The Cover Shot - Wild #188
Learn the backstory of the awesome image that graces Wild #188’s cover
(This piece originally featured in Wild #188, Winter 2023)
“Ok Chris, you need to pull back to wait for Tim and Divya.” “Copy.”
Chris Wills eats vert for breakfast. That posed a problem for this shot lining up perfectly; I was unable to get Chris on the radio for a while, and with his unbelievable tendency to move faster uphill than most move on the way down, the group weren’t climbing as a trio, and the balance of this shot was being thrown out. But having made contact with Chris, the team thankfully pulled together; it probably wouldn’t have made the cover of Wild otherwise (Ed: He’s right!)
To get the big mountain perspective that Mt Feathertop deserves, and to cover all the zones the guys were planning to ride, I had to split from the group, make my way a few kms along the Razorback ridge line, head east down Diamantina Spur, find a perch and then set up the cameras. We worked out later that I was about two kays line-of-sight away from the action, with the UHF radio as my only companion. Just another winter’s day in backcountry photography.
Read more about Aaron Dickfos’ team’s quest to sample Australia’s steepest backcountry in ‘The Chase’, starting on P84 in Wild Issue #188.
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