After a late Friday night I get a call waking me up well before my planned wake up time for a relaxing, lazy Saturday. “Hey, lets go climbing! Meet me in 45 minutes.” I have a choice to make: rollover and finish out that lazy Saturday or give in to my buddy’s adventure. Matt has taken me climbing all around Colorado, and I love getting this personal tour of the state. I’ll go for adventure almost every time.  

Matt wants to climb on a project in Clear Creek Canyon at a crag called “Sex Cave”.  It’s a severely overhung roof made of gneiss that has three main routes in the 5.13 range. “One of them is just your style; you’ll love it.” Sure, why not. The hardest thing I’ve ever climbed outside is 5.12b, and hardest thing I’ve sent is 5.11c. But I think I’ve found my new project.

Matt and I climbed “Head Like a Hole”, and Matt climbed “Stone Cold Modern” in our short session. While belaying Matt and seeing the how the light hit him as he finished the route I knew I had to come back and photograph here. So we scheduled the shoot. 

I have tried a few times to light climbing out here in Colorado with Speedlites, but I’ve found it to be practically impossible without an assistant. It just takes far too long to control all the light, move stands, and get things ready, all while the climber is “patiently” waiting to climb. If I can get the lights set up, much of the time the Speedlites just aren’t powerful enough to overpower the sun and make a difference. 

It was nice to have time to plan ahead. I get an assistant. I bring my powerful studio strobes (White Lightning and Alien Bees). I pre-plan how the shoot will go in my head. I’m excited to do a lot more shoots like this.