From September 2011 to January 2012, my fiance Claudia and I traveled for 15 weeks from the top of northern Chile all the way down to the tip of South America, detouring into Argentina various times along the route...

Last week we did a 7-day loop trek in and around the Needle Mountains, the rugged heart of the Weminuche Wilderness in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains. This is the fourth time I’ve done a week-long trek in these wild mountains, and certainly not the last! As usual, we had some crazy weather during our trip, including lots of lightning, thunder, and several stunning sunrises and sunsets...

For many years I’ve been longing to visit the Sawtooth Range in Idaho, and last week I finally got the chance! We went on a 7-day backpacking trek through the range, starting from Pettit Lake and ending at Redfish Lake, taking a few detours along the way...

Photos from a 6 day backpacking trek around the Maroon Bells in the Elk Mountains near Aspen, Colorado.

Photos from a 5-day backpacking trek in the Uncompahgre Wilderness, San Juan Mountains, Colorado

Photos from a night camping out in the Great Sand Dunes, Colorado.

With record-breaking snowfalls in April, continuing well in May, the spring ski season in the San Juans was a memorable one.  May surprised us with several long snow storms that brought mid-winter-esque powder days and smiles all around! Here is a collection of my favorite ski photos from May and June.

This gallery is a compilation of my favorite photos taken from a winter in the Alps, from November through April, including mainly Switzerland, but also Italy, Austria, and Germany.

Photos from a ski hut tour in the Bernese Oberland mountains of Switzerland. This is the heart of the Swiss Alps, and during the course of 6 days we skied a variety of routes across the largest glacier system in the Alps...

Winter photos from the Alps in Austria.

Photos from two weeks in the Dolomites of northern Italy, in late November and early December.  I mainly stayed and photographed around the towns of Cortina d' Ampezzo and San Martino di Castrozza.

Photos from a November trip through the Alps in Switzerland, where the winter has gotten off to an early start!  During this week-long trip, I posted more photos and words on my blog from each of the three towns I visited: Zermatt, Andermatt, and Engelberg.

Photos of colorful autumn colors at the foot of the Black Forest near Freiburg, Germany.

Photos of colorful aspens in the San Juans and Elk Mountains of Colorado, during the autumn of 2010.

In late September I spent four days doing various hikes around Capitol Peak, a rugged fourteener in the Elk Mountains of Colorado.

This last weekend we repeated one of my favorite backpacking routes - a loop hike starting from the Bear Creek trailhead near Ouray, up through the rolling tundra of the Uncompahgre Wilderness, then back down into the town of Ouray via the Bridge of Heaven.

After climbing the southwest ridge route of Mt. Sneffels on an afternoon when the clouds weren't too threatening, we stayed up on the summit to watch and photograph the sunset.  We then descended the normal route in the dark with headlamps and walked back to my truck where cold beers awaited...

During the second of week of this August 2010, Claudia and I went backpacking for 7 days in the Weminuche Wilderness, duplicating the same route that I did solo back in September 2007.  We had all kinds of crazy weather during the trek, ranging from torrential monsoons to perfect bluebird days...

Photos from three days of summer camping at Blue Lakes, in the Sneffels Range of the San Juan Mountains, Colorado.

A few days ago I went backpacking to Wetterhorn Basin, in the Uncompahgre Wilderness of the San Juan Mountains in Colorado.  On one morning I left my tent at 2:00am and climbed Wetterhorn Peak under the light of the full moon, arriving at the summit just as the first dawn light was breaking on the horizon...

Photos from an overnight backpacking trip to Ice Lakes Basin, in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado.

After another fun 4th of July in Ouray, I went on a 5-day backpacking loop in the Weminuche Wilderness in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado.  I left from the Beartown trailhead, hiked south along the Continental Divide Trail for a couple days until reaching the area of Flint Lakes and Rock Lake...

In June 2010 I joined an 11 day trek around the remote and rugged Cordillera Huayhuash in Peru. The hike passed over a number of 15-16,000 ft. passes, always in the shadows of huge glaciated peaks rising up to 21,000+ feet...

In April I spent two weeks hiking, camping, and photographing in and around the canyons of southern Utah.  I visited a lot of new places I haven't seen before, including Goblin Valley State Park, San Rafael Swell, Robbers Roost area, Capitol Reef National Park, Bryce Canyon, and Zion National Park...

I moved up to Jackson Hole, Wyoming during the winter of 2009-2010 to snowboard as much as possible.  Now that my season is wrapping up here, I have compiled this gallery of my favorite skiing and snowboarding photos from the winter, including a few shots of me snowboarding, taken by my friends...

This last weekend of March I went winter camping again, this time for two nights up on Hurricane Pass, on the west side of the Tetons. Hurricane Pass is pretty close to Table Mountain where I went camping in January, but it has a very different perspective of the Tetons...

On a chilly winter morning last week this March of 2010, I enjoyed magnificent aerial views of the Teton Range from a window seat on a commercial flight from Jackson, Wyoming to Salt Lake City, Utah.  The airplane took off north from the airport, banked a 180º turn and flew right beside the big peaks of Grand Teton National Park!  Here are a few photos I snapped from the window.

With a full moon and a partly sunny weather forecast, I decided this last Thursday to do a winter camping trip up on Table Mountain, on the west side of the Teton Range.  The hike in was grueling, having to put in a skin track all by myself up 4,000 vertical feet through deep heavy powder, with a heavy backpack...

Winter sunrise photos at Jackson Lake, Tetons, Wyoming

The light snowfalls amounts in the San Juan Mountains this November provided a good opportunity for me to do a quick overnight backpacking trip to Ice Lakes Basin.  This spectacular basin is a popular location for summertime hiking, but not many people visit in the snow.

Over three days and two nights this October I went on a ~25 mile loop hike from Cedar Mesa in southeastern Utah. I hiked down Todie Canyon, to Grand Gulch, then out Bullet Canyon. Most of the way the hike passes through dramatic canyon scenery with vertical cliffs and dramatic rock formations...

I spent a long weekend in Utah this October, and had a good time photographing the eastern side of the Wasatch Range in the area between Midway and Sundance, in the foothills below Mount Timpanagos.  Though I wasn't there for the prime aspen colors, there were some really colorful oak and maples, and I also lucked out with some cold weather and fresh snowfalls.

On Saturday I hiked up to Blue Lakes for a quick overnight backpacking trip in the Sneffels Range of southwest Colorado's San Juan Mountains.  The alpine tundra has turned a beautiful array of autumn colors, and even a few aspens are starting to change...

During the summer of 2009, I devoted six weeks to photographing the amazing mountains and fjords of Norway. During that time I traveled more than 8500 km (5300 miles), from the capital city of Oslo in the south, as far north as Tromsø, far above the Arctic Circle...

With a day to spare and a blue-sky weather forecast, I decided yesterday that Columbine Lake would be the perfect place to go for a quick overnight backpacking trip.  Situated high on the rolling alpine tundra at 12,685 feet in the San Juan Mountains near Silverton, Colorado, Columbine Lake is always a great dayhike destination but usually not a wise camping option due to the exposure to lightning (it's almost 2 miles to the safety of the nearest forest)...

This weekend I went camping in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Westcliffe, Colorado.  South Colony Lakes are situated at the foot of three 14ers, making them a perfect basecamp for several days worth of hiking...

This May 2009, I headed up to Jackson, Wyoming to snowboard some big spring lines in the Tetons with a buddy of mine who lives up there.  My timing could not have been better, with solid snow conditions from top to bottom of the peaks, and perfect sunny spring weather...

Over the last few days, a late season storm has come through the San Juans in Colorado, dumping almost 2 feet of snow.  On Sunday, while still snowing hard outside the weather forecast called for a sunny clear Monday, so I headed out for a spur-of-the-moment winter backpacking trip, hoping to get a photo of the fresh snow smothering Ouray and the Uncompahgre Gorge...

My favorite shots from our backcountry skiing and snowboarding adventures during the 2009 winter and spring, in the San Juan Mountains, near Ouray, Colorado.

For four days this past week, I did a big loop trek around the Great Sand Dunes in southern Colorado.  The weather was very cold at night, but the days were nice and sunny and not too hot - perfect weather for trekking through the dunes...

This weekend I joined some friends for a three day weekend up at their backcountry cabin in the San Juan Mountains south of Telluride, Colorado. Situated at about treeline at the foot of numerous high peaks and cirques, the cabin provided a perfect base for snowboarding, skiing, and photography...

From October to December 2008, I spent 7 weeks in New Zealand, mostly tramping (hiking) in the mountains of the South Island during their spring season. I traveled from town to town, with no fixed itinerary, staying for about a week at a time in each place to explore the nearby mountains...

Today I drove up Red Mountain Pass (above Ouray, Colorado) to check out the golden aspens, and then ended up hiking up Red Mountain #3 to watch the sunset from up top.

This last weekend I was up in Utah and took advantage of a full moon to hike Mount Timpanogos and watch the sunset from the 11,749 foot summit. Timpanogos, or "Timp" for short, is one of Utah's most famous and beloved mountains, towering 7,000 feet over the city of Provo...

For 7 days in August, I hiked a high loop route through a remote range in the Weminuche Wilderness in the San Juans south of Silverton, Colorado. The following photos are arranged in chronological order, so you can see the highlights of my trek and read a little about it.

This last week, the first week of August 2008, I hiked the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) through the South San Juan Wilderness with two of my friends. It’s a 60+ mile trek from Cumbres Pass near Chama, New Mexico to Wolf Creek Pass near Pagosa Springs, Colorado...

This weekend I went on a wonderful 25 mile backpacking loop from Ouray, Colorado. I started at Bear Creek, a few miles up the road from Ouray, hiked up to the rolling green tundra paradise of the Uncompahgre Wilderness, along the Horsethief Trail to the Bridge of Heaven Trail, then back down into Ouray...

This June I made two early morning hikes high up in Yankee Boy Basin, a high mountain valley above Ouray, Colorado. The first hike was up to the ridgeline of Cirque Mountain, where I had a great perspective of sunrise alpenglow hitting Mt...

The 2007-2008 snow season has been an epic one, with record breaking snowfalls in western Colorado. The town of Ouray (where I live) got over 21 feet of snow, more than twice the average, and the most in 60 years of records! The high mountains probably got twice that, if not more...

Lured by a full moon and a forecast of clear skies, this last weekend I went backpacking for two nights in the West Needle Mountains in the San Juans near Silverton, Colorado. This area is incredibly photogenic; from my campsite on a 12,200 ft ridgeline, I enjoyed broad vistas of the Needle Mountains, the West Needles, and all the peaks of the Molas Pass area...

From mid-November to mid-December 2007, I spent a month backpacking in Patagonia. During the first few weeks, I was hiking amongst the jagged peaks of the Fitz Roy Range in Parque Nacional los Glaciares near Chaltén, Argentina...

Autumn is probably the most spectacular season in the Colorado Rockies, as the vast fields of aspens turn bright yellow and orange under snowcapped mountain peaks. For the last several weeks, I've been searching for grand aspen vistas to photograph, mainly in the West Elk Mountains near Crested Butte, and San Juan Mountains around Telluride and Ouray.

Over a span of 7 days in late August/early September, I hiked alone through a high route in the Weminuche Wilderness of the San Juans. The mountains here are perhaps the most rugged and remote in all of Colorado...

This popular hike in the Elk Mountains near Aspen is referred to as the Four Pass Loop. It is about 25 miles long, and passes over four high mountain passes, circumnavigating the famous Maroon Bells fourteeners...

Instead of making separate trip reports for each spring backcountry hike and ski/snowboard trip that my friends and I do, I thought I'd just make a page with some of my favorite pictures from various hikes this spring in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado...

Photos from the beaches of Baja, Mexico

This November I went on a four-day backpacking trip into the Grand Gulch, a major canyon that cuts through Cedar Mesa in southeast Utah. Like many canyons in this region, Grand Gulch is full of hidden Anasazi ruins and petroglyphs...

This weekend I met fellow photographers Momo Vuyisich and his buddy Csaba for an overnight backpacking trip to Columbine Lake, in the San Juans near Silverton. The recent snowfalls, high elevation, and unsettled weather made for a chilly but spectacular trip...

Here are some photos from springtime backcountry snowboarding in the Front Range, Gore Range, and Sawatch Range of Colorado during the 2006 season.

Some photos from a couple obscure backcountry snowboarding descents in the Sneffels Range of the San Juans, Colorado in June 2005 after a heavy snow year. Also, check out my Mt. Sneffels descent trip report from the same time in the San Juans.

One of the best runs of the year! We started in Yankee Boy Basin, hiked Lavendar Col up to the 14,156-foot summit, rode/skied back down Lavendar Col, then down the giant east face to another truck on the north side of the range which we had shuttled the day before...