Treasury Mountain by Peter Dopchev
It got dark outside and I was still waiting for the call. Nothing out of the ordinary. Went over the backpack again – everything seemed to be there. “Shall I just go to bed early tonight?” – I asked myself while trying to go over some emails.
Then I got a text message – it was on, it was time to hustle! The guys were running a little late than the initial plan – the clock was about to reach the hour before midnight. “Not going to bed early tonight” went through my mind while I was hauling my camera and camping gear down the stairs. The truck pulled over a few minutes later and we took off in the dark.
Dan and Gabe were determined in riding Treasury mountain on their downhill bikes. No trail, no rules, nobody around. My only request was that we were up at the top before sunrise. Midday photos don't usually make the cut. Hell, 10 o'clock photos usually don't make the cut! It's all about that half an hour of light.
We reached Paradise Divide about half an hour before midnight and started looking for a spot. Too many campers!
A foam mattress and a couple of blankets was what Daniel and Gabe used for their open sky bed that night. I barely knew Gabe – gave him a ride once while he was hitchhiking from Gunnison to Crested Butte and just met Dan. I could hear the sound of the bong burning while setting an alarm in my tent.
It woke me up at 3.30 am – the night sky was still strewn with stars. It was cold! We put the camping gear away, had a breakfast bar and headed towards the summit. The trail was narrow and rocky – that deceiving, loose rock you cannot really trust. Almost like somebody dumped it on the whole side of the mountain – it didn't look natural. Gabe and Dan were a little behind – they had to carry more load than me – downhill bikes. I could hear the rocks they were kicking tumble down the mountain slope.
Finally, we reached a more opened space where we took a moment to regrouped and kept on going. Still had about an hour to go and the dawn was upon us. I was trying to keep a fast pace – we were running out of time.
“It seems like we will not be able to reach the summit before sunrise” – I said to to the guys looking east at the bright sky. We all agreed on starting from a lower point than the initially planned – it was all about those first beams of light reaching over the horizon line.
I set up at a huge plateau and the guys kept on going further up. The landscape felt like watching a documentary on Mars. I looked around – the mountains were massive – all covered in rock. And still at places you could see beautiful wildflowers somehow poking through all that mass of stone withstanding the harsh high alpine elements.
It was about quarter to 6 and the sky and the few clouds in the sky were turning pink. I heard Gabe's voice in the radio “We are taking a breather and will be ready in 5”. “Okay, sounds good”.
And of course right before he dropped, the sun, half way above the horizon, disappeared behind a cloud floating right above it. “Let's wait a couple of minutes, guys!” – I quickly transitioned my voice over the other side of the communication system. Gabe and Dan were ready to go but nature was not cooperating at that moment. Being at its mercy, sometime you have to slow down and wait. There was nothing else around that could make of a great photo but the light. And we put so much effort to get here before it did!
Finally, it came back on, I gave Gabe a signal I was ready and he went for it. Everything was still but that biker flying down the loose rock of the mountain, leaving a trace lit by the early light of the rising sun.
Dan followed in a bit, then I run down, caught up with them and kept shooting different sections on our way back. As much as we were trying to coordinate the shoots, I felt my perspective to be off most of the time – it was my first time shooting big mountain downhill biking. I had to stop a couple of times and look around. The world was waking up and there was nobody else but us. The mountains looked majestic, wrapped in the soft light of the sun. “It's totally worth it” – I said to myself and ran down the hill to catch up.
We made it back to the truck way quicker than I thought. We all took a moment before driving away – soaking in the beauty surrounding us. Gabe passed out on the back seat, while Dan and I were chatting about the biology of some of the indigenous plants in the region. It turned out to be a lovely morning!
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