The Onsight Chronicles

I’m stoked with the latest issue of Rock and Ice magazine; it features my photos from our assignment to shoot long moderate routes in the Dolomites last year.

I’m especially pleased with my shot of the Vajolet Towers being used on the cover. Getting that shot was a little more epic than normal so it’s satisfying to see it used so well. Big time kudos to climbers Dave Russel and Rico Miledi for helping with that, those guys are hardcore! Dave and I climbed a 30m pinnacle to get me in position so that I could shoot from an excellent vantage point. Dave then rapped off and joined Rico and they started climbing the four pitch classic arête of the Delago Tower. But just as they started climbing cloud billowed up from the valley below and we were immersed in a complete white-out… So I sat there atop the pinnacle and Dave and Rico huddled on the first belay, and we waited, and waited… I kept shouting to see if they wanted to bail, but they shouted back that they were happy to wait. They’d had a big time epic (near death) a few days earlier and they said it was nothing compared to that. I was wearing about seven layers and was still freezing my tits off so I was, in a way, almost hoping they’d bail, but if the climbers were sticking it out then I had no choice but to do the same. After one and a half hours of this tedious boredom, and getting very intimate with the lichen in front of my face, the white-out finally started to clear… the lads started to climb again and the rest they say is history. It’s an all time personal favourite shot of mine. Thanks guys! And thanks Rock and Ice!

Monique wrote the article; it’s her third feature for Rock and Ice. Thanks babe!