Photo Annual 2009 – 276

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Cover: Dolomites heaven — Mauro Doragati climbs Fotuk (5.12b), Cinque Torri, Italy. Photo: Damon Corso /petrala.com
Cover: Dolomites heaven — Mauro Doragati climbs Fotuk (5.12b), Cinque Torri, Italy. Photo: Damon Corso /petrala.com

FEATURES

GALLERY ISmith, Squamish, alpine gnar, and bloc perfection — feast your eyes on these primo images.

INSTACRAGS Lower Mill Creek Canyon, in Utah’s La Sal Mountains, might be the Southwest’s last bastion of undiluted adventure climbing. So what’s kept it off the radar so long . . . and what’s happening there now?By Abbey Smith Photos by John Dickey

DREAMTIMEA visual tour of Switzerland’s most fabled blocks, courtesy of the native son and master boulderer/photographer Fred Moix. Photos by Fred Moix

WIDE LOADSTape up your hands, fists, forearms, and ankles, cinch up the jeans and high-top boots, and rack up the monster pro — it’s time to battle the West’s most brutal offwidths. Photos by Andrew Burr

IN CIMA DELLO STIVALEFrom Valle d’Aosta, to Varazze, to the Dolomites, to Val di Mello, the third-generation Italian-American Damon Corso takes you on a sport and bloc tour of the Top of the Boot — Mother Italy. Story and Photos by Damon Corso

GALLERY IIAid techniques, past and present; surreal Southwest “rockitecture”; and a Needles bombay to defy the imagination.

DEPARTMENTS

CONTRIBUTORS Damon Corso, Fred Moix, Norio Matsumoto, and John Barry

EDITORIAL Tricknology: how Photoshop magic transformed a toprope ogre

LETTERS

REVIEWS Two ranges (Sierras and Rockies), two hot new photo books; Fred Beckey’s latest Cascades tome; and a geology primer for climbers

ANCHORED Jason Haas spills the “dirt” on scary old bolts in the Fisher Towers.

PERSPECTIVE Beth Wald: photojournalist, documentarian, globetrotter, climber; Boulder, Colorado

Film: How Matt Cornell Free Soloed One of America’s Classic Hard Mixed Routes

"The Nutcracker" explores the mental challenges of solo climbing and the tactics Cornell used to help him send the route.