Today’s photos document the adventure travel of my friend Anne-Marie, who lives in Montreal. When I visited her and her husband a few years ago, besides showing me great hospitality, she recounted the years when she was an adventure guide, including leading clients on multi-week trips in the Arctic, dragging all their stuff with them. Today she sends some pictures and captions of two of her adventures. (Click on photos to enlarge them.)
OF SAND AND SNOW
Some souvenirs from past trips in far away places.
The pictures cover two trips on which I had the privilege of guiding adventure-hungry customers: the first one, in Morocco (trekking from one casbah to the other) and the second, on Baffin Island (Canada), a 225 km snowshoeing trek in full autonomy (carrying everything we needed). I have chosen these pictures mainly because of the light, which I remember as being extraordinary.
Moon setting down at the end of a long day in the Draa Valley.
Same valley, very early in the morning:
Another night-time picture, this time in the Jbel Saghro mountain range.
The second picture set is taken from the 3-week trek through Auyuittuq National Park (Baffin). This was a physically and psychologically demanding adventure during which I initiated six untried customers to the rigours of winter conditions above the Arctic Circle.
Daylight picture taken during a very windy day!
The next two pictures display the main and only transportation method for our equipment: human-powered—no gas engine!
One of our campsites, in a typical setting:
First thing in the morning: greeting clients with a good cup of coffee. Do not get fooled by my bare hands: the temperature was around -18C, and opening a Ziploc bag with gloves was almost impossible! The small cook-tent helped keep my hands warm while preparing the meals.
Great pictures of Baffin Island.
Beatiful!
Hard core adventuring! Thank you for sharing.
Very interesting. With open country, Is there a reason to prefer snowshoes to nordic skis, other than some customers needing more time to learn?
Hello Peter, the main reason is due to the nature of the snow cover. Snowshoes (équipes with crampons)have a much better grip on the wind-battered snow. Also, we encountered a lot of ice which would have been unmanageable with skis.
And easier and safer for everybody
My dad went to Fairbanks, Alaska a couple of winters to do winter training when he was with the guard. I believe their trainers came from Norway but I don’t think anyone was making breakfast for them.
Great photos of a cold place.
AH ah ah!! And I cooked a cake every night! Very good for « le moral des troupes »! With hot chocolate!!
Very impressive! And beautiful shots!
Excellent photos, thanks for sharing these!
Anne-Marie, are these digital images or scanned film? Just curious. Merci!
Scanned slides actually. Remember that time, taking shots and having to wait a few weeks to see the results? 😉
No GPS. Only maps.
Sattelite phone in case of an emergency.
I remember film very well! 😉
Whenever I’ve tried to do fiddly things with gloves I think “how do the astronauts do it”.
Looking at those photos I think about how hungry I’d be making a trek like that. All those calories you’d need for keeping warm and moving. Next, I think how sore I’d be.
-18 C: About a degree warmer than Dallas’ low last Tuesday! (-2 Fahrenheit or -19 C)
Are you KIDDING? Two amazing adventure episodes in a row! Magnificent!
I agree that the light in these photos is exquisite. I would love to do a “casbah to casbah” adventure in Morocco…but trekking in sub-zero temperatures? Not so much. 🥶 I’m not happy in the cold. Beautiful country though, no doubt about that. Thanks for sharing.
Fantastic shots and what a cool job you had!
I loved Morocco when I went but Baffin island and all that cold —- no mate, not for me. I’m a warm weather bird!
Thx
D.A.
NYC