"...and if I'm in the water... just pretend that this is like a vertical wall and climb up..."
There's so much surface ice that we think that maybe we can hop or walk to get to these
really large chunks.
"...probably want to see you when you walk on the ice, it's getting thinner, and you'll break in..."
"...the others are able to pull you out. So that's what the first person has to really monitor - how the ice is."
Just finding an iceberg we thought might be climbable
was really lucky, but the one we spotted was at least a half-mile offshore.
The real question was could we get to it safely.
"Ok! Let's do it." "Alright, Kids. Be safe."
[Laughter] "It's scary."
This idea of adventure - it means different things to different people I think.
But the one common element is
this idea that you're not sure how things are going to turn out.
Having Klem and Rahel tethered to one another
methodically picking their way across this vast, frozen lagoon was just
one of the many unknowns for us.
The one thing we were certain of, was that we're all pushing the boundaries in our own way.
We all kind of accepted that we leave some things to chance and exploration
and that we just pack our bags, hit the road, and go after it.
"Are you ready?"
"After a marathon travel session, we are finally in Eastern Iceland."
My dream for this shoot is to document ice climbing in a way few people have ever seen before
and really push the boundaries of what it means to climb ice.
"With any luck, we'll find some ice caves..."
"...ice holes, and some ice bergs."
For me this trip to Iceland - it's the opportunity to collaborate and create
what we want to create with no strings attached
"Iceland sure does look neat, huh?"
For this project, without a doubt, we need to find a glacier, and have the ability to explore it.
Glaciers - they're really shaped by the melting ice.
It creates this otherworldly, constantly changing landscape of pools, rivers, deep canyons.
It's unlike any other environment you've ever seen.
We were going to these places for the first time.
The only way to really know if it was climbable was to go out there
and traverse and explore this alien landscape first-hand.
Moulins are these really spooky, vertical tubes that are created by surface water
and they plunge straight down to the depths of the glacier
and what we found was not just one but dozens of moulins
"So the plan is to use these ice screws..."
"...to anchor the rope and then use a pulley to kind of zip on out to the middle of the rope."
"This is called being the guinea pig."
"And so, here we go, I guess."
To me, being in the middle of the line, it was like looking straight down the barrel of a gun.
"I think I'm ready. See you in a bit."
Rahel and Klem rappel down this frozen silo 150 feet into the glacier
into the darkness, and the only way out was to climb.
"Klem is from Slovenia. He's climbed in the World Cup for several years."
"He's climbed to the top of icebergs before."
"One thing about ice climbing
is the medium that we climb on, cuz it is ever-changing its own is changing.
"And then Rahel is just a badass..."
"There aren't that many female ice climbers. She's in an elite class of athletes."
"You can't tell from home, you can't watch a guidebook and say 'Let's do this.'
"You have to go there
feel the ice then you know if you can climb or not.
"The ice is the one that tells you."
"That's the thing that attracts us probably."
Somehow I've stumbled upon a job where I get to work with some of the most driven
people you could ever meet.
"While I'm climbing, I'm focused. There's nothing else that exists at that moment"
except that two meters in front of me."
"I've been climbing since I was 12, and ever since I've just loved it."
"You know, for this trip, they're looking for not just ice climbing as I was used to but overhanging ice which is
great which we normally never have. I love ice climbing, as simple as it is
and if it means that I'm the only girl, ok, I don't mind being out there. It's all what it's about.
I have the opportunity to photograph these folks that I'm lucky enough to call my
friends and peers.
It truly inspires me. It pushes me to rethink what I'm doing and to throw out what I know
about photography in hopes of, I guess, creating something totally new that's
when I'm happiest.
"Doing this with a heavy backpack. You're a machine."
"How cool was that."
"I was actually glad to get out of here."
"So dark! All alone down there."
"Another great day in paradise, huh?"
Each new day, we wake up, and it feels like there's infinite possibilities, but that's also one day closer to having to go home.
So, we're definitely pushing ourselves here as hard as we can.
We stay up late
planning, prepping, even shooting.
And then up early the next day, or as early as can be expected with me on the team.
"We were about to go to sleep early, which is like what, 1:30, 2 o'clock?"
"And then I went outside, and the Northern Lights were going off."
"The ice cave will be the most technical challenge because we don't know yet how to manage it."
"It's the steepest ice foot that I've ever climbed so I'm pretty psyched,
I mean I'm destroyed from yesterday
but I'll try my best and see what happens."
The Crystal Cave provided this beautiful amphitheater
of climbable, clear, blue ice.
"Oh my god."
It was out of this world.
No one in the group has climbed anything like it.
"We usually climb vertical ice structure, but here, it's like horizontal, so it's totaly new dimension."
"It's out there. It's totally different."
"Klemen is trying to set up a route, which you normally do on a rock."
"Which is really hard work."
It's a lot like putting up a route in the climbing gym, really.
And he needs to decide where the route's going to go.
This route is probably about 50 or 60 feet of actual climbing.
It's unlike anything I've ever seen before.
Climbing completely horizontal with all of your weight on your ice axes
isn't something that people usually do.
Klem said it was too difficult to be something that he would have climbed on
in the Ice Climbing World Cups.
The level of difficulty was off the the charts.
For these climbers to have no constraints and just be able to explore
and interpret the environment
in a way that was inspiring to them, that was really exciting.
"Pretty cool route and would really like to have a good go at it."
"And then no matter what happens, I will probably happy."
Today exceeded every expectation I've ever had about what we can do in these ice caves.
"You f***ed up Kemple."
"You let your guard down for one second here, and the ice will come and bite ya."
"I always get so nervous when it comes to iceberg climbing."
"I can tell."
"You can hear it in my voice."
The iceberg to me was the least likely thing to happen.
There's just so many variables.
Can you find one big enough?
Can you find one that's stable enough?
If you do, can you get to it, and can you get on it and climb it.
You approach icebergs very cautiously. It's serious stuff that carry what seems to
be a certain amount of tension
and sometimes a single swing of an ice axe can set off a chain reaction
where the consequences could be deadly.
Rahel and Klem climbed it first. They were the guinea pigs, they were the badasses.
And there's not much we could really do to support them
just cross our fingers and hope that this giant block of ice holds.
After a while, we got pretty comfortable with it
and we ended up climbing on the iceberg for the better part of the day
but always with a little bit of trepidation. An iceberg by nature is unstable
and you don't forget that.
Of course most of these activities involve a certain amount of risk but with risk comes reward.
We all know what it's like to be afraid of something. But, to overcome it, succeed,
that's one of the best feelings in the world.
"Sometimes the things we do look pretty dangerous to the
non-climbing community, but we put a lot of effort in risk assessment
and we certainly don't climb for the sake of danger. We try not to avoid the dangerous
situation but to handle them."
I think all this would argue that not climbing, not pushing our own boundaries
climbing not pushing our own personal comfort levels
that's a far greater risk.
Looking back on it, in hindsight, we hit the jackpot.
I mean we got everything we came for or more.
I think it's an experience, an adventure, a place and time that will always stick
with each and every one of us.
I don't know why we do it, why we adventure, why we explore.
but whatever those words mean to you, I think it's something we all crave.
Something in order to grow, in order to progress.
More often than not it's something you have to actively seek out for yourself,
you know, something you have to go out and get
and that's what this trip meant for us.
We went on a journey across Iceland,
and it was badass.