Warren Nederpelt is a jeweller and self-taught photographer/artists who resides in Perth W.A. Its fair to say Nederpelt has a problem sitting still and as a result of this has seen and experienced many different cultures and environments, whether that be urban or out in the pristine nature he often finds himself in. Warren has been kind enough to share some of his incredible imagery from his recent adventure to Canada in the winter months.

ATHABASCA GLACIER: We had pulled up into yet again another empty carpark just off the Icefields Parkway. As we were gearing up with layers of clothing and preparing ourselves for the brutal cold that awaited us outside, another car rolled into the carpark, the couple from NYC Chris and Lyndsey had intentions of hiking up the glacier and were enquiring with us if we were heading up, we confirmed yes and invited them to join us. After some small talk in the carpark, we headed out and up. Once we had reached the base of the glacier there were some brief discussions about the safest way to go about it. I don’t consider myself an expert in mountaineering. Nevertheless, I had a safe route in mind minimise any exposure to possible danger and expressed this to the NYC couple. To my surprise, Chris decided to just take off straight up the middle of the snow-filled glacier. This was not a path I or the rest of us wanted to follow. We pushed on up our route with one eye on Chris. A crazy move by Chris but a great photo opportunity for me, so I took it.

BANFF: A place that sits pretty high on a lot of people’s places to visit, and for good reason with views like this, less than 2 minutes out of the busy town. Mount Rundle is one of many impressive chunks of rock that tower over Banff township and one that, weather permitting, I hope to scramble up one day. This region really is as good as it gets year round for tourists, adventure seekers and photographers alike. I was already thinking about my return before I had even left.

THE FORTRESS: It felt like everything had been turned to black and white as we came out of the forested trail and approached the alpine. We had entered this alpine area at Chesters lake via the trailhead on Spray Lakes Road in Canmore, Alberta, Canada. The hike in was relatively easy with most of the elevation gained towards the beginning of the hike before the trail levelled out. The fillets of rock you are looking at are part of a mountain named The Fortress and Stand at around 2800 metres above sea level. Usually, I am positioned at the lower end of that scale somewhere next to the Indian Ocean on the West Coast of Australia, so the change of scenery in areas like this always excites me. I could seriously hang out in a place like this all day.

EMERALD LAKE: This was a location that I had seen an abundance of images of and it was on my partner Vanessa’s bucket list to visit while in the region. Finding a new angle on the iconic location was near impossible so I decided to hit it up for a night shot. The afternoon we left Banff to get to this location there was some seriously below average driving conditions, visibility was so poor and I could only see approximately 100 metres of icy, snow-packed road in front of me. Normally that’s fine but for anyone that has travelled in this region you would know, traffic including large trucks have no desire to sit on anything less than 120kmh so you really have to keep the pace and stay alert. We arrived at the emerald lake before dark and had some time to check the place out before the light faded away completely. For those interested, I used a flash pointed upwards to highlight the falling snow and create what could become my next Christmas card. 

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