adventure essay photograph wilderness

Signature Image Competition Give us your best shot(s)! We're looking for an image to represent the 2016 Festival. International exposure and 00 CAD honorarium. The competition is now closed. Visit web page for more information or if you have any questions. Banff Mountain Photo Essay Competition The 2015 Banff Mountain Photo Essay Competition is now closed. The 2016 competition will open by early March. Submit your photo essays to illustrate their mountain related stories whether culture, adventure, wildlife, sport, environment, or natural history. Banff Mountain Book Competition The Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival celebrates mountain literature, bringing together writers, publishers, editors, photographers, athletes, adventurers, and — of course — readers. Banff Mountain Film Competition Enter your film into the Banff Mountain Film Competition and bring the magic of mountain places and cultures, and the adrenaline of exploration and adventure to an appreciative, international audience. Mountain Idol Mountain Idols are individuals under 23 who excel in their mountain sport, exemplify the outdoor lifestyle, and are valued role models and/or mentors. Summit of Excellence The Summit of Excellence Award recognizes an individual who has made a significant contribution to mountain life in the Canadian Rockies. T-Shirt Design Competition In celebration of our 40th anniversary the Festival, in partnership with Icebreaker, will produce a special T-shirt sold during the Festival and on the Icebreaker website.
Photograph by Tyrone Turner When I first ventured into the Gulf of Mexico in the 1950s, the sea appeared to be a blue infinity too large, too wild to be harmed by anything that people could do. I explored powder white beaches, dense marshes, mangrove forests, and miles of sea grass meadows alive with pink sea urchins, tiny shrimps, and seahorses half the size of my little finger. I learned to dive in unexplored areas offshore from the many rivers that flow into the Gulf, where jungles of crimson, green, and brown seaweed sprouted from rocky limestone reefs. Under the canopy of golden forests of drifting sargassum, I swam with a floating zoo of small creatures: lacy brown sea slugs, juvenile jacks, and flying fish no larger than dragonflies. Diving into the cool water of Ichetucknee, Weeki Wachee, Wakulla, and other inland springs, I glimpsed the honeycomb plumbing of underground tunnels, sinkholes, shafts, caves, and disappearing rivers that are common along the Gulf, all shaped from rock formed from the bodies of ancient sea creatures with calcium carbonate shells, skeletons, or cell walls. Bones of extinct mammals are there too—creatures that lived long before the arrival of humans. Ice ages have come and gone, with sea level high enough at times to drown most of the Yucatán and Florida, alternating with long stretches when both had more than double the dry land present today—changes that took place over millions of years. Then, in mere decades, not millennia, the blue wilderness of my childhood disappeared: biologic change in the space of a lifetime. By the mid-1950s manatees were already scarce, and monk seals, once common as far north as Galveston, were gone. By the end of the 20th century, up to 90 percent of the sharks, tuna, swordfish, marlins, groupers, turtles, whales, and many other large creatures that prospered in the Gulf for millions of years had been.
Possessed By Tattoos: Sak Yant Wai Kru Festival Posted by Matthew Karsten in Photo Essays, Thailand | 23 Comments Hordes of screaming men possessed by their magic Sak Yant tattoos run wildly towards a shrine, crashing into the human shield of soldiers protecting it. Read More Hiking Through The Holy Land On Israel’s National Trail Posted by Matthew Karsten in Adventure, Israel, Photo Essays | 20 Comments Relentless sunlight baked the air to 100 degrees. We pushed forward in the heat with determination, one foot in front of the other across the barren Negev desert, hiking the Israel National Trail. Read More Wildflowers & Ice: Hiking Turkey’s Majestic Kackar Mountains Posted by Matthew Karsten in Adventure, Photo Essays, Turkey, Video | 32 Comments Join me for an epic trekking adventure into the beautiful Kackar Mountains in Eastern Turkey where raw wilderness and ancient lifestyles leave lasting memories. Read More Strolling Through Soweto Township Posted by Matthew Karsten in Photo Essays, South Africa | 5 Comments Once home to Nelson Mandela, Soweto Township is a fascinating urban settlement on the outskirts of Johannesburg with much history and culture. Read More Would You Live Like This? Meet Spain’s Nomadic Cave Gypsies Posted by Matthew Karsten in Photo Essays, Spain | 65 Comments There is a fascinating community of people living in Spain who make their homes out of abandoned caves. Join me on a photo tour through Sacromonte’s gypsy neighborhood. Read More A Wee Photo Tour Of Scotland Posted by Matthew Karsten in Photo Essays, Scotland | 28 Comments Scotland is more than just bagpipes, kilts, and haggis. From the highlands to the city, join me on a tour through this fascinating country. Read More Motorcycle Road Trip In The Canadian Rockies Posted by Matthew Karsten in Canada, Photo Essays | 58 Comments This summer I rented a Harley Davidson motorcycle for a.
“A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man ” —Wilderness Act of 1964 The photos above capture some of my experiences living life as a backcountry wilderness ranger for the United States Forest Service helping to protect America’s wilderness lands and the people who use them. I patrol Oregon’s largest wilderness area, the Eagle Cap Wilderness, and North America’s deepest canyon, Hells Canyon. I put together this photo essay during the 2014 backpacking season in honor of the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act of 1964. My hope is that by showing some of what we do protecting America’s wilderness lands, I can help broaden people’s understanding of why we created that law 50 years ago. I believe the United States Wilderness Act is one of our nation’s greatest accomplishments. I want to share a slice of life for someone who serves as a wilderness ranger, which may help explain why.  You don’t make much money at this job, but it’s the sort of job that makes you realize life is worth so much more than money. I’ve always said that the Wilderness Act is the most “Indian” (or “NDN” as we like to say) of our country’s laws.  For me, it’s also a deeply engrained part of my heritage.  I am an enrolled member of the Caddo Nation (Hasinai Tribe), and also a member of the Delaware Nation of Oklahoma (Lenni Lenape Tribe). The Lenape have always been an adventurous, exploring, people. Long millennia ago we were the first of the Algonquin peoples to make our home in what is now the Eastern Woodlands of the United States. As such, we are referred to as “The Grandfathers” by the other Algonquin tribes. My great grandfather’s great grandfather was Captain John Conner, a man who truly epitomizes this country’s wild spirit.  He was the.