This past winter was a busy one—a series of plane tickets, layovers, and adventures all sponsored by the word 'yes'. One of those adventures brought me to Haines, Alaska for a big mountain skiing competition. With weather windows slim, we had many days to explore the natural beauty of the area, and a solid excuse to immerse ourselves in the wilds of that crazy place.

In addition to being surrounded by mountains, luminescent fjords, and the largest bald eagle preserve in the country (think as many bald eagles as seagulls at a beach), we got to hop in a plane with local flyboy Drake—a former race car driver and 20-year pilot in the area—and get up above these geologic giants. Drake is the same pilot that helped fly Jeremy Jones into his many missions in the Chugach Range, so that was a pretty cool little bonus.

I'm assuming part of what made Drake such a great pilot was his open communication with the ground, but I have to say it's a bit unnerving flying in a tiny Cub as the wind treats you like its play thing and having your pilot say, "Whoa, this is a lot sportier than I thought, we probably shouldn't be in here." Regardless, in between clenching the seat in front of me, I managed to get a few decent photos of an area that really couldn't yield a bad photograph.

Ok, enough talky, more showy. I met a lot of great people up in Alaska, competitors and locals alike, but it was the landscapes that really blew me away. Here is a little gallery about what we were working with in Haines, including an opening photo of the view from our motel at sunrise. Hope the skip from black and white to color isn't too jarring, there are just some things that belong in color.