Cody Duncan Photography: Travel, Landscape, Climbing and Life

Go see this film.

Its playing twice during the Santa Barbara International Film fest: Sunday the 27th at 4:30 and Tuesday the 29th at 4:30. Both times at the Arlington.

It’s about the brothers Alexander and Thomas Huber and their speed record attempt of the Nose on El Capitan. I was lucky to be at the premier last spring in Germany, but will try and go again tomorrow (as it will hopefully have been subtitled, originally in German). Even if your not especially into climbing, I think it would still be a nice film to see as it has some stunning scenery of the Valley, as well as Patagonia and Germany. This film is about their attempts a couple years ago, not last years. In October last year, while my girlfriend and I were passing through the valley we spoke briefly with Alex about the progress on their latest attempt. A couple weeks later, on Oct. 8th, they set the record at 2:45.45. That is 2,900 vertical feet of granite. Most normal people take around 4-5 days…

Standing on a chair in my front yard. USS Ronald Regan at sunrise, a few days back. I’ll try and get on the roof next time.

It is a pretty rare event that we get some snow in the mountains here. My brother and I made plans to head up to the hills after he got off work this evening. We made it about half way up Gibralter before we were turned around by the police. Said we would get stuck. Only in Santa Barbara…

Tooth. Made a visit to the dentist yesterday, walked away with this…

My good old 1983 Toyota Master Ace Surf Super Touring Edition. No power steering, AM radio, 1.8 Liter engine and lots of rust. But it had a comfy bed, a couple stoves, and kept me dry and warm for 7 months while in New Zealand. It took me to some of the most beautiful places I will ever see in my life and survived some gnarly roads. Here it is with Mt. Cook in the background, sometime just after dawn… Everyone should travel like this at some point in their life. The freedom to just find some amazing place, spend a night or two, then move on to some other amazing place; no words can describe.

I’ve been working on my long overdue new website for the past week or so. In 3 weeks I’m going back to Germany, then returning to California at the beginning of March, only to spend a couple weeks in San Felipe, Mexico for the Baja 250, then flying back to Germany at the end of March.

By last Monday the news was basically forecasting the end of the world in California from the “massive” storm headed our way. All reports were warning of 8-10″ of rain in the lowlands and 6-10 feet of snow in the mountains. When my buddy Tim said he and a friend were making a trip to Mammoth, I couldn’t help but ask to come along. If there was too much snow and we couldn’t make it I could at least take some pics, and if we got there it would hopefully be some awesome conditions.

Friday night we drove up to Bishop, arriving by midnight after hours of heavy rain and high winds, making the journey a bit longer than usual. By 5:30am we were on the road north to Mammoth. When the lifts opened at 8:30 we were near the front of the small line and cutting fresh lines through powder a few minutes later. Running through the trees, I had an encounter with one which did some damage to my leg and took me out of action in the early afternoon, unsure of what I could do on Sunday. Sat night we drove through blizzard conditions which required a police escort up the 395 to June Lake. Waking up on Sunday morning and looking out the window of our cabin, I saw beautiful blue skies and snow covered peaks in every direction. When we arrived at June mountain for a day on the slopes, I had to suck up the pain in my leg, and get out there, it was just too good! So we spent all Sunday running black and double black diamonds in awesome conditions, and there was hardly even anyone out on the slopes and never a line for the lifts! I think it will be hard to ever beat a day like Sunday. I took a few pics, but preferred to spend my time enjoying the conditions.

Saturday night at June Lake

Sunday Morning at June Lake

Pano from the top of the first lift at June mountain; June lake in foreground, Mono lake in background (click to see larger)

Tim on some steep slopes

Seth cutting through some fresh stuff

Too much fun!