Colorado–based photographer D. Scott Clark photographs a lot of adventure lifestyle activities in beautiful locations—from ice climbing to skiing, yoga to trail running, he’s done it all. So, when highlining pioneer Scott Turpin and daredevil Charlie Firer asked him to document a newly established line in Mount Evans, Colorado (roughly 200 ft. above ground and 13,000 ft. high) he jumped at the opportunity. As you can imagine, it is a challenge to get a variety of shots on such difficult terrain and in order to do so, he had to carefully navigate the edge of a cliff and climb to different vantage points with a camera in hand.
My skills as a rock climber absolutely make this kind of maneuvering possible. When working at high alpine elevations, weather is always a worry, but luckily we had a beautiful day and pretty minimal wind considering the environment. (Although, I doubt most people would call the gusts minimal.)
Highlining considered the pinnacle of slacklining is the sport of balancing on a rope or strip of webbing that is fixed high above the ground. The highliners are connected to the line by a leash that catches them if they happen to fall and they seem to be crossing the 160 ft. long rope with relative ease. These beautiful and adrenaline pumping images show the vast landscape just beneath their bare feet. In the wider shots the line is barely visible, giving them the appearance of floating. While a project of this magnitude looks like there would have to be much more prep work, the nature of the project required a more flexible approach.
With my adventure work it is difficult to plan much of it in advance. You can plan out locations, time of day, etc. but outside of that you have to work with what nature and the athletes give you. There are definitely times where I can have more control, but this was not really one of those times. I was asked to join the athletes two days before and had no idea what the actual location, or limitations of the location, would be.
Scott is looking forward to his next opportunity to shoot this epic sport and see it get a little more exposure.
To see more of Scott’s work visit dscottclarkphoto.com