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Trying to photograph at different areas can be hectic. I only had one afternoon at Mount Charleston, near Las Vegas, but it was all that was needed. It came together for me in this one frame just as Jason Campbell was about to go out of view on his Gutbuster (14c).

Greg Child was telling me about his Excommunication — the five pitch (12b, 12a, 13a, 11b and 10d) route he'd established ground up on the Priest. I thought it'd be a great route to photograph. In the photo Greg and his partner are on the second pitch. I did a variety of shots but this is one of my favourites. It's hard to ignore that face.

John Varco was thrashing and groaning away on the strenuous overhanging off-width, and aptly named, Belly Full of Bad Berries (13ba/b). I cracked up laughing. In the time I'd shot the two rolls he'd only moved up one metre! It's at Indian Creek.

German climber Stefan Schiller calmly onsighting the infamous Bachar-Yerian (11c).

I loved Tuolumne and its golden domes. Up on Medlicott Dome I was photographing Heidi Wirtz and David Bloom on Shipoopi! (11d).

My first trip to the Valley in 2000 was largely a write-off with early storms. It was a few years before I returned and had a really productive trip — this is one of my favourites. I'd had a couple of good shoots on El Cap but wanted something that better showed the Capitan itself. An afternoon of abseiling at Taft Point revealed this angle on Notes From The Underground which I was surprised I'd not seen photographed before. Cedar Wright obliged with a blast at the 12d sport route the next day.

In 2001 I traveled to the Dorset Coast in the UK to check out the new deep-water soloing I'd been hearing about. This is one of the places where the DWS style was being refined and pushed at the time. As the waves pounded in Dave Pickford approaches the end of the long and serious traverse route Davy Jones's Locker (E4 6a), at Conner Cove. There'd be no easy escape if he had of fallen...

UK top gun Steve McClure giving his fingers and back a workout on his aptly named Mutation (5.14d), one of several routes he's established at that grade. It's at Raven Tor in the Peak District, UK.

Trevor Massiah savouring Pembroke's brilliant limestone sea cliff trad climbing, near his home in Wales, UK. The route up this nice big slabby wall is Kitten Claws (E3 5c - approx 11b), at Pembroke North.

The abandoned Llanberis Slate Quarries, in Northern Wales, UK, provide a novel, challenging and potentially frightening playground for modern day climbers. With his last runner near the bottom of the photo I reckon this climb is verging on the wrong side of sane. Ben Heason is the bold Brit holding it together on this Rainbow Slab test-piece: Slipstream (E6, 6b - approx 5.12b).

Didier Berthod, best known for his hard trad and crack climbing, attempting his Le Voile de Maya (14c), a sport project at Rawyl, near his hometown of Sion, Switzerland. The area is central to the great Swiss, Italian and French alpine climbing areas.

Mariona Marti squeezing in a last minute burn on Titulo Ferretero (12c), near her hometown Granada, in Spain.

Monique Forestier at Gorges du Tarn, France.

Arnaud Petit on Eve Line (12b), at the somewhat Verdon Gorge, France.

Liv Sansoz on Octopus (13a) at Gorges du Tarn.

Leo Houlding coming oh-so-close to snagging a massive dyno before succumbing to another quick dip into the Adriatic.

Steve McClure pulling the crux during the first ascent of an 14a DWS (at the time likely the world’s hardest). He called it Ring of Fire after the seawater enema he received not quite repeating it an hour later for video.

Charlie Woodburn and Tim Emmett abseiling — DWS style.

"Support Climbing" at Teplice Adršpach in northeast Czech Republic. Climbing here wasn't exactly my personal cup of tea but it did get me thinking about perhaps how integral ethics and style are to our experiences at other areas.

Teplice Adršpach in northeast Czech Republic consists of about 800 towers with 1800 routes. The history, strict pure ethics and some unusual climbing styles are fascinating. Metal protection is not allowed in cracks, hence the fine art of using knotted ropes and slings for pro. New routes are established ‘ground up’, bolts are 'spaced, and chalk is not usually used. These ethics have helped the preservation of the soft sandstone and created a legacy of some extremely serious routes — and a breed of very bold local climbers; such as Miras Mach placing knotted rope pro on Pøeuisla (11d).

Abby Watkins merrily jamming Squamish’s classic “Split Pillar” pitch (5.10b), the sixth of ten pitches on the Grand Wall route (5.11a) on the Stawamus Chief.

In the background Will Gadd is attempting Phyllis Diller (M10), also at Stanley Headwall, but I couldn't go past these icicles. The tallest was over four feet high and less than an inch thick!

A blow from Eric Dumerac's axe dislodged two chunks of ice from above - captured here with the help of some “fill-flash”. This shot was an unexpected bonus for me as I was photographing another climber on pitch two of Lake Louise Falls (Rocky Mountains, Canada) when Eric appeared and blasted up nearby clearing lots of loose ice as he went.

A blow from Eric Dumerac's axe dislodged two chunks of ice from above - captured here with the help of some “fill-flash”. This shot was an unexpected bonus for me as I was photographing another climber on pitch two of Lake Louise Falls (Rocky Mountains, Canada) when Eric appeared and blasted up nearby clearing lots of loose ice as he went.

The Totem Pole may seem to defy probability. Despite what a bored internet troll recently tried to have people believe, the "Tote" does still exist. It is approximately 65m high and only 4m wide at the base. The Free Route (12a/b), established by Simon Mentz and Steve Monks' in 1996, is something of a surprise. It actually climbs surprisingly well. Unfortunately conditions there are rarely "nice". I've made numerous trips there and out of 20+ days there only a few have sunshine, low swell, low wind and a low slime factor... Lynn Hill and Nancy Feagin scored reasonable conditions but I still think they got a little sand-bagged (as is the Oz tradition) on the first route that they tried on their trip to Australia.