Photos by blondgecko

A chilly evening over Lake Wakatipu, with the Remarkables on the left just catching the last of the day's light. A beautiful place for a break in the middle of our honeymoon. A composite of six images taken on a Canon EOS 350D at 18 mm (29 mm effective), f/22, ISO 100.

On my brief visit to Grindelwald, I took a walk up the Schwarzhorn, across the valley from the impressive, main bulk of the Alps. On this side of the valley, the ground rises gradually from 1000 m in the village to just under 3000 m on the Schwarzhorn. On the other side, the peaks shoot straight up to around 4000 metres! Just wish I could have been there in winter - apparently the snowpack reaches all the way down to the village. Technical info: stitched together from four individual 5 MPix images taken with my new compact. Apart from the stitching, just a little bit of level adjustment in Photoshop

The LOML, Yang and myself on her first (and only so far, come to think of it) visit to Frog Buttress. Here we're at the top after her epic but game struggle up Theory (16).

A small children's playhouse near Grindelwald, in the Swiss Alps. Bonus points if you can name the peak, and double bonus if you can tell me exactly where I'm standing!

Sometimes it's important to take notice of the little things...

Wandering down a small stream just outside Grindelwald, I came across this pretty little view of the Eiger. It was a good test of the waterproofness of my new camera, too - it was half-submerged for this!

This was taken while we were waiting for the helicopter out from Pioneer hut. After a week of crappy weather, we had to use this perfect day to bail!

A climber from another group bailing off Passport to Insanity after being deluged on top in a hailstorm.

Looking out over the stunning view of the Tasman glacier from the summit of Mt Jervois.

Norfolk Island Pining (V0). In Victor Harbour (near Adelaide) for a conference, and desperate to climb something, I came across this line of Norfolk Island pines beside the beach. The pockets left behind by the dropping of the lower limbs made a perfect little boulder problem. Ended up with my hands caked in resin, and narrowly avoided sticking my hand in what looked suspiciously like a funnel-web nest, but it was worth it!

A very cold, very early start earned us a view of this stunning sunrise over the Franz Josef Neve.

Can't for the life of me remember the name of the climb. (Update: I think it was "Lunge Starter") 10 metres or so of awesome 20-21 climbing, then it blanks out in the last metre and a half into horrible crimps. We never did quite send it. Lovely setting though, and the 21 on the arete next to it is just magic.

Ian Gould on lead on the NW ridge of Mt Jervois on the Franz Josef Glacier - our first real peak!

Me on Pilot Error. One cam, one bolt, chalk up for the photo, grunt and pull, and it's all over. If it wasn't 20 metres off the ground it'd be a V0. But hey, it looks good, right?

Just my favourite mugshot for the "Men of RC.com" Thread.

Muldoon - one of the all-time classic moderate routes at Mt. Arapiles.

Lachlan Hick jugging across the mega roof on Passport to Insanity (20 M2 or 27 free) on our second ever day aid climbing, after getting chased off by a fast-moving thunderstorm on day 1. This image was stitched together from 6 individual 3.2 megapixel pictures taken with my trusty little Olympus. The mist really lends everything a very spooky atmosphere.

In early 2003 a huge series of bushfires ripped through much of Victoria's high country. This incredibly desolate image was taken on Mt Bogong a year on (last weekend to be precise) after waiting for the sun to peek through the mist just enough. These snow gums are normally evergreen - while the roots are still alive, it will be at least 20 years before they reach their former glory.

I've been experimenting a bit lately with panoramas formed from stitched-together digital pics. This shot of the Pharos at Mt Arapiles in Victoria, Australia is formed from four individual shots taken with an Olympus C-350Z.

Cedar Creek is a little place in Queensland with some great bouldering in a beautiful rainforest setting. Using my little point-and-shoot digital, it took a lot of playing around to get this shot just right - I ended up covering the flash with the lens of my sunglasses!

Phil Blunsom working the moves on the crux of Le Petit Mort (29) in the Gallery, the Grampians Vic. Taken on an Olympus C350Z 3.2 MPixel point-and-shoot digital.

Christina Austin carefully inspecting the next few moves on Burning Bush.

Paul Nelson straining to clip the anchors on his second-attempt redpoint of Burning Bush (5.11a).

Paul Nelson working through the final few moves of Welcome to Ole Kentucky.