Jasper Mountain Trek: Windchill

Trip to Jasper to (Crystal) go skiing and (Trevor) go hiking. I met with wind, cold and a burly moment near the peak of a mountain...frostbite staved off for another winter adventure!

All the wintry fun was soothed with fresh pizza and a few malt-bevies in the evening... soothing the curse of winter driving in the Rockies and proving a victory desserts for a hard days trek through the peaks.

These are actually pics I took for my biology class, but I thought that they were pretty and tell a biological and evolutionary tale, so I shared them. This, above, is a close up of the female cones on the upper branches of a conifer. The lesson is in the location of growth of male and female cones, avoiding self fertilization...its all about the tree-sex.

Similarly, this shows the same tree only further back. In this shot you can see both the female and the male cones.

And, although nothing special in its own right as these punctuate every rocky vista upon the peaks, this species is truly the beauty of the beauties. Douglas Fir, not a true Fir, with its spectacular female cones.


ABOVE: Me standing at the eastern side of the saddle/ridgeline that runs the alpine gauntet to the peak. I was able to make it to the second tuft of conifers on the top right of the photo, almost directly below the peak proper, before having to turn back - going higher entailed glissading up an avalanche chute on the side of the cliff...I chose against that option.

BELOW: Me, mid way up the mountain, taking a pause after putting on another layer. The wind was agonizingly strong and cold, and walking in the vapid alpine allowed for much sediment to be freed from the ground and pleasantly flecked upon my eyeballs. Pleasant, that.