I used to think that the best thing to happen to climbing would be that everybody would be respectful of natural resources and take care of them. Climb clean and keep the level of adventure high. I used to think stuff like that. But I have to go on to today, right?

Robbins, Pratt and Chouinard — we had such great adventures! We wanted everyone to be able to experience that first ascent experience until the 7th generation. My new answer? I’ve grown up. Doug Robinson and Sean Jones, via their FA on Half Dome in 2007 [Better Half], tackled the dilemma of how to climb something. As did they, it helps to listen to the rocks. The old answers aren’t all the answers. We climb for very different reasons. Yet, nature is here for all of us. Mother Earth is a sentient being. The relationship is real.

Ron Kauk said El Cap is a sacred place. Why is that? We can find ourselves up there and discover why some label Earth our mother.

I picked up the camera because I had discovered a world in Yosemite so much more beautiful than I’d ever seen. This prompted me to take pictures. Rock came first, the pictures second. I love taking pictures, in part because it is an impossible challenge, like riding the perfect wave, but also because it is inspired by nature. Photography helps me look deeper.

Because we grew up in the backyard of Ansel Adams, there was no way [we] wouldn’t [shoot] black and white. With my photos, I was trying to help preserve, make visual recordings to inspire a few generations of aspirant climbers who would grow up on these images. I was trying to show nature, Yosemite, El Cap for what it is and as beautiful as it is — a real challenge.

I went to engineering school at Stanford. Later, I really enjoyed designing and building climbing equipment with Yvon Chouinard. I started the company Chimera because my partner, Gary Register, and I saw a need in the lighting industry and were inspired to build lighting equipment better than the heavy and inadequate gear available at the time.

I love engineering. The challenge for me is to work long, hard, and inspired enough to discover solutions that are clean, simple, and functional - and that do not hurt the environment. What’s cool is that nature shows us optimum. 

I am concerned about preserving quality. The rocks were pristine before they were climbed, with crystals, lichens. In Europe, they have seen climbing areas destroyed and disappear. Areas can get compromised and used up. Nature is complete with recycling capability, but humans can damage and overwhelm locally or globally. Excessive bolting in some areas has lead to closures [that make] climbing illegal. But the upside is that none of us learn without going through the process.