Off Yonder » Snow

Ghost Town Visit

Cameron — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 04:09:14 +0000

After a wonderful few days of diving into the Gospel of John, Adventure Unlimited offered a few trips off camp for the boys. One group went to Leadville to check out the mining museum and I took a group to St. Elmo. Just half an hour from camp up a side canyon this little town has mostly been abandoned. Many old buildings still stand, and it does say that folks are welcome to wander down the road, but asked not to poke around in the buildings and someone does actually own them still. The town didn't keep the interest of the group much, but a nice hike further into the mountains was perfect after sitting and studying the bible for 3 days. Here's a few of the shots I got. Click on any of the images to see the rest of the gallery:

Antarctic Questions from Mrs.Higdon’s Preschool class

Cameron — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:18:43 +0000

This morning I got to answer questions from Mrs.Higdon's Preschool class. Mrs. Higdon and I went to college together and now she teaches in northern Indiana. The kids always have great questions and are so curious. These kids, because they live in a cold climate could understand some of the cold concepts better than the kids I've done this sort of stuff with in California. While I was in Antarctica I corresponded with[...]

Five Fingers Time Lapse

Cameron — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 01:44:23 +0000

While at Christmas camp, I set up my camera to take 30 second exposures for as long as the battery would last. Then I put another battery in and kept going. You'll see the frame shift now and then, that's probably a new battery going in. It's not the most exciting video you've seen, but then again, this is my experimentation laboratory. Welcome to it. I'll try to get a better one another time. Stay tuned.

Christmas Camp at the Ranches

Cameron — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 17:05:03 +0000

Christmas this year was a blast. I was up at the Adventure Unlimited Ranches in Buena Vista, Colorado with my mom. My primary job was to drive ski vans to Monarch and other ski areas as necessary, but I was also asked to put the "end of camp slideshow" together. Guests submitted their photos and Andy helped me sort through them (though, we asked the submitters to do a bit of editing themselves - this helped heaps). I took little video clips throughout the week and put it all together in iMovie. In looking for a good soundtrack, I texted my friend Alex Cook and asked if I could feature songs from his recently released "Tree of Life" album and he was all for it. Better yet, he was cool with me posting the whole thing to YouTube. Since YouTube limits videos to 10 minutes, the slideshow is in two parts, both are below. Enjoy! PART 1 PART 2 More videos at: http://www.youtube.com/offyonder

Backcountry Skiing

Cameron — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:17:12 +0000

At Christmas Camp in Buena Vista, CO we offered something new this year: backcountry skiing. We only had one camp guest sign up, but that was just fine as seven staff (including myself) went on this trip. The slopes were gentle and the weather was perfect. See it all in the video below. I originally had Tegan and Sarah's "Take Me Anywhere" as the sound track, but YouTube has a soundtrack copyright checker and disabled the audio. I think that's pretty neat that they can check for that sort of stuff now, but it forced me to choose one of their "approved" audio tracks which was just a touch longer than the video so it gets cut off and I can't fade it down for when I ask Daryl (our one guest) what he thinks of backcountry skiing. Fortunately, I had already added subtitles to the most important part of his response. Enjoy:

100 Mile Mountain Ski Tour

Cameron — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 22:39:05 +0000

Spring means a lot of things for different people the world over. In the higher latitudes, in our case, Alaska, Spring is a particularly joyous time. Not for the grass turning green, flowers popping and gentle warm breezes caressing your face and hair, but grateful for the light. Just one degree south of the Arctic Circle, the point north of which the sun hides below the horizon for a continuous 24 hours on the Winter Solstice, the White Mountains in Alaska, though still covered in their snowy winter coat were seeing more daylight than they have since October. Nathaniel and I timed our ambitious 100-mile cross country ski trip through the White Mountains to take advantage of the best sun-to-snow ratio of the year, right over the Spring Equinox. Just a month earlier and we would only have up to six hours of daylight. Weeks later, the long sunny days will turn the snow to slush and slop and we’d need hip waders, pack rafts and full body bug net suits to cover and survive the same territory.

Sunny Snowy Ridge Finale

Cameron — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 19:08:37 +0000

I just wrapped my two months at Gray Knob cabin and I’m already looking forward to returning for another stint in the White Mountains (if the RMC will have me). I hope to experience each of the seasons in their entirety although I suspect autumn will always reign supreme in my view. I almost didn’t [...]

Snow Storm

Cameron — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 21:39:29 +0000

This website may be the death of me. After seven or eight days of thick fog, stormy winds and continuous snowfall, restlessness was starting to set in and I realized I hardly had any photos or tales of new adventures to post for this, my second to last Gray Knob update. The environment around the [...]

Snow Country

Cameron — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 21:49:21 +0000

The metamorphosis is nearly complete. The first substantial snows of the season silently marched in overnight as I slept transforming the green boughs of fir, the fading yellow grasses and the dark brown soils of the trail all to a white bliss. The giddy joy usually reserved for childhood filled my heart and soul as [...]

Around Mt. Jefferson

Cameron — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 21:59:52 +0000

Since arriving at Gray Knob Cabin, exactly one month ago, I’ve logged over 150 miles of trotting around on the trails of the Northern Presidential Range in the White Mountains. Some of these miles were fairly easy, like my daily jaunts over to The Perch or Crag Camp while on my caretaker duty rounds, or [...]