Baldy Mountain on a very windy day, Snowmass, Colorado by Jason Buchheim

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50 with ...

A very very windy day on top of Baldy Mountain, at 13,300 feet. My friend Ed and I hiked up here so he could fly down on his speed kite, but it was far too windy, blowing at 50mph (it was calm when we left a couple hours before, and from 6000 feet lower...) I had to wedge the tripod into the peak rock pile to keep the gigapan unit from blowing away, then we went and hid from the wind under the snowbank. Taking the glove off momentarily to connect the Gigapan power and the thumb screw on the camera was painful. You cant see the aspect we skied down, it is from the top of the large mound behind us. It was steep and solid, a wonderful backcountry day, although Ed did no flying. The Gigapan unit caught lift at the end of the serious, causing the camera to point to the sky and missing the final four columns. The stitcher still decided to join them but four columns are indeed missing.