The Onsight Chronicles

Busy times. I’m back from a fast but good trip to the Grampians and Arapiles. Gee, it was good to get back to visit some of God’s own stone, it has been way too long between visits down there even if I didn’t get time for much climbing. I took some photos of James Kassay oh so close to sending Mana (V13) and Ethan Pringle very nearly making a one day ascent of Punks in the Gym (32) and also falling off the last hard move of Ben Cossey’s Taipan Wall masterpiece The Groove Train (33/34). Ethan sent The Groove Train a few days later for the second ascent. About the route, he said to me that he thought it was difficulty wise, at the very least, at the hard end of the grade (Ben graded it 33). But what’s more, he said The Groove Train was the best really hard route he’d ever been on. Given Ethans track record that’s a double thumbs up for Oz climbing right there.

Some other news from the Grampians already reported around the place is Ethan’s very quick job of nailing the third ascent of the ultra-long boulder problem The Wheel of Life (V16). Ethan proposed a route grade of 9a for the problem, saying to me that he found it easier to think of it that way having found several good rests. Here are some of my shots of Ethan on the Wheel, it’s a very cool problem which starts way back at the left side of the window of light at the back of the cave. These are all the photos I’ve had time to edit so far as this week I’m working on filming a TV commercial at Point Perpendicular; an interesting job with a crew of thirty(!). More soon.

Just catching up on a few things. Recently I learnt one of my photos won “Best Adventure Photograph” at the 2009 Outer Edge and Wild Adventure Awards. There’s more info about these new awards here.

Very cool indeed!

It’s a shot that will be familiar to many (it is of Monique Forestier on Debris at Pierces Pass in the Blue Mountains). I took it whilst shooting on the Nikon D3s videos last year. This is the spread from Outer Edge Magazine.

Late last year our Blue Mountains Climbing 2007 Edition guidebook completely sold out, so we started working on a bit of an update. Along the way the “bit of an update” turned into a major production and we have ended up with a fully revised, redesigned, updated and expanded edition. It was a bit like popping out for an afternoons sport cragging then somewhere along the line deciding to head off for “a spot” of mountaineering instead. And yeah, it was a little bit epic at times. Not quite “Touching the Void” epic, but epic nevertheless – for a guidebook. But after a long hard slog, dodging some crevasses and a couple of avalanches, and weathering out some mightily ferocious storms, we made it to the summit, got the tick, and even made it down again! And I’m stoked. This is not just an update and expansion but, I’m sure, in many important ways, a vast improvement on the previous edition(s).

The Blue Mountains is of course one of Australia’s biggest, best and most popular climbing areas. I get the feeling that many of the Blue Mountains climbing community wanted to see a guide book that reflected the brilliance and significance of the climbing around here. I’ll be happy if people feel that this book goes some way towards achieving that.

A phenomenal amount of work went into this production. The support from the climbing community has been overwhelmingly fantastic. It simply wouldn’t have been possible to produce a book like this without the incredible support and help from many people. I have not put my name on this book; in many ways I don’t feel it is “my” book. It has most definitely been an awesome collaborative effort. Above all else, for their help with this and the previous edition, I’d like to especially thank Niall Doherty, Mike Law, Glenn Short and John Smoothy for extraordinary contributions including authoring extensive sections and helping in numerous ways. I’d also like to say a special thank you to Bruce Cameron, Lee Cossey, Adam Darragh, Neil Monteith and Warwick Williams for their invaluable contributions and generosity. Please see the book acknowledgements page for a full list of contributors.

So I’m happy to present Blue Mountains Climbing 2010 Edition:

• Details 2700 routes (330 more than previous edition).
• Covers 45 different climbing areas (7 more than previous edition).
• 192 cliff-photo topos.
• 51 access maps.
• 86 action photos.
• Dedicated history chapter.
• 336 pages, A5, full colour.

It’s big, it’s beautiful, it’s better and it’s up to date!

You can get it now from most outdoor shops and climbing gyms in Sydney and the Blue Mountains or just order it now from our online shop here.

Check out the new design:

Enjoy! And happy climbing!

TEN QUESTIONS

Here’s a recent interview with Discovery Channel Magazine. I’ve posted the whole article here as well as given it a more permanent home in the articles section here. This is a fairly general interview about my background and thoughts on photography. Lately I’ve also been getting lots of questions about the specific techniques and equipment I use for my climbing photography. I’ve been compiling those questions and hope to get time to start answering some of them here on my blog soon. In the meantime, as always, please let me know you thoughts in the comments below.

When did you first start taking photos and why?

When I was about 15 I simply just developed a fascination with the medium of photography. I really enjoyed experimenting, creating images and playing around with the photographic process. Soon after I started photography I began processing my own films and turned the bathroom into a part-time darkroom. This gave me the opportunity to experiment and become absorbed in the process. Of course these days the process is very different.

But as well as a fascination with the medium, I thought photographers had great jobs — involving travelling the world, seeing remarkable things and working with interesting people. Looking back I guess I sort of got that last bit right, just not in the way I expected!

At school photography was the only career that really interested me. I tried to pursue it as a career and spent two years working in photography at a university but ended up spending most of my time working in the darkroom printing uninspiring images for scientific reports. It was leading nowhere and totally killed my photography dreams so I quit, went travelling and climbing and got involved in outdoor activities. It wasn’t until ten years later when I was climbing full-time that I decided to try professional photography again, this time combining it with the things that really interested me. The timing turned out to be right and having inspiring subject matter made all the difference

What led you to your fascination for such adventurous subjects?

Perhaps it was that the school I went to introduced me to lots of different outdoor activities – like caving, bush walking, back-country skiing, abseiling and climbing. I found those more interesting than team sports and I’m sure the people and places we went to had lots to do with it. I think that I was lucky to have a close nit group of friends with the same interests. We used to organise our own caving and bush walking trips from when we were 15. I started reading classic mountaineering stories, about Everest and the Eiger; the climbers in these stories were definitely my heroes. When I was 16 I somehow convinced my parents to let me go on a commercial ice-climbing course for a week, where we learnt how to use ice-axes and slept in snow caves. I must have been keen because they made an exception to allow such a young kid to go on the course. And for sure I’m lucky that my parents supported, or at least tolerated, my crazy dreams.

What is it that made you start climbing?

When I was 17 the “Outdoor Education” course at my high school gave me the chance to go rock climbing a few times and I quickly became hooked. At first I actually wasn’t particularly good. I mean, I wasn’t bad but I wasn’t great either and somehow this frustrated me. I think having read so much about mountaineering I somehow expected to be instantly good at rock climbing, but I wasn’t. So I practiced and practiced and trained and trained. We built a climbing wall at the gym at school and every free hour I got I’d be on it trying to make the hardest traverse possible across the wall. I started climbing on some of the buildings around town for training and soon some of the best local climbers kindly took me under their wing, taught me some technique and started taking me out on the bigger cliffs with them. Growing up in Canberra, Australia, there were no real mountains nearby but there were several good cliffs. I loved both the physical and mental challenge and found it a totally absorbing activity. In those early years it was quite addictive because you could feel yourself getting better and stronger all the time; a problem or challenge might have seemed near impossible at first but within a week it could be something that you could cruise.

What are the most fascinating aspects of working so purely, with no props at all?

Well I guess it’s just that – the purity of it. Ideally speaking, I think it is for each photographer to decide for themselves what they photograph and how they want to do it. For me, personally, I have no particular interest in working with props; that just seems contrived to me. I think that the outdoors and climbing in particular offer some amazing opportunities for “real” photography but the trick is to accept — even embrace — the challenges. I’m trying to capture action and achievements that takes place in some of the most spectacular places on the planet. For me the whole challenge is to show what’s happening, and particularly to show how beautiful and spectacular these places are. Anything else to me is a cop-out. For example, I could, if I wanted, just take photographs of a climber ten feet off the ground, and use a super long telephoto lens, a tilt-shift lens, or a “lens baby” lens to blur a lot of the image and not really show the situation. Now that can be useful in a commercial situation, or you could easily create an image that might be considered rather “arty” – at least by some people’s definitions. But to me a far more interesting challenge is to find the most spectacular places, the craziest settings, the wildest climbs, the most unique and interesting rock architecture – then figure out what you most want to emphasise and then work out the best way to show it. I want to let the situation do the talking, rather than some fancy technique, so I try to approach the actual photography in a fairly straight and pure style. Timing and camera position are my main tools. That makes for some really interesting challenges. But I think having skills as a climber gives me some great opportunities for photography and the challenge of that makes it interesting to me.

Do you try to embed any secondary meanings into your images, or are they simply that – an image?

Basically they are just images and it’s up to the viewer to interpret them and take from them what they will. But having said that, I do emphasise the setting, the environment, a lot in my images so there is a bit of a secondary meaning about the importance of the environment – both to us as rock climbers but also the importance of the environment in a more general sense.

Did you have to make any special preparations for shooting climbers?

It depends on the situation, what I’ve conceived for the shoot, and how familiar I am with the area. If it’s a new area to me then I’ll spend some days getting to know the place, perhaps climb some routes myself, learn the best way to access the cliff-tops or find where the descents are for example, look around for interesting climbs, see what the light is doing at different times of day, and see what angles I might be able to get on things. Sometimes I might abseil down in several different places to find the best angles on a particular climb. Then I might fix some ropes in place, or stash some ropes or gear somewhere, so that when it’s time to do the shoot I can get into position quickly so I don’t miss the shot or slow things down.

What do you learn from the people that you photograph?

I’ve been lucky to photograph some of the best, boldest, and most accomplished climbers in the world. I’ve got to know many of these climbers and have come to realise that, of course, we are all human. The truly great climbers have just been lucky to find something in their lives that they love. They are passionate about it, live for it, and embrace the challenge of it. It has shown me that if you are positive and passionate enough about something and really commit and dedicate yourself to it, then, well, who knows what you can achieve? But certainly you will never know if you never try.

What do you hope to achieve or inspire in viewers by taking these photos?

I just simply see my images as a kind of celebration of climbing. It’s a celebration of what climbers do, what they go through, their vision and what they achieve. And importantly it’s also a celebration of the incredible places where it takes place.

Also, I think it’d be great if, through my photography, people got a greater understanding of climbing – about what it involves and why people do it. However I’m not necessarily actually trying to encourage more people to take up climbing, it has its dangers for starters. But I’d be happy if people understood it more and could see the positive side of it. In some media climbing only gets press when there is an accident or something bad happens, so it’d be great if my photography acted as a small counterbalance to that.

Who inspires you a) as a climber and b) as a photographer?

I’ve worked with so many inspirational climbers I’m reluctant to pick just one. It is not necessarily the strongest, craziest, or even the best climbers who have inspired me most; sometimes far from it. The most inspirational climbers I’ve come across might have great strength, endurance, technique, experience and skills on rock. They might be “bold” and they face up to their fears but are certainly not reckless. They usually have a fairly diverse skill set because they’ve worked on their weaknesses. They seem far more interested in setting personal goals and pushing personal limits than comparing themselves to others or “winning” competitions. They have a sense of fun and spirit of adventure. The most inspirational have something about their attitude; they radiate positivity and encourage and respect others. I guess they’ve “checked their ego at the door”. Australian climber Mike Law is someone who really inspires me a lot. He was one of the best climbers of his day but over the last 20 years has established hundreds of new climbs for climbers of all standards. His passion for climbing is obvious and the work he has done to make climbing fun and safer for many is just phenomenal.

For photographer the late Galen Rowell still inspires me a lot. Not so much for his photography, which was great, but what really stood out to me was his ability to write about the thought process behind his work. He was very articulate and his generosity in sharing his ideas was exceptional. Some techniques have changed a bit in recently years (with digital photography) but I think his books like The Art of Adventure Photography and Galen Rowell’s Inner Game of Outdoor Photography are still required reading for any budding outdoors photographer.

Is there a particular message in your work?

Well, I guess, in a nutshell, it’d have to be that the world is an incredible place and climbing is a wonderful way to see and experience it.

Do you take other kinds of photos for relaxation?

I’ve always been interested in a bit of landscape and nature photography and enjoy wandering around places with a camera to see what I can see. Also now I have a baby daughter who has just turned one. She’ll probably grow up thinking of her farther as the guy who’s constantly shoving a lens in her face and saying “smile”! I couldn’t think of a better subject.

Describe these shots in one word, then give an explanation of what you mean.

Spectacular! Ordinary people doing extraordinary things in spectacular places.

I have a dream… I am dreaming of creating an image of one of the most spectacular climbs in the Blue Mountains (and elsewhere besides).

I have a dream… and my dream is not just to photograph the climb but to try to create an image which shows how spectacular the climb and the setting really is — and which celebrates its uniqueness.

I have a dream… a dream of floating around somewhere out in space, not far below the cliff top but maybe seven or eight metres out from the cliff, so I could photograph from an otherwise impossible perspective.

I have a dream… a dream of creating an innovative new technique/apparatus for photographing climbing so that I can capture the kinds of images that I dream about.

I have a dream… that the new technique/apparatus is safe, legal, affordable, transportable and above all practical, so much so that it might possibly, in years to come, even revolutionise climbing photography. And if it doesn’t, then well, maybe it’ll spur someone on to come up with something that does.

I have a dream… “waaaaaaaaaaaa… waaaaaaaaaaa… waaaaaa…” Huh, what’s that? Oh, it’s the sound of baby Coco crying in the room next door that’s penetrating my slumber and dragging me from my dreams…. Oh well.

It’s Easter Monday morning and the reality is sure not the same as the dream. I feel like crap, this cold I’ve had for the last week is getting worse, my nose is flowing like a sewer, and I just want to sleep in for a bit. But last night the forecast was good, so I look out the window and yes, finally, the conditions are perfect for this shot and look like they’ll be lasting a while. So I phone Vince Day, the climber who had kindly agreed to help with this special shoot. We’d been waiting for over a month for the light/weather and schedules to coincide for this shoot. But the news was bad, some important work had come up for him at the last moment. Nothing I could change so I looked forward to a quiet morning instead, and just hoped things would come together for us next weekend.

But then ten minutes later the phone rang, Vince had rescheduled and it was “game on” for the shoot. Action stations! I throw my kit in the car and blast on out to Pierces Pass where we all meet and hike out to the route — a classic grade 25 rap-in climb-out affair at Walls Lookout.

And the name of the route? Oh, it is I Have a Dream.

Check out some of the results below. And please me know what you think.

One important thing about this new technique/apparatus is that I can shoot both vertical and horizontal framing and easily swap between the two. Using the new Nikon D3s that I’m now using, it was simple to shoot some good video footage as well.

And if you are wondering how is this so different to a normal climbing photography shoot, well then compare them to the shot below — of Garth Miller on the same route. It’s a stock standard abseil-in shot that I took a few years ago. This angle was about all I would have been able to achieve on this route — that is until I devised my new technique recently.

The significant thing is, in the shots above I’ve got the camera about seven metres out from the cliff and only about seven metres below the cliff top. I’ve also got control and can adjust framing and composition on the fly.

I’ve not yet received a suitable bribe for revealing just what my new technique/apparatus is, or at least the important details of it, but I promise I’ll reveal it all eventually (right here on this blog before the end of the year). So keep guessing. I’ll just say that it isn’t a remote controlled helicopter (which would have been illegal in this situation, expensive, not practical to travel with, etc…).

I think it’s good to dream a bit, eh?

Here’s a bit more sports action news from the Blue Mountains plus a sneak preview of the new guidebook which is nearly finished (soon to be at the printers) and we expect will be available in five weeks (give or take).

This summer has seen the development of one of the hottest new hard sport climbing destinations of recent years in the Blue Mountains. It is called The Underworld – and this big foreboding overhang is now home to some of the best roof climbing in the Blueys.

The area was first developed with three routes back in the early nineties. The obscure location, rumours of bad bolts and lack of raving about it by guidebook authors, all helped ensure it was all but completely forgotten. The foreboding overhang was rediscovered in late 2009, was seen in new light, and it suddenly became the subject of intense energy from a motivated crew who quickly bolted the biggest lines and dispatched their projects in a whirlwind of great sports action.

At first glance the area might not look too exciting.

But walk up underneath and the size of the overhang becomes a bit more apparent. Here is the photo topo from the forthcoming guidebook (a little taster of what you can expect from the new book). It didn’t take long before the biggest roofs were criss-crossed with projects and link ups!

Elmar Jerg on Julius Caesar (24), this is one of the original routes here and a good one for getting used to the angle of the dangle. It has now been rebolted.

Zac Vertrees picked a plum and bolted a line straight out the biggest roof.

And here’s the shot I really wanted to show you. It took Zac a few days to work out this key bat-hang move, but how cool is that!?

It took a few more days of trying since that shot was taken, but Zac has now sent the route — and it is called Assassins. Zac had earlier said to me that the route could be graded anything up to about 33, but in the end he said it went easily and graded it 29. Cough, cough, I’m calling sandbag on that! Since when has Zac had to work this hard, or spent that long, on a 29? In my hi-res I can see veins exploding out of his forehead, it looks like he’s about to blow a gasket!

Vince Day has been one of the main developers, having established a swag of the hardest test-pieces here. Here he’s trying the FA of a grade 32 link-up with superb climbing.

Elmar Jerg picked the prominent prow in the middle of the crag to play on. This project is going down soon eh?

And Hugh Sutton joined in the fun. He later climbed his project here, The River Styx, at grade 25. He also added several easier climbs as well.

So there you have it, the Underworld unveiled! Great stuff fellas.

And as the new guidebook says:

It’s a good summer area which only sees sun briefly first thing in the morning. Gear: bring the usual sports action kit plus at least one extra set of muscles.

It has been an extraordinarily wet summer. So not much been happening in Oz climbing of late? Everyone being hiding their heads in the gym? Glad for all the rain and the excuses that it can give?

WRONG!

There has actually been heaps going on. In fact I’d say it has been a super busy summer, at least around here in the Blue Mountains but further afield as well, with motivated climbers doing good work, stepping up and dispatching projects all over the show. It has been great to be a witness to this positive energy and so here is my first little news report in a while — and stay tuned for more news following soon.

Drum roll please.

Presenting…

Lee’s new 33!

Lee Cossey, one of Australia’s strongest and best all-round rock climbers, has completed a new route which he named Saturation Point and graded 33 (5.14b, 8c) at Diamond Falls (Blue Mountains). Lee of course is no stranger to cranking out 33’s and harder but what really caught my eye about this one is not just that it is hard but also the line — a whopping 45 metres snaking its way halfway around the massive amphitheatre at Diamond Falls. Now I can’t climb 33, never could, never will, but “if” I only could, then I’m sure this is a route that would really appeal. If Serpentine was 33 then maybe just maybe it’d look something like this!

Lee was kind enough to recently climb the route again for my camera. I asked him to climb it in sections and I abseiled in and photographed it from the left and then later ran around and took some shots from across the amphitheatre, about 40 metres away from the action. This second angle was good for catching the action on one particularly cool sequence of moves. We then returned on another day and this time I lugged a 400mm f2.8 lens (which I happened to have on loan from Nikon Professional Services) and honed right in on that sequence.

So here is a little photo essay with selected shots from both photo shoots presented together in the order that you’d climb the route.

(Beta warning — in case you want to get all technical and are worried about blowing the onsight).

The route starts up Some Kind of Bliss and traverses right a country mile in it’s search for golden goodness. The traverse is rather run out…

Then things get harder, much harder…

And sweeter…

Then reset the compass and start heading north and launch into the coolest sequence of moves which, incidentally, is not the crux.

Let’s put a 1.4x tele converter on the 400mm lens and hone in with 560mm and…

….imagine you are at Buoux for a moment and do like “la rose”…

Unwind without blowing a gasket…

Continue on your merry way…

But if you’re pumped by now and thought it was all over you’re in for a rude shock — for glory is still guarded by a massive gnarly roof!

Yeah the roof is massive. It’s incredible gnarly. Sure to be real heart breaker. And I’ve got some great shots of it. If you’d like to see them be sure to check out the next issue of Rock magazine, out soon!

And there you have it — Saturation Point.

Thanks Lee, great stuff!

For more about Lee and his climbing see www.cosseyclimbing.com

I was out at Pierces Pass a few days back setting up a camera for an overnight shoot and came across some BASE jumpers setting up. This was totally unplanned. Luckily I knew where to get an angle and the light was sweet.