Personal Work: The Continental Divide Trail
From April 18 to September 10, 2024, I hiked the entirety of the Continental Divide Trail all the way from Mexico to Canada, through New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. It was a life-changing experience, and by far the hardest thing I've ever done. Summing up nearly 5 straight months of hiking in one blog post is impossible. I walked dirt roads for hundreds of miles in New Mexico, drinking only from cow troughs. I hiked through snow up to my waist in Colorado and across dozens of icy slopes where a fall wouldn’t have ended well. I crossed the Red Desert of Wyoming into the otherworldly granite peaks of the Wind River Range. I spent days hiking up and down steep ridges in thunderstorms in Idaho. And hiked alone through miles of dense grizzly bear country in Montana, finishing my nearly 3,000-mile journey at the Canadian border in majestic Glacier National Park.
What does all this have to do with photography? Well, of course I brought a camera: the tiny Sony RX100iii, which was already close to broken after I dropped it off a cliff rock climbing. The camera somehow held up for the entire hike, and while the quality of the images from this tiny camera just can’t compete with much bigger full-frame systems, I love the photos that I captured on the trail. They were all taken in the moment and edited on my phone in my tent at night. I hope you enjoy a few of the photos below, even the slightly blurry ones and selfies; they are presented in chronological order.
While this is personal work, I’m always thrilled to photograph anything having to do with the outdoors, as I’m an avid hiker, climber, and mountaineer. If you have a project coming up in this space, let’s talk. I’d love to work with you.
Thanks for reading,
Ben
