Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board The 97 switchbacks at night - check them out :)

The 97 Switchbacks at Night by Kurt Lawson, on Flickr

In August 2010 I climbed Mount Whitney. The exhausting zigzag of the infamous 97 switchbacks on the way up got me thinking: What if this part of the trail was photographed as someone carried a lantern on this trail at night?

On August 21st, 2011 after 9 months of planning and testing films and exposures and with some great luck I achieved this idea on a single frame of Fuji Provia 100 film. The exposure time here was 4.5 hours with a Mamiya 7II camera. The color is what the Provia film rendered in the starlight and moonlight.

Thank you to my friends who helped carry gear and the lantern!

When I was hiking up with my gear for what ended up being one night, people I passed on the trail thought maybe I was going to be hiking the JMT given how packed my backpack was, hehe.

-K

That is a GREAT picture Kurt!!!

That is an AMAZING photo!! Thanks so much for sharing!

Wow, wonderful idea and superb photography! Thanks for sharing!!

Not only a great shot but great thinking - that's one cool shot, thanks for sharing that.

Hi Kurt,
It is an excellent photo.
I am glad that there is someone who hike up Mt. Whitney beside hiking up to the summit. I used to use Leica IIIF,Kodak Retina,and Nikon FM2 till a few years ago. My best shot of 97 switch back was taken with Leica IIIF with Nikkor F3.5.

I envy your patience for your project.
If you need a guy to carry gears and supplies next time,please let me know.

Looking forward to your next photo project.

Frame it...That goes on the wall..

Thanks for posting it..

mark

You're a genius! You have to produce this picture and sell it! What an absolutely great idea!!! I'm impressed!

Awesome idea, turns out fantastic. Congrats and thanks for sharing.

So now the big question... Is there 97 or 99 of them?

One of the most amazing pictures I've seen on this site!!!

Great idea and great execution! Just goes to show that sometimes old technology (film) will out-do what can be done (so far) with new technology (digital).

I want a print on my wall...you really should sell them!

Thanks for the comments everyone! Later today I hope to have a writeup on how it all came to be online. I'm just editing it now.

I can and will be selling prints soon. Details will be on my photo blog probably.

It was really quite an adventure. I had a lot of help from some very generous friends. Also we had really great luck with the weather. Considering just a few weeks before there was a crazy storm, I was very happy to have clear skies.

-K

In the photo, I usually count at least 90. Some are so jammed together that it's hard to tell. The best estimate I've seen is that there are 97, as I saw in this thread: http://bit.ly/tcjzDU

-K

Fantastic idea, color, & amazing design..whether by design or not!! What a great poster this would make! I sure hope to find it available for purchase at the Portal Store, the Hostel, or the Visitor Center. I can't imagine anyone who's climbed those switchbacks would not want to have this. The overall effect of color & star movement is just gorgeous! This should also be a "Photo of the Day" winner @ Earth Shots.org. Send it in!

You can now read about how it came to be here: http://blog.kurtlawson.com/?p=952

Cheers!
-K

The map that Wayne Pyle prepared a few years back using GPS coordinates shows 97. That's the best evidence I've seen so far. It's here on the board somewhere.

I made it a point to count them a few months ago when doing the MT, just for the helluvit, and I came up with 97 as well.

Kurt Lawson took an amazing night photograph of the 97 switchbacks. I love his art work!


As old-timers on this forum know, some years ago I created a detailed map of the 97 switchbacks with a scale of 1-inch to 300 feet. I numbered all the switchbacks for all to see.


Using that map, I numbered the switchbacks in Kurt Lawson’s photograph, for inquiring minds:




Here is a copy of my map:





I think Kurt Lawson’s photograph is an amazing accomplishment, and something that has never been posted on this forum before.

And yes, there are indeed 97 switchbacks, and Kurt was correct in his counting 90 in his photograph.

Thanks the link. Great read. With all the effort you put in the shot you deserve even more congratulations.

Are you saying I missed 7 of them? Doh! I guess I'll have to throw it all away and do it again next year

Your photograph is most beautiful and something that has never been done on this forum. You did an amazing work.

Switchbacks 1 to 7 are just left of the photo. Did your camera capture them, or is what the photograph shows the full measure? You show quite a field of view, but from where your camera was placed, you would need at least a 47-degree field of view to capture all 97. I think if you turned your camera two degrees to the left you would have had the lower seven. Your photograph is great as is, in my opinion.

In my years on this Website, I've only seen one person photographically capture all 97 switchbacks where viewers could plainly see them in a day-time photo. That person was none other than Bob Rockwell, and he stitched together two photos.

You certainly have the top 90, which I think most here are more than delighted with. What you've done has never been done before on Mt. Whitney.