Maligne River - Winter view

I can’t believe it was that long ago! This past December (2020), I headed up into Jasper National Park with the idea of re-visiting some of my favourite photo locations from a previous trip and seeing if I could pull off creating an ultra-high-resolution version of some of my favourite images from that trip. I remember the previous trip well. It was also in December, and it was cold, really cold. Temperatures were -30 C / -22 F during the day. And there was a ton of snow, so much so that I became trapped in Jasper for three extra days as all the highways in or out were closed. I spent many days exploring and photographing locations in complete isolation. There was just no one around. Looking back at my archives, I discovered that memorable trip was way back in 2007. I’ve been up there many times since, but that one trip really stands out.

Fast-forward to my most recent trip, and one of the spots I really wanted to get back to is a great viewpoint looking down the Maligne River from a spot between Maligne Lake and Medicine Lake. I remember the vantage point well, and the image I had previously created there always stuck with me. When I arrived this time, there was less snow on the rocks in the river, which turned out to be fantastic as each rock was instead surrounded by the most beautiful of ice formations. I set up my special equipment and got to work. It was around -15 C/ 5 F, which was considerably warmer than that visit back in 2007, but then again, back in 2007, I was not standing in one place for an hour taking almost 1,800 photos of a single scene. I went through two sets of chemical hand warmers during that hour of shooting, and even then, in the end, my fingers were so cold I had trouble handling my keys to get my vehicle started. But it was worth it. The return visit to this great view of the Maligne River was a success.

Photo Information: A very high-resolution photograph taken of the Maligne River, a medium-sized river in the Canadian Rockies. It runs through parts of Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada. The Maligne is a major tributary of the Athabasca River.

Search Keywords: snow winter river trees forest snowcovered ice water jasper national park alberta canada banff cold flowing maligne arctic