I headed out the door a couple of hours before sunrise on Christmas morning - at 8:00 a.m. to be accurate. These winter hours are kind of nice. I drove 23 miles down the Seward Highway before I even saw another car! All the pull outs and trail heads were empty - it was like I had Alaska all to myself for a couple of hours. This spot was about a mile and a half walk in snowshoes - I forget how slow the going is in powder snow, and almost didn't get here in time for first light. It was a beautiful morning. The temperature was a little below zero, and even after 2 hours of hiking and photographing, the battery on my Canon 5D II still had a strong charge. That was impressive - at those temps, I would have needed to change batteries at least once with my previous camera.

This was a single exposure with my 24-105 lens at 105. I was at f/14 for 1/5 of a second with an ISO of 400. I was in an area of deep shade, but the rising sun was just beginning to glow on the distant mountains giving them a cool pastel glow.