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I
have been climbing and photographing
mountains for over
30 years.
I grew up in western Washington, and was lucky to have a climbing father.
He helped me cut my climbing teeth on volcanoes like Mt. Rainier (this
picture taken my first time up - the same day that Neil Armstrong stepped
on the moon).
In 1973 I moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, to ski powder and go to college. During my ten years in the Rockies technical climbing and telemark skiing were my passions. I did many "big wall" rock climbs (Yosemite, Zion, Wind Rivers), and technical alpine routes (Tetons, Canadian Rockies).
From 1983 - 1991 I taught for the Department of Defense
Schools in Germany.
This was a fantastic opportunity to travel,
climb, and photograph
to my heart's content. The best part was meeting my wife
Debbie.
In my 20s I had ambitions to be a cutting edge climber. For a couple of years
I make it into the top level of the (then tiny) Salt Lake City climbing community.
A few close calls, and difficult
climbs near my limit, made me question my commitment to the sport. By the
time I moved to Europe
I was quite content to enjoy the hard classics
I had long read about. I took on photographic
documentation of these climbs as a challenge that satisfied my dormant artistic
side. For many years I made slide
shows using two projectors and synchronized music. Color printing took me
another level deeper into the photographic process. Now I have a digital
darkroom at home - a Macintosh computer, slide
scanner, and archival printer.
Selling pictures through this web site is an attempt
to support my photo habit!
Debbie and I now live in Lake Stevens WA and both teach elementary school. We get out climbing, skiing, biking, or kayaking most weekends, and in the summer. I've come full circle back to back-country skiing as my favorite activity - it took me 10 years, but I finally completed a project to climb, ski, and video 23 of the major volcanoes in the Cascade range.
