Bear Grylls at E3

Photos from my recent encounter with Bear Grylls at E3. The book he signed is called “The Kid Who Climbed Everest: The Incredible Story of a 23-Year-Old’s Summit of Mt. Everest“.

The Summit Crew

The cast of this months Upper Yosemite Falls summit team.

Myself Jordan Larrigan

The Bro Drew Larrigan

The Kid down the street Josh Timm

The Paramedic Bill Tetreault

Yosemite in January

Photos from a recent trip in January of 2010 to Yosemite. This was the first trip that I attempted and successfully hiked up Yosemite Falls. It was not as hard as I expected but it was fairly brutal. Never ending switch backs for roughly 95% of the 2,600 foot elevation gain. I highly recommend taking a break at the semi-hidden mid falls detour.

If you go during the winter and take the detour you can watch the falls go from water to snow. Check out the photos to see the mountain of snow that forms.

View from the top of Yosemite Falls.

Random Leaf

Smooth rolling spring

Yosemite Summer 2009

I recently had the chance to head to Yosemite in the summer with my brother and Chris. I still think I enjoy winter the most. However, I might be a bit jaded due to the fires closing our normal hotel and ruining our Half Dome hike.

Full Photo Album

Climbing Helens and Digging for Clams

New Jeep

The time has finally come. It has been a long and fun journey with my old Red Jeep Cherokee. But, sady it is time to put her to rest and open the doors for my new 2005 black Jeep Grand Cherokee. That’s right, I finally broke down and bought something newer. So far the new rig is everything I expected it to be. My only downfall is I am contently thinking about how to mod it, louder, faster, sexier….

Also the old jeep is destined to land at Jeremy’s property for some future off roading excursions in Washington.

For the full screen version go Here

Washington Labor Day – Mt Rainier

We woke up at the butt crack of dawn, roughly 4-5am Saturday morning. Only to find the sky completely covered in clouds. Yet, we decided to head to the mountain anyway. I mean why not, the weather report said partly cloudy and good hiking conditions. We filmed a little video and take off around 5:45am.

We took a pit stop on the way up for survival food and gas. Nothing particularly interesting about the food stop. However, the gas, wahoo was that intense. I have recently come to find out there is such a thing a “speed pumps” for semis. These things spit out gas a billion miles and hour and let me tell you, gas in the face is unpleasant in every way. Moving on…

We arrive at the mountain at around 8:30am. Walk into the ranger station to release the tension of last nights Mongolian grill extravaganza. On our way back to the car we ask the rangers how the hike is. He tells us, most of the hike is white out but around 8k elevation is clear. I say sweet, great for photography, let’s do it. So we head out at 9am.

One question was continually posed by the crew the whole hike up. “Do we really think the sun is up there?” The entire hike up we encountered many people who assured us the sun was coming only 1000 feet up to go. So we pushed on, and on and on. I would say we reached around 8500 – 9000 feet when we came across the only honest guy on the mountain. He told us, “nope, there is a small bit of sun at the top but it should be gone by now.” At that point we decided we were done. At 3pm Rob released more furry on the top of the mountain. Good thing we brought the toilet paper.

Next, was probably the most exciting part of our trip. Sliding down the mountain! Not only was it exciting, it was completely scary. Visibility was around 20 feet and there were crevasses all over the place. First Sean goes, then Jon, Drew, me, then Rob. Top speed around 20 miles an hour. The only breaks we had were our feet and they didn’t work. My method of stopping was bailing out and come to a rolling stop. We were able to do this for around 2 miles and then had to hike out the rest.

The final mile was the worst. The sky was clear, and the sun was out….

Here are the photos from the hike. These were taken by all of us with random cameras. The video will come in a week or so once I figure out how to edit videos.

Click here for the Full Screen Slide Show

Ouch in Joshua Tree

Recently I had the opportunity to rent two lenes from Lensrentals.com. A 35mm canon L, and 15mm sigma.

The short version, the 35mm shoots super sharp photos, but not very useful. The 15mm sigma. Awesome! Totally blew my expectations out of the water. I will be buying in the near future.

Below are some sample photos I took today with the 15mm.

Now for the story.

Christian said with fire in his eyes. Let’s skate board down to the bathroom! It’s a small hill, we can do it. I nervously responded with, uhhhh sure I guess. We haven’t learned downhill yet but why not…

Shortly after, boards in hand, we scout our path down the small hill. I say with a manipulative tone, Hey Chris you first. Eagerly, Chris smiles and heads down the hill. Not 5 seconds later his arbor board starts to wobble out of control. I ditch my board in fear of the inevitable crash and burn. Whoosh it nails a tree at near lightning speed. Then I look back up and Chris jumps off of his board. No words can properly describe what happened next.

He hits the ground running and just can’t seem to get a grip on the ground. He flies forward head first into the pavement. Flips heels over head, barrel rolls shoulder over shoulder and finally landing in an awakened butt in face ankles in the air position then stops. Silence rolls over the tourist as they watch in awe. He get’s up and says, “I’m good”. Jumps back on the board in an attempt to finish the hill. Not 5 seconds later his arbor boards starts to wobble. He ditches and lands perfectly on his feet. Pops a squat on the board and says I need a minute.

He survives with only scrapes, bruises and a new appreciation for hills and pavement.

You can the full screen Slideshow here

Battle between Man and Snake

Let’s start with the setting. The battle took place high atop the Santa Monica Mountains. The rough temperature was near 110 degrees. Then there was myself, a lone hiker daring to take on the heat and insane elevation gain.

Now the battle. As I round the last corner of the hike I see my goal. A strange and bazar sandstone formation that overlooks the Pacific ocean and city of Malibu. All of a sudden I hear it. A sinister sound, rattle rattle rattle. I stop! Look down and see him. The 3 foot long beast of a rattle snake. We stare eye to eye for what seems like hours.

Whoosh a flash of light….

Then all of a sudden he perks up as if to prepare to strike… I do what any man would do. Take off my shoe and throw it at the beast. He dodges and hisses back at me. As if to mock my failed attack. I then jump back and grab my next weapon. A 4 foot long stick. I think to my self. He is 3 feet long and I have a 4 foot long stick. He still has the upper hand. At this point I really needed to assess my options. Fight the beast and reach my goal or run away and live to hike another day. I decided, fight the beat. So we went for it. I swung and he took a strike at me. Then again and again. A true battle of man vs animal. I am not sure why this happened but I decided that the stick was not the tool for the job. I threw the stick as hard as possible and charged the snake. The stick connects!!! And I tackle the snake in it’s confusion. I grab right behind his jaw and we roll around. He rattles and I roar. He wraps around me and squeezes tight as if to suck the life from me. I start to loose it. The battle is turning to his favor. Then I take one drastic move. We roll down the mountain. At some point during this 300 foot fall I manage to gain dominance of the snake and believe it or not tear his head from his snaky body with my teeth. I then stand a roar like a man..

Whoosh another flash of light, then I woke up….

Then all of a sudden he perks up as if to prepare to strike… I do what any sane man would do. Take two steps backwards then run as fast as I could down the hill. It took me around 10 min to run about 2 miles down the mountain. When I arrived back at my jeep I stared at the top in sadness as I was almost there. Shortly after my frown turned into a smirk and I decided next weekend your mine snake.

4th of July Fireworks in Marina Del Rey

Shoot with long exposure and consently adjusted the iso. Most were shot around 6-8 seconds with 100-300 iso.

I recomend checking out the full screen slide show rather then this embedded one.

You can the full screen Slideshow here