Fabrizio Zangrilli on Latok II and Guiding K2
Mountaineer Fabrizio Zangrilli recently stopped by Outside's office in Santa Fe to talk about his experience guiding 10 clients up K2 this past fall. Few alpinists have a resume to match. Zangrilli has been climbing for 22 years, has led more than 20 expeditions in the Karakorum and Himalaya, has led world class rescues, and has spent at least one year of his life on K2. He broke down the anatomy of the mountain and the special challenges of leading a large group. We covered Zangrilli's new venture before the climb and we were glad to hear—though he didn't reach the summit due to deep snow at the top—that his entire team remained safe. You can get an idea of the climb in this K2 gallery.
The 37-year-old Boulder, Colorado climber did not return home immediately after the expedition. Instead he volunteered to participate in an incredibly difficult rescue mission on Latok II in Pakistan. A Spaniard fell and broke his leg while attempting to summit the peak in August, and authorities called upon Zangrilli, who was already acclimatized and had a very unique set of skills, to help with the rescue. The team struggled against bad weather and a shortage of supplies. (Some resupply efforts were less than ideal as goods were dropped into a swamp from a helicopter traveling at high speed, leaving broken crates, wet sleeping bags, etc.) Though Zangrilli and his crew made a valiant attempt at rescue, poor weather forced the team to turn around 300 meters from the victim. Extreme conditions would have jeopardized the team's safety had it continued. A sad ending, but a necessary decision in what was an undeniably bold and courageous effort.
To hear a summary of Fabrizio's summer in his own words, check out fabriziozangrilli.blogspot.com.
--Aileen Torres
Photo by Fabrizio Zangrilli
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November 06, 2009
Field Tested: Best Big Wall Climbing Gear
What do you bring up the northwest face of Yosemite's Half Dome in early October? Answer: not much. It’s a 1.5-mile approach gaining 3000-feet in elevation with multiple class 4-5 scrambles, followed by a 2000-foot wall of sheer granite. My climbing partner cut his toothbrush in half to shed weight. I left mine at base camp.
Climbing isn’t—and shouldn’t—be about the coolest newest gear. It’s about what works well. That’s why we brought whiskey.
Below is some of the essential non-technical gear I used. Whether you’re an ultralight backpacker, big-wall climber, or just happen to like stuff that works, this gear will deliver:
SmartWool Adrenaline Light Crew Socks ($18)
Since I wasn’t planning on bringing a second pair of socks up the wall, I needed something that would keep my feet warm and comfortable in a variety of conditions; from hiking in 80 degree weather down in the valley to subfreezing bivouacs on the wall. And, they would have to handle my notoriously sweaty (read: stinky) feet. This light, half-cushioned merino wool-and-nylon crew sock stayed fitted without bunching up, even after several days of heavy use. My partner also commented on the improvement of my foot odor when we were bivouacking. I’ll pack these again the next time I go play in the mountains, for sure. Tip: turn them inside-out to get an extra day of use out of ‘em. You won’t even notice the difference.
Five Ten Marvel Trail Running Shoes ($115)
No hiking boots? Damn right. They’re heavy, and generally totally unnecessary for everything but carrying a pack that’s probably too heavy for you too far. Stealth Rubber, on the outsole, stuck to the granite slabs like suction cups, and the low-profile upper of the shoe made working with the aiders more bearable—especially in high winds when they would flap around like Buddhist prayer flags. Before the trip, I had been running three to eight miles every day in the mountains near Santa Fe in these shoes. Snow, mud, scree, goatheads—they handled everything, without making me feel like I was wearing too much shoe. Mesh panels and breathable lining helps the shoes dry fast, and the ultra-light compression molded EVA midsoles have a shock absorbing heel wedge that eats up shock, letting you play hard all-day.
Patagonia Simple Guide Pants ($125)
I’ve used these pants for everything; mountaineering, cross-country skiing, hiking, whitewater canoeing, yoga, climbing—the first good date I had, I was wearing these pants. These pants are versatile! After four years and three different continents, I’ve only put one hole in them. And that came from a 20-foot upside-down lead fall while wearing crampons. The double-weave of all-recycled polyester and spandex with DWR-coating offers remarkable durability and weather-resistance while remaining lightweight. Water-resistant zippers close the pockets: two welded-in front, one thigh and one rear hip. And my favorite features: a draw-cord elastic waistband that eliminates the need for a belt, and a two-way zip fly for easy use with a harness.
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October 26, 2009
Day of Action: Our Favorite Shots
Saturday was the big day for 350.org and their campaign for climate change. People in 181 countries participated in events to draw attention to the cause, and 350.org has some great photos up that capture the different actions. Here are some of our favorites.
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September 24, 2009
Galleries We Like: The Legendary Banked Slalom
Jake Stangel offers proof that art classes in middle school are important. A free-wheeling teacher inspired him to move towards a high school photo program and a career in photography. After a stint at NYU he moved to the West Coast, traveling everywhere in between to find the lesser known parts of American sport and adventure.
In this gallery, he ventured to Mt. Baker to capture the anti-X Games—The Legendary Banked Slalom—one of the country's elite, but lesser known snowboard competitions. He compares the three-day sports event to watching "a killer concert at a house party." To capture the vibe he mixes Avedon-esque portraits of the boarders with cutting action shots. His goal? To strip away the clutter and noise used to market snowboarding competitions and get down to the soul of an event.
We caught up with him to talk abut about how he got into photography, his new web site, and his next project.
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September 22, 2009
Video: The Outside October Cover is Alive
Photographer Alexx Henry shot a living cover of triathlete Chris Lieto for the October issue of Outside using the new Red camera and a Canon 5D Mark II. For a teaser into the making of that cover, check out the video Henry recently posted on YouTube. Stay tuned to Outside Online and Alexx Henry's web site for more to come...
Music by Ratatat. The song is “Cherry” off their self-titled album Ratatat.
Check them out here: ratatatmusic.com
Buy their songs here: itunes.com/ratatat
--Joe Spring
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Galleries We Like: Moments of a Nomad
Not too long ago, one of our current photographers, Ryan Heffernan, brought up the website of photographer Cole Barash. He pointed to the use of light and the behind-the-scenes shots from the world of pro snowboarders. The intimacy of the shots blew me away. Then the 25-year-old Heffernan said, "Cole's 21."
He can capture such strong technical shots at 21 because he picked up a camera at the age of 14 and went into shooting full bore. He grew up surfing and snowboarding as a youngster. Put those two elements together, combined with what other photographers have described as a non-stop work effort, and you end up with a gallery like Moments of a Nomad. In it, Barash documents the off-the-clock life of a pro snowboarder, the often slow and quiet scenes that fill the gaps between gnar, gnar tricks and sky high jumps.
To find out how he captures such intimate moments, we asked him a few questions.
When did you start in photography and what drew you to it?
I started shooting when I was 14. I picked up my pops' Canon AE1 and never looked back. Immediately I was so into seeing the world through a viewfinder, and having the control of what to include in a composition and what no to. It was a way to express myself creatively, a challenge, and kinda fun experimenting.
Why snowboarding?
My roots. I grew up snowboarding and surfing, so I naturally started shooting one. All my friends were into it, so we had a little crew together and we're hungry to make it happen. Later when I was 16, two of my friends aspiring to be professional snowboarders , Jake Blauvelt, and Travis Kennedy, moved out west to Mammoth to really give it a shot. Now they are both killing it and doing some pretty amazing things. It's funny looking back and seeing how our crew from small town Vermont broke out of the east and worked together to make shit happen.
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September 09, 2009
Galleries We Like: The California Surf Project
One of our photo editors, Amy Silverman, has kept a book by her computer for a month or so now called The California Surf Project. More than once when I've been down in her office I've thumbed through it. Each time I find a new favorite picture.
This time its the black and white above—a guy biking toward the coast only to find a thicket awaiting him. Even if he didn't find a trail, I'm pretty sure he walked right through the scrum. That's the "I'm doing it" feeling you get from photographer Chris Burkard's book about driving, biking, and hiking the California coast to catch some waves.
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Frankencamera Comes Alive: Photo Cheating 2.0
Researchers at Stanford are creating the world's first open source camera: The Frankencamera. If the technology catches on, camera performance will be no longer be limited by pre-installed software. Inspired programmers anywhere can create software, much like developers now create apps for the iPhone, that change the way a camera functions.
"Some cameras have software development kits that let you hook up a camera with a USB cable and tell it to set the exposure to this, the shutter speed to that, and take a picture, but that’s not what we’re talking about," Levoy told Stanford News. "What we’re talking about is, tell it what to do on the next microsecond in a metering algorithm or an autofocusing algorithm, or fire the flash, focus a little differently and then fire the flash again — things you can’t program a commercial camera to do."Programmers will be able to experiment with new ways of tuning the camera’s response to light and motion, adding their own algorithms to process raw images in innovative ways, such as instantly combining two photos of the same thing taken with different exposures. Watch the video above for details.
Tell us what you think in the comments section below. Is this photo fakery on the level of people that make digital creations in Photoshop? Or is it fair game for photography?
--Aileen Torres
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September 04, 2009
Countdown to Astronomy Photographer of the Year
It's only six days until the winners are announced for the Royal Observatory's first-ever Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. Even though the voting is closed, you can still view the different, amazing entries at the Flickr Group -- everything from glowing planets to swirling stars and time-lapsed skies. The Royal Observatory has teamed up with Astrometry.net to present this competition partly in hopes of making the use of astrotags more prevalent. An astrotag is a way to label photographs of space, and the observatory wants to use them to "make a giant, zoomable photo-collage of the Universe." More information about hours and admission (free!) to the exhibition, which starts September 10, can be found at the official web site.
-- Lisa Lombardi
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September 03, 2009
Galleries We Like: After The Storm
Over the course of the next month, timed with the release of our upcoming Photo Issue, we'll be calling out some of our favorite photographers.
We're starting off with one of the most striking surf projects we've seen in a while, After the Storm, by Chris Bickford. The Outer Banks resident shot a series of stunning black and whites about the North Carolina surf scene. While the initial story was done for David Alan Harvey's excellent photo blog Burn (now an online magazine), in the months following it has been picked up by outlets like American Journal and The New York Times.
The gallery and corresponding essay capture the gritty, take-it-as-it-comes nature of surfers living on the Outer Banks. Fickle weather and shifting breaks make finding and catching the perfect wave a crap shoot. Those that love to ride have to search out waves, and they often have to wait for storms to find bigger waves. In the end, they must be able to give up everyday life at a moment's notice for a chance to enjoy their sport.
A life of surf is not conducive to the rhythms of the workaday world. Surf has no schedule. It comes on a Monday morning as often as it comes on a Sunday afternoon–which is why very little ever gets done on time around here. If the surf is up, or the fish are running, responsibilities will get put on hold. Kids will play hookie, construction workers will walk off the job site, even realtors will sneak in a midday session. The work will get done, eventually; but the swell won’t wait for quitting time. You have to strike when it’s hot, even if it means pissing a few people off. Surf-consciousness breeds a certain nonchalance about the rest of the world that can drive outsiders crazy. (From Burn)
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