The warm sun was baking the inside of my tent, as I crawled out Jon Walsh and his partner Michelle Kadatz were already up drinking coffee and making breakfast. We were in Bugaboo National Park in British Columbia, Canada and it was shaping up to be a beautiful day.
Jon and Michelle were putting up a new route on the Pigeon Spires and I was there to photograph their progress over the next week.
I love shooting in the mountains but the weather can change at a moment’s notice and the Bugaboos are famous for bad storms.
Sitting atop a cliff I had scrambled I had a great view to capture the route, yet could also see a black sky and lightning moving in fast.
The rain started, and in an instant the storm was upon us.
Jon and Michelle hunkered down in a chimney on the wall and I scrambled back to the glacier seeking refuge under an overhang.
Everything was soaked including us. We all met up at the base of the route. We thought the day was over.
Sitting on the glacier we chatted and started to dry out, the sky was still black but the rain had stopped and high winds blew through the valley drying an exposed thin crack up the steep granite. The team still wanted to climb and decided to give the route a go. As they moved higher up the wall I got into position hoping the day wouldn’t be a total loss.
Half way up the route a beam of sunlight broke through the black sky, shining directly onto the climbers, it only lasted a few seconds. It never hurts to have a little luck on your side.