2008 Banff Mountain Photography Competition
Best Photo — Mountain Culture
Eric Welscher-Bilodeau: Mount Sedgewick Summit Log
“With five days of scree slides and rippled mountain backs behind us, we traversed the west slope of Mt. Sedgewick under blinding hot sunlight. Sleep seized us at the saddle, so we rested until the cool breeze of the afternoon could accompany our final ascent. My partner pulled the metal cylinder from deep in the rocks of the stony apex and zealously flipped through the hundreds of names who had already been at this spot. With blue granite at our feet and a dimming cobalt sky above that stretched from Mt. Baker to Mt. Waddington, we felt intensely isolated yet even more so endogenous to the mountain. For short moments we would chatter excitedly, our chests filled with incomprehensible euphoria, but for the longest time we sat — somewhat reclined to one side — feeling the wind blow on our hair and how the breeze grew stronger as the evening came.”
Eric Welscher-Bilodeau is an aspiring professional photographer based in the Pacific Northwest. Through his lens, Eric tries to encapsulate the tensions and goodness unique to humanity and the power and spirituality found in adventure. Currently he lives with his partner on their sloop, the Kya-Lu, on the Sunshine Coast.