A group of very attractive members of the Club bid farewell to the Old Year by attending the performance - "Salut to Vienna" - in the prestigious Winspear Centre.
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| From the left: Urmila, Tereska, Lucyna. Janusz, Grażyna N., Grażyna R., Elżbieta Michał, Gosia, Basia, Bożena, Andrzej, Beata, Dragan, Holly, Dusia and Piotr. Missing (as usual taking the photo): Andy (and also Sławek; perhaps I missed a few others. |
I could say my heart was “swayed” by this photo that seems
to have this particular message I am looking for. Though small, we humans, just
through the sheer power of our legs, can “get above the clouds.” Drawn by the
beauty of the mountains, we reach great heights, which is a testimony to our
fighting spirit, tenacity, sense of adventure and the power to transcend the
limitations of our material life. I see it all in this very allegoric picture
and that is why I give it first place. (Piotr)
A – „Ludzie i góry” – Andrew Kubicki Award – “People and the mountains”
1st Place - Grace Borun - "Connection"
Our colleague, Bogdan Kulik, has just returned from the Himalayas. He is recovering from the combined effect of Himalayan dust and 15 hours of recycling air on the flight from Doha to Los Angeles. While we hope he'll provide us with a more extensive coverage of this adventure, Bogdan sent, in the meantime, a link to a few photographs from this trip.
They can be found here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/6wc7xZBQekPPZT4n8
(PR)
On 7 October, taking advantage of fantastic weather, a group of our club members hiked Grass Pass/Bull Creek Hills in Kananaskis. It is 6.6 km return, +427 m, to Grass Pass. Add another 4 km, +265 m to Bull Creek Hills. The highest point is 2134 m.
It was still chilly in the morning, so we warmed up chanting "Dusia, Dusia!" before she joined us for the group photo. Standing from the left are: Andy, Barbara, (her dog, Max), Piotr, Maya, Mike, Basia, Roman, Dusia, Adam, Joasia and Honorata.
Długoletni członek naszego Klubu - Staszek Smuga - pisarz, komentator polityczny, felietonista, podróżnik i ogólnie "niespokojna dusza," uprzejmie zgodził się na wykorzystanie przez nas jego tekstu pt. "Róża Wiatrów," umieszczonego na Facebooku. Oto on:
With all this recent hype about Kilimanjaro I discovered that two other members of our club summitted this mountain in 2015. These are the most excellent Krzysztof and Basia Flis! This brings the number of our club members who stood on Mt. Kilimanjaro to 8. (All their pictures are here) How many outdoor clubs can match this number?
Mt. Burke, 2542 m, is a fine summit at the very south part of Kananaskis Park, with a very characteristic old Cameron Lookout on the top. It is perhaps because of its remoteness that the peak is not visited more often. It took us 1:15 hr from Kananaskis Wilderness Hostel to reach the trailhead, the last 16 km being on a gravel road. Access to Cataract Creek campground was closed, which added 2 km to our trip. Most of our GPSs showed around 14 km for forth and back trip, with around 890 m of altitude gain.
These lucky people took advantage of a wonderful day and a truly enjoyable trail: back row: Piotr, Roman, Adam and Monika. Front row: Andrzej, Beata, Asia, Honorata, Maya and Ania. Missing (taking picture as usual): Andy.
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With great pleasure I announce that our colleagues, Gosia Stróżyk, Michał Trzecieski i Basia Walter ...
... topped the highest mountain of Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro, 5895 meters, on Saturday, 9 September 2023. Thus, the brave trio joined the elite group of our club members who achieved this in the past.
During my recent trip to BC I had a chance to hand over a couple of awards from the 2022 Photo-Competition. First, the award for being so pretty in the picture "Beauty So Perfectly Composed" was passed to:
Impressions from Vision Quest Ridge near Abraham Lake, Clearwater, Alberta, Canada.
For Canada Day long weekend 2023 we decided to go for our annual hiking trip to Grande Cache area in Alberta.
Most people arrived Friday afternoon. The weather looked to be so cloudy, rainy , muddy, wet and moist for a while, that the best mode of transportation appeared to be the long, abandoned canoe that we found in the visitors park. Everybody fit nicely inside the canoe, including Ada, Grace, Bo, Jacek, Marian, Boris, Ela, and with Dragan and Keith at the helm. Andy (not shown) took the photo.
Fourteen people ventured to try the new region of Sheep River in Kananaskis, south-west of Calgary, and summitted the north peak of Volcano Ridge (2121 m). The happy summiteers were (from the left): Ana, Mike, Julian, Tomek, Beata, Anna, Basia, Gosia and Monika. Missing (taking picture): Andrzej. Missing (Relaxed Group): Bożenna, Ela, Holly and Piotr.
2023-05-06
Our traditional Awards Ceremony this time took place in Emily Murphy Park. The weather was excellent, and so were the humors of the participants.
It was a bluebird day, and it turned out we called it a summer day. It was already 15 C in the morning. I thought the snow would turn into mush, and I knew we had already made a rookie mistake: we were too late. We should have started our climb at 6 AM and be back by noon or the latest, at 1 PM. We would have evaded high temperatures, hot sun, and wet and slushy snow. I even didn't think about avalanches, as I knew we would choose mellow slopes.
I also knew we would have fun. And we wouldn't need to worry about ticks and bears. It would be too much snow for both species :).
We departed for Maligne Lake at 9 AM and reached the Bald Hills trailhead at 10:25 AM. The drive was stunning. No clouds, blue skies, white peaks, and no cars made everything magical. I took quite a few photos and videos. Not recording it would be shameful; such beauty can only lift our spirits. Also, it was interesting to compare nature; 20 years ago, ten years ago, or at any given time, during which I was diligent in capturing the beauty.
Blue Mountains, Australia
video link:
https://youtube.com/shorts/7vfNvbjmp7I
"The Royal Treatment:
Exploring Sydney's Wild Side in Royal National Park"
video link :
https://youtube.com/shorts/Qylrx7KRE7Y
More videos from Australia on AR-point99 channel:
2023-04-02
The first place in the Category A - Barbara and Witold Krzymień Award - "People and the mountains" - and the winner of the Grand Prix for the Best Photo of 2022 - is this picture entitled "Determination" by Boris Bokov. This photo features Gosia Stróżyk and Barbara Walter scaling Big Bend in Banff National Park. Brave girls! Congratulations to the author for catching this epic effort!
To see the winners of other categories, click for more.
It was only in 2018 that we realized a need for a separate category, in which people could share their best photos of the mountain flora and fauna. We all like to photograph, what Barbara Walter calls - "the monuments of nature." Many of these photos are quite stunning. Here are the winner of:
Some of the comments were:
I think the title captures well what is happening in this photo. Marmots are most often photographed close to their holes, or against the background of rocks. To catch a marmot, nicely placed in the center of the photo, with all these magnificent mountains in the background, is a rare treat! (Piotr) Lovely picture, but more in the spirit of “Macro-“ than “Micro-world.” (Piotr) „Moje góry; światynia dumania .... i spokoju”(Bozena) For the second place I will vote for M8 (This is all mine), since I am always partial to the photos displaying animals. We all have to appreciate that photos showing animals are not always easy to shoot. (Michał) Fajne ujęcie świstaka wydawało, by się podziwiającego piękno krainy, w której mieszka. Jak tu nie wierzyć ze zwierzaki tez maja swoje nastroje i są wrażliwe na piękno...(Jacek)
