Canmore photo shoot for Mountain Hardwear

Over the last several years, I've had the opportunity to shoot photos of Mountain Hardwear Athlete Dawn Glanc ice climbing, mixed climbing, and alpine climbing. Fortunately for me, Hardwear has been able to use my images throughout a wide variety of in-house and national advertising.

2010 MHW ad campaign

In late February, Dawn, Patrick Ormond, and I traveled up to Canmore, Alberta to get some fresh ice climbing imagery for Mountain Hardwear's fall campaign. Most of the big climbs were in, and Dawn brought an extensive tick-list with her.

One of my favorite things about shooting ice and alpine climbing photography is that it forces me to get out there and do a bit of it as well, quick enough to get into shooting position, but with a pack weight down with extra lenses, extra camera bodies, flashes, video equipment, a fixed rope, etc...

Unfortunately for us, a wicked arctic cold snap swept through B.C. and Alberta, plunging local temperatures down to -36°C (-31°F). Now that's just too cold to get much climbing done - and too dangerous too. As soon as we arrived in Canmore, we heard that daggers were snapping spontaniously in Johnson Canyon, among other locations.

Despite the chill, we were able to escape outside enough to get a few good pitches in, and a hopefully a few good photos. Keep an eye out in the fall/winter of 2011 to see what kind of images Mountain Hardwear uses in their advertising.

Read up on Dawn's current Mountain Hardwear blog if you are curious.

Here are a couple more tear sheets from the Little Switzerland photo shoot that I did with Dawn, Tanya Leinicke, and Lynn Peterson in 2009.

Mixed climbing adventures on Hallet Peak's North Face

The first time I climbed the North Face of Hallet Peak was with a girl. It was mid-summer, and almost t-shirt weather except for when we got stuck in a hail and lightning storm on the summit.

The first time I climbed (... or attempted to climb)  the North Face of Hallet Peak in winter conditions, it was with soft-spoken hard-man Steve Su and the late Jonny Copp. I was "off the couch" like I so frequently am, and Steve and Jonny graciously took the sharp end for all four pitches that we managed to make it up. Despite being top-roped up the snow and lichen-covered gneiss, I was terrified. This was scary, wild, stuff. The protection sucks (when you can get it) and all of the dry-tooling is on is slopey and snow-covered. Our early April adventure ended that day about 500 feet off the ground. We had to rappel off with only one rope (someone forgot the other one) and that was going to take a while. Plus, Jonny had a date planned with his girlfriend. A few weeks later, Jonny took off for China with Micah Dash and Wade Johnson, and he never came back.

Since that day I've always had respect for the scrappy, grovelly terrain on Hallet. I've figured that if you can scratch your way up that stuff in a timely manner, you can make it up just about any piece of alpine terrain anywhere.

Late in February, Steve Su and I got a chance to go back up there for a day of good old fashioned suffering. We climbed a route that Steve had had his eye on for a while. It wandered up the Hallet's second buttress (just right of Hallet Chimney). Steve and Bruce Miller had made it quite a ways up the lower half of the wall, but time or weather had ended their day before the top. 

Because of the murky history of hard-man climbing in RMNP, it seems doubtful to consider a route as a "first" unless you've really done your research. We may have climbed this route "first" as a mixed route, but there were occasional human traces almost the entire way. We started about 200 feet left of the Love Route (5.9) and climbed a difficult, left-leaning crack to a set of easier dihedrals leading to the top of a buttress mid-way up the wall. Here we rejoined the Love Route for another several pitches (and spotted one old pin and one old buttonhead to confirm our location), before shooting left of it for 3 pitches near the summit roofs. We each climbed with Black Diamond Cobras (the more recent generation) and spinner leashes. I don't know how I ever climbed sketchy alpine mixed with leashes. It is terrifying. In total the route was about 7-8 200 foot pitches, with a tension traverse and pendulum thrown in near the top for good measure. Steve took the hardest pitches, like he so often does. I have no idea what the rating would be - M7 +or-? It is really difficult to tell.

If you want to climb hard alpine routes, and you live in Colorado, go to Hallet Peak and get scared.

The North Face of Hallet Peak. Our route up the second buttress is marked in red. Hallet's Chimney is the gully/corner system just left of our line. We rapelled it to descend.

Steve approaches the first pitch

Steve follows pitch 2.

In alpine anchor-building, you do the best you can.

Temperature management on pitch 6.

I was really hoping Steve wouldn't fall here. Steve on top, with an appropriate look of fatigue.

one more one-piece anchor shot. This nut was so bomber...Steve raps into the top of Hallet Chimney at 10:00pm.