Alabama Hills

in Camping by Jason Kim — February 4, 2009 9:57 pm | no comments

This is a photography trip that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. I typically spend a few days snowboarding in Mammoth each winter, and it always kills me to drive past the scenic Alabama Hills without stopping for a visit. This time, we took two cars and after a weekend of boarding, I split from the group and headed to The Hills for a solo trip. Of course, I stopped and paid a visit to the wonderful Mountain Light Gallery (Galen Rowell) in Bishop for some inspiration. After loading up the truck with beef jerky and Schat’s chili cheez bread, I headed towards Lone Pine.

The conditions were perfect – it started snowing the evening I arrived and come morning, the entire area was covered in a couple of inches of fresh snow. It must have dumped on the mountains, because everything was just solid white. Before dawn, I drove up Whitney Portal Road about as far as I could get with my 4×4, and then started hiking by headlamp out towards Whitney Creek. As the icy snow crunched underfoot, soft pink light began to illuminate the summit of Mt. Whitney. This was a magical morning.

I spent the next couple days racing around and scouting out locations during the day, and then shooting each sunrise. I didn’t plan to shoot Mobius Arch, but after checking it out, I thought it was worth an early morning visit. I arrived at 4 am and was fortunate to set up in time for the moonset, which happened to take place directly behind Mt. Whitney.