Contributors

[Photo] Dirk von Nayhauss

For the past sixteen years, mountain guide Stephan Siegrist has dedicated himself to the Swiss Alps—and specifically to the Eiger nordwand. Now thirty-five, he lives in the Bernese Oberland, but still manages to venture beyond his home range to climbs such as Cerro Torre in winter and Thalay Sagar's northwest buttress.

[Photo] Carl Skoog

Since climbing Oregon's Diamond Peak at age seven, Alan Kearney has enjoyed going light in Yosemite, Alaska, Patagonia and the Himalaya. He makes a weight exception for his camera, though; at fifty-six, this full-time photographer and itinerant writer still packs it up unclimbed lines in his beloved North Cascades.

[Photo] Klaus Fengler

Ivan Calderon's interest in climbing led him from Venezuela to the US, where seven years in Berkeley and nine ascents of El Cap taught him English and the art of big-wall climbing. He has since made more than thirty expeditions to his homeland tepuis, recuperating in Caracas with his wife and daughters.

[Photo] Christian Beckwith

Simon Richardson, forty-seven, is a BP engineer by day, but by night he is a guidebook author with more than 350 winter first ascents to his credit. He spends his workweeks in Aberdeen, Scotland, with his wife, Christine, and teenage children, Suzy and Ben (and no, the latter is not named after his favorite mountain).

[Photo] Rainer Eder

Austrian Rainer Eder's photography career began in his teens when he started taking pictures of his climbing buddies. Based in Zurich, Switzerland, the forty-three-year-old focuses on extreme sports, harsh climates and untrammeled lands—the more difficult the gig, the better.

[Photo] Scott Markewitz

Dick Dorworth didn't start climbing until he was nearly thirty (he was too busy setting the world speed record on skis), but after warming up with a new route on Fitz Roy, he promptly moved to Camp 4. At sixty-eight, he practices the three things he's learned to do well—skiing, climbing and writing—in Ketchum, Idaho, and Bozeman, Montana.