Race Display needed a photo of their product used to upload software to vehicles, and for configuring vehicles for exhibitions. These photos will be used in a printed information folder made by Race Display.
The flash setup was easy for this shoot. Two flashes on manual at 35mm on each side, and the product in a small lightbox.
Another job together with writer Magnus Wistrom at Fishcube Media in Oppdal, Norway. We planned the trip to Oppdal in the fall to shoot for the Swedish outdoor magazine Brant, clothing company O’Neill, and backpack manufacturer Ortovox. However, we had a really hard time to find a week that suited our schedule and offered good snow conditions. The winter here in Scandinavia has been weird and very unpredictable.
Norway usually gets loads of snow but the heavy snowfalls have been rare and far between. At the same time, the southwest coast in Sweden offered ice climbers and skiers one of the best winter seasons in a very long time.
We waited as long as we could to get a chance to get good powder conditions but the time seemed to run out on us. The season was coming to an end and we couldn’t wait any longer, so on the 18th of March we packed the car and headed north. We got a few good days up in the norweigan mountains but the snow conditions made us wish for a heavy drop of powder every night. Never the less, we did what we came for. Stay tuned, the article will be in print in a fall issue of Brant.
Oppdal turned out to be a very good place for offpist skiing, at least if you are willing to walk to a little while.
Our guide Torje even called in the local talent team in freestyle skiing to jump in front of my camera for a few hours. Great fun!! These youngsters were so energetic and very talented, really easy to work with.
What’s wrong with a classic 8? Is it really soooo 1980-isch? Joakim Lundberg turning the 8 into a dollar sign…
I went to Fontainebleau, just outside of Paris, to do a feature story about the bouldering here for the magazine Brant. You will find it in print in the fall.
In the forrests around the picturesque village of Fontainebleau in France loooms many bouldering areas, mostly known as Font. This is the birthplace for modern bouldering, and people come here year round from all over the world. This was my first trip here, and it just blew me. Amazing. Fantastic.
A typical Font face:
Many royalties have spent considerable time at the huge castle Chateau de Fontainebleau.
The small villages surrounding Fontainebleau are weekend destinations for wealthy Parisians. Driving through the village of Burron Marlotte, you’ll see many mansions like this:
Peter Schön on a 7B with a really sloopy top-out:
Talking about sloopy top-outs, here Erik Heyman shows you what you’ll most likely face if you go climbing in Font:
When we go to the area Franchard Isatis, my friends were extremely close to convince me that I could easily warn up on a nice looking problem they pointed at. Their poker faces weren’t good enough though. The problem they had in mind turned out to be one of the classic really hard ones in Font; Karma 8A+. Here is the dutch climber Enzo Nahumury on Karma:
However, you can definetely find any kind of climbing you like in Font, not only slopers. Excellent dynos, slabs, technical aretes, power-problems…
Muscles ache, the skin is thin and the energy is below the red mark. The day is over.
How many pain chocolat can you eat during a rest day?
The life as a climbing photographer is usually very glamorous. Three course dinners. Oysters and champagne. Going to grand opening parties on the red carpet in your Armani shoes…
Well, not really. Most often there’s a lot of hard work involved in getting into a good shooting position. Usually a lot more time consuming than most people think. Fixing ropes, rappeling, ascending ropes. I thought about this after my last weekend in Norway shooting on Vettisfossen. It might be interesting to share some nerdy statistics of what a typical climbing-photography weekend costs in terms of sweat, lactic acid, and adrenalin.
This is my slimmed gear I brought on the trip. Doesn’t seem to be too much ehh? In spite of all, it’s winter time.
Twelwe hours in the car in hard weather takes a toll on you, especially when the alarm goes off at 4 AM. Since the pillar on Vettisfossen isn’t wide enough for two rope teams, we just had to be first. Not many people climb this route at all, but we didn’t want to take any chances. A quick breakfast on the stove, and then off to hit the approach up to Vettis.
And now to the really nerdy stuff. Below is a photo of all the gear I carried up to Vettisfossen, which is almost every piece of gear I packed in the car. But remember, this was for one single day of climbing.
A detailed list of all the gear:
*Camera incl small lenses and camera bag: 5,5 kg
*Tele zoom lens: 2,4 kg
Tripod: 1,7 kg
*Photo chair: 1,2 kg
*Gorilla tripod: 0,25 kg
*Harness: 0,5 kg
*Jumar and carabiners: 1,5 kg
*Crampons: 1 kg
Ice axes: 1,1 kg
*Grigri: 0,3 kg
*Quickdraws: 0,5 kg
*Slings: 0,1 kg
*Static Rope ca 110m: 6 kg
*Backpack: 3,3 kg
*Down jacket: 1 kg
Down pants: 0,8 kg
Thermos: 0,6 kg
*Extra long sleave function sweater: 0,25 kg
*Water: 1 kg
*Gloves: 0,3 kg
*Helmet: 0,4 kg
Small backpack: 1,5 kg
Sandwiches: 0,3 kg
*Walki talkies: 0,2 kg
*Phone: 0,2 kg
*Goretex jacket: 0,8 kg
*Headlamps: 0,12 kg
*Hand heaters: 0,08 kg
*Knive: 0,08 kg
*First aid kit: 0,2 kg
*Extra gloves: 0,06 kg
*Kneepads: 0,05 kg
Total weight: 33,3 kg (* = 27,3 kg)
I carried all this on the two hour approach to the base of the climb. Items marked with * is what I carried from the base of the canyon to the top of the fjell, which was a very hard walk of about 300 vertical meters in kneedeep powder. Since I was in a hurry to get up to the top of the ice fall in good time to rig my static rope, this turned out to be one of the most physically hardest things I have ever done.
Was it worth it? Yes, it definetely was. While sweating, swearing and getting pumped with lactic acid I had a great time, and enjoyed every second of it!!!
Over & out.
Vettisfossen is the highest free falling waterfall in northern Europe with its 275 meters, and in the winter it forms a mighty ice climb. The surrounding is spectacular, and you feel very small standing at the bottom of the ice. I was invited to come along Gothenburg’s own hardmen Ragnar Crona and Johan Sundell documenting the ascent. Perfect, since I was recently asked to shoot some ice climbing for the German backpack and avalanche manufacturer Ortovox.
Since the top pillar was connected to the huge bottom cone, Ragnar and Johan could climb the direct start, i.e. straight up from the cone. Most of the time the top pillar is reached via a travers from the right higher up.
This is right before Johan reaches the third belay:
Ragnar on his way up to the third belay:
Ragnar on the fourth and last pitch:
The two climbers stretched every single pitch as far as they could, and on the last pitch Ragnar aimed for the trees at the top but came up about ten meters short.
“To do the direct start on Vettisfossen, and do it in four fully stretched pitches was definetely the highlight of my ice climbing career”, says a happy but tired
Ragnar Crona after topping out and reaching the sunlight at the top of the canyon.
Gullmarsfjorden is one of the most typical threshold fjords in Sweden, and in a good winter (i.e. below 0 Celcius for a consistent time) a few nice ice falls forms. This past winter has been very good in that aspect. I went up to the fjordlands to check out the ice falls. The falls are not very high but the surrounding is beautiful.
Some people just can’t stay out of your way, can they?
Another popular activity on the fjords is ice fisching. These guys could sit still on their foldable chairs for hours in freezing cold. And I thought that ice climbers were tought, hard men made of steel. Today, it felt more like the ice climbers were fragile papermen that
could easily break, and the fischermen were the real hardmen.
The ice climbing is over for today, but the fisch is still there, lurking in the dark beneath your floor…
I needed a few new photos with motion blur for a workshop in the spring and what is better than shooting fast moving cars in a freezing cold hometown of Gothenburg?
Well, what could be better is a cup of hot chocolat in the couch… Never the less it was fun, and as always a great experience. I also had the chance to get a few shots of the ferry Stena Line setting out, and coming in. These machines are impressive…
Jai Dum. It translates into black heart. But it is also the name of one of the best hard routes in southern Thailand, namely right on the beach at Tonsai.
I went to Tonsai to discover climbing on the beach, and enjoy the soft Thai life, and people. Grilled chicken, banana lassi, spicy egg noodles, and the ever so delicious Thai pancakes.
I also traveled to Thailand to write an article for the Swedish magazine Outside not only about the climbing scene, but also the environment. Most of us know very little of how these friendly Asian people react to the all increasing environmental pressure that is put upon us. So, do they react in any particular way? Are they as aware about the threatening
environmental pollution as we are in Europe? I’d say yes and maybe. Yes when it comes to regional and local work, but only maybe for more long term, sustainable and global work. Some of the poeple I talked to during the trip seemed to be honestly conserned, and very aware, of the environmental threat we are facing. But on the other hand, I also met people that didn’t care squat. For example: one restaurant “happened” to release its sewage straight out to the beach. Team Norway reacted very quickly though and confronted the owner, and prompted him to take care of the sewage internally.
Tonsai beach, right next to Freedom bar, a very relaxed place perfect for a moment of peace and calm watching the sunset over the Andaman sea. It’s also the perfect place if you like to watch some late night sendings on the steep routes in the roof next to the bar. Here is a guy trying Tidal Wave 7c, which might be one of the most frequently climbed routes in the world. It has almost constant traffic throughout the day, except for a few hours at mid day.
Humanility 6b is an excellent four pitch route above Freedom bar. Many climbers are astound when they reach the crux on the third pitch. Suddenly all the features for both hands and feet are gone. Gone. Unless…
Classic sunset photo, I know, but nevertheless pretty?
View over Tonsai beach with its grand wall. To the right is the magnificent Thaiwand wall with several multipitch routes of good quality. Maad, a Tonsai beach resort manager, told me that Tonsai is quite unique; it’s one of very few beaches in the region that has real forest growing all the way down to the beach. Usually there is only palm trees growing on the beach. Saving the forest is the common goal for all forteen land owners on Tonsai beach, according to Maad.
Next stop on the trip was the small island Lao Liang a few hours south of Krabi. Very small, very peaceful, very nice. Super relaxing. You live in tents right on the beach, and has a handful of decent routes within 30 seconds beach-walk.
I think all the guests at Lao Liang are struck by the heavy artillery present on the island. Hard bolied men with camoflage uniforms?? Well, they turned out to be park rangers working to control fisching quotas, and fight back bird nests thiefs. These guys take the job seriously, and seemed to be truly interested and engaged in doing their part in saving the globe.
Stay tuned for the article in Outside in the fall.