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Collection

Tristan Todd - Editions

Creator

Tristan Todd

Description

Every summer I make a point of going somewhere brand new. Ideally not just new to me, but new to most everyone else too. I like to get away from places that have other visitors and I love the mystery of the unknown. Finding solitude is incredibly important to me. The Coast Mountains of British Columbia are truly spectacular and offer boundless solitude, but the sheer remoteness means access options are limited. There are no trails where we go and helicopters are pretty much mandatory, unless you want to spend literally weeks bushwhacking! After putting a crew together, we needed to decide on a location. We had three pins on a map: one from me, one from Matt and one from Morgan. Ultimately we decided on Morgan's spot, as it provided the best balance between cost, hiking options and photography potential. Soon it was almost time for the trip! I was already near our location due to leading a workshop two night's prior, and was eagerly awaiting the arrival of Matt, Morgan and Cath. We nearly had to cancel our plans due to the crazy wildfire season, but I talked with the pilot/owner of the helicopter company and he told us he could get us in and out. The excitement finally hit. It was officially go time! We had Mike - our pilot - land us on an old moraine at exactly 2000 meters in elevation. It was raining when he dropped us off and we rushed to put up our tents while throwing a big tarp over the rest of our gear. It was an exciting start to a very memorable camping, hiking and photography trip with some truly amazing friends. Our camp was located next to glaciers and a crumbling mountain--boulders and chunks of ice fell with shocking regularity, at least every ten minutes. Sometimes they were so loud it would wake us up in the middle of the night, though our tents were located safely above the fall zone. We explored alpine meadows and the underbelly of a glacier and at camp we told stories in our communal shelter. The best day was the day we decided to hike down to the big glacier, located on the edge of one of British Columbia's epic icefields. I confirmed the presence of ice caves with my drone, so we were excited. What would we find? These are the moments and experiences we all live for! After making our way through heather, boulders and streams, we were facing down the black hole of the ice cave entrance. I felt apprehensive. An ice cave is never truly safe, but I knew I had to go in. I quickly made my way through the arching entrance, which is the most dangerous part of a cave. What awaited us blew our minds. The cave we had found was one of the most unique one I've ever seen not only in person but also including caves photographed by others. To our surprise it had a moulin in the dead center of the cavern! From the moulin there was water and sunlight pouring in from above, illuminating the cave like some sort of ancient cathedral. Mist swirled about mysteriously, both under the moulin and from the entrance of the ice cave. I photographed as many perspectives as possible, and nearly missed this one. I saw the puddle on the boulder but kept walking. Then I stopped, and realized I should check it for nice reflections. And nice reflections it had! I couldn't fit my tripod here, so I fired away handheld and hoped for the best. Ice caves are low light environments and not ideal for this. Thankfully I got what I needed! Soon it was time to leave the cave and cook lunch. It's best not to test one's luck underneath a glacier, particularly in the summertime. A huge thanks to Mike King and White Saddle Air Services for getting us safely there and back. It was my third year flying with them and it's always an absolute blast. Another huge thanks to my friends for making this trip possible.