The Best Adventure Photography: Exposure 2014

Parting Shot: Anchorage, Alaska (Photo: Nathaniel Wilder/Outside Magazine)

Gliding Through Moab, Utah (Photo: Scott Rogers/Outside Magazine)

To get this shot of Kevin Chirico BASE jumping from the top of Looking Glass Rock in Moab, Utah, last July, Rogers stashed his camera at the bottom of the rocks, made the first jump, and rushed to capture Chirico from inside a nearby sandstone arch. “At just 127 feet, this is one of the lowest BASE jumps in the area, which makes for a very technical and immediate deployment,” says the photographer, who lives in Moab. “A lot of people climb and rappel here, but I find that a parachute descent is much faster.” Exposure, April 2014.

Drenched in Forks, Washington (Photo: Andy Anderson/Outside Magazine)

Last December, when Anderson and Montana fly-fishing guide Jenny Grossenbacher headed for the Olympic Peninsula, near the town of Forks, Washington (of Twilight series fame), hoping for a week of perfect steelhead fishing, they never expected the weather to get the better of them. “It was nasty the whole time, and the fishing was completely miserable,” says the Mountain Home, Idaho, photographer, who spent five days shooting with a vintage camera in the pouring rain. “On the bright side, the conditions made for great lighting.” Exposure, April 2014.

Parting Shot: Prague, Czech Republic (Photo: Jan Kasl/Outside Magazine)

Straight Down on Mount Baker, Washington (Photo: Grant Gunderson/Outside Magazine)

Last March, after a blizzard dropped nearly ten feet of snow on Washington’s Mount Baker, Gunderson and ski partner Josh Daiek headed into the backcountry and discovered a series of short cliffs near the resort. To get this shot of Daiek dropping off the rocks, the Bellingham, Washington, photographer positioned himself high on a ridge 400 feet away. Between him and Daiek: an avalanche path. “I was a little nervous to finish the line in the danger zone,” says Daiek, of South Lake Tahoe, California. “But I stayed on my feet and blasted right through to the safety of the trees.” Exposure, January 2014.

Flash Frozen in Eidfjord, Norway (Photo: Thomas Senf/Outside Magazine)

To shoot climber Stephan Siegrist scaling a frozen waterfall near Eidfjord, Norway, last February, Senf set up three pocket flashes, triggered them by remote control, and captured this single image before the lights burned out a few seconds later. “We’d planned on installing a whole lighting system around the falls, which would have given us more time to work, but the conditions were too dangerous,” says the Interlaken, Switzerland, photographer. “By the time we packed up 30 minutes later, the flashes were covered in ice.” Exposure, January 2014.

Oregon’s Icy Spectacle (Photo: Joshua Meador/Outside Magazine)

After seeing a photograph of the frozen spray around Abiqua Falls five years ago, Meador was determined to visit the icy cascade, located two hours south of Portland, Oregon, where he lives. On a freezing morning last December, when he knew the icicles would be spectacular, the photographer hiked in alone to get this shot of the dramatic 90-foot cliffs. “I was the only person out there, which I was definitely aware of,” Meador says. “Once it warmed up, I had to dodge some icicles as they came crashing down.”

Off-Line in Washington (Photo: Krystle Wright/Outside Magazine)

To get this shot of pro slackliner Ben Plotkin-Swing traversing a 181-foot rope strung between two spires at Washington Pass in North Cascades National Park last September, Wright hiked for two hours and set up an anchor while Plotkin-Swing and a friend rappelled into the gully and climbed the opposite spire. “While I was waiting for them to cross the wire, I scrambled up some boulders. By then the view was phenomenal,” says the Australian photographer. “I love places like this where your mobile phone doesn’t work and you have the mountains to yourself.”

Floating on Ice in Duluth, Minnesota (Photo: Hansi Johnson/Outside Magazine)

While fat biking in Duluth, Minnesota, last winter, Johnson stood on the edge of an ice shelf above the 33-degree waters of Lake Superior to shoot his friend Casey Krueger riding the floes along the shore. The city had endured the longest string of below-zero days in its history, and the photographer, who lives nearby, wanted to capture the icebergs and gargoyles that had formed along the beaches at Park Point. 
“It looks like we could have been in the Arctic,” Johnson says, “but we were so close to Canal Park that even if I’d fallen in, I could have gotten out and walked to a coffee shop three blocks away.”

A River Ride in Missoula, Montana (Photo: Paolo Marchesi/Outside Magazine)

To shoot Missoula, Montana, river surfer Ian Stokes carving this icy wave last June, Marchesi, who lives in Bozeman, traveled to northern Idaho’s Lochsa River. Stokes grew up riding ocean breaks near Tamarindo, Costa Rica, but four years ago he discovered river surfing. “Once you adjust to the fast-moving water, it’s phenomenal,” he says. “It’s like an endless wave. As long as you stay on your feet, you can keep making turns forever.”

A Surreal View Above Namibia (Photo: Theo Allofs/Outside Magazine)

During a trip to Namibia’s NamibRand Nature Reserve in March, Allofs was hoping to take a few bird’s-eye shots of the area’s wildlife from a powered paraglider, 600 feet above the ground, when he noticed these fairy circles. While some scientists believe they’re etched into the landscape by desert termites, the photographer’s vantage gave them an expressionistic appeal. “The patterns were so otherworldly,” says Allofs, who lives in Santa Fe. “I felt like I was shooting a 15-mile abstract painting.”

Parting Shot: Western Colorado (Photo: Krystle Wright/Outside Magazine)

Buckle Up on Oregon’s North Umpqua River (Photo: Charlie Munsey/Outside Magazine)

Photographer Charlie Munsey knew he’d snagged a classic shot when he captured Canadian kayaker Katrina Van Wijk dropping over 80-foot Toketee Falls on Oregon’s North Umpqua River last March. “The falls are runnable only a few weeks out of the year because of hydro-project diversion,” says the White Salmon, Washington, photographer. “Katrina was the first woman to ever tackle it.” Van Wijk’s line was clean, but the entry was harder than she expected. “She broke her nose on the deck of her boat when she hit the water,” says Munsey. “She’s one tough woman.”

Getting Lost on Caddo Lake, Texas (Photo: Michael Hanson/Outside Magazine)

While paddling a rented canoe on Caddo Lake, near the Texas-Louisiana state line, Hanson came across these two men creeping through a corridor of cypress trees as the sun started to rise. “You can get lost so quickly in the maze of those trees,” says Hanson, who grew up in Atlanta and now lives in Seattle. “The South has always been my favorite place to take pictures. It’s layered with history and characters.”

Spirals in Great Salt Lake, Utah (Photo: Tom Fowlks/Outside Magazine)

Since 2011, Tom Fowlks has been photographing land-art installations around the Southwest. Last spring he captured his father, Bob, in front of Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty, built in the 1970s on the north end of the Great Salt Lake. “I’d been doing research on these sorts of art projects and wanted to convey the idea of open-space viewing, in contrast to what you might experience in a museum,” says the Los Angeles photographer. “We’d get to those places and often spend the night. The whole thing was like a visual expedition.”

Above the Wave in Maui, Hawaii (Photo: Franck Berthuot/Outside Magazine)

When setting up this shot of Kai Lenny at Jaws on Maui’s north shore last April, Berthuot knew he wanted a different perspective than the other photographers would get. “Most people shoot from the cliff in front of the wave,” says Berthuot, of Maui. “Instead, I ran as fast as I could out to the left side of the wave to be parallel to Kai. It was worth the extra work. This ended up being my favorite shot of the day.” Exposure, June 2014.

Parting Shot: Yosemite National Park, California (Photo: Michael Hodges/Outside Magazine)

Navigating the Arctic Circle (Photo: Klaus Thymann/Outside Magazine)

Last August, while documenting glaciers in the Arctic Circle for Project Pressure, a photo-archiving organization, Thymann discovered this tunnel cut by hot air from the ground below, rising and melting the ice. “The striations in the walls are almost like rings on a tree, indicating thaw and freeze over time,” says the London photographer, who had to navigate a stream of glacial melt to set up the shot. “But what really struck me was the color of the ice. It’s extraordinary.” Exposure, May 2014.

Looking Down on Tofino, B.C. (Photo: Jeremy Koreski/Outside Magazine)

Despite freezing December temperatures, photographer Jeremy Koreski couldn’t miss the opportunity to scramble an open-air floatplane and shoot aerials of longboarders waiting for a swell off the coast of Tofino, in British Columbia. “This is one of my favorite stretches of water, and I had this image in my head before we took off,” says the photographer, who lives nearby. “Still, after only 15 minutes in the air, we were completely frozen. The first thing we did when we landed was grab a hot drink.”

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