Story Behind The Photos, Part 1: Laramie Peak

We see all sorts of amazing photographs on the internet. It's actually extremely saturated. But what you don't always see, is what happens before, during, and after getting that amazing shot. In my case, there always seems to be some crazy story leading up to a good solid shot. 

For part one, I'd like to share my Laramie Peak shot from February 4th 2017. Laramie Peak has been a staple of my past. A buddy, Tim, and myself worked a short distance from the base of this peak for 6 months, building a forest ranger station. We haven't visited for 10 years, so we decided to make a reunion. We drove from our apartments in Denver after work. We arrived that night and stopped at the local watering hole, Old Western Saloon in Glendo, WY. We felt at home. After we paid our respect to our past, we drove up the cattle path, deep into Medicine Bow National Forest, to camp for the night. 

We arrived to the front of the forest ranger station and decided to simply sleep in the car due to the high winds. It was a cold, crisp mountain night, with random snow piles spread across the plains. We fell asleep and I woke up around 4am with my belly rumbling with pain. I then realized we didn't eat dinner and I crushed a full bag of Gardettos on the way up. I cook a lot and eat really well, so my body was not used to gas station food. It was so painful I thought I was going to pass out. Tim was worried what to do as we were miles outside of any civilization. I finally opened the door and with my sleeping bag on rolled out of the drivers seat and plopped into a nice pile of cold snow. I felt pretty content with my position and passed out for the next few hours, face. in. snow.

With the sun rise waking me up, I looked up and saw this amazing purple color backlighting the peak. I slinked out of my sleeping bag, grabbed the camera, and acquired this shot. Boom, and that is the story behind the photo. Part 1.