The Best Adventure Photography: Exposure 2014

Last March, Jorgenson and pro skier James Heim spent three days scouting on Ipsoot Mountain, near Whistler, British Columbia, while filming their latest project, Days of My Youth. “James kept looking for something at his limit,” Jorgenson says, referring to the 400-foot pitch Heim chose. “I couldn’t see the outrun, and it looked really scary from my angle, but he made it look easy.”

THE TOOLS: Nikon D4, 80-200mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 125, f/6.3, 1/2,000 second

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.”

THE TOOLS: Canon 5D Mark III, 35mm f/1.4 lens, ISO 100, f/3.2, 1/125 second

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.”

THE TOOLS: Canon EOS-1D C, 24mm f/1.4 II USM lens, ISO 200, f/7.1, 1/640 second

At this year’s Leadville Trail 100 mountain-bike race, McBride wanted to shoot the course from a new perspective—above. “I competed in 2011 but spent a good 30 minutes lying on the side of the trail with miserable cramps,” says the Basalt, Colorado, photographer. “Riding in a helicopter was the antithesis of racing. I got to watch lines of people, all fighting their own personal battles, without any of the suffering.”

THE TOOLS: Nikon D800, 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 800, f/13, 1/800 second

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.”

THE TOOLS: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 24–105mm f/4 lens, ISO 320, f/8, 1/125 second

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.”

THE TOOLS: Canon Mark III, 70–200mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 200, f/10, 1/20 second.

Last February, Skupinski photographed British alpinist Tim Emmett and Slovenian Klemen Premrl on the final pitch of a climb leading out of the Helmcken Falls spray cave in British Columbia’s Wells Gray Provincial Park. The photographer, who lives in Calgary, rappelled down the side of the waterfall until he found an angle where he could capture the scale of the 460-foot plunge. “The falls are so powerful they never really freeze, even when everything around them is coated in ice,” he says. “My camera was getting sprayed the whole time.”

THE TOOLS: Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 17–35mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 200, f/4, 1/320 second

In May, Sohner and his girlfriend, Janelle Huelsman, traveled from their Denver home to traverse the Via Ferrata, a horizontal climbing route in Telluride, Colorado, consisting of a series of step-like iron rungs embedded in the rock face. As she made her way across, Huelsman, who was new to climbing, found her stride. “I don’t think she looked back once,” says Sohner, who shot her with the 365-foot Bridal Veil Falls visible in the distance.

THE TOOLS: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 24–70mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 200, f/7.1, 1/60 second