Back in November I was approached by my now friend Jonas to assist him with the filming of a rather unique event. He and another climber, Pete, were planning on climbing the first ever trad route climbed in the Stirling Range for it’s 60th anniversary and documenting it to create a film of the endeavor. I was asked to assist with the filming but also decided to shoot photos of the event on my Nikon FM2 Camera with Kodak Gold film.

What made this anniversary climb even more unique was that Jonas and Pete were climbing entirely with period correct gear: a static nylon rope from 60 years ago, hemp waistbands to tie into, and hemp cord to sling around chalk stones that they picked up on the approach for protection.

The day before, Jonas had gone up to the climb and put fixed lines in for Chris and Jiri to move up with them as they climbed. I went up the first pitch with them, but my role left me on the ground for the day.

At the end of the day the one who looked the most thrashed wasn’t Pete or Jonas, but Chris. He had decided to try and walk off instead of lowering off the fixed line with everyone else. In that attempt he tumbled through some extremely rough brush and even lost his emotional support Nalgene. Eventually after everyone else was on the ground and we had all began to worry a bit he did in fact make it down.

We then spent the afternoon poolside and considered the trip a massive success before we were treated to an amazing dinner by Jonas and Laura before getting some much needed rest and heading back to Perth the next morning.

Two days later I was off to Indonesia, but that is a story for another time!