"Is it
that by its indefiniteness it shadows forth the heartless voids and
immensities of the universe, and thus stabs us from behind with the
thought of annihilation, when beholding the white depths of the milky
way? Or is it, that as in essence whiteness is not so much a color as
the visible absence of color; and at the same time the concrete of all
colors; is it for these reasons that there is such a dumb blankness,
full of meaning, in a wide landscape of snows--a colorless, all-color of
atheism from which we shrink?" Herman Melville - Moby Dick
seams a waste of that pristine view - but great skiing (shameless self compliment!)
Packing my bags in Australia for this incredible voyage, my sole belongings could be be broken up into 4 simple categories:
-a minimalist amount of clothes
-a single set of sports climbing material
-an ever growing amount of alpine gear - as touched on earlier -HERE-
-several items of camera gear
My clothes are well worn, the snow gear looks like its been down the hill a few times, even the climbing gear is more spent than it should be for the season hasnt started yet. The thing that has taken the biggest beating however, is my little olympus OMD camera.
I am more aware of its location than my collection of passports. its either in my bag, around my neck, or in my hand. I am less likely to lend it than, say, my underwear, or motorbike, or girlfriend. I have been asked repeatedly to stop taking photos and get on with the job at hand (thanks Fransisco) and am capable of taking up to 1000 photos in a ski daytrip.
in short, it gets worked pretty hard.
you'd think in a place like Chamonix, the black and white sensors would be hammered, and the color ones largely forgotten ( that's how it works in my head, don't correct me, at least human eyes work like that!)
Choucas - on closer inspection, they look like evil pigeons
I go on and on about the magic of Chamonix. some of that magic is photographic-able and rather a lot isn't. But i have come to the conclusion that the reason that haloed place is so photogenic is because it is so colorful (jease i take a long time to get to the point eh?!)
Orange - Martial looking for the way to the top
Peach - Sunset light on the Mont Blanc du Tacul
Purple (and blue and rather a lot of red)
apparently those yellow beware of dear signs on the side of the road serve a purpose
yellow - slacklining in les Praz
Purple grimace shoveling snow
Brown - Parisian touring style
Blue - moon over an aiguille
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Theres a room, an anechoic chamber at Orfield Laboratories in South Minneapolis that is said to be the quietest place in the world. used for testing the sound output of electrical componants, it is so quiet that your internal organs appear incredibly noisy. Interestingly no single person has been able to stay in the room for more than 45 minutes due to the deafening silence!
I went touring with Martial to the Col du Berard, in a solid white out. i couldn't even tell you how long my skis were! Like the anechoic chamber, the sensory deprivation had a disturbing effect on my thoughts and behavior. we were traversing a steep avalanche prone slope, i could tell it was steep as i couldn't get my left pole to contact the snow at all!
with nothing to concentrate on aside from one foot in front of the other and the impending doom, i was strangely calm. funny how the unknown can have polar opposite effects; I'm much less comfortable in the open ocean ( and considerably safer!)
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I have much more suited photos to this story of color but am saving them for the next tale. Its one I've been putting off for a while, but should be amazing.
excited yet?
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