The Catskills Get Some Press

I crunched some numbers during the past few weeks. Throughout the past 7 seasons I've spent almost 200 days in the Catskills during winter seasons. It feels like I've spent about as much time yammering people's ear's off  about how great the climbing is. It seems people are starting to listen. Rock and Ice and Climbing are both running pieces about climbing in the Catskills this month. It's a funny coincidence that they both ended up running at the same time. The Climbing article, titled "Big Kat", is about the author's quest to climb Kaaterskill Falls.

The Rock & Ice piece was something Chris Beauchamp and I began to think about this past winter. Chris submitted the photos to Jeff Jackson near the end of last summer. He agreed to run an article if someone could put together a 2000-3000 word supplement for Chris's photos. I worked with Jeff Jackson on the article during the fall.

The result, in my opinion (and I'm biased here), is quite beautiful. Chris's pictures are nothing short of amazing, and capture the feeling of mixed climbing in the Catskills better than any photos I've seen before. His use of artificial lighting, something that's rare in climbing photography, makes each image unique.

The images have a depth to them that I really haven't seen in climbing imagery before. The image of Lucho Romero on Straight to Hell captures the feeling and the beauty of Catskill climbing in the cloves better than any other image.