Early spring in Sitka

I have been very, very lazy about updating this blog, because it is so much easier to just send a couple of e-mails and upload some photos to my new facebook account. It turns out that however convenient the facebook thing may be, it remains a temporary repository for inconsequential information, so I will attempt at catching up.

This is the very, very common species in this time of the year, the Glaucous-winged gull Larus glaucescens, photographed from my kayak in Eastern Channel:


This is a picture of mid-altitude forest on Mount Verstovia (it is really hard for me to take pictures of the forest):


On that same hike, a higher spot on the base of Arrowhead Peak, this picture helps understand why mountain hemlocks Tsuga mertensiana grow into krumholz shapes in the alpine area:


This is as far as I made it that day, up to the final traverse. I hadn't brought my crampons so I had to turn around:


And this is what invariably happens when I tell myself "I shouldn't need my snowshoes today..."


This is a scenario within the "Wilderness First Responder" course that I took this spring:


.