Beehive Ice guidebook

The book (or one of them anyway) is at the printer. Beehive Ice by Nathan Smith and Andrew Burr covers over 775 ice and mixed climbs in Utah. We will have a limited amount of copies at the end of December. The rest will arrive 2-4 weeks later. If you want to ensure you will have a copy from the first delivery, you can go to: 
http://www.pullpublishing.com/books-1/beehive-ice 
and pre order a copy or get your name on a list at IME or Mountainworks. IME has a preview copy now and Mountainworks will receive theirs soon. 464 pages of climbs, action photos and Utah history. Essays from some of the most prominent Utah climbers and lots of never before published climbs. Now we just need cold!

Sundial Falls WI3 - Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah

Went out last Sunday to climb an obscure ice route in the Wasatch, above Lake Blanche and just right of Sundial Peak in Big Cottonwood Canyon. A friend was up there the week before and with lower snowpack was able to get in and out pretty quick. Unfortunately with the new snow from Friday and Saturday our visit was not so easy…

It's a little over 3 1/2 miles to the lake from the trailhead (according to GPS. The FS signs have it much less). We were the first ones out so had to break trail. To the lake was easy with 2-4" of new snow. Once we got to the lake it was a different story. 1-2' of snow greeted us. As my partner showed up with a pack only big enough to carry his personal gear and left me with the rope, draws and screws, I made him break trail. Getting to the spot with the ice should take less than 1/2 hour in normal conditions (The ice line can be seen by following the Sundial arete to the right then across in the rocks about 300m. ) but the snow kept getting deeper and deeper.  

Almost to the ice I took over and was wallowing through chest deep snow, fighting just to move a few feet. In some spots the only think keeping me from sinking past my armpits was my backpack. By the time we reached our belay it had taken us more time to go the 1 mile to the ice than the 3 1/2 miles from the car to the lake. Looking up, I thought this climb was going to take 5 min to lead, but I was so exhausted from the hike, I could barely lift my arms to swing my axes. 200' and 30 min of WI3 later I was belaying Ryan up.

The return hike was much easier, following our tracks back out but we had already been out for over 6 hours and were dragging. We finally reached the lake and picked up the pace significantly until we were stopped by a large bull moose 10' off the trail. We slowly crept closer and closer as he stared us down, then returned to grazing. Once we decided to go for it and pass he whipped around, facing us and pawed at the ground, not happy at our intrusion. Luckily he decided not to charge and we were able to make it back to the car just before dark, 9 hours after starting what should have been a 5 hour day. 9.3 miles roundtrip. Not bad for an early season backyard adventure.

2011 Gory (Polish for Mountain) Photo Edition

I just received copies of the 2011 Gory Photo Edition.  This magazine hands-down, has the best photo annual of any climbing magazine I've seen so far.  The entire issue is full of amazing photos from some of the best photographers in the world. I was lucky enough to be included again this year.

Christine Balaz at Devil's Tower, Wyoming

Mindy Campbell in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah

Christine Balaz at Ruth Lake, Uintas, Utah

Peter McConkie in Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah

Jake Hirschi in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah and Christine Balaz at Devil's Tower, Wyoming

Carlos Logroño Viscasillas in the Czech Republic

Brian Ferris at Mt. Woodson, California

Jeff Baldwin on one of his many routes in Maple Canyon, Utah and an Unknown climber in Frankenjura, Germany

Garrett Smith in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah

Cerre Francis in American Fork Canyon, Utah

Dean Lords in Twin Falls, Idaho

Jake Hirschi in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah

New Work for Early Summer

I'm excited to have a lot of new work out there recently.  For the past five years I've been working on a personal project, trying to photograph many of climbing's legends and the people who inspired me when I first started climbing. It's an ongoing project but when the crew at Rock & Ice told me they were bring back the classic Ascent magazine I thought it would be the perfect fit for a small showing of some of my work.  Get a copy at your local climbing shop and check out more portraits in my web gallery.

Fred Beckey, Kevin Worrall, John Sherman and Ed Hartouni

Bob Van Belle, Kitty Calhoun, Doug Heinrich, Tucker Tech, Jay Anderson and Dick Cilley

Gary Neptune, Chris Grover, Jim Bridwell, Kurt Smith, Jeff Lowe and Steve Swenson

Jack Tackle, Jim Mccarthy, John Stannard, Dale Bard and Carlos Buhler

Also out right now are the Photo Annuals for Climbing and Urban Climber, each of which I have a 2-page spread.

Christine Balaz

Randall Justin Hill, Cerre Francis, Ryan McDermott and Castleton Tower.

I've also had some commercial work with Edelweiss Ropes and Patagonia.

Pamela Shanti Pack

Dan Sanders

Andy Merriman

An Insightful Guide to Joe's Valley Bouldering

I just received a copy of Isaac Caldiero's new guide to Joe's Valley, Utah. It's a great, full color guide to one of the best bouldering areas in the U.S. You can find copies here: http://www.joesvalleyguidebook.com/

Christine Balaz on Dirty Harry V7

Heath Lillie on Iscosceles V4.

Off to a good start

April is starting off pretty well, with some new work to show, some features on the way and a highlight of my work at Pictureline, the local camera store I use.

Ellen Powick in Southern Utah

Cerre Francis at Dierkies Lake, Idaho and Brendan Nicholson somewhere in the West.

England's Climb Magazine - Pamela Shanti Pack

Canada's Gripped Magazine - Ellen Powick at the Cathedral, St. George, UT

Liberty Mountain's 2011 Catalog - Jake Hirschi at Wild Iris, Wyoming.

Famous Faces

The first two people who email me all the names of the climbers in the photo will receive an 8" x 10" print of their choice from my website. If nobody can get all the names correct, I'll go with the most correct answers by the 20th of February. Some legendary, some infamous and all gracious enough to stand in front of my lens. One hint, all are climbers or mountaineers but one is better known for another sport.