silvernitrate

Here’s my photo of Chuck Pratt, one of the boldest and most talented climbers of the 1950s and 1960s. He’s best known as an early pioneer of big wall climbing in Yosemite Valley and particularly for his skills as a free climber. His climbs, many of them nearly unprotected and downright terrifying, still make modern climbers question their own intentions and sanity, especially when one considers the primitive gear used on the first ascent. I photographed him in his later years when he lived and worked as a guide at the climber’s ranch in the Tetons in Wyoming. He died in Thailand in 2000. This is from my upcoming book about the early legends of climbing.