High Noon Above Skaha

The first thing I'm going to do today is apologize to my most regular visitors - it's been 10 days since my last post! There's lots going on in my world of photography, so I'll make an effort to catch up with an extra entry or two this coming week. First, I want to share some images from a few weeks ago. My "cousin" Jeanette was in Penticton on a camping & climbing trip, so I made the drive down to spend a day hiking with her. I put quotes around the word cousin, because if you know my maternal family at all, the word cousin stretches far and wide. In this case, our mothers are first cousins, so we're not sure what exactly that makes us - second or third or something! Most importantly, Jeanette moved to Calgary about a year before I ventured West, making us our only blood relative west of the Ontario border. Now we're practically neighbours, because when you live out here and it's less than a day's drive, you're likely to see each other more often than in our home-town. Funny how that works!


I met Jeanette late morning and we headed out to the hills. Her friends are avid climbers and we decided to check out the hiking trail that went through their climbing area. It was our first time out together, so we were looking for something that would take a few hours, but wouldn't be too difficult. Off we went with the crappiest map in the world in hand. We were fine at first, but of course we lost the easy trail after a while. Instead of an easy loop trail, we ended up on top of a mountain overlooking Penticton to the north and beautiful Lake Skaha to the south.

Neither one of us was too keen on going back the way we came up - scrambling up a rocky gorge and using a rope to pull ourselves up the final incline to the top was a little more than we had gambled on. Fortunately we heard voices and Jeanette got guidance from some climbers while I got shutter happy.

Losing the easy trail turned out to be good fortune - the view was magnificent. It was high noon, so I put a polarizer on the lens and hoped for the best. I'd love to go back again when there's "magic light". Needless to say, we made it back down without incident, although sometimes it's hard not to curse the weight of the camera equipment.

A day like that wouldn't be complete without a couple of people pics - we sat and watched this lead climber as he brought his group's rope up the rock face. It was an impressive thing to watch as he alternately ascended and tried to find his route. And finally, here's one of Jeanette. Next time I'll remember to have someone take one of us together.