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Colin Peacock

@colinmpeacock

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Follow along for all things mountains, nature, and adventure 🏔️⛷️📸
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Last night was probably the most emotional I’ve felt in nature in as long as I can remember. When we got to the trailhead, I got out of the car and looked up at the sky and started jumping up and down. The northern lights have been a top bucket list item for years now, and in Utah they are an extremely rare event. This wasn’t really planned out, me and Ian only decided we were going to go for this late last night and last minute drove up into the mountains. The timing ended up being perfect, and we got to spend several hours doing a little ski mountaineering, doing photography, and just gazing up at the lights taken in Mount Timpanogos by @colinmpeacock

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2 years ago

I guess I’ve graduated! Now onto doing more snowpack research with lasers and drones and stuff for a masters program in environmental science here at BYU! taken in Brigham Young University by @colinmpeacock

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5 months ago

For fun, I went back and recreated some photos I took 3 years ago on the same week in April. One is from the all-time record high snow year, and one is from this year, which is the all-time record low.

I spent much of the last month working on a research project I presented at BYU’s Fulton Research Poster Conference trying to figure out how much warming is contributing to our dwindling snowpack. In short, lower and mid elevations are losing a disproportionately large number of snow-covered days compared to higher elevations, and that’s a serious problem when ~95% of our water supply comes from snowpack, not rain. It’s also bad news for snow lovers like me and low-elevation resorts like Sundance. To put this into perspective this water year was relatively normal precipitation-wise, it just all fell as rain instead of snow in most places.

Luckily, this winter was still exceptionally bad compared to what’s projected to be normal over the next several decades. But I’m hoping it isn’t a preview of what winters in Utah will look like in a rapid climate change scenario.

Photos on the left were taken April 8, 2026
Photos on the right were taken April 7, 2023

#ksl #utah #climatechangeisreal #skiing #snowbrains
@ksl_matt taken in Aspen Grove, Utah by @colinmpeacock

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6 months ago

Huge shoutout to the talented @ian_of_washington for grabbing these photos of me yesterday.

Felt really good to get back on the skis after a school semester that was way too busy and find some of what little snow is left with some great people. by @colinmpeacock

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6 months ago

This is from Saturday. When I got back to the valley the first thing I saw on my phone was Alex Pretti getting shot multiple times by ICE. I was nearly in tears the whole way home watching the cotton candy sunset on the mountain peaks, thinking about how I could be experiencing such a beautiful, seemingly loving side of the world while that was simultaneously going on in the same country. I don’t know at all what the solutions are but I long for a system that is more compassionate and loving, just like this beautiful world and the God who I believe created it is.

I may not be the best skier in the world, but I sure do love getting in the backcountry and doing this dance with the mountains. Few things make me feel quite so connected with the world and the fact that I’m alive and a part of it. Even better we were surprised to find this 2+ week old snow skiing so well!! Credit to @ian_of_washington for his masterful work of the camera drone. #weneedsnownotice taken in Wasatch Mountains by @colinmpeacock

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9 months ago

Fun MLK day adventure with @x.ionsnow up Timpanogos South Summit. We decided to do this the day before—turns out you can kinda just go to the mountains if you really want to

#mountaineering #timpanogos #penguin #backcountryskiing #lifeelevated by @colinmpeacock

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9 months ago

Decided to go River guide on the Salmon with some incredible people. I have 0 regrets. Sleeping outside on the ground for weeks at time and being on the river every day changed something inside of me. taken in Salmon River, Idaho by @colinmpeacock

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a year ago

Buckley Draw Fire - Sunday, August 17

Watching this fire yesterday was mesmerizing, I took these pictures from the roof of my house in Provo.

#provofire #wildfire #forestfire #utah #lifeelevated #mountains taken in Provo, Utah by @colinmpeacock

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a year ago

Savoring summer, but thinking about snow again taken in Wasatch Mountains by @colinmpeacock

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a year ago

Not even lying, like 10 minutes before this I watched a burning tree fall into the river like 60 feet in front of me. While it’s kinda a normal thing for this canyon, this feels like one of the cooler and crazier things I’ve seen, and being the forest ecology nerd I am I was just in absolute awe the entire time. Fires like this are also really cool because ground fires like this are really healthy for ponderosa pine forests like this, and it’s just so mesmerizing and humbling to watch a forest like this do its thing. I love river guiding!

#riverguide #wildfire #idaho #forestfire #forests #natureeducation #nature #whitewater #rafting #whitewaterrafting #mountains #rivers #earth #firefighting taken in Main Fork Salmon River by @colinmpeacock

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a year ago

On May 23-24, I was able to achieve a long time goal by reaching the summit of Mt. Tahoma/Rainier in Washington (last years expedition ended just 400 vertical feet short of the summit). The 24th was an especially long day starting at 1:30 am at camp Muir, reaching the summit at around 11am, and ending at around 4pm at the car. The skiing was very interesting hahaha and it was more a game of skirting around crevasses than anything else, but we were able to ski down almost all 9,000 vertical feet from the summit at 14,411 feet to our car at Paradise Ranger Station at 5,400 feet!! All in all, I felt a lot more prepared for this attempt, and felt pretty good throughout the whole thing somehow (more snacks and water go a long way I guess haha). It was quite the experience reaching the summit, taking it all in, being able to see halfway down Oregon, and all the way to the Canadian border, with crazy wind (50+mph?) and temperatures far below freezing, along with all the excitement to be able to ski down. I have to say I’m feeling pretty excited about having done this. I’m especially grateful for my amazing friends who I could not have done this without. My rope team consisted of @ian_of_washington @sam_ames_ ,and @jacksona76 @mason_ralls and @bradyrippa accompanied us up and shared our permit. taken in Mt. Rainier National Park by @colinmpeacock

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a year ago

Enjoy these clips of the hills turning green! I had some fun messing around with a drone this week with @reesepenrod when the weather cleared between rainstorms. Hopefully we keep getting more precipitation so that we get a good wildflower season and so the lakes can fill up (especially the salt lake).

#utah #droneshots #visitutah #lifeelevated #mountains #hiking #usa #spring #rockymountains #wasatch #adventure #hikemore taken in Provo, Utah by @colinmpeacock

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a year ago