This past Friday, the gang from the Monochrome Guild set out for our annual Fall Photo Weekend. This was the 17th annual trip, and I've been on every one of them... mostly because I've organised them all, and make sure that it always fits my schedule. This time around, like most years in the past, we headed out to Jasper National Park. There would be six members of the Guild taking part this time around... Steve, Arda, Nigel, Gabor, Mark and myself. We rented two suites at the Jasper Inn and it made for a very economical weekend when the cost was split six ways.
Nigel and Steve met me at my place on Friday morning at 7:30AM. We loaded all of our gear into my truck and hit the road. The others would be heading out a little later, and meeting up with us in Jasper. We ran into some rush hour traffic, including a collision on the overpass at Whitemud Drive near my house. This slowed us down a little and it took nearly 45 minutes for us to get out of the city. By the time we got out to Parkland County, traffic had thinned considerably and the drive was easy. It was cold, and recent snow had accumulated. Amounts varied by area and in some places there was about 8 inches. The highway itself was mostly snow free, but in some areas the passing lane was partly snow covered. Once we got into the park the snow accumulation was less and in the Athabasca Valley near the townsite there was almost none.
We made a brief stop out near Talbot Lake and then decided to spend the day scouting around. We took a drive up the Maligne Road as far as Medicine Lake. We made a stop along the Maligne River and also wandered around a little at Medicine Lake. We were dressed in lighter clothes for the drive and none of us really felt up to getting out and hiking. So we continued driving around and made it an afternoon of scouting locations for the serious shooting to come.
Next we took a drive up Highway 93A. Portal Creek and the Astoria River were showing some great ice formations and we made plans to return the next day when we were better dressed for the weather. The ski hill at Marmot Basin was not yet open for the season. The Edith Cavell Road was closed, as was Highway 93A beyond the Whirlpool River. I pulled the big view camera out of the truck and did a couple of setups at the Whirlpool.
After that we packed up and took a drive up the Pyramid Lake Road. Once again the big camera came out to do a shot of the aspens. The daytime high never got up above -10C. There was a mix of sun and cloud during the day. In sheltered areas it was OK to be out but when the breeze picked up a little, it quickly became very cold. The breeze picked up while we were exploring the aspens on Pyramid Lake Road. It is nearly impossible to operate a view camera with gloves or mittens on and my bare fingers quickly became numb and frozen trying to operate the metal controls of the camera. This was a rather painful experience that lingered with me for some time afterwards as the heater in the truck thawed out my fingertips that had become hard and crisp in the cold.
By this time is was around 4:00PM so we headed over to the hotel and checked in. We off loaded all of our gear and relaxed with a couple of beers. A short time later Arda and Gabor arrived and checked in as well. Later that evening we walked into town and went to a local restaurant for dinner. Later still we retired back to our rooms and visited until late in the evening. We shared some Japanese whiskey, some fine Scotch, and some German pear brandy. Around 10:00 Mark arrived and checked in with us. We eventually turned in with expectations of getting out in the morning to return to some of the locations we had scouted on this day.
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