Her obsession with nature, and love of the cold has taken her to the far reaches of Australia, New Zealand, and most recently to the Rocky Mountains of Canada where she spent last Christmas with her family. ‘I managed to convince them that I would not survive if we didn’t go to the Rocky Mountains for Christmas, so our little team of explorers consisting of myself, four sisters, two of their boyfriends and one father, set off without a glance backwards.

The intrepid bunch packed their bags and bodies into one car, and spent two days driving from California to the heart of the Rockies – a town called Golden in British Columbia.

It was nighttime when they finally arrived, and it wasn’t till the morning that they got a clear idea of the landscape in which they were to spend the next week. ‘It was the most beautiful winter wonderland I have ever seen’, Brooke says. ‘The sun was starting to rise over the mountains outside our doorstep and the golden light was blanketed over the peeks.’

Brooke, true to her obsession, grabbed her camera and ran outside in her pyjamas and hiking boots.

The freezing cold air of approximately minus 18 degrees Celsius hit me like a sack of bricks… When my hands went numb and I couldn’t press the camera shutter any longer, I realised I was only human and retreated inside to dress more appropriately. Nature always wins.

The next seven days were filled with adventure. The Holm clan, hiked, feasted, had an ugly sweater competition, hurled snowballs, drank cinnamon whiskey and roasted marshmallows on a campfire, and of course, Brook took a whole lot of photos. ‘I came home to Melbourne from the trip with so many incredible photographs and memories’, Brooke says. ‘I sleep under a large-scale print of a snowy forest in Golden. It’s a gentle reminder firstly of how fortunate I was to be there, and secondly that there is nothing stopping me from going back.’

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Check out some of Brooke’s work we’ve previously featured on The Planthunter here, and here.