Smith Rock and Bramble Outdoor's Daypack

Smith Rock and the Bramble Outdoor's Daypack (check out the  my new gallery page here)

It was a pleasure to recently be hired by a really cool and eco-friendly company, Bramble Outdoor, to provide some high-quality images of their new Daypack while multi-pitch climbing at Smith Rock.  I was thankful to have a number of good looking and adventurous friends who were excited to try out the new pack as well as scaling long beautiful and exposed routes in Central Oregon.  Bramble creates Gear for Going Places. They build quality goods for people on the move. Their purpose is to strengthen our connection to the places we play. Locally made in Washington the packs are part of the "Pacific Northwest Series" that Bramble has created. These awesome new packs will be released for the first time next Monday the 22nd and you can pre-order them here: https://www.brambleoutdoor.com/pages/coming-soon

I want to first and foremost say thank you to Bramble Outdoor for allowing me the opportunity to try their new pack and visit one of my favorite places.  As well, I wanted to say thank you to the friends who made the journey to join me, scaling some new routes during the perfect light to help me get the images I needed.

Thanks to Julie Lanthier, Emily Linn, Bruce Henderson, Aaron Hartig, Keri Hartig and Adam Huskey for their time and energy.

Climbing in the Black Canyon

Climbing the last 20ft of Chipeta Falls, WI-4, above the Blue Mesa area of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

Southwest Colorado has some of the best ice climbing in the continental United States.  Ouray, Colorado is the modern day mecca of the ice climbing community, having been the proving ground for folks like Conrad Anker and the Lowe's.  Most who come to this area of the state visit Ouray not only for the high concentration and quality of climbs but also for the high cliffs, hidden valleys and growing ice.  After spending last winters vacation in Ouray, I made it my goal to explore more remote ice over the coming year.  Thankfully I found Joe Roberts book, Colorado Ice.  Proving itself irreplaceable, Joe's book has become the staple for the local alpine and ice communities of SW Colorado as well as myself.  Scanning the pages I found that the climbs lining the rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, exciting to say the least.  With most climbs in the area 50m +, these routes were much larger than most in the Ouray area.  So, with a sense of adventure we headed into the quiet canyon, not another car or person in sight to find our first climb of the week, Chipeta Falls, WI-4.  Here you can see the 30 degree finish about 100m up from the waters of the Blue Mesa area of the Black Canyon.