Though I say it myself, I’m chuffed with the front cover of February’s edition of Climber which features an image of mine of Ben Bransby on the second ground-up (third overall) ascent of James Pearson’s Burbage North testpiece, The Promise.

Following a chance meeting with Ben Bransby, Pete Robins and Jack Gelderd I was at the crag early on the day that the British gritstoners started the fight back after the onslaught of Team America in the autumn of 2008. On the day, both Pete and Ben fired ground-up ascents of The Promise and Climber front-covered a shot of Ben doing his stuff. More details of their ascent, including a selection of other images, were posted in my blog back in December.

As pleased as I am to snag a front cover of a mag, I must admit to a nostalgic longing for yesteryear’s magazines when wide-angle shots of sweeping rock walls, with a suitably positioned and modestly sized climber, would frequently grace the front cover. The modern trend, as everyone knows, is to splash straplines over front covers covering all but the ‘core’ of an image. Sadly, especially from the photographer viewpoint, this doesn’t really show an image at its best. That said, it’s still a blast to see one of your images up for all to see on the shelves at W H Smiths et al!

The front cover is below…