EXTREME PHOTOS OF THE WEEK V

Extreme Photo of the Week
By National Geographic, 23 July 2012.

1. Surfing the Lofoten Islands, Norway

"This was my first time surfing the Arctic Circle," says southern California-based surfer Dane Gudauskas, who hadn't seen snow for a decade before this trip. "My face felt swollen from the cold, my body felt sluggish, but I was filled with so much excitement that I felt like I could surf all day." Surfers Keith Malloy, Pat Million, and Sam Hammer were also part of this exploratory trip in Norway, where the weather would flip from blaring sunshine to sideways hail, sleet, and snow in an instant.

"We would get our wetsuits on in the house, then walk down the ice-covered road to the beach, then walk into snow that was sometimes up to our waists - all just to reach the water's edge," recalls Gadauskas, whose group was aided by some local surfers who showed them them around. "When the water hit any exposed skin, it would burn like fire until your body temperature could warm up from paddling. Only then could you get the mojo working."

2. Crack Climbing Trout Creek, Oregon

"There are thousands of miles of columnar basalt throughout the Columbia Plateau, but Trout Creek is special," says climber Blake Herrington, seen here on an approximately 90-foot route called Purple Pinky Eater, rated a 5.12. "For just a quarter mile or so, the rock quality is stellar, forming steep cracks and blank arêtes where the holds don't break, the cracks don't crumble, and the gear will hold."

On this trip, Herrington and fellow climbers Scott Bennett and Matthew Van Bien were out to spend a few days climbing one-pitch rock climbs. "We wanted to climb in Trout Creek because it is in the middle of a desert, yet within an easy drive from the temperate rain forests of much of the Northwest," recalls Herrington, who had a severely injured finger that luckily did not prevent him from climbing this crack. When not climbing, the group enjoyed hanging out with the crowd of fly-fishermen at the campground and playing desert-terrain bocce ball.

Getting the Shot

Having previously climbed at Trout Creek in central Oregon, photographer Garrett Grove returned with one focus - shooting great images.

“The biggest challenge is getting new angles of cracks that more or less look the same,” says Grove. “When I was there the first time, I noticed the contrast of lines, texture, and colour between the standing basalt columns and the older fallen ones.” In order to get the shot, he jugged up a fixed rope to the right of Purple Pinky Eater and set up above Herrington’s climbing route.

Grove photographed using a Nikon D4 camera, 17-35mm f/2.8 lens, and a Singh-Ray 3-stop soft graduated neutral density filter.

3. Surfing Cloudbreak, Tavarua, Fiji

On June 8, 2012, the Volcom Fiji Pro competition was temporarily called off due to dangerous conditions - which was good news for the handful of big-wave surfers who had travelled to Tavarua to watch and wait for the world-class oceanic lefthander Cloudbreak to go huge. Here Hawaiian surfer Reef McIntosh is seen on a massive wave. Photographer Tom Servais was there to shoot the action.

“It was unusual that so many big-wave surfers showed up for this swell. It's always a gamble relying on weather reports,” says Servais, who was already in Fiji to cover the contest and surf. “It was one of the biggest swells ever," he recalls. "A few waves at the end of the day were considered some of the biggest waves ever at Cloudbreak.”

Cloudbreak is located two miles off Tavarua and is the best and closest spot to access the wave. “The hardest part about shooting Cloudbreak is getting there,” says Servais. The trip included an 11-hour flight from Los Angeles, a taxi to the beach, and a boat ride to the wave break.

Servais watched the swell grow all day and captured surfer McIntosh courageously surfing the explosive waves. “It was exciting watching the swell get bigger and bigger all day,” recalls Servais, who captured the action from a boat.

Servais photographed with two Canon bodies, a 300mm f/2.8 lens and 70-200mm f/2.8 lens, all kept safe in a Pelican hard case.

See the World's Best Surf Towns Photo Gallery

4. Paragliding Ngorongoro Crater National Park, Tanzania

Spaniard Horacio Llorens is seen paragliding over Tanzania's Ngorongoro Crater National Park. This was one stop along a four-month expedition from Egypt to South Africa to find the best, most remote places to fly. The active volcano Ol Doinyo Lengai is on the left.

"On this day, I landed in the top of the volcano and I couldn't take off again because of strong winds," recalls Llorens, "so I had to spend the night on top of the volcano, alone, without any food. But it was a thousand-star hotel room." He used his paraglider as a mattress and sleeping bag on the sharp volcanic rock. "It was actually pretty comfortable," he says. When he finally took flight when conditions allowed, he had an incredible view of the valley below. See the story in this video.

Getting the Shot

“Taking the picture is not as difficult in the end. The main challenge is flying,” notes photographer Thomas de Dorlodot. Flying at 2,800 meters, Dorlodot photographed Llorens sailing near the giant volcano. “I wanted to get both Horacio and the volcano in the frame. Horacio’s glider gave scale to this mighty volcano,” says Dorlodot.

“The biggest challenge for me was to shoot pictures and fly a paraglider at the same time. It feels like shooting from a motorbike. You drive, frame your photo, and control your settings, all at the same time,” says Dorlodot.

Dorlodot used a Canon 7D and Canon 24-105mm VR lens, with a UV filter.

5. Speed Climbing the Nose, El Capitan, Yosemite, California

"Wow, I'm surprisingly tired," thought rock climber Alex Honnold, 26, at this moment while speed climbing the Nose on El Capitan with Hans Florine, now 48, to set a new record on June 17, 2012. "This was actually the hardest move on the final bolt ladder, a really long pull over a slight bulge, and my one arm was kind of wilting," says the 2011 Adventurer of the Year, seen in the shade on this 90-degree day. Florine and Honnold set a new record of 2 hours, 23 minutes, and 46 seconds, shaving almost 13 minutes off the previous record set by Dean Potter and Sean Leary in November 2010. (Watch Honnold free solo in this video "Alone on the Wall.")

"Hans was an awesome climbing partner. We both climb in a similar style, so it was easy to work together," says Honnold, who had just completed a solo linkup on El Capitan, Mount Watkins, and Half Dome in less than 19 hours a week before starting on the Nose. "And to be fair, I learned most of what I know about speed climbing from his book on the subject." Florine has held the Nose speed-climbing record eight times over the past 22 years.

"Once we both made it to the top, we just sat and smiled for a while. No real celebration, but we felt some pretty deep contentment," notes Honnold, who is shifting his focus to bouldering. "Hans partied with his family the rest of the day - it was Father's Day after all."

Getting the Shot

“It was very exciting to be hanging 3,000 feet in the air and hear the cheers of spectators in El Capitan meadow, as [Alex Honnold and Hans Florine] completed each milestone,” recalls photographer and climber Paul Hara.

Two weeks before the record-setting climb, Hara began setting up his shot, stowing camping gear and setting ropes to rappel the last pitch of the climb. The day before the attempt, he rappelled into place to ensure he had the right lenses for the job.

Originally, Hara planned to communicate with Jackie Florine, who was tracking the climbers’ progress, but the excitement of the moment broke communication. Luckily Hara was able to tune his radio to other spectators and track Alex’s ascent. “When we were told that Alex had cleared the Great Roof, I decided to rappel down, into position.”

“I could only start to see the climbers when they were about 200 feet from me. The crowd was cheering loudly, and I realized the old speed record was likely going to be broken,” says Hara. “When Alex saw me hanging near the top he said ‘good morning,’ in a casual, but breathless voice.”

Hara photographed with a Nikon D4 and 24-120mm, f/4 lens.

[Source: National Geographic. Edited. Top image added.]