Huddled

Whitefish Mountain, Montana. 2021

Well before the sun was up I was at the bottom of the ski resort putting on the skins to my split board and gearing up for a massive ascent up Whitefish Mountain, from base to summit in order to photograph the Snow Ghosts at first light. This was also my first legit skinning experience. And it proved difficult. I ascended upwards, steep and snow covered landscape, up and up. Criss-crossing on the steep sections and straight up on the more mellow sections. Whatever the skins allowed me to. I stopped along the way to drink water, eat snacks and as I was towards the top, to photograph blue-hour on some nearby Snow Ghosted trees. I made it to the summit and began a search for subjects. I landed on this scene after a while of searching, in frigid 0 degree temperatures and bursts of high winds. I was freaking cold. The sun came up, lit up these unique stand of ice covered pine trees, which seemed to all huddled together, looking inward on this bizarre circle they made, with their unique shapes and forms. I worked the scene as much as my hands and frozen face could handle. Dense fog, extremely cold conditions, moisture and snow creates this phenomenal called Hoar Frost. Which then creates something called Snow-Ghosts; when trees get caked in snow, and ice, due to the extremely cold conditions in fog, caking the trees in ice.