Spring/Summer 2002

Capturing mountains in dewdrops
Valley resident shares his passion for nature photography
by Ann McCreary

For the past 35 years, Dennis Kirkland's passion has been outdoor recreation - mountaineering, backpacking, and whitewater rafting. About five years ago, he discovered a new passion - capturing the beauty of nature on film.

Kirkland's new career as a nature photographer has already produced an impressive body of work. His dramatic photos capture the immensity of natural landscapes, as well as nature's most minute details.

Kirkland, who moved from Seattle to the Methow Valley last year, says he loves nature photography because it "awakens the child within." After decades of immersing himself in the outdoors, he is seeing nature in new ways.

His vision and skill allows the rest of us to enjoy these different perspectives as well. For example, while photographing Mount Ranier reflected in Tipsoo Lake at sunrise, Kirkland noticed a nearby plant with a dewdrop hanging from a stem. He moved closer to examine the water droplet, and peering into it, discovered the tiny droplet contained the distant image of 14,410-foot Mount Ranier and its reflection in the lake.

"I was totally engrossed in this one-eighth of an inch drop of water that normally I would have walked right by," Kirkland says The drop of water acted like a prism, turning the image of the mountain upside down, and the round shape of the drop acted like a wide-angle lens that took in the entire mountain. Kirkland's photo shows the snowcapped mountain and its reflection within the hanging dewdrop.

During his years exploring the outdoors with his family and friends, Kirkland has always kept a camera handy. "I was taking pictures, but more as a way to record what we were seeing and experiencing, but not as a real art form." His interest in photography as art intensified after he took some workshops from accomplished photographers. "I got exposed to some of the fine nature photographers. It was a huge leap forward in my understanding of nature photography."

Kirkland lived in Seattle most of his life, working as a teacher and then a homebuilder. After retiring, he and his wife Mary Ann, a teacher, were drawn to the Methow Valley, which had already been discovered by one of their daughters. They built a home - designed by Kirkland - up the Twisp River, and when he's not pursuing photography, he spends time mountaineering, rafting, and skiing.

He travels several times a year to take photographs in different locations. Among his favorite destinations are Alaska, the deserts of the Southwest, and Costa Rica. He takes pictures around the Methow Valley too, but says, "as beautiful as this area is, it's pretty challenging to come up with really compelling images."

Nature photography, says Kirkland, is a "blend of technical and creative skills…more learned than innate." The technical aspect involves experimenting with different "gadgets and gismos" that enhance photographs, and the creative part involves determining the composition of pictures, and how to best render a subject.

The training he has received and his own experience has taught him that in photography, less is more, Kirkland says. "The mantra of nature photography is simplify, simplify, simplify. Most people try to take in too much and lose the essence of the photograph. You need to identify what is attracting you. The more unnecessary details you get in a picture, the more you detract from the photo."

He continues to take workshops to expand his skills, and says he's constantly critiquing his own work. "The more I shoot, the more particular I get. It's hard for me to be satisfied. It's a combination of practice, knowledge and experimentation - and evaluating the results. I'd rather throw 100 pictures away to get two good pictures."

His work has recently received national recognition. Three of his photographs were selected for inclusion in the Northwest Exhibition of Environmental Photography, held in Seattle during April and May. The exhibition includes 80 photos from photographers around the region.

"Photography is my passion," Kirkland says. "I love the excitement of seeing a grand landscape when the light is just right, or observing wildlife in their natural habitat, and especially in looking for the small interesting details of nature up close. When the lighting is mediocre, and the wildlife are nowhere to be seen, I can spend hours taking pictures of flowers, insects, images in dew drops, or interesting patterns."

This summer, Kirkland will share his passion and knowledge in a two-day photography workshop on June 1 and 2. The workshop will include a day of instruction at Kirkland's home, followed by a day in the field taking pictures. Cost is $50 per person. For information call Kirkland at 997-7177, or email him at dkirkland@mymethow.com.

Back to the Top

Let's go out on a limb and declare that the Methow Valley has access to some of the best, all-around climbing in the world. First, let's start with the upper valley and the Mazama area. Whether or not the rain is plaguing the nearby mountains to the west, the climbs on Lost River Road are a haven for the vertical adventurer.

Here one will find plenty of pure enjoyment sport climbing at the world renowned Fun Rock. This little crag has it all with predominately bolt-protected climbs ranging in difficulty from 5.6 to 5.13.

The access at Fun Rock is easy (and safer) with the addition of a much-needed parking lot along with short and well-kept trails to the various climbs. The routes vary in length from 15 to 30 meters. Most climbs can be lead and have good protection. Likewise, many of these climbs can be top-roped and have accessible anchors.

Just up the road from Fun Rock, jutting into the sky in El Capitan style, are the imposing ramparts of Goat Wall. Several multi-pitch routes are hidden amidst the massive faces and folds of the mountain. Two such routes can be found in Bryan Burdo's guidebook and for the others, well you just need to ask the right people.

Of course, the climbing one can find on the valley floor is just the icing on the cake. The real meat and potatoes lie on the granite spires in the nearby mountains. The bulk of this alpine climbing splendor exists on the flanks of Liberty Bell Mountain, South and North Early Winter Spires, along with Lexington and Concord Towers. This massif looms above the North Cross State Highway (20) near Washington Pass.

The area is popular, and for good reason, given its excellent overall variety of climbing and established routes, including the "Fifty Classic Climb," Liberty Crack on the soaring east face of Liberty Bell. On most days, the majority of climber traffic can be found on two mega-classic climbs, the Beckey Route on Liberty Bell and the South Arete of South Early Winter Spire.

Because of the popularity of climbing these formations and also due to the relatively good access, one is sure to enjoy sampling the charms of the Washington Pass area much more on a weekday than weekend with fewer climbers out and about.

The alpine climbing certainly isn't limited to just the Washington Pass area. Other nearby peaks such as Cutthroat, Temple, the Wine Spires and Silver Star offer their own challenges and unique climbing situations. Aside from pure rock climbing, one can also find inviting couloirs, snowfields and even a small glacier to explore.

Despite having some of the best climbing in the state, the Washington Pass area is just the tip of the iceberg when one considers the endless possibilities throughout the vast and wild North Cascades National Park.

From Boston Basin and the ice fields of Klawatti to the remote Pickett Range and beyond, the park has a lot of everything. There exist superb granite peaks thrusting knife-like from broken glaciers, remote big walls with flying buttresses, secluded and challenging snow-capped peaks, the list goes on to the point where time and motivation are more the question than the available destinations.

For many folks, attaining adventure in the vertical world, whether on rock, snow or ice, is best accomplished and enjoyed with a professional mountain guide. A seasoned guide can correctly and safely introduce novices to a sport where risk assessment and experience is a major factor. Skills and technique instruction from a competent guide covering a plethora of topics is often an invaluable experience for anyone wishing to further their climbing ability and experience.

There is one local climbing guide company in the Methow Valley. The North Cascades Mountain Guides, located in Mazama, offers a variety of different programs and trips throughout the year. The company is a unique co-op of guides who live in valley and have considerable years of experience and knowledge in guiding climbers on the nearby crags and mountains.

Aside from being a company providing climbing instruction services for all ability levels, North Cascades Mountain Guides is also a resource for climbers and explorers looking for weather and route conditions and information in the local area. They can be contacted at 509-996-3194 or at www.ncmountainguides.com.

Without a doubt, the climbing possibilities in and near the Methow Valley are almost too good to be true. Imagine clipping bolts at a sunny crag, hanging it out on a splitter crack 500 feet off the deck, scrambling across the knife-edge ridge of a immense granite spire, meandering through the crevasses of a magnificent glacier toward the summit of an incredibly remote and scenic peak; all this, well within a leisurely drive from the Methow Valley.

That's pretty tough to top. Anywhere.

Mazama resident Paul Butler divides his risk taking adventures between guiding for North Cascades Mountain Guides, publishing the Methow Valley News and raising two children.

Back to the Top

New edition of The Smiling Country brings Methow history up to date
By Katherine Calhoon

Sally Portman's The Smiling Country, a portrait of the Methow Valley, is available in a new edition that includes more early history as well as the current history taking shape.

Fifty pages longer, the second edition includes three new chapters and substantial additions to the original writings. New chapters include "Carlton Takes Shape: Settlers, Schools, a Church, a Store;" along with two chapters on Mazama.

Portman is the Winthrop librarian in Winthrop and for many years has co-directed the Sun Mountain Lodge Ski School with her husband Don Portman, MVSTA board president.

In revising her book, Portman found the chapter titled "Mazama Ski Wars" by far the hardest to write. "I felt so emotionally involved, I just didn't want to touch it," said Portman. "It was difficult to deal with it until things were resolved."

Portman said she turned for help to local residents who were involved in the long controversy over a proposed downhill resort at Early Winters in Mazama. "Getting the sequence of events straight and figuring out what was important in writing the history of the Ski Wars was hard work," Portman said. She added, "it wasn't hard to make the retelling of the story fair. I just let the facts tell the story themselves."

Cold hard facts aside, Portman beautifully includes the colors of human emotion so deeply invested in the hopes and dreams of both sides of the ski wars while laying the history to print. The retelling is embellished with photographs of faces of key players in the 30-years-long controversy.

Rewriting the chapter on irrigation was also hard, said Portman. Area ditches were in jeopardy at the time, and Portman turned to fish biologist Jennifer Molesworth for assistance in deciphering jargon and trying to make sense of a situation where ditches were closed "despite there being plenty of water that year."

"Jenny was real down to earth and a big help," said Portman. "And having to update that chapter right in the middle of the controversy going on forced me to try and figure it all out and make sense of it."

A chapter detailing life in the Methow in the face of floods, snowstorms and other severe weather conditions was updated to include glimpses into the winter of 1996-97, when Roy Kumm of Winthrop reported 8.5 feet of snow falling between October and December. A photo of the roof of Winthrop Motors collapsing under the weight of the snow brings fresh to mind recent memories while ebullient photos of early settlers throughout the book bring to life the stories so eloquently told by Portman.

Additions can also be found to her chapter "Cattle Ranching in the Land of Plenty," and an index is a welcome addition to this edition.

Portman quotes Owen Wister describing the Methow Valley with the words "Here was a smiling country, winning the heart at sight,"in titling her book. Reading Portman's words of the people who live(d) in this valley before and beside her, one can hear the smiling heart, inspired by the beauty of the people and the land, behind the author's hand.

Local painter Laurie Fry's illustration on the cover is a watercolor portrait of the Moccasin Lake Ranch, framed behind by the Cascades' purple majesty; the foreground richly heralded by wildflowers in bloom. The print is entitled "Spring Awakening Methow Valley."

The new edition has a limited printing and may sell out as quickly as the first book did.

Trails thanks the Methow Valley News for permission to reprint this article.

Back to the Top

Pushing her boundaries Methow Valley woman heads for Everest trails
By Midge Cross

Editors note: Mazama resident Midge Cross, a ski coach and mentor to many women over the years, wrote this article in March, as she was preparing to leave for the Everest expedition. If all goes according to schedule, she should be at base camp in early April, and remain on the mountain for several weeks. She plans to tell us about her adventures on Everest in the Fall/Winter issue of Trails.

Five years ago, Scott and I were packing for our trip to Nepal when I found I had breast cancer. No trip to Nepal that year. Now, five years later, almost to the day, I'm going. And not only to Nepal, but to Mount Everest, Chomolungma. Mother Goddess. How on earth did this come about? 8

One day in January, back country skiing, my friend Anne Keller told me about a venture to be called something like the 2002 American Women's Everest Expedition. Ford Motor Company was sponsoring the trip. I was skeptical - it sounded like " the girls go climbing to promote Ford Expeditions;" not exactly my cup of tea. Scott was excited; "They're looking for women who have overcome challenges! You're just what they want!" He promoted the idea incessantly for the next several days until I finally said, "Okay, okay, I'll ask about it."

With her typical generosity, Anne told me whom to contact, so I talked with Erin Simonson who, with her husband, Eric, owns International Mountain Guides, the provider of all the Everest team's logistics. To my astonishment, Erin agreed with Scott, "Send in your complete bio. I think they'd be interested." Ten days later, I got a call, "We'd like to have you on the team!" As I hung up the phone, I thought, "Oh my gosh, what have I gotten myself into?"

I asked Erin to give me the whole story behind the trip: A year ago, Erin, who has spent much time and energy putting together male dominated trips, decided to see if she could get a women's team to Everest. She secured funding from Ford, who had just begun the "No Boundaries Project," a foundation to assist ordinary people do extraordinary things. She put the word out for women to apply, looking for "average" women, not professional climbers. The climb will be on the south side of the mountain, the "normal" route, and will take all of April and May.

The five-woman No Boundaries team will be a subsidiary of a larger group, led by Eric Simonson, Erin's husband. That group will include climbers and trekkers, as well as 14 high altitude Sherpas to assist on the mountain, and six Sherpas who will run the camp. Our team will have our own guides, Dave Hahn and Ben Marshall, who have years of experience on Everest and many other high peaks.

In early March, the team met for the first time in Breckenridge, Colorado. The other women are: Alison Levine, who works for Goldman Sachs in San Francisco, Lynn Prebble, a physical therapist from Canon City, Colorado, Kim Clark, a third year nursing student from Denver, and Jody Thompson, an emergency room RN from Frisco, Colorado. None of us has ever tackled anything like Everest, and it will be a physical and mental challenge for all.

That same weekend, we also met our promoter. Ford's advertising agency, J. Walter Thompson, sent its team to talk with us; the PR firm of Hill & Knowlton had representatives there also. We talked about Ford's support for our climb; were warned about untrustworthy media people and given tips on how to interview successfully. We had our photos taken, individually and in groups. We spent a day at Loveland Pass (elevation 12,000 feet) in the freezing cold, practicing walking on metal ladders with our big boots and crampons, all the while being video taped; we walked for the cameras, we stood for the cameras, we smiled for the cameras. That afternoon, we traveled to The Car: A beautiful, shiny, pre-production 2003 Expedition, around which we posed in various casual stances, while more photos were taken. I had to keep checking, "Is this really me?"

Our itinerary has us scheduled to leave for New York on March 25. On the 26th, we'll do a day of media appearances, if the PR guys can get anyone interested in us, and if there's nothing more compelling going on in the world. On the 27th we attend the NY Auto Show, where we will meet the Ford folks and have opportunity to thank them. Then we'll leave for Nepal, traveling on Singapore Airlines through Frankfurt and Delhi, to Kathmandu. And there the work begins.

This all seems pretty unreal to me, but just in case it isn't, I've been doing a lot of thinking about how to prepare for this kind of adventure, and have three areas of focus.

The physical challenge: I'm pretty fit and strong; I run and hike with ski poles, bike and climb in the summer and fall, cross-country and back-country ski in the winter, lift weights much of the year. That's the good news. The not-quite-so-good-news: I'm 58 and I have diabetes. I've used insulin for a year and a half; most of the time I manage well, but when I bonk, I really bonk. So I carry GU or candy in every pocket; on long outings, I take insulin and inject in the middle of the day. This adds some complexity to my physical endeavors, and I have to plan more carefully, rather than just zipping casually out the door.

What am I doing differently now to get ready to go? Because the time frame is so short, not much. I'm lifting heavier weights in the gym, taking enough rest to recover completely, and trying to put on a little weight. Scott told me, "You need to put on 10 pounds," to which my predictable response was, "Not on your life, buster!" At altitude, however, weight loss is a certainty, and to go with a little extra is a good idea. I love to eat, so this part of the training is no problem - french fries? A beer? Why not?

I've rented an altitude tent from Hypoxico, Inc. It looks like a two-person camping tent, only the sides are clear plastic, and it sits on my bed, hooked up to a generator which controls the amount of oxygen in the air I breathe during the night. The first night we slept in it, we hadn't calibrated the altitude correctly, and inadvertently slept at 11,500'. It took a while to clear the cobwebs the next day, so we're taking a slightly more leisurely approach to the final goal of 12,500'. The better acclimatized I am when I get there, the less hard my body will work adjusting to the thinner air in Nepal.

The logistics: I can't allow my insulin or glucose monitor to freeze. When I'm in Base Camp, I can keep my supplies in my sleeping bag, but when I'm on the mountain, I'll have to carry the insulin pens and meter next to my body. Luckily, one of my teammates is an ER nurse, and another is a third year nursing student. I figure they'll be able to give me my shots if I'm in difficulty; I'll ask a teammate to carry some extra insulin for me, and I'll ask them to watch me for signs of low blood sugar. Making sure I eat and drink enough will be a challenge, especially as my brain functions slow down.

The mental work: I know that my mental attitude has huge impact on my physical abilities. Will I have the inner strength to keep going, or to know when to turn back? Will I have the fortitude to face my fears and feelings of inadequacy, and not flinch? Will I be able to see the mountain as a wonderful way to push my personal envelope, or as a fearsome threat, towering over me? I don't know the answers, but I'm thinking a lot about these and other questions. I have been fortunate in my life to have worked with women, supporting, inspiring and encouraging them. I've been a teacher, coach, mentor; helping them to believe, as I did, in their capabilities, their strength, their wonderfulness. Now it's my turn to step up to the plate. I hope I can do it. I want women, especially "older" women, to look at what I do and say, "Well, if some 58-year-old, cancer survivor, diabetic grandmother can go climb Mount Everest, maybe I can…."

Do I expect to get to the summit? No. Do I hope I will? Yes! If I don't, will I have failed? Absolutely not. There are many goals in this for me: Getting to the mountain without getting sick on the way, managing my fears through the Khumbu Icefall (aluminum ladders, poised over deep crevasses), maintaining my mental focus, dealing with the cold. And enjoying the experiences. One of the wishes of my life is not to live with "every slice wrapped." Everest is a bigger hunk than I might have planned for, but there's no question it will be a great adventure.

While I'm there, I will think of the wonderful friends I have in the Methow Valley, who have unstintingly given me their love and support; of my sister Nora in Wenatchee, meeting her own Everest challenge of chemotherapy right now; of Scott, my dearest friend and cheerleader. I'll keep you all in my pocket for warmth. Stay tuned for the "after" picture.

Back to the Top

Trail Running Series offers great variety

MVSTA's Trail Running Series heads into the hills for its fourth season this spring, beginning with the granddaddy of Methow races, the 22nd annual Sunflower Relay on May 4.

The Trail Running Series consists of four unique trail runs that give participants a sampling of the varied scenery and terrain the Methow Valley has to offer. The routes are mostly off-road and range in difficulty from easy meadow pathways to steep, rugged alpine trails.

MVSTA launched the series in response to the growing popularity of trail running. Trail racing in the Methow had its beginnings with a handful of trail running enthusiasts who created the Sunflower Relay in 1980. Last year, the Sunflower drew about 200 participants, and the four-race series attracted about 500 entrants.

To reward those runners who are enthusiastic and goal-oriented enough to complete at least three of the four races, MVSTA offers special awards and prizes. Last year about 20 people qualified for the series awards. (Runners who want to qualify for the series award need to run the Sunflower as an iron person, rather than as part of a team.) Here's an overview of this year's series: