“The snow-capped mountains were already washed in sunlight, it felt surreal everything so still and quiet, but it felt like we were too late for the perfect light.”
Castle Hill, New Zealand, the Dalai Lama once called it the spiritual centre of the universe, and the bouldering is also pretty awesome.
Doug McConnell and I woke up way before the sun did, keen on getting a shot before a forecast storm hid everything under a metre of snow; I have a real thing for storm light. It was freezing but the hike up the hill warmed us up. The snow-capped mountains were already washed in sunlight, it felt surreal everything so still and quiet, but it felt like we were too late for the perfect light.
Doug rushed to pull on and I framed the scene – a proud boulder with amazing views of the famous Quantum Field boulders in the background. The sun popped over the horizon, slashing the ridgelines in gold and this shot was one of the very first ones I took. This magic light lasted only a few minutes so we set off to climb a few more boulder problems, the clouds rolled in and the rain started. Then the snow started. That perfect slash of light was to be the last ray of the sun for the whole trip.
Climber Doug McConnell (@dugmcc), There and Back Again Crack (V2), Castle Hill, New Zealand