Needle Peak Adventure - MyPictureDay #6 Submission

I came across the MyPictureDay contest while browsing Steemit yesterday, and as a keen photographer thought I'd submit some shots for the next contest.

Last Sunday a few friends and I decided to tackle Needle Peak in the Fraser Valley region of British Columbia. It was a challenging hike for me as a relatively inexperienced hiker. Almost 900m elevation gain in 3.5 km, including two scrambles near the top, something I've never done before (Trail Info). We left at 7.45am, and after a couple of stops to pick up people and breakfast we headed to the location, the drive from Vancouver took approximately 3 hours.

The first hour of the hike is the toughest, I estimated that we gained at least half the total elevation in this part, we were soon high above the busy Coquihalla highway, and the traffic was a distant sound. Along the way we bumped into this super cool Russian girl, who had brought her friend to Needle Peak, and decided to continue alone to the peak as it was her friend's first hike and she didn't have appropriate footwear. (Olga, if by any small chance you read this, it was great meeting you, you're awesome!)
We continued on to the first scramble section, I have to admit I was a little nervous doing my first scramble, the guy behind me assured me that the rock was very grippy, but also very unforgiving if you slip. I'm not sure how I felt about this.

We were soon facing the second, and much larger scramble section. I was feeling a little more confident by this point, and actually had a lot of fun scrambling up the rock to the peak. If you look closely at the picture below, you can see the tiny dots of people at the top, just to put it in perspective.

The weather at the very top was a little cool, with a gusty wind making a long sleeved jacket necessary. The sun was doing it's best to break through the clouds, but only partially succeeding. We found a rock to shelter us from the wind, and ate our lunch while admiring the incredible views and getting to know Olga a little better, but only after she made a statement by throwing her newly unwanted wedding ring into the vastness below. I'll bet that's something that very few people can say they've seen in their lifetime!

Soon it was time to make the reverse journey back to the parking lot, and we retraced our footsteps. I had certainly given my knees a beating throughout the day, and I could feel them telling me so... I definitely need some hiking poles!

Olga had left us behind, but halfway down the mountain we bumped into her and her friend again (Sorry Olga's friend, I can't remember your name!), one of our group struck up a conversation, and I took the opportunity to take the below shot...

We continued down the mountain chatting with the girls and eventually made it back to the bottom, said out goodbyes and went our separate ways. Maybe we'll bump into them again in the future, they both seem to be the outdoor adventure type, so you never know.

On the journey back we stopped at a patio and reminisced about the successful hike and other stories over a well earned and much needed meal and beer (I had cider, beer isn't my thing), before returning home. The whole trip took around 13 hours.

Thanks for reading if you made it all the way through, this is only my second real blog post, any comments or feedback on my writing style are welcome.

A little about my photography, the pictures I have posted in this blog are panorama style, a series of individual shots taken with a Canon T4i / 650d, and stitched together in Adobe Lightroom, with some post processing applied to bring out the best in terms of colour and detail. I have been learning how to take pictures for the last 4 years and feel like I have learned a hell of a lot in that time, but also feel I still have an infinite amount to learn. I'm happy to share my techniques for creating the shots above if anyone is interested, there's a little more to it than just shooting, stitching together, and playing with levels in Lightroom. Let me know in the comments and I'll get to work on an instructional blog.

NB for the reviewers: You may find the shots above on various stock photography sites if you do a reverse image search, I am a contributor to multiple stock photography agencies but can assure you the work is my own, and am happy to show evidence of this.

Keep your eyes peeled for my next blog

Rick