Professional Photographer and AMS Graduate Norio Matsumoto

Norio Matsumoto has been photographing the Alaska range for 16 years! He flies onto the Whistler glacier overlooking the Ruth Gorge and Denali and photographs the northern lights. His idea is to get a shot of a powerfully red aurora with Denali front lit by a full moon in the foreground. 

Typically Norio will build a snow cave and spend 50-days each winter camped by himself working on this photography assignment. He flew into today and won't fly out until March 20th.

Norio Matsumoto:AMS Denali West Buttress graduate, class of 2004!

Today, Norio flew into the glacier with company. A popular japanese television show "Johnetsu-Tairiku" will be featuring him a TV documentary series this March. Norio will be the focus of a 1/2 hour segment on his adventures and works.

A two person film crew from the production company Ortus Japan has been following and filming Norio since November. This trip into the range will be the capstone of their efforts.

AMS guide Larry Holmgren will join the crew this week to provide field safety services for the film crew. They had perfect weather today and the aurora forecast is moderate for tonight. The team was actually able to film some of the northern lights from Talkeetna before they left.

We wish them warms days and clear nights for this exciting project. There is only on other person in the mountain range right now- another Japanese climber, Matsitoshi, who is on his 8th attempt of a solo winter ascent of Mt. Hunter.

Jun, Norio, and Gaku before their flight.

You can see some of his work on his website: http://braingiants.com/noriomatsumoto/gallery.html

Many of his photographs are also for sale at the Talkeetna Air Taxi gallery in downtown Talkeetna.