Categories
Ski

Grizzly Gulch Skiing

Carly roostertailing in Wolverine Bowl.
Carly roostertailing in Wolverine Bowl.

January 14-15, 2017

Got a chance to get out skiing over the weekend with some pretty awesome conditions.  It stormed Wednesday-Friday and there wasn’t much wind for Saturday and Sunday.  This lead to the great conditions we found in the backcountry over the weekend.  Almost no wind at 10,000′, plenty of sun and fresh powder to be found.  Saturday just Carly and I got out in Grizzly Gulch and East Bowl.  Sunday we went out with Della and Kevin and had a pretty long day.  We scoped out Wolverine Cirque but passed on it for the bowl off the top of Mt. Wolverine.  Perhaps one day I’ll feel good about dropping into a steep chute in Wolverine Cirque.

In other news I’ve got two new cameras, to some degree anyway.  I’m planning to get rid of my SLR and my high-end compact in favor of a more all around solution.  The SLR (Canon 50D) takes great photos and I’ve got a great line-up of lenses for it.  However it is too big and bulky to bring around most of the time on skiing or climbing trips.  It is also over 8 years old so the focusing and low light performance can’t measure up even close to newer stuff.  My compact (Canon G12) is 6 years old and has a really small sensor.  While small, light, and taking some great photos of mine over the years, it doesn’t have the flexibility of interchangeable lenses.  It can’t match up to the newer cameras out there either in focusing, frames per second or responsiveness.  All that said I’ve been very happy with both of these cameras.  They have been on countless trips and taken some amazing shots I will remember for many, many years.

Technology moves along and today there are a lot of options out there for taking pictures.  My iPhone 7 takes some amazingly good shots now that the OS allows RAW image storage.  Obviously these are on a tiny sensor, fixed lens, and limited control over the settings.  Nevertheless my phone takes some really nice shots and the bonus is I rarely do not have it on my person.  SLR, compact and the hybrid of them, mirrorless 4/3s take some amazingly high quality photos.  I’m pointing my attention to mirrorless cameras because they offer a bit of both worlds, interchangeable lenses but still small size.  

The two contenders I’ve got at my disposal right now are a Fuji X-T1 on loan from Ben with an 18-55mm f/2.8 lens.  The other is a Sony a6000 with the kit lenses, 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 and 55-210mm f/4.5/6.3, which I found for a good price on KSL.  My intent is to give these two cameras some field time to see how they work for my needs.  My first field days with these cameras are below.  I took one each on the two skiing days.  I won’t spoil which is which.  Try and guess without looking at the EXIF data.

Saturday

Sunday

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