Winter Returns to the Peak District

Interesting walk to Buxton today, winter returned! Real blizzard on the way in this morning and again coming back this afternoon. In between sunny spells! Here's a phone picture from this morning.

Last Sunday my bad back went into spasm after 3 days in the darkroom and quite a few hours on the computer working on my 2 new books. It was very stiff for several days but is easing off now. A few easy walks and as little work as possible usually helps. I walked a bit Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and today I made it to Buxton and back.

The next 2 days should be darkroom printing days to catch up with orders. At least the book layouts are done. The next job is adding the picture captions and then it will be back to me for checking them.

Land Light Book First Draft

My new book of landscapes without snow is looking like a book!

We have the first draft, complete with covers and layout for most of the 80 pages. We need to move some images around to be in the right places and a few other things need to be tidied up. Here's the cover.

Still on track for printing at the end of February and to be on sale by mid-March-ish. It will be available at the same time as Snow Light, my new snowy landscape photograph book.

At the moment it has 113 different images, none previously published in any of my previous books.

Locations include Northumberland, Yorkshire, Lake District, a few from the Peak District, Norfolk and the South Coast, Snowdonia, Scottish Highlands and Islands, the Alps including Bavaria, and odd images from across Europe, as well as New Zealand, Colorado, Utah and Yosemite.

It's the same format as my other 4 books, 24 x 27.5cm, 80 pages.

Looking forward to Draft 2 which should have a layout pretty close to the final book.

Snow Light new book

My new book of snowy landscapes is starting to look like a book!

We have the first draft, complete with covers and layout for most of the 80 pages. I forgot to include one of the three articles so that has to be added and some images moved around to be in the right places. Here's the cover.

Still on track for printing at the end of February and to be on sale by mid-March-ish. It will be available at the same time as Land Light, my other new landscape photograph book.

At the moment it has 117 different images, with just one that has been published in a previous book albeit in a different format. I'm using artists prerogative to include my all-time favourite image that was used as the cover of my first book, taken in 1995 on a ski mountaineering trip near Wengen in Switzerland.

Locations include the Peak District, Snowdonia, Glen Coe, Cairngorms, Alps, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Zealand.

It's the same format as my other 4 books, 24 x 27.5cm, 80 pages.

Last Day Skiing Kitzbuhel - Westendorf Photos

It was our sixth and final day of skiing from Kitzbuhel. We went back to Westendorf so that I could take some photos as I didn't carry my Mamiya 7 camera the last time.

There was low cloud for most of the day so I really only took photos when we managed to get above it. Just one roll of 120 Ilford FP4 film with 10 exposures for the day.

Very flat light for skiing too but we both stayed upright all day!

I forgot to take any pictures on my phone so that you could see roughly what I took on my Mamiya 7 camera. You'll just have to wait and see the final proper photographs!

Home tomorrow, hopefully.

Skiing the Outer Reaches of the Kitzbuhel Ski area

The forecast was a bit iffy for today, but we ignored it and went to the farthest part of the Kitzbuhel ski area anyway.

We started with the now familiar Hahnenkamm and other lifts to reach the gondola from Pengelstein to above Jochberg. From there we worked our way across to near Hollersbach, about as far as the Kitzbuhel ski area goes.

Despite the weather there were some good shots to be had. I didn't have my proper Mamiya 7 camera and my Samsung Galaxy S3 packed up at lunchtime so just this one for today. 

From there we made our way to Pass Thun, caught a bus to Jochberg and then ski lifts up the mountains behind Kitzbuhel.

Late finish today, we took our skis off at 5pm, gps measured 42 miles including lifts.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, we return to the Ki-West side of Westendorf, with cameras!

Ski Safari Day to Westendorf

Today we decided to visit the neighbouring ski area of Ski-Welt. Mainly the areas above Westendorf and Brixen. It's not entirely linked with ski lifts and involved some vehicular assistance. 

We started by taking the Hahnenkamm lift at 10am followed by the Steinbergkogel lift. From there we could ski all the way to the valley floor at Pengelstein, a long run.

From here we needed a bus and were just checking the timetable when it turned up. Stroke of luck!

It was just 3 minutes up the valley to the Ki-West lift, pronounced Key West. This took us straight up into the Ski-Welt area.

Lots to go at but we just skied the Westendorf runs and the one down to Brixen. Found a nice little mountain restaurant for light refreshments sitting outside in the sunshine for a few minutes.

Here's a few phone photos. No proper photos as I didn't carry my Mamiya 7 camera today.

We made it to Brixen by 2.45pm and needed a ski bus back to Kitzbuhel. Unfortunately, the next one wasn't until 4.30pm. Linking neighbouring ski areas clearly isn't that important to them despite the marketing claims!

We are not that patient so we splashed a few Euros and took a taxi to the next village of Kirchberg which is part of the Kitzbuhel ski area. It was a long lift from Kirchberg but it took us right to the top so that we could ski down the other side to Kitzbuhel.

We took our skis off at 4.15pm just by the Hahnenkamm lift where we started. What a great day of skiing!

Gps showed that we had travelled 39 miles. Another easy day!

These sorts of ski days where you travel around several ski areas used to be called ski safaris, maybe they still are. It was a jolly good day though, whatever you call it.

Wall to wall sunshine in Kitzbuhel

We had sunshine all day and lots of fresh snow everywhere. Started the day taking photos in Kitzbuhel for an hour or two.

Samsung S3 photo but also taken on proper film camera, Mamiya 7 with Ilford FP4 120 film and light red filter. 

Then up the Kitzbuheler Horn for our ski day. So quiet. Took some photos of the snow covered trees, should be good for Christmas cards.

Found some with fresh untracked snow in the foreground, snow-covered trees, then mountains in the background. Took a few with the wide-angle lens and was just changing lens to take some more when 2 thoughtless skiers trashed my beautiful fresh snow. The whole mountain was covered in deep fresh snow and they had to ski through my photo.

From there we skied all the way down to Kitzbuhel. An hour or two later we were out again taking twilight and night shots. This included an 8 minute exposure of 2 poorly lit churches. Not sure why I bothered, it was perishing cold.

Easy day though, gps said we only covered 19 miles including lifts. Probably 1/3 is lift distance, rest is what we skied and walked.

More snow forecast tomorrow so may leave camera behind.

Snowy Day for Skiing at Kitzbuhel

We had steady snowfall from late afternoon yesterday. It was still snowing for this morning but eased off mid-afternoon.

I didn't carry my Mamiya 7 camera as I had some muscle spasms in my back yesterday. Thought we'd have an easy day. 

Put my gps in my pocket to measure the distance that we travelled, including lifts and skiing. Bit surprised to see we had travelled 35 miles. So much for an easy day. Jan not amused!

Tree View

Google auto panoramic from Samsung Galaxy S3 phone

Kitzbuhel Skiing and Photos

It was our first day of skiing in Kitzbuhel today. Sunny

start as we headed up the Hahnenkamm lift and over to Pengelstein.

Took a while to get used to my new Salomon boots and hire skis.

Surprised how quiet it was for a Sunday. Hopefully even fewer people tomorrow as it's a weekday!

Photos from several places. Decent light for much of the day.

View similar to what I took on my Mamiya 7 camera.

Android panoramic of several images

Kitzbuhel Shadows

Kitzbuhel hotel room view