In May, 2017, two skiers, bolstered with the confidence of their professional mountain guiding backgrounds, and nearly 5 years of planning, executed the first continuous ski traverse from Snoqualmie Pass, Washington to the Canadian Border. Traveling as close to the crest of the range as possible for the duration of the trip, the pair spent 34 days on snow and covered over 275 miles of the roughest and most remote mountain terrain in the lower 48 without once deviating to the comforts of civilization.

I was fortunate to be invited to join this journey, already in progress, for week-long trek in the remote Glacier Peak Wilderness before departing home while the intrepid explorers pushed north to Canada. My work from this trip would eventually help land this story on the front page of the Seattle Times newspaper, and would serve as a bedrock in my photographic study of snow textures, glaciers and subalpine trees.

There are many remote segments of this journey which are seldom visited, and are almost never visited in winter. In the best case scenario, such areas require 2-3 days of travel on foot from the nearest roads. No other access is possible. The barriers to entry include defunct, or non-existent trails through dense temperate rainforest, middle elevation 'vertical forests' where former glaciers carved deep u-shaped valleys of immense depths, and towering summits of unforgiving snow, ice and rock.

Having completed an immense and deeply committing ski descent of the peak pictured in the background, it was a welcome sight to find the gentle terraces surrounding White Rock Lakes. As we relaxed on this rare bit of flat topography, I was deeply enchanted with the proud form of a subalpine fir tree standing at attention in the shadow of Elephant Head. Softer and more organic than the surrounding peaks, but no less at home in this environment, I couldn't help but feel some kinship for this brave sentinel of the living.

Explore the full Snow Studies series here.