Valentine Fabre on the east ridge of Signalkuppe (or Punta Gnifetti in Italian) – the Cresta Signal route. This is one of my favourite routes in the Alps due to its long and wild approach and the bivouac perched at 3624 meters. The ridge is aesthetic and technical, and the colours at dawn make this an unforgettable experience. Not to mention you can finish with a 3000m descent on skis.

Balancing Exposure

Framed
Photos by: Ben Tibbetts
Words by: Matthew Tufts

Chamonix-based Mountain guide and photographer Ben Tibbetts captured at work in a couloir above Val d’Arpette, Switzerland.

Valentine Fabre on the Lion Ridge of the Matterhorn just before sunset. The Lion is the south-west ridge, so getting up early doesn’t help much in getting good photos, so before a night in the Carrel hut (3836m), we headed further up to scope the next part of the ridge for the following day, and to get some photos.

Chamonix-based Mountain guide and photographer Ben Tibbetts captured at work in a couloir above Val d’Arpette, Switzerland.

Valentine Fabre on the Lion Ridge of the Matterhorn just before sunset. The Lion is the south-west ridge, so getting up early doesn’t help much in getting good photos, so before a night in the Carrel hut (3836m), we headed further up to scope the next part of the ridge for the following day, and to get some photos.

Two topographical maps of the Alps adorn the walls of Ben Tibbetts’ home,

each measuring more than a meter wide, replete with colour-coded pins denoting past and future objectives. Tibbetts sits at his computer as the afternoon sun breaks through parting storm clouds — a rare work-from-home day for a man who spends as many days in alpine bivouacs as he does in his own bed.

Valentine Fabre starts the rappel descent of the Dent du Géant with Mont Blanc in the background. The mountain has two summits, just 27 meters (88 feet) apart and separated by a small, awkward col. The Dent du Géant remained unclimbed during the. It was a much-coveted peak in the 1870s, repelling many parties who attempted it mainly from the Rochefort ridge. It took until 1882 before both peaks were conquered by Jean Joseph Baptiste and Daniel Maguqnaz, respective W.W. Graham with guides Auguste Cupelin and Alphonse Payot.

Post-holing with Stuart Johnston along the Aletschhorn northeast ridge at sunrise. We had decided to leave the skis at the Aletschjoch and carry on by foot, which was a terrible plan! It all worked out in the end, but I would use my skis most of the way to the summit another time.

The final ridge to the Aiguille Verte summit in the Mont Blanc massif. After this, we settled down for a bivouac in the snow - the wind picked up, clouds rolled in, and we froze our asses off.

Climbers:Gabriel Mazur and Laurent Soyris 

“I wish I could work faster,” Tibbetts says, shaking his head. “I need to get all this information out of here,” he points to his forehead, “And to press before the whole mountain has crumbled.”

Tibbetts is working on a guidebook. He recently completed a film project. His first coffee table book, Alpenglow — hailed as a masterpiece — documents 50 of the finest climbs on the 4 000 metre peaks of the Alps. The Chamonix-based alpine photographer and IFMGA guide like to keep busy. He takes on enough commercial work to live comfortably but isn’t motivated by financial success; he spends the vast majority of his energy on personal passion projects.

Creating exciting mountain photographs often requires a delicate balance of chance and challenging prediction elements. Light bursting through clouds can add a magical touch to an image, but just as quickly, you can end up with nothing. As I caught my breath at sunrise on the Kuffner Ridge on Mont Maudit, I paused for the first time to take in the incredible view—the Himalayan scale of the east face of Mont Blanc, the Peuterey Ridge and out over the upper Aosta Valley. After scrambling up to a precarious vantage point, I found everything aligned as I had hoped. Jon Morgan and Paul Cornforth crossed the hump and then teetered down the crest toward me as the sun burned through a gap in the clouds. The light shone a vibrant vermillion for three minutes, flickered as the clouds shifted, and then was extinguished.

The Täsch-Dom Traverse is considered one of the finest itineraries in the Swiss Alps. The route follows a ridge that is more than a kilometre long, is above 4000 meters the whole time and finishes at the Dom, which at 4545 meters is the highest summit in Switzerland. In this photo, it might look like a walk in the park for Tom Coney. The reality is that we experienced a few hours of blizzard shortly after we took this photo. 

Climbers at the Eccles bivouac hut below the south face of Mont Blanc. This tiny bivouac at 3852 meters is a simple overnight place for climbers en route to Mont Blanc.

Tibbetts’ climbing acumen allows him to move and shoot nimbly in exposed terrain with talented partners. “There are places I’m comfortable getting to that most people aren’t,” Tibbetts explains. “You’ve got to keep up with high-level athletes while carrying another two or three kilos of gear. If you’re 40 meters behind the athlete, you’ll get three images in the day; if you can be 10 meters ahead of them, you’ll get 2 000 shots. Five of those might be good.”

Patrick Gabarrou and Phil Ashby bivouacking near the summit of Mont Brouillard with a 1000 m drop behind them. Everything’s relative… for Phil and me, this was a moderately uncomfortable night out, so we brought nice, warm sleeping bags. For Patrick, habituated to brutal nights perched on desperate ledges, this was so comfortable that he didn’t even bother to bring a sleeping bag. It was only -8ºC.

Patrick Gabarrou and Phil Ashby bivouacking near the summit of Mont Brouillard with a 1000 m drop behind them. Everything’s relative… for Phil and me, this was a moderately uncomfortable night out, so we brought nice, warm sleeping bags. For Patrick, habituated to brutal nights perched on desperate ledges, this was so comfortable that he didn’t even bother to bring a sleeping bag. It was only -8ºC.

Alpenglow is a testament to Tibbetts’ creative vision, methodical approach, and the standard to which he holds his work. The 40-year-old British mountain guide is a meticulous documentarian with an encyclopedic knowledge of the terrain. His books combine photography, climbing history, first-person narrative accounts, and hand-drawn illustrations. Each book’s 190 images are thoughtfully considered: a particular location on a ridge, at a specific time of day, in certain weather conditions.

The Peuterey Ridge is a classic in the Mont Blanc massif. En route to the summit of Mont Blanc, having climbed the northwest face of the Grand Pilier d’Angle, Valentine Fabre is captured on the upper Peuterey.

Valentine Fabre climbs the northeast face of Liskamm at dawn. At three kilometres wide, the magnificent northeast face of Liskamm is one of the most prominent ice faces in the Pennine Alps. Although many routes have been recorded, most are exposed to serac fall, and only a few are objectively safe enough to appeal to modern sensibilities. The elegant and direct line up the steep rock ridge in the centre of this face was climbed by Ludwig Norman-Neruda, guided by Christian Klucker and Josef Reinstadler in 1890. This landmark achievement – chopping and balancing their way up with just an axe, hobnail boots and a hemp rope – is difficult to imagine today.

Valentine Fabre in the Resegotti bivouac on the east ridge of Signalkuppe, a subpeak of Monte Rosa located on the border of Italy and Switzerland.

“I’m obsessive-compulsive,” laughs Tibbetts. “I think I’ve done some routes three times. I repeated a five-hour hike five times to get one shot.” He shrugs and smiles. “There’s maybe too much content in the world; there’s no point just adding more. If you’re going to do it personally, you might as well go all out.”

During its creation, Alpenglow appeared to be a sort of pièce de rèsistance — the pinnacle of his career — until he finished it.

Valentine Fabre on the lower south ridge of Dent Blanche at dawn with the mighty Matterhorn in the background. The refuge was smothered in clouds when we got up at 4 a.m. The wind had eased slightly, but the temperature was more arctic than alpine. We put on crampons on the terrace and clattered out into the night. By the light of our headlamps, the cloud appeared dense, and after 30 meters, we could no longer see the hut. As we climbed the ridge up to the Wandfluelücke, however, we began to see the odd star above us. Pausing to take photos at the first glimmers of daylight, three Swiss guides charged past, dragging their clients astoundingly. We were happy to have them ahead breaking trail, for the windblown snow was piling up to 50 centimetres deep.

Tom Coney and Alastair McDowell on the Rochefort ridge at sunset. This aesthetic ridge in the Mont Blanc massif is between the more famous peaks, the Dent du Géant and the Grandes Jorasses.

Liv Sansoz and Tom Lafaille descending from Schreckhorn at sunset. The 4078-meter Schreckhorn is the highest peak located entirely in the canton of Bern, Switzerland.

“I thought that Alpenglow was going to be my only book, so I might as well do it properly,” recalls Tibbetts. “But then it turns out when you’ve finished, you’re like, ‘Oh, what do I do now?’”

The answer lies in those pins on the maps, the research tabs open on his computer, and the boxes of skiing and climbing gear half-packed on the floor.

“I’ve rediscovered some hidden gems that aren’t in any guidebook,” says Tibbetts. “Now I’ve got more projects than I can finish in 15 years, but that’s fine.”

BEN TIBBETTS is a Chamonix-based IFMGA guide and photographer passionate about photographing alpine ridges and finding interesting-looking bivouac huts in inaccessible locations. As well as developing personal book and film projects, Tibbetts contributes to magazines and online journals across the globe and works on global campaigns for a diverse range of commercial clients.

bentibbetts.com | @bentibbettsphotography

BEN TIBBETTS is a Chamonix-based IFMGA guide and photographer passionate about photographing alpine ridges and finding interesting-looking bivouac huts in inaccessible locations. As well as developing personal book and film projects, Tibbetts contributes to magazines and online journals across the globe and works on global campaigns for a diverse range of commercial clients.

bentibbetts.com | @bentibbettsphotography

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