Sunday, January 15, 2012

Logan Triplett


Logan Triplett, tre flip. We have been filming as much as possible for Nash Addick's video, Say Sumptin!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Journey back to Ulaanbaatar

After a few days by the lake, I headed back to the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. I packed up my tent and hiked back toward the town at the souther tip of the lake. On the way I hitched a ride from a wealthy Mongolian family who spoke English. They took me to a Ger (Yurt) and fed me. The family consisted of two sisters, one of which had lived in New York City. Her son was into American rap music, and he asked me about smoking weed. They dropped me off in Khatgal, where I walked through town in the rain until I met these people...

I paid about 20 bucks for a ride to Moron. The group was from Ulaanbaatar, and all worked at a TV station there. They kept handing me beer and making frequent piss stops. We arrived in Moron, and they helped me find a hotel, which was a lengthy process.

The next day I got on a bus bound for Ulaanbaater. The trip started off nicely enough.


Around 4:30 in the morning, I awoke in my seat. The bus had stopped on the road, and it was raining. It pulled off the road, behind a similar bus. The driver shouted something and everyone got up and exited the bus, and I followed suit, not sure what was going on. We stood in the mud and watched our bus quickly pull forward, only to immediately become stuck in the deep mud. We hopped across small streams to seek shelter in our now stuck bus. The reason we pulled off the road was due to a bridge that had recently collapsed. We found large flat chunks of asphalt to place under the bus's wheel.


At one point I counted eight vehicles in a similar situation.


While gathering rocks to place under the wheels, I heard screaming. I assumed it was people yelling to warn another vehicle about crossing the mud. I looked over just in time to see this truck flip over into the gap where the bridge once stood. I stood there in shock at what I had just seen, while people ran toward the downed vehicle. Two people were pulled from the truck, a man and woman, and brought into our bus. She was bleeding from her face, while her husband was shivering and wailing uncontrollably. I had an emergency blanked with me which I gave to them. Most people around seemed unfazed by the injured people and continued to gather pieces of road to place under the wheel. After a half hour, the two people were put on a truck and taken to a hospital. We were able to get our bus unstuck, and around 8:30 we were back on the road. It was one of the strangest and surreal morning of my life. An hour or two later we stopped at a roadside stop for some food, and an English speaking Mongolian kid told me that there had been a third person in the truck who had died, a son of the two injured people.




Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Lake Khovsgol, Mongolia

As I said in the previous post, I had no real goals for my summer in Asia besides a list of countries to visit. The only real set-in-stone goal that I had set for myself was to spend my golden birthday in Northern Mongolia on Lake Khovsgol.

Looking North from the Southwest shore

Brian and Conrad are fellow Montanans, and I travelled with them from Ulaanbaatar to the lake.

Woke up on the morning of July 23rd to sunshine, blue skies, and tons of wildflowers.


I decided to climb the mountain behind my campsite to get a view of the lake. There were no trails, so most of my time was spent bushwhacking through tall, wet grass. I got above the tree line only to hike up a steep, rocky slope. I finally reached the top and stood in awe at what was in front of me. It was a powerful moment... I felt a great sense of accomplishment from climbing the mountain, and achieving my goal of spending my golden birthday on Lake Khovsgol. In addition, the vast expanse of the lake in front of my was truly incredible. It was one of the greatest moments of my life, and I felt it necessary to take a photo.



From the top

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Mongolia

Took a month long hiatus from posting on this thing, I chalk that up to sheer laziness on my part. Anyway, here are some more photos from my time abroad this summer. I didn't have too many goals for my trip, I tried to keep my schedule pretty open. One of the few goals I had before leaving was to spend my golden birthday (23 on July 23) in Northern Mongolia on the shore of Lake Hovsgol near the Russian Border. Everything went according to plan. More photos to come.

From the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, I took a 20 hour bus ride north to the small town of Moron (pronounced moo-ren). I had no ticket until minutes before the bus left, and my seat was a wooden box in the aisle, which I shared with an elderly Mongolian woman. We drove through the night across the landscape, on dirt tracks worn by other vehicles making the same journey. Sometime during the early morning, we crossed a mountain pass, creeping along slowly through trees on a road (more like a path) that seemed unfit for a large bus such as ours. The bus hit an uneven part of the road and almost flipped. Luggage flew off the racks and people screamed. I was standing up when it happened, and was instantly wide awake from the near accident. The bus creeped forward and we were off. I am so thankful for American infrastructure. The top mirror shows how packed this bus was, and the bottom one shows our two bus drivers.

The Mongolian Steppe. This was some of the last paved road we encountered on our way North.

Beautiful sunset in Moron.


Monday, November 7, 2011

Andrew Loaiza

Choon was there, showing support


Andrew, just after the race



My friend and roommate Andrew competed in a bike race last weekend here in Bozeman. I showed up with my camera and was not quite sure what to expect. Andrew placed 3rd, and I walked away with a few photos I was happy with.


Monday, October 31, 2011

Skate Army Bowl

I have been shooting tons of photos out in Belgrade recently. Here are a few from Friday's session.