Climbing is probably the most photogenic of all sports. As climbers we put ourselves in wild situations in some of the world's most beautiful places like Yosemite Valley, the Moab canyon country, Snowdonia in North Wales, Meteora in Greece, the cliffed beaches in Thailand, and the world's highest peaks in Asia. These places are our arenas. It's where we test ourselves against gravity and planet earth.

When we return back to our tribe, we like to show where we've been and what we learned there. One of the best ways to do that is to document our adventures with a camera and bring back great photographs of our vertical journey.

If you're tired, however, of coming back with out-of-focus, badly lighted, fuzzy butt shots of your climbing partner, then read the first two parts of a new series of articles--Take Better Climbing Photos and 5 Beginner Tips to Improve Your Climbing Photography--that I'm writing about how to take better climbing photographs.

These articles talk about what kinds of cameras you need; how to start thinking like a photographer; the importance of using light as your photo palette; how to previsualize to make great photographs; and why you should take some basic photograph and Photoshop classes.

Read the new photography articles:
Take Better Climbing Photos -- How to Photography Your Climbing Adventures
5 Beginner Tips for Improving Your Climbing Photography -- How to Take Better Climbing Photos

Photograph above: Some of your best climbing photos are taken away from the route like this shot I made of Layton Kor rappelling off Kor's Kastle after its first ascent. Photograph © Stewart M. Green

Altitude sickness or acute mountain sickness (AMS) and its symptoms, including nausea, headache, vomiting, and fatigue, is the bane of climbers, hikers, skiers, and travelers. Over 25% of recreationists get altitude sickess from a lack of oxygen in thin air environments like the Colorado Rockies.

Now a new study in Annals of Emergency Medicine authored by Dr. Grant Lipan, a professor of emergency medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and a climber, recommends that taking a few ibuprofen tablets can prevent and alleviate the symptoms of AMS. Lipman says, "Ibuprofen can prevent 26% of cases of altitude sickness and help people who are without symptoms to stay without symptoms."

Prior to the study, recommended medications for AMS included dexamethasone and acetazolamide or Diamox, a prescription-only drug. Now add ibuprofen to the list of cures. Ibuprofen has lots of pluses--its fast-acting, cheap, readily available, and quickly absorbed by the body. Both dexamethasone and acetazolamide have adverse effects, whereas ibuprofen has few except for an increased risk of gastrointestinal and kidney problems in users who are dehydrated.

As we ascend to higher altitudes, our bodies adjust to decreased oxygen in the air and reduction in air pressure, which leads to a swelling of the brain in some climbers. This allows fluid to build up in the brain, putting pressure on cranial nerves and causing headaches, dizziness, and the other symptoms of altitude sickness. Ibuprofen, an anti-flammatory drug, decreases the swelling, lowering the risk of headaches and helping the body to adjust to an oxygen-deprived environment.

Dr. Lipman recommends taking 600 mg or three 200 mg ibuprofen tablets, like Advil or Motrin, several hours before climbing to a higher elevation. He notes that climbers should then take 24 hours off the drug to allow the body to adjust and acclimatize to the new higher altitude. Ibuprofen allows climbers and other altitude junkies to get past the initial period that causes AMS and helps the body to adjust to decrease the symptoms.

Read more:
All About Acute Mountain Sickness and How to Avoid It
Exercise and Ibuprofen
What is Ibuprofen?

Photograph above: If you're climbing Mount Foraker, bring lots of ibuprofen to avoid altitude sickness. Photograph courtesy Doug Hatfield

Legendary Colorado climber Harvey T. Carter died last Tuesday at the age of 81 at a hospice facility in Colorado Springs from prostate cancer. I visited Harvey at the care facility a few times over the last few weeks before heading over to Joshua Tree National Park in California for this week but was still surprised to have a friend call me Tuesday afternoon to tell me that Harvey passed a couple hours before.

Harvey Carter started climbing in the late 1940s in Colorado Springs, where his mother and father were professors at Colorado College. Over the years he did over 5,000 first ascents. Of course, Harvey's definition of a new route included any section of a route that hadn't been climbed, including variations, direct starts, direct finishes, and boulder problems. Harvey also had a long-time subtle competition with his friend Fred Beckey, another prolific old-timer, to see who could do the most first ascents.

I like to note that Harvey, who was a staunch climbing traditionalist his whole career, ironically created the first sport climbing area in the United States by hammering fixed pitons into holes drilled in the soft sandstone at the Garden of the Gods, a city park in Colorado Springs. Many of those original drilled pitons, all soft-iron Army angles, are still in place and still used by climbers at the Garden.

Harvey, with his background in sandstone climbing, did many first ascents in the canyon country surrounding Moab, Utah as well as on the Navajo Reservation and on the rock mountain of Shiprock in northern New Mexico. In 1962 Harvey did the first ascent of The Priest near Moab and then the next day made the second ascent of Castleton Tower, which Layton Kor and Huntley Ingalls had climbed the day before. He also made the first ascents of all the major towers at the Fisher Towers near Moab, except for The Titan.

Harvey Carter, besides having a world-class climbing career, was also an expert skier and worked on the Aspen Ski Patrol from 1957 to 1979 and later tried to create a downhill ski area on some property behind Pikes Peak that he owned. The U.S. Forest Service, however, said the area didn't receive enough snow and denied permits to build it.

Besides all his first ascents, part of Harvey Carter's legacy is Climbing Magazine, which he founded in 1970 with its first issue coming out in May with an article about his first ascent of The Kingfisher in the Fisher Towers and a cover photo of the North Ridge of White Spire in the Garden of the Gods. He sold the magazine a couple years later.

Harvey T. Carter. He was one of a kind. He was a curmudgeon, a traditionalist, and a bit cranky, but Harvey was always a climber. Rest in peace my friend.

Photograph above: Harvey Carter climbing his route Montezuma Tower North Ridge (5.7) at the Garden of the Gods in 1978. Photograph © Ed Webster

If you like to climb hard and climb often, then watch your shoulders. It's easy to injure, strain, or tear the rotator cuff in your shoulder. Rotator cuff injuries, along with those to the elbows and fingers, are among the most common climbing injuries. I strained my cuff over 20 years ago and it took 9 months and a lot of pain and rest to recover, along with lots of rehab and exercises to recover. I've been really careful with my shoulders ever since.

Read my new article about Climbing Causes Rotator Cuff Injuries: Diaganosing and Treating Climbing Rotator Cuff Injuries, including what the rotator cuff is, how to assess them for injury, how to treat them, when you should see an orthopedic doctor, and how to rehab a cuff injury.

Photograph: If you climb overhanging routes like Burnt Offerings in Thailand, pay attention to your rotator cuffs to avoid long-term nagging injuries. Photograph © Matt Robertson.