GRAND CANADIAN MOUNTAIN TOUR: Airplane Camping & Aerial Photography May 2012

In September 2011, I joined John Scurlock on a week-long "airplane camping" trip into the Canadian Rockies (click link for trip report). It was such a spectacular and unique adventure that it couldn't be the last.

So in May 2012, we headed back. This time, instead of the late-summer snow dusting of the previous trip, the rugged summits were now crusted in the melting springtime remnants of their heavy winter cloaks.

Over the course of 4 days, we flew a 2,103-mile circuit over and amongst some of the great mountain ranges of western Canada. We visited the Rockies, the Selkirks, and the Purcells, covering a remarkable amount of terrain by the grace of the weather gods. We took over 4000 photographs. My list of summits I want to climb now certainly exceeds a single lifetime.

As John wrote in an email following our trip, it is important to mention the hospitality and role of Canadian friends in making this trip a success. John notes: We were the honored guests of Hermann & Ursel Mauthner in the town of Wilmer, enjoying the hospitality as well of Pat & Baiba Morrow, also in Wilmer.  We could not have accomplished what we did without the help of our friends.  And I must also mention the town of Valemount, where the little airport cabin has provided refuge as a welcome oasis over the years I've flown and photographed in the Canadian Rockies.  As far as I'm concerned, Valemount's airport is my favorite airport in western North America... after my home airport of Concrete, of course..!

This page gives about 100 of my favorite photographs from this grand Canadian mountain tour. Since words fall far short of describing our experiences over the 4 days, I hope that the photographs give a sense of the awesome mountain grandeur John and I experienced.