped off on the ridgeline, and you can scramble around on the rocks and stuff. This is overlooking the 7th Heaven area, looking into Garibaldi Provincial Park (and I believe that’s Overlord Peak and the Overlord Glacier in the distance.)
This, like many other pictures I’ve posted recently, was taken with my crappy lens (my old Tamron 28-300 VC), and thus had to be post-processed somewhat severely to even bring it into the realm of respectability. Even so, it seems like I screwed up the colors a bit and maybe oversharpened it, but that’s standard operating procedure for me. For some reason, this is one of the most highly rated images on Rate Dave’s Photos, although that’s not entirely fair to say, because it’s only gotten 3 votes. (2 10′s and a 9.) Needless to say, I don’t feel that it deserves those ratings, but hey, whatever floats your boat.
Come back tomorrow, and I’ll post something better! I don’t know what it’ll be yet, but it’ll be the best thing ever. Maybe.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Tamron 28-300mm VC lens. 1/60s, f/22.0, ISO 200. Focal length: 28mm.
September 24, 2010 – Fitzsimmons Creek
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Picture of the Day on September 24, 2010
Fitzsimmons Creek
Friday, September 24, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1669
I’ve got a huge (huge!) pile of pictures that I got while I was up in Whistler a few weeks ago, and I haven’t been slowly doling them out like I intended to. Until today, I’ve only just posted the one. In hindsight, posting a completely unrelated picture from Blackcomb yesterday doesn’t really help with that effort, especially because I chose one from when I was skiing in basically the exact same spot where I was hiking. So, rather than using the image I had originally earmarked for today, I’ll instead use this one.
This is Fitzsimmons Creek. It runs down through the lowlands, basically right between the village and the upper village. The water in the creek is very milky, because it’s got a lot of glacial meltwater running through it, which tends to be really silty and full of minerals and such. (Basically the same idea behind the White River that flows out of Mt. Rainier National Park and all of the crazy aquamarine water in North Cascades National Park.)
So, I’m not sure if this picture has the same effect on anyone else that it does on me, but for some reason the color of those rocks in front just does something to me. For whatever reason, that’s what drew my eye in originally when I was walking past, and now I can’t stop looking at this picture. It’s inexplicable, but it eats away at me. Weird, right?
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens. 1/250s, f/6.3, ISO 200. Focal length: 41mm.
September 22, 2010 – Blackcomb Mountain
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Mountains, Picture of the Day, Winter/Snow on September 22, 2010
Blackcomb Mountain
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=162
So since it’s about to be fall (later tonight), I suppose I should start thinking about posting some fall color shots to get everyone in the mood. Perhaps I’ll start hitting that up later this week. In the meantime, you get winter. This is (yet another) shot from Whistler-Blackcomb Ski Resort. As with the last picture I posted from the area, this is from the 7th Heaven area on Blackcomb. (Although, that one was just taken a couple weeks ago while *hiking*, not skiing. And, I’ll be posting several more shots from that hike in the next couple weeks.) It’s totally true that the area around Whistler (including Squamish) have been represented more than their fair share of times in this blog. But, quite frankly, it’s because the area is probably the prettiest area that I go to with any frequency.
When I took this picture, back in 2003, I had some weird practices for taking pictures. First, this picture was also taken in that period between when I used my 35mm SLR and when I got my first digital SLR, so I used a pocket point and shoot digital exclusively. (I used the word “also” because I posted another picture a week or two ago from the same general time period, if you were wondering.) I suppose that’s not “weird” per se, but roll with me here. Next, associated with Moore’s Law, flash memory is a heckuva lot cheaper now than it was even a few years ago. Or, to say it in a way that’s more applicable to the discussion, flash memory was a whole lot more expensive per-byte than it is today. So, back when I shot this picture, I was using a 128 mb memory card in my camera, that cost more than the 8 gb card I currently use in my SLR. That’s pretty ridiculous. It also meant that I found myself needing to download the images off my camera pretty frequently. And, related to that, it meant that I spent a fair bit of effort strategizing about what image size to take my pictures at.
Wait, what? Yeah, whereas these days I just leave the camera set at the largest size and highest quality, back in the day I’d take the vast majority of my pictures at a very small size (640×480 for my first camera, incrementally larger with the next couple), and then if there was a picture that I thought I may want to blow up or something some day, I’d bump it to Large. (Most of my pictures were just of my buddies and stuff, so the large size wasn’t needed. But if I was, for example, taking a picture of a mountain, I’d bump it up.)
So, why does this all relate to this picture? Well, because, I umm, took this picture at 640 x 480. Meaning, you’re looking at the full-size image. Meaning, if you loved this picture and wanted it printed out nice and big and hung on your wall, you’d be out of luck. It’s unfortunate too, because I like this picture. When I took it, I didn’t realize it was set on small until after I took it. So I then moved it to large and “took the picture again”. It was bright sunshine out though, so I couldn’t really see the details to see if I had actually gotten the same shot again or not, I could just basically see that the sky looked basically the same. Of course I realized later that the full-size version was crap, and only the little tiny one (this one) was any good. So, whoops, live and learn. That actually burned me a couple times before memory cards actually got cheap enough to just leave it set on Large all the time.
So, there you go. Not only was today’s picture taken with a point and shoot, it was taken with a point and shoot set to the smallest picture size that the camera could do.
Notes: Canon PowerShot S230 (Point and Shoot). 1/1500s, f/9.0.
September 1, 2010 – Decker Loop Trail
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Mountains, Picture of the Day on September 1, 2010
Decker Loop Trail, Blackcomb Mountain
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1682
Hey, it’s Wednesday, I should toss a picture up here, huh? First off, I’d like to welcome everyone from Glenda Lott’s HS101 class at Spain Park High School in Hoover, Alabama. I’m not sure why exactly she chose my blog as suggested reading for her class, but hey, it’s awesome that she did! I hope you all.. umm.. found what you were looking for?
As promised, here’s the first of what I’m sure will be many shots from this last weekend in Whistler. This is definitely not my favorite of the set, but it’s good enough to post here. (Since it’s the first day of the month, this post will be the very last one shown from here until eternity for anyone looking for the archives of September 2010. Meaning, 3 or 4 posts from now, it’ll never be seen again. Awww, how sad.)
For a long time, they’ve had the gondola on Whistler Mountain open during the summer so you could go up there and hike around. A few years ago they started running the Peak Chair too, which takes you all the way up to the summit. That’s pretty cool. Independently, they’ve been doing summer skiing (usually through late July I think) on Blackcomb, but it was always a pain in the butt to get over there. By that I mean, you had to ride two chairlifts up, then take a bus over to a third chairlift, and ride that one up too. It’s not clear if people on foot were allowed or not originally, or if it was just people that paid for the skiing ticket on the glacier). In the last couple years they actually officially started offering hiking on that mountain, but it wasn’t really marketed much, which is understandable, because it was a pain in the ass. And, to make it worse, they didn’t even have any designated trails over there, so you basically just scrambled around on the rocks for a little while.) BUT, since they went through all the trouble of building the Peak 2 Peak Gondola (you know, the one that takes you between both mountains) Blackcomb has now been a regular stop for the “sightseers”. Thus, now from the top of the second chairlift (the Solar Coaster), you can either take the Peak 2 Peak over to Whistler, or you can head off on the newly designated actual-trails-for-hiking on Blackcomb.
So, that’s what I decided to check out (since I’ve been on the trails on Whistler a few times now). And, it’s TOTALLY worth doing. I’d say it’s even better than the hiking on Whistler, although that’s a bold statement, because the High Note trail on Whistler is also pretty spectacular (as is the Half Note trail). For those of you that know anything about the layout of the mountain: the trail heads out from the top of the Solar Coaster, and heads around the mountain to the 7th Heaven area. It passes under the chairlift there, and keeps going, out to (and past) the boundary for Garibaldi Provincial Park (which is actually the ski area boundary). There are some nice views to be had out that way, not only of Blackcomb itself, but also out over some of the big peaks in Garibaldi Park (including Black Tusk, and the Cheakamus and Overlord glaciers). Well worth the time and energy. Do it. Now. This weekend. I’m serious.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens. 1/200s, f/13.0, ISO 200. Focal length: 30mm.
May 5, 2010 – 7th Heaven
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Mountains, Picture of the Day, Winter/Snow on May 5, 2010
7th Heaven, Blackcomb Mountain, Whistler-Blackcomb Ski Resort
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=353
Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone! I realized as I was tying that last sentence that today would have been a perfect day to post a picture from Mexico. I don’t have one handy though, and I’m not even entirely sure I have one at all. I’ve been there a couple times, but I’m not sure I got anything picture-of-the-day worthy while I was there. Sad. Instead, here’s a shot from our other North American pals, Canada.
This was shot in the 7th Heaven area of Blackcomb Mountain, at Whistler-Blackcomb Ski Resort. Those peaks in the distance are all part of Garibaldi Provincial Park, and that’s all I can think of to say about this picture.
In other news, one of my friends asked me yesterday for some camera advice, which isn’t that uncommon of an occurrence these days. After spending a decent amount of time writing up a fairly detailed response, which contained a lot of advice I’ve rehashed several times in the past, I realized that I might as well save that work for a larger audience. Thus, I posted it here on my blog. You can also find it by clicking “Camera advice?” up above. Note that this is in addition to the My Equipment page, which contains exactly what it sounds like it would. Note that this particular camera advice was somewhat tailored for somebody in my friend’s situation, which is that she was confident that she wanted to go the digital SLR route, but was wondering what to do about which one to pick, and what lenses to start off with. If you’re just in the market for a decent point and shoot, or a full-featured camera that’s not quite as much of a commitment as an SLR, obviously that advice won’t be really applicable. But, feel free to take a read, and set me straight if required.
Notes: Canon PowerShot S500 (Point and shoot). 1/800s, f/11.0.
March 24, 2010 – Hiking on Whistler Mountain
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Mountains, Picture of the Day on March 24, 2010
Half Note Trail, Whistler Mountain
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1101
Here it is, folks. The last image you’ll be seeing from me for a couple weeks. I know, I know, you thought this day would never come. For awhile, it sure seemed like it wouldn’t. But, time kept rolling on, as time does, and now it’s time for me to get the heck outta town. I would promise that I’d miss you all, but I probably won’t. I’ll be too distracted by fun stuff.
This picture was taken along the Half Note trail on Whistler Mountain. I’ve posted some other pics (well, at least one) from this same trail before. Whistler is a great place to go in the summer as well as the winter, because they have those magical lifts that take you way up into the high country, without you having to do any of the work. Ah, it’s a beautiful thing. That’s why I love Europe, because those kind of things are all OVER the place. Here in the northwest, they’re few and far between, and the mountains are steep, and the roads all follow the rivers way down in the valley, so if you want to get up to the pretty stuff, you have to work your ass off. Unless you ride up the gondola (and the Peak Chair) to the top of Whistler. Then it’s almost free! (Well, not monetarily, but whatever.)
This picture was taken with my super wide angle lens (Tokina 11-16), which I only acquired at the end of last summer. (Thus, it hasn’t been used too much.) It should get plenty of use this summer. Although, it might not, because I *also* got my hands on the Tamron 17-50, which is itself much more wide-angle than any lens I was using before (previously 28 was as wide as I could get). The difference between 17 and 11-16 is a lot less than the difference between 28 and 11-16, so I may find myself able to get most of the wide-angle shots I want with the other one, we’ll see. Or, more likely, *I* will see, and you will just continue to see random pretty pictures. That works too.
Have a great couple of weeks!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 lens. 1/250s, f/11.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 11mm.
February 26, 2010 – Cheakamus Lake
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Mountains, Picture of the Day on February 26, 2010
Cheakamus Lake
Friday, February 26, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1099
So I mentioned yesterday how I already had today’s picture picked out. That was true, but this isn’t it. I realize earlier that, while I absolutely LOVE that picture, the version I had online was a little bit over-sharpened. (This one is too, but it’s not quite as drastic.) So I need to revisit it, and maybe I’ll use that one in a week or two. Instead, you get this one, which was actually taken on the same day as that other one. Blah blah blah, I realize that it’s really all the same to you guys, as long as I post a picture at all. But this way I’m keeping it straight in my own head.
This is the view over Cheakamus Lake from the backside of Whistler Mountain. You can’t ski to where I was standing when I took it (well, you CAN, but it’s out of bounds, so it would require hiking all the way back up to where you started), but you can hike there. This was along the High Note trail on Whistler mountain. (Which makes a big loop, although you can shorten the loop to something easy to do in 2-3 hours by taking the Half Note trail which branched off about a quarter mile from where this was taken.) This spot is a little ways below the top of the Symphony Express, if that helps you place it at all. Obviously, it’s a pretty nice view from up there.
This trip took place very soon after I picked up my awesome super-wide-angle lens this summer, the Tokina 11-16. Since I wasn’t very happy with my other lens at the time (the super-zoom Tokina 28-300), I ended up putting the wide angle on the camera for the entire hike. Which was kind of an interesting experience. The pictures you can get with a super wide angle are way different from any other kind of lens, so it really makes you think differently about framing your shots. But it was definitely fun. Although now that I’ve gone to the Tokina 17-50 as my workhorse lens, I haven’t found myself reaching for the wide angle as often. (When your workhorse lens starts at 28, that leaves a LOT of ground on the wide-angle side. At 17? Not so much.) But that’s okay, it’s still there if I need it.
Hahahahaha, I just took a look at the EXIF data on the image, and it turns out that everything I wrote in the last paragraph is basically totally wrong. Whoops. Turns out this was NOT taken with the Tokina, in fact it was taken with my Tamron 28-75, which means I had ALREADY swapped out my 28-300. (And then I eventually traded the 28-75 for the 17-50, which is basically the exact same lens except that it’s more wide-angle). And, that’s the lens I used for this picture, which means that what I said about not changing my lens at all during the hike was also a complete lie. Ha!
This brings to a close Whistler/Vancouver week on the Picture of the Day, thanks for reading! Come back next week for the rest of the world.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 28-75 mm f/2.8 lens. 1/250s, f/10.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 28mm.
February 24, 2010 – Changing Leaves
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Fall Color, Macro, Picture of the Day on February 24, 2010
Changing leaves
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1088
Rather than suffocate all of you with a neverending set of mountain vistas from the twin peaks of Whistler and Blackcomb, I figured I should mix in some other stuff too. Like this one. This could have been taken anywhere, really. But it wasn’t, it was taken a little ways up the Singing Pass trail, which starts up the hill from right near the Whistler gondola. I really really wish I had gotten the bottom of the leaf in focus too, but I didn’t. It’s a textbook example of one of the really annoying things that can happen with digital. The shot looked great on the camera’s little screen, so I moved on, confident that I got the image I wanted. It wasn’t until much later (when I got home) that I realized my mistake. I was working with a pretty small depth of field as you can see, so what I *should* have done was gotten more square on that leaf in front, such that the whole surface would have been within range. Instead, I came in from a little bit above, so the bottom was just out of reach. (That, and the leaf was a bit curled in on itself.) Careless, careless, careless. Sigh.
Still a beautiful couple of leaves though, so it’s not a complete waste of time. Check back tomorrow, that’s going to be the day that I’m going to get the picture of Shannon Creek out of the way. (You didn’t think I’d go a whole week of PICTURES OF CANADA without tossing one of those in there, did you??)
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 28-75 mm lens. 1/125s, f/3.5, ISO 400. Focal length: 59mm.
February 22, 2010 – Black Tusk from Whistler Mountain
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Mountains, Picture of the Day, Winter/Snow on February 22, 2010
Black Tusk from Whistler Mountain
Monday, February 22, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=869
Wow, Monday again. Not totally unexpected, but still. I decided that this week, I’m going to post only pictures from around Vancouver and Whistler in honor of the Olympics. This probably would have been more appropriate to do LAST week, but you know how it goes – with the time-delay broadcasting and everything, it took this long for the idea to reach the west coast.
Today, you’re looking at the million dollar view from the top of Whistler Mountain: the view out toward Black Tusk. (Yeah, that little cliff-thing poking up there on the left.) Given the predominant weather patterns we get here in the Pacific Northwest, it’s never a sure thing that you’ll be able to see it, but when you can it’s pretty cool. You can basically see it from anywhere along the top ridge (basically anywhere between the top of the Symphony Express and the Peak Chair), and I think this particular view was most of the way from the Peak Chair to the Saddle. (Blah blah blah, yeah, I realize you probably haven’t been there and thus these names are all meaningless. I’m totally just showing off how well I know the mountain at this point. Because I am awesome, obviously.)
Honestly, I’m fairly surprised that they placed the ski courses where they did. They put them all way down at the bottom of Whistler Mountain. But if you’ve been to Whistler more than once or twice, you know that the lower mountain sucks way more often than it’s good. I mean, you’re dealing with more than 5,000 feet of vertical here. The top of the mountain is nearly always fantastic, and the bottom of the mountain is nearly always crappy. So… why put the courses down where it’s crappy? Not only that, imagine how much more awesome the views would be as the cameras followed the racers down the hill if they had this kind of background instead of just grubby trees everywhere? I mean, sure, the visibility tends to be better down low (because when the fog rolls in, the upper mountain is worthless), but still. Hmm. Whatever, I’m sure they have their reasons. Grumble grumble grumble.
See you all tomorrow, right?
Notes: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS (Point and shoot). 1/400s, f/11.0.