“Borrowed boots that were the wrong size were a bad idea. I collapsed from the altitude and exhaustion on Quitaraju and wasn’t discovered for almost 45 minutes…But learning how to function in the mountains and my first taste of an alpine start from a cave bivvy in the Ishinca Valley were enough to hook me on the alpine life.” — Clinton Lewis, Mountaineer

“I like to call myself ‘an adventuresome photojournalist.’ I discovered photography though skateboarding as a teenager, and being a photographer has defined me ever since. I strive for authenticity in all of my photos; I’m not one to combine 10 photos to create an image.

What you see is exactly what I experienced!

I have been fortunate to photograph two environmental mountaineering expeditions through the American Alpine Club and their research project called the American Climber Science Program in the Cordillera Blanca in Peru.

I had just started climbing a year or two before my first trip in 2011 and had met John All. We work for the same university and started talking about climbing and photography. Naturally, one discussion led to another and I was off to Peru to document his research for WKU, having no idea what I had just gotten myself in to.

Being mostly out-of-shape and a complete mountain newbie were tough obstacles. With a very short window of time between approval and departure, I had real time to train and spent the two and a half weeks of the trip in a state of exhaustion that I had never before experienced. Not only did I have to learn the basics of mountaineering, I also had to maintain enough focus to work my camera and bring back storytelling images for the University. It was a tall order.