Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board A 'Before the Mud' panorama

So far it's been a hazy spring and summer in the Owens Valley. I haven't seen much clear air to shoot in. But this shot will work to compare to an 'After' picture to see changes from the debris flow when I can get up there and see the way clear enough to shoot it. This is from the top of Mazourka Peak as soon as sunlight filled the Owens Valley on May 6, 2008.



To get the 9000x600 (450KByte) color version:
Mid Resolution Color

The high resolution version in black and white is 27,000x1800 at:
High Resolution Gallery Page
Follow the directions there to view the high resolution (5.6MByte) B&W version.

Be careful not to mistake Tyndall for Whitney from the Mazourka Peak viewpoint.

Dale B. Dalrymple
http://dbdimages.com

Oh my gracious... absolutely beautiful Dale!

As Darth said to Luke: "Impressive!"

WOW!!!! <jaw dropping...>

CaT

That is one fantastic pano!! Great job. Now, where is Whitney on this... I keep looking for the road to the Portal from Lone Pine, but not sure it it is visible.

Mt Inyo and Keynot are on the far left skyline. The Horseshoe Meadows Road switchbacks up to the skyline above the Alabama Hills. Lone Pine is the dark area at the left base of the Alabama Hills. The giant switchback on the Portal Road lies on the bearing of Lone Pine Peak (which doesn't break the skyline and for once shows up at a realistic scale) and Langley on the skyline. The top of Whitney shows at the skyline above the town of Independence. Williamson and Langley (looking like Whitney is often assumed to look) are above the Fort Independence area. Then many, many, many peaks... The north end of Wheeler Crest forms the skyline above the Tinemaha Reservoir. Glass Mountain and Casa Diablo form the skyline behind Bishop. At the far right, Black Mountain sits in the middle distance. Queen, White and Barcroft show patches of snow at the skyline. I trimmed off about a third of the width to keep the size down and the view more interesting.

I'll try to add an 'after' image for the general Independence area when I can. It will be interesting to see how long the effected area remains visible. In the early 1980's a similar event occurred on Big Pine Creek, tearing out all automotive bridges over Big Pine Creek and repositioning the creek bed above Glacier Lodge. The trailhead parking was a dirt lot between the north and south forks of the creek across a one lane bridge up the road past Glacier Lodge. The road continued higher up the north fork to the north trailhead. The creek bed down to the mouth of the canyon is still filled with the white boulders that lined the bottom of the canyon after that storm. US-395 had 18" of sand, gravel and mud over it in the town of Big Pine. It's not clear to me that any of that still shows in the Big Pine area of this picture.

Dale B. Dalrymple
http://dbdimages.com

Dale was kind enough to allow this picture to be posted in the hallway at Adventure 16 in San Diego. It is a truely amazing picture. If you're ever in San Diego, it is worth a stop by to check it out. I have gazed upon it for hours!

Thanks Dale!
Christo

Thanks Christo.

This is the image at A16 in San Diego:


This is a more conventional angle shot of Whitney from the east taken before sunlight has reached the town of Lone Pine, in the middle, at the base of the Alabama Hills. This was a February sunrise with a lower snow line than this year's May image.

To see the mid size view, follow the directions at:
Sierra East Side Gallery

Dale B. Dalrymple

Thanks Dale, for your excellent work.

As the professional photographer Dale is, he has given us another outstanding panorama of the Sierras.

For you Whitney lovers, I have taken the liberty to annotate Dale’s beautiful pano, which you can see here:



For a readable version of the peak names, click HERE.

This is the first time I have ever annotated a photograph, so I have a lot to learn. And since the photo is Dale’s, if he wants me to remove it, I will do so post haste. But I would hope he would post his own annotated pano, which he is most professional at doing.

Dale emailed me that I mislabeled New York Butte. I questioned the label myself, but wasn't sure. Well, it should be re-labeled Mount Inyo.

I went back to the drawing board and found that Mount Inyo at 18 miles away and 11,107 feet in height, effectively blocks Keynot Peak (11,101 feet at 20.6 miles) and New York Butte (10,668 feet at 25 miles). Mount Inyo, Keynot Peak and New York Butte are only about one compass-degree apart as viewed from Mazourka Peak.

If anyone else sees a mountain in the wrong place, it may not be due to tectonics, but could possibly be because a label is in the wrong place. Please let me know.

Mount Whitney at 29 miles away was a bit hard to locate, because it is lined up behind Tunnabora Peak (27 miles) and Mt. Russell (28 miles).

Have fun looking at Dale's panorama. I look forward to his next one.