This particular morning in Rocky Mountain National Park was brutal to put it nicely. A strong Pacific storm was moving into the Colorado mountains and over the Park from the west. Of course as is the case when these storms move in, relentless high winds grate the peaks of Rocky Mountain National Park. Estes Park was clocking winds of 45 mph, but the gusts on 14,255 ft Longs Peak this morning were over 80 mph. I’d hate to even imagine being on that high rock this particular morning. The sunrise was beautiful with the soft magenta light bathing the peaks as waves of blowing snow moved across the range.
From a pull out on Trail Ridge Road, I was able to position my vehicle in a manner that acted as a slight break from the wind. I setup my tripod and did all I could to keep my camera in place and steady. I tried to shoot when the wind would subside, but the maddening thing about the wind in Colorado is just when you think a break is coming, the wind blow’s even harder as if to taunt you. Many of my images from this morning show motion blur and wont be useable. Luckily for me, I have a few frames where I managed to escape the winds wrath and come away with a sharp, in focus image of this spectacular, but windy morning.
Nice image. Very hard to get usable images in those conditions especially with very long lenses such as this.
Jao,
Yeah the wind was really blowing this morning. It was one of those mornings where you stop the car and it keeps rocking back and forth when your parked. Kind of makes you want to stay in the car. I figured what the heck, I’d give it a go and see if I could get lucky enough to capture a few sharp frames because the colors were looking great over Longs. Lot’s of my frames show motion blur, but I came away with some keepers. In the end it was certainly worth making the attempt and crossing my fingers.
Great shot. You can almost feel the wind. The name ‘Keyboard of the Winds’ over the Diamond describes it best.